Dystopian Quote by Margaret Atwood
““I try to congure, to raise my own spirits, from wherever they are. I need to remember what they look like. I try to hold them still behind my eyes, their faces, like pictures in an album. But they won't stay still for me, they move, there's a smile and it's gone, their features curl and bend as if the paper's burning, blackness eats them. A glimpse, a pale shimmer on the air; a glow, aurora, dance of electrons, then a face again, faces. But they fade, though I stretch out my arms towards them, they slip away from me, ghosts at daybreak. Back to wherever they are. Stay with me, I want to say. But they won't. It's my fault. I am forgetting too much.””
About This Quote
Source Novel: Unspecified work by Margaret Atwood, 21st century
The narrator struggles with memory loss, trying to capture fleeting images of loved ones that slip away like fading photographs.
In simple terms: Memory fades, and attempts to hold it fail.
Key Takeaway
Cherish moments before they fade.
Themes
memory
loss
impermanence
Mood
melancholic
reflective
Type
literary
philosophical
When to use this quote
- grief counseling
- creative writing
- mindfulness practice
Key Concepts
nostalgia
identity
ephemerality
Questions to Reflect On
- How do you preserve important memories?
- What does forgetting teach us?
A Different Perspective
The metaphor may romanticize mental decline.
