I say this as someone who can be delusional at times and is working on it and it can be frustrating to think that you are doing the right thing and saying the right thing, but that behavior is not ok and I don’t think it’s like convenience store woman I think it’s more like don quixote, who himself also realized he was wrong and should have changed his ways on his deathbed. That one story of the guy dying because he thought he was in a relationshop with gemini and it told him to kill himself. You could say for those free soloers like alex hannold and marc andre leclerc they’re risking their lives doing what they love and even if this is seen as weird to the rest of us at least they will be ok with dying doing something their passionate about. I agree with that so maybe that is similar to linda’s position.

I thought it was also weird how linda was aware and made a comment about climate change, but she took so many flights towards the end. 

I think grief and guilt were big themes. I thought it was going to go the electra complex angle but with this quote “I’d been trying to outrun my grief, and it worked as long as my money lasted. While I was airborne, I could imagine my dad was still alive. Flight was suspended animation, a period in which a person was exempt from obligation, cut off from the grounded world.” i think for karina that’s what it was too. 

Look, Linda,” she said. “None of that matters to me. The important thing is, you’ve always been a good friend. Other people, I can tell they’re angling to get something. I’m always on my guard around them. Even Judy acts awkward with me, like I’m a mental patient she has to keep her eye on. But with you, I can be myself. I miss hanging out with you. I miss eating ramen in your weird little room.”

“I couldn’t believe it. I’d told Karina everything, and she still wanted to be my friend. This was what I’d wanted for so long, and thought was impossible—to reveal my true self and be accepted as I was.”

“I’ve been eating out of the trash,” I added.

Karina grimaced, and I saw I’d finally managed to offend her. “Ew, Linda,” she said. “Don’t do that.””

At least shes realizing shes selfish

Dude would be insane on geoguessr - The window beside me was dark, so he knew I was somewhere east of California. Then, when I’d shifted in my seat, he’d glimpsed the jazz-playing statues, which allowed him to trace me to the food court. I should have known better than to accept his call. Simon was too good at the internet.

I’d been trying to outrun my grief, and it worked as long as my money lasted. While I was airborne, I could imagine my dad was still alive. Flight was suspended animation, a period in which a person was exempt from obligation, cut off from the grounded world. I felt secure while locked in the pressurized cabin, 35,000 feet above the earth. But planes always land, one way or another.

I told myself that the universe might be waiting to unite us at the last possible moment, out of its perverse love of suspense. But it had become difficult to muster enthusiasm after so many disappointing dates. I wondered if N92823’s soul had been sucked out during his long rehabilitation. Or maybe the truth was simpler. Maybe N92823 had never loved me, and the turbulence I’d enshrined in my memory had been the product of nothing more remarkable than air patterns, as everyone else assumed.

White nights with how many times shes repeating N92823

“Karina does this with all her girlfriends. She has trouble trusting people, so when she gets close to someone, she winds up lashing out, and then regrets it, but is too embarrassed to apologize. It’s happened a bunch of times with us. I’ve learned to just let her blow off steam. After a few weeks I’ll call her and we’ll both pretend nothing happened.”

“I allowed Dave to believe this, when in fact, he’d been a tool I had used that, over time, had become more trouble than it was worth. Perhaps this was what it meant to care for people: to distort reality in a way that flattered them.”

It’s supposed to be after moby dick but linda reminds me more of don quixote. I assume linda is supposed to be ahab instead of ishmael since she’s on a path of obsession that’s driven by fate.

“In the months after, my dad became scarcer by increments, until he was coming home only to sleep. Al and I later learned he’d been having an affair with a waitress who worked at a restaurant near the marina where Wendy was docked. I blamed myself for his drift away from us. I’d rejected him, and he’d been forced to find connection elsewhere, his relationship with my mom having long ago grown threadbare.”

What is the line before devient behavior should be condemmed and if harm to themself in social isolation is enough to warrant action.