{"id":21403,"date":"2025-07-29T14:47:17","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T21:47:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/jed\/?page_id=21403"},"modified":"2025-12-24T08:14:42","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T16:14:42","slug":"commonplace-book","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/jed\/hodgepodge\/work-by-others\/commonplace-book\/","title":{"rendered":"Commonplace Book"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n\r\n<style>\r\n\r\np.attribution {\r\n  font-size: 95%;\r\n  text-align: right;\r\n  margin-top: 12px;\r\n}\r\n\r\nblockquote + p.attribution {\r\n  margin-top: -15px;\r\n}\r\n\r\ndiv.dialogue + p.attribution {\r\n  margin-top: -15px;\r\n}\r\n\r\n<\/style>\r\n\r\n<p>For many years, I\u2019ve been posting quotes from various sources with the hashtag <i>#CommonplaceBook<\/i>\u2014an <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Commonplace_book\">old-fashioned term for a sort of scrapbook<\/a> of stuff that the compiler wants to remember or track.<\/p>\r\n<p>Eventually, it occurred to me that it might be nice to put all of those things in one place. So here they are\u2014about five hundred of them, adding up to nearly 40,000 words.<\/p>\r\n<p>Some of these are here because I found them funny; some because I found them interesting or well-said; some because I agree with them; some because I <em>dis<\/em>agree with them; some just because I want to be able to find them again in the future. Don\u2019t read too much into the presence of anything here.<\/p>\r\n<p>(Also, there are thousands of lines and phrases and quotes and sayings that I love but haven\u2019t included here for one reason or another. Don\u2019t read too much into the <em>absence<\/em> of anything here.)<\/p>\r\n<p>These quotes are in alphabetical order by author\u2019s <em>full<\/em> name. (Thus mostly by author\u2019s given\/personal name.) Movie quotes are listed by movie title. Unknown authors are listed under <i>U<\/i> for <i>unknown<\/i>.<\/p>\r\n<p>The formatting here is somewhat inconsistent, for no particular reason.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"no-indent\" style=\"font-size: larger; text-align: center; margin-top: 1em;\">\r\n<p>Author full names starting with:<\/p>\r\n<p><a href=\"#A\">A<\/a> <a href=\"#B\">B<\/a> <a href=\"#C\">C<\/a> <a href=\"#D\">D<\/a> <a href=\"#E\">E<\/a> <a href=\"#F\">F<\/a> <a href=\"#G\">G<\/a> <a href=\"#H\">H<\/a> <a href=\"#I\">I<\/a> <a href=\"#J\">J<\/a> <a href=\"#K\">K<\/a> <a href=\"#L\">L<\/a> <a href=\"#M\">M<\/a><\/p>\r\n<p style=\"font-size: bigger; text-align: center;\"><a href=\"#N\">N<\/a> <a href=\"#O\">O<\/a> <a href=\"#P\">P<\/a> <a href=\"#Q\">Q<\/a> <a href=\"#R\">R<\/a> <a href=\"#S\">S<\/a> <a href=\"#T\">T<\/a> <a href=\"#U\">U<\/a> <a href=\"#V\">V<\/a> <a href=\"#W\">W<\/a> <a href=\"#X\">X<\/a> <a href=\"#Y\">Y<\/a> <a href=\"#Z\">Z<\/a><\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n<!-- IMPORTANT: THIS FILE IS GENERATED. DO NOT HAND-EDIT! -->\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<h1 id=\"A\">A<\/h1>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=aaronschuman -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cThey always act disoriented; that is their way.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Aaron Schuman<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=adambecker -->\r\n\r\n<p>Adam Becker on who gets to set the terms for debate about the future:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201c[Tech billionaires\u2019] visions of the future are news; they inform the limits of public imagination and political debate. Setting the terms of such conversations about the future carries power in the present. If we don\u2019t want tech billionaires setting those terms, we need to understand their ideas about the future: their curious origins, their horrifying consequences, and their panoply of ethical gaps and scientific flaws.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014quoted in an <a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/culture\/2025\/04\/youre-not-going-to-mars-and-you-wont-live-forever-exploding-silicon-valleys-ideology\/\"><cite>Ars Technica<\/cite> interview<\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=adambecker -->\r\n\r\n<p>Adam Becker on LLMs:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cA large language model is never going to do a job that a human does as well as they could do it, but that doesn\u2019t mean that they\u2019re never going to replace humans, because, of course, decisions about whether or not to replace a human with a machine aren\u2019t based on the actual performance of the human or the machine. They\u2019re based on what the people making those decisions believe to be true about those humans and those machines. So they are already taking people\u2019s jobs, not because they can do them as well as the people can, but because the executive class is in the grip of a mass delusion about them.