[This is where I am in Proust right now.] But above all we must remember this: on the one hand, lying is often a character trait; on the other hand, in women who would not otherwise be liars, it is a natural defense, improvised at first, then more and more organized, against that sudden danger [...]
Archive for July, 2008
The Fugitive. Mademoiselle De Forcheville. 834-836
Posted in Miscellaneous, tagged Literature, Marcel Proust, Proust, Quotes on July 10, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
The Maker (El Hacedor) :: J. L. Borges
Posted in Dreamtigers, Jorge Luis Borges, Quotes, Short Prose, tagged Borges, Jorge Luis Borges, Literature, Quotes, Short Story on July 6, 2008 | 4 Comments »
He had never dwelled on memory’s delights. Impressions slid over him, vivid but ephemeral. A potter’s vermilion; the heavens laden with stars that were also gods; the moon, from which a lion had fallen; the slick feel of marble beneath slow sensitive fingertips; the taste of wild boar meat, eagerly torn by his white teeth; [...]
To Leopold Lugones :: J. L. Borges
Posted in Dreamtigers, Jorge Luis Borges, Short Prose, tagged Borges, Jorge Luis Borges, Literature, Quotes, Short Story on July 6, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Leaving behind the babble of the plaza, I enter the Library. I feel, almost physically, the gravitation of the books, the enveloping serenity of order, time magically desiccated and preserved. Left and right, absorbed in their shining dreams, the readers’ momentary profiles are sketched by the light of their bright officious
On Certainty :: Ludwig Wittgenstein
Posted in Short Prose, tagged Ludwig Wittgenstein, On Certainty, Philosophy on July 6, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
On Certainty (Über Gewissheit) by Ludwig Wittgenstein Edited by G. E. M. Anscombe and G. H. von Wright Translated by Denis Paul and G. E. M. Anscombe Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1969, 1972 Preface What we publish here belongs to the last year and a half of Wittgenstein’s life. In the middle of 1949 he visited [...]
I Feel Horrible. She Doesn’t :: Richard Brautigan
Posted in Poetry, tagged humor, Literature, Poetry, Richard Brautigan, The Pill Versus the Springhill Mine Disaster on July 5, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
I feel horrible. She doesn’t love me and I wander around the house like a sewing machine that’s just finished sewing a turd to a garbage can lid – Richard Brautigan
The Immoralist
Posted in Miscellaneous, tagged Andre Gide, literary quotes, Literature, Quotes, The Immoralist on July 5, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
The following is an excerpt from Andre Gide’s preface to his novella, The Immoralist: … I no more wanted this book to be an accusation than an apology. I refrained from passing judgment. These days the public demands an author’s moral at the end of the story. In fact, they even want him to take [...]
VII. The Ceiling :: Rafael Campo
Posted in Poetry, tagged homosexuality, Literature, Poetry, Rafael Campo, sexuality, The Immortal Song, What the Body Told on July 5, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Beneath a handprint on a stucco ceiling, I fucked another man. It was my first Time making love. It all happened so fast I didn’t even know what I was feeling. I didn’t even realize that time Was passing; each sweep of the ceiling fan Lopped moments from my life. A stranger’s hand Had left [...]
II. The Doctor :: Rafael Campo
Posted in Poetry, tagged immortality, Literature, Poetry, Rafael Campo, The Immortal Song, What the Body Told on July 5, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Essential hypertension, uncontrolled, Is almost immortality. The pressure Of blood inside the arteries I measure With mercury, reflecting on the soul: Both liquid and a heavy metal, trapped And beautiful–a subtle trembling–cold. I hate to watch my patients grow old. I watch as blood pressures ascend, hearts stop; A cancer dimpling a woman’s breast, As [...]
I. Rebirth :: Rafael Campo
Posted in Poetry, tagged death, immortality, Poetry, Rafael Campo, rebirth, The Immortal Song, What the Body Told on July 5, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Inventing panaceas late last night, I stumbled on a formula for life. I mixed a wine glass with a paring knife, And ended up with blood. My blood was quite Remarkable, and red, so red it turned The water in the bathtub red. I knew What I was giving up, but tell me, who Could [...]
VI. DNA, or, The Legend of My Grandfather :: Rafael Campo
Posted in Poetry, tagged Literature, Poetry, Rafael Campo, The Immortal Song, What the Body Told on July 5, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
A molecule that craves its own embrace Encodes a message from my ancestors: Survival means eternal life. Restored As though he were alive again, my face Seems more my grandfather’s than mine. I search The contours of my jaws for what he’d say – In tissue overlying bone, nucle- Ic acids fast unzipped to base-pairs [...]
Bullet in the Brain :: Tobias Wolff
Posted in Short Prose, tagged Fiction, Literature, Short Story, Tobias Wolff, Writing on July 3, 2008 | 11 Comments »
Anders couldn’t get to the bank until just before it closed, so of course the line was endless and he got stuck behind two women whose loud, stupid conversation put him in a murderous temper. He was never in the best of tempers anyway, Anders — a book critic known for the weary, elegant savagery [...]
Fiction Writers on Writing Fiction
Posted in Quotes, tagged Fiction, Quotes, Short Story, Writing on July 3, 2008 | 2 Comments »
There are a few lucky souls for whom the whole process of writing is easy, for whom the smell of fresh paper is better than air, whose minds chuckle over their own agility, who forget to eat, and who consider the world at large an intrusion on their good time at the keyboard. But you [...]
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