Reign (TV)

Minor content warning: Reign deals with a tough and very real issue (rape) that many people may relate to. It is, however, the best way I've seen it dealt with on any TV show or movie. (Because being honest it's extremely shitty how media represents and deals with rape, usually like a plot device with no empathy for the victim). Many people were outraged about it, but I find that contempt absolutely ridiculous. Rape is featured in movies and television constantly, and it's treated as a gimick. For the first time a show intentionally captured the fall out. And yeah, it wasn't pretty. But that's because it was geniune, realistic. I read articles of rape victims applauding its treatment of the issue, so I wonder how many furious about it have actually experienced it themselves? Note: Other issues that people have with it shows complete ignorance to the culture of the time period the show is based around.

S2E7

Condé- "You are daring. And fierce."
Mary- "I feel I have to be, until others find it within themselves to be the same."

S2E9

Catherine- "I know you don't want to be touched. That's alright. But you're safe.
I don't know how you managed to escape, but you did. You are alive. You will survive this.
I know this because I survived. You know that too. They tried to destroy you by taking
your pride and your strength, but those things cannot be taken. Not from you. Not ever.
We're going to change your clothes, fix your hair. We are going to erase any 
mark of their hands on you." Fav

Catherine- "Do not let them win. Trust me. Trust me and let me help you.
Trust that I can get you through this because I swear to you that I can."


S2E10

Mary- "I thought that by killing those men I could find by way back to my old life, with Francis. But how can I? It's done, and it can't be undone- what they did to me and the events that led us here, so far from where we began."


S2E11

Greer- "If your heart wants to sleep, let it. Many things can be forced out of duty, but not the heart."

Mary- "No. Enough distance. I've been so deep in a well of my own pain, I couldn't see anything else. I forgot I'm not the only one who's hurt." 

S2E17

Mary- "I thought I needed you, needed us together in Scotland, to find the person I was. I convinced myself that in order to heal I needed you by my side. But now I know. Before you dare to trust anyone else, you must first trust yourself, your own power, that strength I'd thought I'd lost. I hadn't. It's in me still."

S2E22

Mary- "Your mother would say we are stained by such choices. Such brutal and difficult choices we've made, but we can only do our best. Can we not make another choice? One equally hard but so important? To commit our hearts to each other no matter what?"

 Francis- "If only it were that easy."

Mary- “It isn't. It's terrifying and nearly impossible. Especially if we think we can save each other. We can't. We can only love each other.”

S3E14

Mary- "Those memories are a part of me, Greer. But I am stronger than they are. My life is once again the sum of my choices NOT someone else's crimes." 

Unwind By Neal Shusterman (Unwind Series)

Note about the author: Neal Shusterman is a critically acclaimed author whose book "Unwind" is now commonly taught in schools. Although it is categorized as Young Adult fiction due to the writing style, I would suggest people of all ages read it. It is a blatant satire that does not even try to hide its alignments with our society (no worrying about the meaning behind the blue curtains, if you catch my drift). The best part of it is that it gets you thinking about issues in ways you may not have before. Take no detail for granted when reading this book. Even the seemingly insignificant details will come back as part of the big picture.

***Unwind***

"Stupid dreams. Even the good ones are bad, because they remind you how poorly reality measures up."

"I remember thinking, if a baby was going to be so unloved, why would God want it brought into the world?"
 
'"Hold this." She puts the baby in Connor's arms. It's the first time she's given it to him. It feels much lighter than he expected. Something so loud and demanding ought to be heavier.'

“In a perfect world mothers would all want their babies, and strangers would open up their homes to the unloved. In a perfect world everything would be either black or white, right or wrong, and everyone would know the difference. But this isn’t a perfect world. The problem is people who think it is.”
 
“One thing you’ve learned when you’ve lived as long as I have—people aren’t all good, and people aren’t all bad. We move in and out of darkness and light all of our lives. Right now, I’m pleased to be in the light."
 
"Wherever his journey now takes him, it doesn't matter, because he has already arrived there in his heart. He's become like that briefcase in the ground - full of gems yet void of light, so nothing sparkles, nothing shines."
 
"You see, a conflict always begins with an issue - a difference of opinion, an argument. But by the time it turns into a war, the issue doesn't matter anymore, because now it's about one thing and one thing only: how much one side hates the other." Fav
 
“Which would be worse—to have tens of thousands of babies that no one wanted or to silently make them go away before they were even born?”
(There are just under half a million children in the US foster care system alone. Half of those [a quarter million] are waiting to be adopted. That's more than tens of thousands...)
 
“Amazing that the bullies and victims can now work together to bring misery to others.”
(referring to the government) 
 
“Who can say what goes through the mind of a clapper in the moments before carrying out that evil deed? No doubt whatever those thoughts are, they are lies. However, like all the dangerous deceptions, the lies that clappers tell themselves wear seductive disguises…”
(clapper is the term for suicide bomber in the book)

UnSouled By Neal Shusterman (Unwind Series)

Note about the author: Neal Shusterman is a critically acclaimed author whose book "Unwind" is now commonly taught in schools. Although it is categorized as Young Adult fiction due to the writing style, I would suggest people of all ages read it. It is a blatant satire that does not even try to hide its alignments with our society (no worrying about the meaning behind the blue curtains, if you catch my drift). 

***UnSouled***

"Who has been in their right mind for the past nine years?"
.

