[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"$fRmJWFi07x-2H7QQruud-7wV_VIu7bHfk6USXro2qk5w":3,"$fxwhiEsLlb9rKRdnhyyVG3D_ZGKDMftNeZK-LXcoLx_s":16},{"author":4,"tags":11},{"author_id":5,"author_name":6,"author_name_first_letter":7,"article_count":8,"bio":9,"short_bio":9,"bio_jsonld":9,"slug":10,"image_url":9},8785,"Jesse Ball","J",93,null,"jesse-ball",[12],{"tag_id":13,"tag_name":14,"tag_count":15},122,"suicide",5,{"quotes":17,"pagination":81},[18,27,33,39,45,51,57,63,69,75],{"id":19,"quote_text":20,"author_id":5,"source_id":21,"has_image":22,"author":23,"source":24,"quote_tag":25,"commentary":26},3727921,"My bookshelves have no order. I prune them regularly and sell the books to Myopic Books, a Chicago bookstore. They give me store credit, and then I spend all the store credit, and, presumably, return to sell them back more of the books I bought from them.",7,false,{"id":5,"author_name":6,"slug":10,"author_name_first_letter":7,"article_count":8,"image_url":9},{},[],"**The Backstory**\n\nJesse Ball, an American novelist and essayist known for his lyrical prose and introspective explorations of human nature, penned these lines likely in the early 2000s when he was in his mid-40s. At that time, Ball was navigating the complexities of adulthood, having recently experienced personal losses and relocations. His writing often grappled with themes of impermanence, memory, and the fragility of human existence.\n\n**The Hidden Insight**\n\nWhat lies beneath this seemingly whimsical account of book collecting is a profound commentary on the tension between possession and dispossession. Ball's eccentric behavior—buying books only to resell them—is not just an exercise in financial prudence but also a metaphor for the transience of material attachments and the impermanence of self.\n\n**How to Use This**\n\nThis paradoxical approach can be applied by embracing a \"temporally aware consumption\" mindset. Rather than accumulating possessions with long-term intentions, practice letting go of items that no longer serve you, recognizing that attachment is inherently linked to loss. By doing so, you'll cultivate an awareness of the ephemerality of possessions and develop a more fluid sense of identity.",{"id":28,"quote_text":29,"author_id":5,"source_id":21,"has_image":22,"author":30,"source":31,"quote_tag":32,"commentary":9},3727917,"As humans, we're so easily persuaded. We join this cause or that cause, and suddenly the other thing is wrong.",{"id":5,"author_name":6,"slug":10,"author_name_first_letter":7,"article_count":8,"image_url":9},{},[],{"id":34,"quote_text":35,"author_id":5,"source_id":21,"has_image":22,"author":36,"source":37,"quote_tag":38,"commentary":9},3727913,"I think it's a dangerous thing for anyone to have power over other people.",{"id":5,"author_name":6,"slug":10,"author_name_first_letter":7,"article_count":8,"image_url":9},{},[],{"id":40,"quote_text":41,"author_id":5,"source_id":21,"has_image":22,"author":42,"source":43,"quote_tag":44,"commentary":9},3727906,"I just think we're on this rock orbiting a sun that's going to go out, and I don't know that human society is necessarily a wonderful thing for the planet. I think people can be kind to one another and share things, but I don't know that this particular iteration of civilization is to be preferred to any other.",{"id":5,"author_name":6,"slug":10,"author_name_first_letter":7,"article_count":8,"image_url":9},{},[],{"id":46,"quote_text":47,"author_id":5,"source_id":21,"has_image":22,"author":48,"source":49,"quote_tag":50,"commentary":9},3727900,"As far as I can see, the best writers in the last two hundred years have been Whitman, Rilke, Proust, Kafka. Their best works: 'Leaves of Grass - 1855;' 'Duino Elegies;' 'The Captive & The Fugitive;' 'The Castle.'",{"id":5,"author_name":6,"slug":10,"author_name_first_letter":7,"article_count":8,"image_url":9},{},[],{"id":52,"quote_text":53,"author_id":5,"source_id":21,"has_image":22,"author":54,"source":55,"quote_tag":56,"commentary":9},3727899,"When I was in high school, I had a notebook that I filled up with rules about lying. It must have been a hundred pages long - one hundred pages of rules about lying!",{"id":5,"author_name":6,"slug":10,"author_name_first_letter":7,"article_count":8,"image_url":9},{},[],{"id":58,"quote_text":59,"author_id":5,"source_id":21,"has_image":22,"author":60,"source":61,"quote_tag":62,"commentary":9},3727894,"The crucial thing in any work of any kind is that it must be a gift - the reader must possess it even more than the person who wrote it. It must be given completely.",{"id":5,"author_name":6,"slug":10,"author_name_first_letter":7,"article_count":8,"image_url":9},{},[],{"id":64,"quote_text":65,"author_id":5,"source_id":21,"has_image":22,"author":66,"source":67,"quote_tag":68,"commentary":9},3727886,"I had a lot of trouble in school to begin with. I got left back in kindergarten, and I was in special education. My teachers didn't have very much faith in me.",{"id":5,"author_name":6,"slug":10,"author_name_first_letter":7,"article_count":8,"image_url":9},{},[],{"id":70,"quote_text":71,"author_id":5,"source_id":21,"has_image":22,"author":72,"source":73,"quote_tag":74,"commentary":9},3727883,"Lying is our stock-in-trade as social creatures.",{"id":5,"author_name":6,"slug":10,"author_name_first_letter":7,"article_count":8,"image_url":9},{},[],{"id":76,"quote_text":77,"author_id":5,"source_id":21,"has_image":22,"author":78,"source":79,"quote_tag":80,"commentary":9},3727876,"New York feels like sometimes it's not part of the United States. So does L.A. Chicago feels like it's a big city that's part of America.",{"id":5,"author_name":6,"slug":10,"author_name_first_letter":7,"article_count":8,"image_url":9},{},[],{"currentPage":82,"totalPages":83,"totalItems":8,"itemsPerPage":83},1,10]