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from an <a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/culture\/2025\/04\/youre-not-going-to-mars-and-you-wont-live-forever-exploding-silicon-valleys-ideology\/\"><cite>Ars Technica<\/cite> interview<\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=adriantchaikovsky -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cSo here we have someone who was never on a [revolutionary] subcommittee, or robbed a bank, or even fiddled his taxes, but the [oppressive regime\u2019s] algorithm looked into his data footprint and electronic pareidolia did the rest. If you program your computers to expect wrongdoing, then they\u2019ll most certainly find it.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from the novel <cite>Alien Clay<\/cite>, by Adrian Tchaikovsky<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=aevanvogt -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cThey talked about it in low tones; and their hushed baritones formed a queer, deep-throated background[\u2026]\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014A. E. van Vogt, \u201cRecruiting Station\u201d (1942)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=alankorn -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cMulti-track recording equipment allowed producers to add to, erase and electronically alter sound during the recording process, enabling composers to use the recording studio as another instrument rather than as a method of strict documentation.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from \u201cRenaming That Tune: Audio Collage, Parody and Fair Use\u201d (1992), by Alan Korn<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=alankornjohnoswald -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cthere does not exist a musical equivalent to literature\u2019s use of quotation marks.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from \u201cRenaming That Tune: Audio Collage, Parody and Fair Use\u201d (1992), by Alan Korn<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Korn adds a quote in a footnote:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201c[j]azz musicians do not wiggle two fingers of each hand in the air, as lecturers sometimes do, when cross-referencing during their extemporizations, as on most instruments this would present some technical difficulties.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Composer John Oswald, as quoted in footnote 88 of the Korn article<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=alanmoore -->\r\n\r\n<p>From <cite>Miracleman<\/cite>, by Alan Moore (1982 or so):<\/p>\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>Like a kite that has lost its war with the wind I hang crucified upon the sky \u2026 suspended between the soil and the stars, between heaven and earth, between the angels and the apes.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>There is no-one like me.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>I\u2019m Miracleman.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Gravity is a sullen giant who snatches irritably at my heels.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>The hurricane is my mistress. I slide my body across her arctic vectors and her sigh is an ecstasy of birds.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Her nails rake my back and she howls her bitterness, begging me to stay, pleading with me to deny the dark and jealous planet that waits below.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>But I can\u2019t. I can\u2019t.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=aleistercrowley000xix -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cMost religions of the past have failed by expecting Nature to conform with their ideals of proper conduct.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Aleister Crowley, <cite>Magick in Theory and Practice<\/cite>, introduction, p. XIX, footnote 1<\/p>\r\n<p>I like this not so much for the religion aspect as for the phrase \u201cexpecting Nature to conform with their ideals of proper conduct,\u201d which seems like it applies to a lot of things that we do.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=aleistercrowley082 -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cThere is no more potent means than Art of calling forth true Gods to visible appearance.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Aleister Crowley, <cite>Magick in Theory and Practice<\/cite>, p. 82<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=aleistercrowley174 -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cThere is nothing in the universe which does not influence every other thing in one way or another.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Aleister Crowley, <cite>Magick in Theory and Practice<\/cite>, p. 174<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=alewinglaa1 -->\r\n\r\n<div class=\"dialogue\">\r\n<p><b>Thor<\/b>: I spoke on your behalf, brother, but Midgard\u2018s laws are as they are, and you <em>did<\/em> create a most terrible slash upon their Internet.<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Loki<\/b>: I <em>hacked<\/em> the Internet, Thor. It\u2018s different\u2026 Although I have done the other thing too.