…the fear of flight (page 31)
“My problem with air travel can cause significant distress: the dissappointment of missing professional engagements-often important ones, too- and the inevitable inner frustration. Usually when I commit to a trip I have every honest intention of fulfilling my promise. I pack my bag and leave early for the airport, but i tend to change my mind on the way there. After first seeing the trip as useful for the work involved, or as representing a kind and trusting invitation, I begin to reject it as unnecessary and unbearable imposition. I become irritated with myself and anxiously wonder, ”Why should I fly if it troubles me? Because it’s imprortant professionally?” And I begin to see the journey as a threat to my physical prerogatives and individual liberty, a despicable affair ruled by power and money.
So i don’t go. I return home quite calmly. Later I tell my friends peremptorily, I’ll never fly again.”
…the Clouds. (page 109)
”During automobile trips to Brazilia, my greatest distraction was to observe cloud formations in the sky. What numerous and unexpected possibilities they suggested! Now they formed mysterious, towering cathedrals-most certainly, the cathedrals of Saint-Exupéry; now ruthless warriors or Roman charioteers crossing the skies; now, owtlandish monsters racing swiftly with the wind; and, more often (because I always looked out for them), lovely and vapourous women reclining on the clouds.”
…”Persona” (page 133)
”Earlier in this book I mentionen the ”persona”, an indistinguishable individual I believe we have within ourselves who oftentimes interferes in our relationships.I first became aware of my persona after reading Monod and Jacobs. I then realized that human characteristics are passed down from parent to child and resist the influential reasoning of the social environment. I realized that these characteristics are combined, though often imperceptibly, with preprogrammed physical traits. Later I began to view the human being as a house that can always be renovated. like a house, one can repair his roof, replace door and window frames, paint walls, and patch ceiling leaks. However, like a house, it will always be inadequate if it has been poorly designed in the first place.”
…the Carnival Monday. (page 139)
”Today is Carnival Monday and I have spent the day alone at the Carlton Hotel in Brasilia. I read an interview with Alberto Moravia and a short book by Borges; I wrote a little, then watched the rain beat on the window pane and the heavy clouds gather over the city. A strange feeling of melancholy seemed to take hold of me. Only in the evening did I finally switch on the TV.”
On topic: an interesting interview with the architecture master, done by Vice Magazine:
