Su Shi, one of the greatest poets in Chinese history, once said, “人生識字憂患始” Which loosely translates to “Suffering starts after you learn how to read.” Maybe that’s what Hemingway is trying to tell us in that phrase of his.

When you start learning things, you slowly gain the ability to penetrate the bubble that surrounds you. Little by little, you start realizing that you live in a world full of lies, anger, corruption and hatred, that fairy tales do only exist in fairy tales. You start having this feeling of inability, because you understand that this world is disgusting but there isn’t much you can do.

“Ignorance is happiness.”

Knowledge deprives you of constant happiness, but frees you from the bubble back to the real world. The Matrix is not all that fictional, after all.