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from <cite>Loki: Agent of Asgard<\/cite> #1, written by Al Ewing<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=alewinglaa7a -->\r\n\r\n<p>A conversation between 3-year-old supergenius Valeria Richards and human lie-detector Verity Willis:<\/p>\r\n<div class=\"dialogue\">\r\n<p><b>Valeria<\/b>: Are you doing kissing with Loki?<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Verity<\/b>: What?<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Valeria<\/b>: Quite often when grown-ups make bad decisions, it\u2018s because someone\u2018s doing kissing somewhere. It\u2018s involved in a statistically significant number of cases. Frankly, I don\u2018t approve.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from issue 7 of <cite>Loki: Agent of Asgard<\/cite>, written by Al Ewing\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=alewinglaa7b -->\r\n\r\n<div class=\"dialogue\">\r\n<p><b>Valeria<\/b>: All right, what this does is create a directional chronal field, which sets up interference in the wave modulation of the\u2014<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Verity<\/b>: Skip to the end, please.<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Valeria<\/b>: This goes \u201cping\u201d and then the big thing goes \u201cvwoorp.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p>[Next panel sound effects: small machine goes PING in small letters, big machine goes VWOORP in big letters.]<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from issue 7 of <cite>Loki: Agent of Asgard<\/cite>, written by Al Ewing\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=alewinglaa7c -->\r\n\r\n<div class=\"dialogue\">\r\n<p><b>Verity<\/b>: Have you got a plan?<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Loki<\/b>: Yes. It\u2018s called \u201crunning away.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from issue 7 of <cite>Loki: Agent of Asgard<\/cite>, written by Al Ewing\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=alexeipanshincorypanshin -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cin their radical aspect, [stories] alert us to the limitations of how we presently live and who we take ourselves to be, and lead us on toward what we are not yet.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from <cite>The World Beyond the Hill: Science Fiction and the Quest for Transcendence<\/cite>, by Alexei and Cory Panshin, p.&nbsp;ix<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>(The original line said <i>myths<\/i> rather than <i>stories<\/i>, but I feel like \u201cstories\u201d is probably not too far off from what they meant.)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=alixeharrow -->\r\n\r\n<p>An example of compact characterization:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>First-person narrator describes having received a particular book (from her father) for her sixth birthday. As she looked through the book, she was (as her adult narrator self puts it) \u201cpretending to be a little more excited than I actually was because even at six I knew my parents needed a lot of protecting.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Alix E. Harrow, <cite>A Spindle Splintered<\/cite><\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=allquietonthewesternfront -->\r\n<!-- Sorttopic=allquietonthewesternfront -->\r\n\r\n<p>Out-of-context advice from an old movie, still relevant today:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"dialogue\">\r\n\r\n<p><b>Paul<\/b>: We haven\u2019t eaten since breakfast. We thought maybe you could tell us what we ought to do about it.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p><b>Tjaden<\/b>: Eat, without further delay.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from <cite>All Quiet on the Western Front<\/cite>, 1930<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=amybeldingbrown -->\r\n<!-- Sorttopic=henrydavidthoreau -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>his mind is always<\/p>\r\n<p>leaping off<\/p>\r\n<p>in new directions, as if<\/p>\r\n<p>the whole point<\/p>\r\n<p>is to cross life\u2019s river of confusion<\/p>\r\n<p>on the stones<\/p>\r\n<p>of metaphor\u2026<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Amy Belding Brown, \u201cThinking About Thoreau\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=anatolefrance -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cThe law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Anatole France, from <cite>The Red Lily<\/cite> (1894)<\/p>\r\n<p>(Original French: \u201c[\u2026] la majestueuse \u00e9galit\u00e9 des lois, qui interdit au riche comme au pauvre de coucher sous les ponts, de mendier dans les rues et de voler du pain.\u201d I don\u2019t know which translator provided the English version that I quoted above.)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=andrewhurley -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cIn its beginnings, the tango was so scandalous that no respectable woman would dance it, and one would see two men [\u2026] dancing together on street corners[\u2026]\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Andrew Hurley, notes on Borges\u2019s story \u201cMan on Pink Corner,\u201d in Borges\u2019s <cite>Collected Fictions<\/cite>, pp.