Tag Archives: j.d. salinger

Confirmation bias

Posted on 31 May 2015 by Mark Flores

I’d only been out of college a year but I like to think of myself as a professional short-story writer. – J.D. Salinger, “For Esme, with Love and Squalor” [L]anguage must remain unfinished… speeches must be interrupted to avert the … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Personal | Tagged adulthood, arthur schopenhauer, childhood, draft, egoism, essay, innocence, j.d. salinger, literature, personal, pessimism, writing | Leave a comment

It’s impossible to learn to tell jokes by watching cartoons

Posted on 16 January 2015 by Mark Flores

Since I started college four years ago, 2014 had been the year that I looked forward to the most. It was my graduation year, which will mean the end not only of my college schooling but also of my required … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Films, Personal | Tagged adolescence, adulthood, buddhism, cancer, education, enlightenment, ernest hemingway, essay, f. scott fitzgerald, family, film, friends, grunge, into the wild, j.d. salinger, jonathan franzen, kurt cobain, literary theory, nirvana, personal, pessimism, philosophy, richard linklater, solitude, tarlac city, writing | Leave a comment

Dear old tyger that sleeps

Posted on 1 January 2015 by Mark Flores

If only you’d remember before ever you sit down to write that you’ve been a reader long before you were ever a writer. You simply fix that fact in your mind, then sit very still and ask yourself, as a … Continue reading →

Posted in Announcements, Personal | Tagged j.d. salinger | Leave a comment

I’m not going to finish reading it, at all

Posted on 27 July 2014 by Mark Flores

“However, I haven’t finished the piece yet. And I’m just saying. Because I’m not going to finish reading it, at all.” – note to M.F. by a “critic” circa 2011 “Whenever you’re right, strive for originality. But if you have … Continue reading →

Posted in Letters from the Lap of the Gods | Tagged franny and zooey, hapworth 16 1924, j.d. salinger, self-criticism, the catcher in the rye | Leave a comment

This book will, from now on, remind me of you

Posted on 16 July 2014 by Mark Flores

“I fell in love. She just stood there.” – Woody Allen, Bananas Whenever I think about my life I divide it in two periods. On the one hand, there’s those seventeen years before July 2011, before I had read The … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Personal | Tagged anhedonia, arthur schopenhauer, asceticism, buddhism, childhood, conformity, essay, existentialism, innocence, j.d. salinger, madness, nostalgia, pessimism, phony, the catcher in the rye, women | Leave a comment

Why bother?

Posted on 4 June 2014 by Mark Flores

Whenever people ask me why I decided to take philosophy for college, I always answer to them, jokingly, what I answered to our department’s interviewer when she asked me the question. I’d say the reason why I took philosophy for … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Films, Personal | Tagged apolitical, art, cynicism, erik matti, essay, ethics, f sionil jose, film, imperial manila, j.d. salinger, jonathan franzen, literature, mass transportation system, metro manila, misanthropy, on the job, pessimism, philippine literature, philippine politics, philosophy, politics, psychology, society, stoicism, the corrections, the pretenders, traffic, urban planning, woody allen | Leave a comment

Protected: May the fifteenth

Posted on 25 April 2014 by Mark Flores

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

Posted in Books | Tagged adulthood, childhood, holden caulfield, innocence, j.d. salinger, jane gallagher, kings on the back row, poem, the catcher in the rye | Enter your password to view comments.

Prying in the lie

Posted on 15 March 2014 by Mark Flores

I hate it when other people inquire about the details of my life. The more particular—“Where were you yesterday evening?”—the more I’d hate it. It’s okay if they’d ask how am I or what do I think about a certain … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal | Tagged arthur schopenhauer, conrado de quiros, essay, holden caulfield, j.d. salinger, lie, life, lying, newspaper columns, paranoia, philippine daily inquirer, priers, prying, questions, secretiveness, the catcher in the rye | Leave a comment

Full of sound and fury

Posted on 3 January 2014 by Mark Flores

It seems as the years go by, my life gets more eventful, I become more productive, and I learn more and more things compared to the other year. There is a progressive trend and I think that’ll continue until I … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal | Tagged 2013, arthur schopenhauer, changes, ernest hemingway, essay, f. scott fitzgerald, happiness, j.d. salinger, life, literature, loneliness, new year, philosophy, reflection, suffering, the great gatsby, woody allen, writing | 2 Comments

Conversations, confidences, and correspondences

Posted on 19 December 2013 by Mark Flores

I’m not really a conversationalist. In fact, I’m one of the worst persons to have a conversation with. And it’s because I don’t know how to respond to other people. I mean, I have no problem answering people’s questions—say, if … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal | Tagged arthur schopenhauer, confidant, confindence, conversation, correspondence, email, essay, friends, friendship, inner warmth, interaction, j.d. salinger, life, madness, people, writing | Leave a comment