p. 236
"You had this list, Raymond," you say, causing more trouble. "Who else was on it? It was quite a list: Shakespeare, Sam Shepard, Rob Lowe, Ronald Reagan, his son -"
"Well, his son," Donald says.
"But isn't this the century no one cared?" Harry asks.
"About what?" you all ask back.
"Huh?" Steve asks after the Brazilian leaves.
The Rules of Attraction, 1987.
mardi 3 août 2010
FRANZEN, Jonathan
p. 307
And Ted's right on top of that, he thinks our culture attaches too much importance to feelings, he says it's out of control, it's not computers that are making everything virtual, it's mental health. Everyone's trying to correct their thoughts and improve their feelings and work on their relationships and parenting skills instead of just getting married and raising children like they used to, is what Ted says. We've bumped up to the next level of abstraction because we have too much time and money, is what he says, and he refuses to be a part of it. He wants to eat "real" food and go to "real" places and talk about "real" things like business and science. So he and I don't really agree at all anymore on what's important in life.
The Corrections, 2001.
And Ted's right on top of that, he thinks our culture attaches too much importance to feelings, he says it's out of control, it's not computers that are making everything virtual, it's mental health. Everyone's trying to correct their thoughts and improve their feelings and work on their relationships and parenting skills instead of just getting married and raising children like they used to, is what Ted says. We've bumped up to the next level of abstraction because we have too much time and money, is what he says, and he refuses to be a part of it. He wants to eat "real" food and go to "real" places and talk about "real" things like business and science. So he and I don't really agree at all anymore on what's important in life.
The Corrections, 2001.
MOODY, Rick
p. 229
They proceeded by guesswork. Here is how Benjamin Hood reached the Williamses' house. The long way, because of the power lines. Power lines down everywhere.
The Ice Storm, 1994.
They proceeded by guesswork. Here is how Benjamin Hood reached the Williamses' house. The long way, because of the power lines. Power lines down everywhere.
The Ice Storm, 1994.
MOODY, Rick
p. 211
Look, he was not a brilliant kid.
p. 259
Look, Elena knew that apology was the impossible paragraph, its words were like the secret names of God.
The Ice Storm, 1994,
Look, he was not a brilliant kid.
p. 259
Look, Elena knew that apology was the impossible paragraph, its words were like the secret names of God.
The Ice Storm, 1994,
DELILLO, Don
p. 11
He speaks in your voice, American, and there's a shine in his eye that's halfway hopeful.
p. 280
"There's a word in Italian. Dietrologia. It Means the science of what is behind something. A suspicious event. The science of what is behind an event."
"They need this science. I don't need it."
"I don't need it either. I'm just telling you."
"I'm an American. I go to ball games," he said.
"The science of dark forces. Evidently they feel this science is legitimate enough to require a name."
"People who need this science, I would make an effort to tell them we have real sciences, hard sciences, we don't need imaginary ones."
"I'm just telling you the word. I agree with you, Sims. But the word exists."
"There's always a word. [...]"
p. 542
"The tag or aglet."
"The aglet," I said.
"And the little metal ring that reinforces the rim of the eyelet through which the aglet passes. We're doing the physics of language, Shay."
"The little ring."
"You see it?"
"Yes."
"This is the grommet," he said.
"Oh man."
"The grommet. Learn it, know it and love it."
"I'm going out of my mind."
"This is the final arcan knowledge. And when I take my shoe to the shoemaker and he places it on a form to make repairs - a block shaped like a foot. This is called a what?"
"I don't know."
"A last."
"My head is breaking apart."
"Everyday things represent the most overlooked knowledge. These names are vital to your progress. Quotidian things. If they weren't important, we wouldn't use such a gorgeous Latinate word. Say it," he said.
"Quotidian."
"An extraordinary word that suggests the depth and reach of the commonplace."
p. 827
And you can glance out the window for a moment, distracted by the sound of small kids playing a made-up game in a neighbor's yard, some kind of kickball maybe, and they speak in your voice [...].
Underworld, 1997.
He speaks in your voice, American, and there's a shine in his eye that's halfway hopeful.
p. 280
"There's a word in Italian. Dietrologia. It Means the science of what is behind something. A suspicious event. The science of what is behind an event."
"They need this science. I don't need it."
"I don't need it either. I'm just telling you."
"I'm an American. I go to ball games," he said.
"The science of dark forces. Evidently they feel this science is legitimate enough to require a name."