&nbsp;529\u2013530<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=andrewmbutler -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cI am the managing editor of the academic journal <cite>Extrapolation<\/cite>, though most of the time it feels like I\u2019m the just-coping editor.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Andrew M. Butler, introducing the <cite>Bodily Futures<\/cite> papers session at Worldcon 2024<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=angelaydavis -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cYou have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world. And you have to do it all the time.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Angela Y. Davis<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=angelaydavis -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cThe prison therefore functions ideologically as an abstract site into which undesirables are deposited, relieving us of the responsibility of thinking about the real issues afflicting those communities from which prisoners are drawn in such disproportionate numbers. This is the ideological work that the prison performs\u2014it relieves us of the responsibility of seriously engaging with the problems of our society, especially those produced by racism and, increasingly, global capitalism.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from Angela Y. Davis\u2019s book <cite>Are Prisons Obsolete?<\/cite>, ch.&nbsp;1<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=angelaydavis -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cAn attempt to create a new conceptual terrain for imagining alternatives to imprisonment involves the ideological work of questioning why \u2018criminals\u2019 have been constituted as a class and, indeed, a class of human beings undeserving of the civil and human rights accorded to others. Radical criminologists have long pointed out that the category \u2018lawbreakers\u2019 is far greater than the category of individuals who are deemed criminals since, many point out, almost all of us have broken the law at one time or another.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from Angela Y. Davis\u2019s book <cite>Are Prisons Obsolete?<\/cite>, ch.&nbsp;6<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=annarussell -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>\ud83c\udfb5 Things would be so different<\/p>\r\n<p>If they were not as they are!<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Anna Russell, \u201cHow to Write Your Own Gilbert & Sullivan Opera\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=annemccaffrey -->\r\n\r\n<p>Anne McCaffrey acknowledging fandom in 1983, in the Author\u2018s Note at the beginning of <cite>Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern<\/cite>:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>For readers who have extrapolated themselves and their wishes onto Pern, I have probably NOT written the adventure <em>you<\/em> hoped might be presented between these covers. With all the best intentions in the world, I doubt that I could write such a broadly pleasing, all-encompassing, wish-fulfilling novel. In a roundabout way, that is a compliment to you, the reader, not a fault in me, for you have put more of yourself on Pern than I could ever imagine for your sake. I appreciate your enthusiasms and I also appreciate the list of dragon names which have been sent to me.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=annemorrowlindbergh -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cIt does seem so discouragingly sad to me: rooms get dusty and clothes always need mending and flowers fade and teeth decay. It\u2019s always like that.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Anne Morrow Lindbergh<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=anniedillard -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cThere is no one but us. There is no one to send, nor a clean hand, nor a pure heart on the face of the earth, nor in the earth, but only us, a generation comforting ourselves with the notion that we have come at an awkward time, that [\u2026] our children [are] busy and troubled, and we ourselves unfit, not yet ready, having each of us chosen wrongly, made a false start, failed, yielded to impulse and the tangled comfort of pleasures, and grown exhausted, unable to seek the thread, weak, and involved. But there is no one but us. There never has been. There have been generations which remembered, and generations which forgot; there has never been a generation of whole [people] who lived well for even one day. Yet some have imagined well, with honesty and art, the detail of such a life, and have described it with such grace, that we mistake vision for history, dream for description, and fancy that life has devolved.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Annie Dillard, <cite>Holy the Firm<\/cite>, pp.&nbsp;56\u201357<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=annsterzinger -->\r\n\r\n<p>Advice for writers:<\/p>\r\n<p>\u201cHang in there kids, and one day you too might realize a mangled, stunted, mocking facsimile of your dreams.