"Sitting feels like acceptance. It feels like admitting failure. Next he'll be lost in that armchair with a drink in his hands, swirling the ice to hear it clink, feeling the alcohol numbing him into submission. No, that's not him. It will never be him."
 .

"What did they expect when educational funding was diverted to the war? How could they not know public education would fail? With no schools, no jobs, and nothing but time on their hands, what did they think these kids would do other than make trouble?"
 .

'They see distrust all around them, and it makes them want to deliver their anger all the more. "How dare you distrust me?" their violence says. "You don't know me."'
 .

"When it comes to cities and suburbs, Connor has found that most are fairly identical–only the geography changes. Rural areas, however, vary greatly. Some small towns are places you'd want to come from and eventually go back to: warm, inviting communities that breathe out Americana the way rain forests breathe out oxygen. And then there are towns like Heartsdale, Kansas. This is the place where fun came to die."

"For many months before today, he had suffered on the streets. The things he had to do to survive were horrifying and demoralizing. They were dehumanizing to the point that there wasn't much left of him that felt remotely human anymore. He had surrendered to the shame of it, resigning himself to a marginal life on the seediest back streets of Sin City. "
 

Note from author: There is so much judgement against homeless people. I think it is important to acknowledge most do not choose it. It's not always laziness. Whether poverty, mental illness, addiction, or just having terrible families, you do not know the story of how a person ended up there. Remember: 20-40% of homeless youth are LGBT with nowhere to go. 

 .
'"Do I make myself clear?"

"Any clearer and you'd be invisible."'
 .

"Apparently he's made the right enemy, because now he has many, many friends."
 .

"She idly wonders which is crueler, man or nature. She determines it must be man. Nature has no remorse, but neither does it have malice. Plants take in the light of the sun and give off oxygen with the same life-affirming need that a tiger tears into a toddler. Or a scavenger devours a lowlife." 

 .

MORE TO COME
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Essentials of Sociology 9th ed. by James M. Henslin

"As surprising as it may sound, to have love as the main reason for marrying weakens marriage. In some depth of our being, we expect 'true love' to deliver constant emotional highs. This expectation sets people up for crushed hopes, as dissatisfactions in marriage are inevitable. When they come, spouses then to blame one another for failing to deliver the expected satisfaction." - Ch 1

"Efficiency brings dependability. You can expect your burger and fries to taste the same (referring to McDonalds) whether you buy them in Los Angeles or Beijing. Although efficiency also lowers princes, it does come at a cost. Predictability washes away spontaneity, changing the quality of our lives. It produces a sameness, a bland version of what used to be unique experiences. In my own travels, for example, has I taken packaged tours I never would have had the eye-opening experiences that have added so much to my appreciation of human diversity."  - Ch 5

"How can a legal system that proudly boasts "justice for all" be so inconsistent? . . With their large numbers, the working class and those below them pose a special threat to the power elite. Receiving the least of society's material rewards, they hold the potential to rebel and overthrow the current social order. To prevent this, the law comes down hard on its members who get out of line." - Ch 6  

"Poverty wears the same tired face wherever you are, I realized." - Ch 8
  
"Income inequality decreased from 1935 to 1970. Since 1970, the richest 20 percent of U.S. families have grown richer, while the poorest 20 percent have grown poorer." - Ch 8
   
"The average U.S. worker would have to work 2,800 years to earn the amount received by the highest-paid executive (Sanjay Jha, $104 million a year)." - Ch 8
 

Avatar (movie)

"Ya see, ya see? They're just pissing on us without even giving us the courtesy of calling it rain." –Grace

"It is hard to fill a cup that is already full" –Mo'at

"Outcast. Betrayer. Alien. I was in the place the eye does not see." –Jake (Narrating)

"But sooner or later, you always have to wake up." –Jake (Narrating)

"If Grace is there with you - look in her memories - she can show you the world we come from. There's no green there. They killed their Mother, and they're gonna do the same here." –Jake

"Freaking daisy cutters."– Trudy

Candide by Voltaire

 (quotes included from the Candide Appreciation by Andre Maurois)

“I have left abundance where there was want before. True—only by ruining myself. But a man could not ruin himself in a more decent cause.”
   
“I am tired of hearing it declared that twelve men sufficed to establish Christianity, and I want to prove to them that it only needs one to destroy it.”
   
“What was the vile thing? Religion? The Church? To be more exact, it was Superstition. He hounded it down because he had suffered from it and because he believed that bigotry makes men more unhappy than they need to be.”
   
"The only book that should be read is the great book of nature.”
   
“I’ve wanted to kill myself a hundred times, but I still love life. That ridiculous weakness is perhaps one of our most pernicious inclinations. What could be more stupid than to persist in carrying a burden that we constantly want to cast off, to hold our existence in horror, yet cling to it nonetheless, to fondle the serpent that devours us, until it has eaten our heart?”

~

'“Do you believe that men have always slaughtered each other as they do today, that they’ve always been liars, cheats, traitors, ingrates and thieves, weak, fickle, cowardly, envious, greedy, drunken, miserly, ambitious, bloodthirsty, slanderous, lecherous, fanatical, hypocritical and foolish?”

“Do you believe that hawks have always eaten pigeons when they find them?”

“Yes, of course.”

“Well, then, if hawks have always had the same character, what makes you think men may have changed theirs?”'