"People who need this science, I would make an effort to tell them we have real sciences, hard sciences, we don't need imaginary ones."
"I'm just telling you the word. I agree with you, Sims. But the word exists."
"There's always a word. [...]"
p. 542
"The tag or aglet."
"The aglet," I said.
"And the little metal ring that reinforces the rim of the eyelet through which the aglet passes. We're doing the physics of language, Shay."
"The little ring."
"You see it?"
"Yes."
"This is the grommet," he said.
"Oh man."
"The grommet. Learn it, know it and love it."
"I'm going out of my mind."
"This is the final arcan knowledge. And when I take my shoe to the shoemaker and he places it on a form to make repairs - a block shaped like a foot. This is called a what?"
"I don't know."
"A last."
"My head is breaking apart."
"Everyday things represent the most overlooked knowledge. These names are vital to your progress. Quotidian things. If they weren't important, we wouldn't use such a gorgeous Latinate word. Say it," he said.
"Quotidian."
"An extraordinary word that suggests the depth and reach of the commonplace."
p. 827
And you can glance out the window for a moment, distracted by the sound of small kids playing a made-up game in a neighbor's yard, some kind of kickball maybe, and they speak in your voice [...].
Underworld, 1997.
CHABON, Michael
p. 119
Every universe, our own included, begins in conversation. Every golem in the history of the world [...] was summoned into existence through language, through murmuring recital, and kabbalistic chitchat - was, literally, talked into life.
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, 2000.
Every universe, our own included, begins in conversation. Every golem in the history of the world [...] was summoned into existence through language, through murmuring recital, and kabbalistic chitchat - was, literally, talked into life.
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, 2000.
PLATH, Sylvia
p. 33
Physics made me sick the whole time I learned it. What I couldn't stand was this shrinking everything into letters and numbers. Instead of leaf shapes and enlarged diagrams of the holes the leaves breathe through and fascinating words like carotene and xanthophyll on the blackboard, there were these hideous, cramped, scorpion-lettered formulas in Mr Manzi's special red chalk.
The Bell Jar, 1963.
Physics made me sick the whole time I learned it. What I couldn't stand was this shrinking everything into letters and numbers. Instead of leaf shapes and enlarged diagrams of the holes the leaves breathe through and fascinating words like carotene and xanthophyll on the blackboard, there were these hideous, cramped, scorpion-lettered formulas in Mr Manzi's special red chalk.
The Bell Jar, 1963.
BAKER, Nicholson
p. 80
I didn't think about the vending machines as I passed them, but I acknowledge their presence in some grateful part of my consciousness, a part equivalent in function to the person in movie credits charged with "continuity", who makes sure that if an actor is wearing a Band-Aid and sitting in front of three pancakes on one day of shooting, the pnacakes and the Band-Aid look exactly the same the next day.
The Mezzanine, 1988.
I didn't think about the vending machines as I passed them, but I acknowledge their presence in some grateful part of my consciousness, a part equivalent in function to the person in movie credits charged with "continuity", who makes sure that if an actor is wearing a Band-Aid and sitting in front of three pancakes on one day of shooting, the pnacakes and the Band-Aid look exactly the same the next day.
The Mezzanine, 1988.
BAKER, Nicholson
p. 41
But other things, like gas pumps, ice cube trays, transit buses, or milk containers, have undergone disorienting changes, and the only way that we can understand the proportion and range and effect of those changes, which constitute the often undocumented daily texture of our lives (a rough gravelly texture, like the shoulder of a road, which normally passes too far for microscopy), is to sample early images of the objects in whatever form they take in kid-memory - and once you invoke those kid-memories, you have to live with their constant tendency to screw up your fragmentary historiography with violas of lost emotion.
The Mezzanine, 1988.
But other things, like gas pumps, ice cube trays, transit buses, or milk containers, have undergone disorienting changes, and the only way that we can understand the proportion and range and effect of those changes, which constitute the often undocumented daily texture of our lives (a rough gravelly texture, like the shoulder of a road, which normally passes too far for microscopy), is to sample early images of the objects in whatever form they take in kid-memory - and once you invoke those kid-memories, you have to live with their constant tendency to screw up your fragmentary historiography with violas of lost emotion.
The Mezzanine, 1988.