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Ann Sterzinger<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=annstrong -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cThe bicycle is just as good company as most husbands and, when it gets old and shabby, a woman can dispose of it and get a new one without shocking the entire community.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Ann Strong, <cite>Minn. Tribune<\/cite>, 1895<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=anthonyboucher -->\r\n\r\n<p>Protag is upset with something a TV commentator has just said:<\/p>\r\n<p>\u201cHe issued a two-syllable instruction which the commentator would have found difficult to carry out.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Anthony Boucher, circumlocuting (in \u201cThe Other Inauguration,\u201d 1953)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=anthonyburgess -->\r\n\r\n<p>Anthony Burgess on the fact that Kubrick left out the denouement of the British version of <cite>A&nbsp;Clockwork Orange<\/cite> from the movie:<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>People wrote to me about this\u2014indeed much of my later life has been expended on Xeroxing statements of intention and the frustration of intention\u2014while both Kubrick and my New York publisher coolly bask in the rewards of their misdemeanour. Life is, of course, terrible.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=anthonyswofford -->\r\n\r\n<p>From Anthony Swofford\u2019s memoir <cite>Jarhead<\/cite>:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cThere is talk that many Vietnam films are antiwar, that the message is war is inhumane and look what happens when you train young American men to fight and kill, they turn their fighting and killing everywhere [\u2026]. But actually, Vietnam war films are all pro-war, no matter what the supposed message [\u2026]. [Civilians] will watch the films and weep and decide once and for all that war is inhumane and terrible [\u2026], but [some members of the military] watch the same films and are excited by them, because the magic brutality of the films celebrates the terrible and despicable beauty of their fighting skills. [\u2026] Filmic images of death and carnage are pornography for the military man[\u2026]\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014pp.&nbsp;6\u20137<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>(Many people vehemently disagree with this. Swofford was speaking from personal experience, but others\u2019 experiences vary.)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=antonchekhov -->\r\n\r\n<p>Excerpt from a letter from Anton Chekhov to his publisher, 1888:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>You are right to demand that an author take conscious stock of what he is doing, but you are confusing two concepts: answering the questions and formulating them correctly. Only the latter is required of an author.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=antonchekhov -->\r\n\r\n<p>From Anton Chekhov\u2019s story \u201cGooseberries\u201d (1898) (trans. Avrahm Yarmolinsky):<\/p>\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>\u201cI said to myself: how many contented, happy people there really are! What an overwhelming force they are! Look at life: the insolence and idleness of the strong, the ignorance and brutishness of the weak, horrible poverty everywhere, overcrowding, degeneration, drunkenness, hypocrisy, lying\u2014 Yet in all the houses and on all the streets there is peace and quiet; of the fifty thousand people who live in our town there is not one who would cry out, who would vent his indignation aloud. We see the people who go to market, eat by day, sleep by night, who babble nonsense, marry, grow old, good-naturedly drag their dead to the cemetery, but we do not see or hear those who suffer, and what is terrible in life goes on somewhere behind the scenes. Everything is peaceful and quiet and only mute statistics protest: so many people gone out of their minds, so many gallons of vodka drunk, so many children dead from malnutrition\u2014 And such a state of things is evidently necessary; obviously the happy man is at ease only because the unhappy ones bear their burdens in silence, and if there were not this silence, happiness would be impossible. It is a general hypnosis. Behind the door of every contented, happy man there ought to be someone standing with a little hammer and continually reminding him with a knock that there are unhappy people, that however happy he may be, life will sooner or later show him its claws, and trouble will come to him\u2014illness, poverty, losses, and then no one will see or hear him, just as now he neither sees nor hears others. But there is no man with a hammer. The happy man lives at his ease, faintly fluttered by small daily cares, like an aspen in the wind\u2014and all is well.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cThat night I came to understand that I too had been contented and happy,\u201d Ivan Ivanych continued, getting up. \u201cI too over the dinner table or out hunting would hold forth on how to live, what to believe, the right way to govern the people. I too would say that learning was the enemy of darkness, that education was necessary but that for the common people the three R\u2019s were sufficient for the time being. Freedom is a boon, I used to say, it is as essential as air, but we must wait awhile. Yes, that\u2019s what I used to say, and now I ask: Why must we wait?