“It isn’t only the terror everywhere, and the fear of being conscious of it, that freezes people. It’s more than that. People know they are in a society dead or dying.”

—  Doris Lessing , book The Golden Notebook

Anna Wulf, in "Free Women: 4" <!-- p. 454 -->
The Golden Notebook (1962)
Context: It isn’t only the terror everywhere, and the fear of being conscious of it, that freezes people. It’s more than that. People know they are in a society dead or dying. They are refusing emotion because at the end of very emotion are property, money, power. They work and despise their work, and so freeze themselves. They love but know that it’s a half- love or a twisted love, and so they freeze themselves.

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Doris Lessing photo
Doris Lessing 94
British novelist, poet, playwright, librettist, biographer … 1919–2013

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