HARTE, Bret
p. 18
When night crept up again through the gorges, the reedy notes of the accordion rose and fell in fitful spasms and long-drawn gasps by the flickering campfire. But music failed to fill entirely the aching void left by insufficient food, and a new diversion was proposed by piney — storytelling. [...] Some months before he had chanced upon a stray copy of Mr. Pope's ingenious translation of the Iliad. He now proposed to narrate the principal incidents of that poem — having thoroughly mastered the argument and fairly forgotten the words — in the current vernacular of Sandy Bar. And so for the rest of that night the Homeric demigods again walked the earth. Trojan bully and wily Greek wrestled in the winds, and the great pines in the canyon seemed to bow to the wrath of the son of Peleus. Mr. Oakhurst listened with quiet satisfaction. Most especially was he interested in the fate of "Ash-heels," as the Innocent persisted on denominating the "swift-footed Achilles."
"The Outcasts of Poker Flat" dans The Luck of Roaring Camp & Other Stories, 1968.
When night crept up again through the gorges, the reedy notes of the accordion rose and fell in fitful spasms and long-drawn gasps by the flickering campfire. But music failed to fill entirely the aching void left by insufficient food, and a new diversion was proposed by piney — storytelling. [...] Some months before he had chanced upon a stray copy of Mr. Pope's ingenious translation of the Iliad. He now proposed to narrate the principal incidents of that poem — having thoroughly mastered the argument and fairly forgotten the words — in the current vernacular of Sandy Bar. And so for the rest of that night the Homeric demigods again walked the earth. Trojan bully and wily Greek wrestled in the winds, and the great pines in the canyon seemed to bow to the wrath of the son of Peleus. Mr. Oakhurst listened with quiet satisfaction. Most especially was he interested in the fate of "Ash-heels," as the Innocent persisted on denominating the "swift-footed Achilles."
"The Outcasts of Poker Flat" dans The Luck of Roaring Camp & Other Stories, 1968.
MORRISON, Toni
p. 200
"What did daddy say to you at that AME Zion picnic? The one held for colored soldiers stationed at the base in Tennessee. How could either of you tell what the other was saying? He talking Louisiana, you speaking Tennessee. The music so different, the sound coming from a different part of the body. It must have been like hearing lyrics set to scores by two different composers. But when you made love he must have said I love you and you understood that and it was true, too, because I have seen the desperation in his eyes ever since - no matter what business venture he thinks up."
Paradise, 1997.
"What did daddy say to you at that AME Zion picnic? The one held for colored soldiers stationed at the base in Tennessee. How could either of you tell what the other was saying? He talking Louisiana, you speaking Tennessee. The music so different, the sound coming from a different part of the body. It must have been like hearing lyrics set to scores by two different composers. But when you made love he must have said I love you and you understood that and it was true, too, because I have seen the desperation in his eyes ever since - no matter what business venture he thinks up."
Paradise, 1997.
BAKER, Nicholson
p. 58
"This is a miracle," he said.
"It's just a telephone conversation."
"It's a telephone conversation I want to have. I love the telephone."
"Well I like it too," she said. "There's a power it has. [...]"
Vox, 1993.
"This is a miracle," he said.
"It's just a telephone conversation."
"It's a telephone conversation I want to have. I love the telephone."
"Well I like it too," she said. "There's a power it has. [...]"
Vox, 1993.
dimanche 7 février 2010
WALLACE, David Foster
p. 14
If one can stomach a good dose of simplification, though, there can be seen one deep feature shared by all the cutting-edge fiction that resonates with the post-Hiroshima revolution. That is its fall into time, a loss of innocence about the language that is its breath and bread. Its unblinking recognition of the fact that the relations between literary artist, literary language, and literary artifact are vastly more complex and powerful than has been realized hitherto. And the insight that is courage’s reward—that it is precisely in those tangled relations that a forward-looking, fertile literary value may well reside.
("Futuristic Fiction and the Conspicuously Young" dans Review of Contemporary Fiction, 1988 - theknowe.net)
If one can stomach a good dose of simplification, though, there can be seen one deep feature shared by all the cutting-edge fiction that resonates with the post-Hiroshima revolution. That is its fall into time, a loss of innocence about the language that is its breath and bread. Its unblinking recognition of the fact that the relations between literary artist, literary language, and literary artifact are vastly more complex and powerful than has been realized hitherto. And the insight that is courage’s reward—that it is precisely in those tangled relations that a forward-looking, fertile literary value may well reside.
("Futuristic Fiction and the Conspicuously Young" dans Review of Contemporary Fiction, 1988 - theknowe.net)
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