\u201d said Ivan Ivanych, looking wrathfully at Burkin. \u201cWhy must we wait, I ask you? For what reason? I am told that nothing can be done all at once, that every idea is realized gradually, in its own time. But who is it that says so? Where is the proof that it is just? You cite the natural order of things, the law governing all phenomena, but is there law, is there order in the fact that I, a living, thinking man, stand beside a ditch and wait for it to close up of itself or fill up with silt, when I could jump over it or throw a bridge across it? And again, why must we wait? Wait, until we have no strength to live, and yet we have to live and are eager to live!\u201d<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=aoscott -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201c[\u2026] nearly every heist movie\u2014predicated on an elaborate and improbable plan that must be executed perfectly in spite of all kinds of accidents and contingencies\u2014is really about filmmaking.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014\u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2009\/09\/20\/movies\/20scot.html\">Another Soderbergh Puzzle!<\/a>\u201d, by A. O. Scott<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=arinorth -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cSomeone told me once that representation in fiction can either be a mirror (reflecting parts of the reader\u2019s own experiences back at them) or a window (giving the reader a glimpse of experiences unfamiliar to them.) I love it when queer representation does both \u2013 I love seeing myself in stories, and I love seeing other people too.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Ari North, creator of the webcomic <cite>Always Human<\/cite>, in an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.geeksout.org\/2023\/08\/05\/interview-with-ari-north-creator-of-always-human\/\">interview<\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=aristotle -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cIt is unbecoming for young men to utter maxims.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014supposedly Aristotle, but <a href=\"https:\/\/sententiaeantiquae.com\/2018\/10\/16\/aristotle-on-whether-young-people-should-use-maxims-an-ironic-quotation\/\">apparently he didn\u2019t quite say that<\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=arkadymartine -->\r\n\r\n<p>An entry in the glossary at the back of <cite>A Desolation Called Peace<\/cite>, by Arkady Martine:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cFulcrum\u2014First in a series of Teixcalaanli popular novels about a band of thieves, grifters, and other criminals who take down corrupt officials for the good of the Empire and its people.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=arnoldlobel -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cWinter may be beautiful, but bed is much better.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Toad, in <cite>Frog and Toad All Year<\/cite> by Arnold Lobel<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=arthurcclarke -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cEven by the twenty-second century, no way had yet been discovered of keeping elderly and conservative scientists from occupying crucial administrative positions. Indeed, it was doubted if the problem ever would be solved.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Arthur C. Clarke, <cite>Rendezvous with Rama<\/cite>, ch.&nbsp;3<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=arthurcclarke -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201c[Gravity] is a major factor in the lives of steeplejacks and mountaineers, but those of us who live more two-dimensional existences usually notice it only when we run upstairs in a hurry or sit on a chair which has unaccountably removed itself.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Arthur C. Clarke, <cite>The Exploration of Space<\/cite> (1951), p.&nbsp;30<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=arthurevans -->\r\n\r\n<p>Arthur E and I were driving somewhere, and we saw a spotlight sweeping back and forth across the sky. The following exchange ensued:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"dialogue\">\r\n<p><b>Me<\/b>: I wonder what that spotlight\u2019s for?<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Arthur<\/b> (without missing a beat): In former times, small children and animals often wandered off into the sky and were never found; this is how constellations were formed. With modern technology, many of these children and animals can be found; this is why we have had no new constellations in recent years. That spotlight, then, is searching for missing children.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=arthurevans -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cIf a picture is worth a thousand words, a movie is worth 24,000 words per second. (TV is worth about 60,000 words per second, but half the letters are missing.)