Compromising one’s desire/dream… Traverse one’s fantasy ;;

Compromising one’s desire/dream… Traverse one’s fantasy ;;

"In a story by Somerset Maugham from 1920s, an Englishman in his forties, who, for decades, worked in colonial Shanghai, finally earns enough to realize the dream that sustained him thru the years-to move to London and live the comfortable life of a bachelor there.

However, after a couple of weeks in London, he gets terribly bored and distressed, and starts to long for the life back in Shanghai; so, he boards a boat back to China. But, on the long trip back, while the boat makes a stop in Hanoi, he leaves it and remains permanently in Hanoi.

After being disappointed by realization of lifetime dream, he knows that he cannot afford another such experience, so he decides to stay forever close to China, forever dreaming about how nice life would have been in Shanghai…"

- Zizek