The law only fulfills the social function for which it is justified when it is the legal expression of common sense. As soon as it is necessary to go to a specialist to learn about it, or rather, as soon as it becomes specialized knowledge, distant and not universally apprehended because it is obvious, the law loses its social function and becomes a mere means of oppression on the part of those who have the power to apply it or benefit from its application.
The Impressive Thing About Habit…
The impressive thing about habit is that it accustoms the mind to difficult tasks, making them seem almost, almost easy; and even if it does not go that far, it trivializes doing them, something extraordinary in itself. Psychologically, getting used to doing something means doing it with less effort, like switching on an automatic execution mode. And it is only possible to see how beneficial, how powerful a habit is when one breaks it and then tries to do what one used to do naturally. Almost always, the effort needed to pick it up is less than the effort needed to give it up.
The Commitment Not to Give Up…
The commitment not to give up is the beginning and the harbinger of literary work. Without it, what is done does not become a work, but merely something fleeting and equally disposable. It is only this commitment that will sustain the effort when circumstances sabotage it, when the will to write itself fails. It is this that motivates habit, and it is only this that restores normality when habit, violated, transmutes a state of productive inertia into absolute torpor.
It Is Really Impressive to Contrast…
It is really impressive to contrast the harmless appearance of letters with their marvelous power of evocation. In fact, their ability to describe precisely and in detail is unparalleled, allowing the mind to produce vivid images that can always be recalled. It is enough to think back to Dostoevsky’s Petersburg, dark and snow-covered, with open taverns and coachmen passing to and fro; the Brazilian hinterland, the suburbs of London, Lisbon and the Alto Minho… all of this appears with impressive vividness, accompanied by the emotional charge coming from the setting evoked. The numerous characters, their choices and their mishaps, the ever particular atmosphere that emanates from each work… It is, in fact, thanks to letters, a life created, mentally lived and assimilated, whose impressions are remembered forever. And all of this is unsuspected by anyone who does not read.