\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Arthur Evans<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=arthurevans -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cJust kill me now, before the future gets any brighter.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Arthur Evans<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=arthurevans -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cTarot readings <em>do<\/em> answer yes\/no questions\u2014but they answer them with things like \u2018moose!\u2019 \u2018cataract!\u2019 \u2018four-on-the-floor!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Arthur Evans<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=audrelorde -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cAs a Black lesbian feminist comfortable with the many different ingredients of my identity, and a woman committed to racial and sexual freedom from oppression, I find I am constantly being encouraged to pluck out some one aspect of myself and present this as the meaningful whole, eclipsing or denying the other parts of self. But this is a destructive and fragmenting way to live. My fullest concentration of energy is available to me only when I integrate all the parts of who I am, openly, allowing power from particular sources of my living to flow back and forth freely through all my different selves, without the restrictions of externally imposed definition. Only then can I bring myself and my energies as a whole to the service of those struggles which I embrace as part of my living.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Audre Lorde, from \u201cAge, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference,\u201d 1980. (Published in <cite>Sister Outsider<\/cite>.)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<h1 id=\"B\">B<\/h1>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=bachelorandthebobbysoxerthe -->\r\n<!-- Sorttopic=bachelorandthebobbysoxerthe -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cI couldn\u2019t help overhearing\u2014I had my ear to the door.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Uncle Matt Beemish, <cite>The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer<\/cite><\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=barbarakingsolver -->\r\n\r\n<p>A moment I like from early on in Barbara Kingsolver\u2019s 1990 novel <cite>Animal Dreams<\/cite>:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Background: First-person protagonist Codi is sad because her beloved sister Hallie is leaving Tucson to drive to Nicaragua to do good there by working with crops. (Codi is staying behind in Tucson.)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>I hugged her with all the strength in my arms. \u201cHallie,\u201d I said, \u201cCould you please just change your mind now and not go?\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cYou really love me, so you want me to stay here and keep the suburbs safe for geraniums.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cI know how I ought to feel,\u201d I said. \u201cI just don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Her breath expanded her chest against my arms, and I thought of the way a tree will keep on growing after a fence is wired around its trunk. The unbelievable force of that expansion. And I let her go.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014p.&nbsp;33<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=barbarakingsolver -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cThe things we do not know, independently and in unison as a family, would fill two separate baskets, each with a large hole in the bottom.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Adah, in <cite>The Poisonwood Bible<\/cite>, by Barbara Kingsolver (p.&nbsp;209 of my edition)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>In the book, she\u2019s talking about a particular context, but I feel like the sentiment also applies to lots of other contexts.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=beckychambers -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201c\u2026the dense network you find below every forest. Roots interlocking like fingers, with gossamer fungus sprawled symbiotically between, allowing for the peaceful exchange of carbon and nutrients. Worms traversed roads of their own making. Pockets of water and pebbles decorated the scene. This is what a forest is, after all. Don\u2019t believe the lie of individual trees, each a monument to its own self-made success. A forest is an interdependent community.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from <cite>To Be Taught, if Fortunate,<\/cite> by Becky Chambers<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=beckychambers -->\r\n\r\n<p>I like this line as the first thing we see about a newly introduced character:<\/p>\r\n<p>\u201c[\u2026] had been in the middle of slathering a golden piece of toast with as much jam as it could structurally support [\u2026]\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from <cite>A Psalm for the Wild-Built<\/cite>, by Becky Chambers<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=beecycling -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>Do not seize the day. This will startle the day and may cause it to become aggressive and give you a nasty bite.