Fighting the Pain - Sirens of Titan
“Dear Unk … They aren’t much, God knows—but here are the things I know for sure… almost everything I know for sure has come from fighting the pain from my antenna… Whenever I start to turn my head and look at something, and the pain comes, I keep turning my head anyway, because I know I am going to see something I’m not supposed to see. Whenever I ask a question, and the pain comes, I know I have asked a really good question… The more pain I train myself to stand, the more I learn. You are afraid of the pain now, Unk, but you won’t learn anything if you don’t invite the pain. And the more you learn, the gladder you will be to stand the pain.
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Before turning to the signature, Unk tried to imagine the character and appearance of the writer. The writer was fearless. The writer was such a lover of truth that he would expose himself to any amount of pain in order to add to his store of truth. He was superior to Unk… Unk imagined the writer as being a marvelous old man with a white beard and the build of a blacksmith. Unk turned the page and read the signature. I remain faithfully yours— UNK”
- Vonnegut, The Sirens of Titan