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Air force Quote by Jeanette Winterson

“Mrs. Winterson didn't want her body resurrected because she had never, ever loved it, not even for a single minute of a single day But although she believed in End Time, she felt that the bodily resurrection was unscientific. When I asked her about this she told me she had seen Pathé newsreels of…” quote by Jeanette Winterson
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““Mrs. Winterson didn't want her body resurrected because she had never, ever loved it, not even for a single minute of a single day But although she believed in End Time, she felt that the bodily resurrection was unscientific. When I asked her about this she told me she had seen Pathé newsreels of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and she knew all about Robert Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project. She had lived through the war. Her brother had been in the air force, my dad had been in the army -- it was their life, not their history. She said that after the atomic bomb you couldn't believe in mass any more, it was all about energy. 'This life is all mass. When we go, we'll be all energy, that's all there is to it.' I have thought about this a lot over the years. She had understood something infinitely complex and absolutely simple. For her, in the Book of Revelation, the 'things of the world' that would pass away, 'heaven and earth rolled up like a scroll,' were demonstrations of the inevitable movement from mass to energy. Her uncle, her beloved mother's beloved brother, had been a scientist. She was an intelligent woman, and somewhere in the middle of the insane theology and the brutal politics, the flamboyant depression and the refusal of books, of knowledge, of life, she had watched the atomic bomb go off and realised that the true nature of the world is energy not mass. But she never understood that energy could have been her own true nature while she was alive. She did not need to be trapped in mass.””

Jeanette Winterson

About This Quote

Source Interview: The Guardian, 1995

She saw the atomic bomb as evidence that mass transforms into energy, leading her to view life as energy rather than physical matter, yet she never embraced this as her own essence.

In simple terms: The bomb showed mass becomes energy, reshaping her worldview, but she kept herself bound to mass.

Key Takeaway

Embrace the fluid nature of existence beyond physical constraints.

Themes

transformation energy mass existence war philosophy

Mood

contemplative melancholic

Type

philosophical personal

When to use this quote

  • war aftermath
  • philosophical reflection
  • personal growth
  • scientific skepticism

Key Concepts

physics spirituality war trauma personal identity

Questions to Reflect On

  • How does recognizing energy as fundamental change self‑identity?
  • Can we reconcile scientific insight with personal meaning?
A Different Perspective

Energy is not always a liberating concept and can be overwhelming.

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