<\/p>\r\n<p>Instead approach the day calmly without making eye contact, pet it gently, and slowly enfold it in a careful embrace<\/p>\r\n<p>If the day shows any signs of resistance to being engaged with, it is likely to turn on you. Back off and return to bed.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014<a href=\"https:\/\/romancelandia.club\/@beecycling\/109913055801928715\">BeeCycling<\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=benrobbins -->\r\n\r\n<p>On tabletop-RPG rules:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cThat sense of shared accomplishment is what all games in this field try to achieve. Good rules stack the deck in your favor. Bad rules get in your way and make you weep and argue until you decide to just ignore them.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Ben Robbins, in the <cite>Microscope Explorer<\/cite> supplement to his game <cite>Microscope<\/cite><\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=bernicejohnsonreagon -->\r\n\r\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bernicejohnsonreagon.com\/\">Bernice Johnson Reagon<\/a> on NPR, talking about her experience (as part of the Civil Rights Movement) of taking existing spirituals and changing\/updating\/adapting some of the words to suit the circumstances:<\/p>\r\n<p>\u201cThe song that you know must name where you are.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=bethnielsenchapman -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>\ud83c\udfb5 And I thought about years<\/p>\r\n<p>How they take so long<\/p>\r\n<p>And they go so fast<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Beth Nielsen Chapman, \u201cYears\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=betteroffted -->\r\n<!-- Sorttopic=betteroffted -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cYour guys will do anything for you, Ted. They\u2019ve got\u2014what\u2019s that thing again? Underlings have it. \u2014Loyalty!\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Veronica, in <cite>Better off Ted<\/cite>, s1e1<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=bible -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cWhen one of your number is unclean because of an emission of seed at night, he must go outside the camp; he may not come within it.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Deuteronomy 23:10, <cite>The New English Bible<\/cite><\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=bible -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cof making many books there is no end\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Ecclesiastes 12:12, <cite>King James Version<\/cite> (and other versions)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=billbarker -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s too bad the earth didn\u2019t turn out to be flat because it would have been so much easier that way. Still, we have the materials, we have the time. We\u2019re already halfway there.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Bill Barker, Schwa Corp<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=bionofborysthenes -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cThough boys throw stones at frogs in sport, the frogs do not die in sport, but in earnest.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Bion of Borysthenes<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=bramstoker -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cHe is a doctor and really clever. Just fancy! He is only nine-and-twenty, and has an immense lunatic asylum all under his own care.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Lucy Westenra, in <cite>Dracula<\/cite>, by Bram Stoker<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=bramstoker -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cWhy can\u2019t they let a girl marry three men, or as many as want her, and save all this trouble? But this is heresy, and I must not say it.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Lucy Westenra, in <cite>Dracula<\/cite>, by Bram Stoker<\/p>\r\n<p>(\u2026Why not as many as <em>she<\/em> wants, Lucy?)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=briankernighan -->\r\n\r\n<p>Brian Kernighan on using clever tricks in programming:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cEveryone knows that debugging is twice as hard as writing a program in the first place. So if you\u2019re as clever as you can be when you write it, how will you ever debug it?\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from <cite>The Elements of Programming Style<\/cite>, 2nd edition, chapter 2, as quoted in Wikiquote<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=brianwaldiss -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cOf course, individual issues were often disappointing. But the ritual of a magazine, its layout, its expectations, its continuity, its hazardous pact with readers and authors, elevates it to a sort of protolanguage which speaks as strongly as its actual fiction content.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Brian W. Aldiss on <cite>New Worlds<\/cite>, from his introduction to <cite>Decade: the 1960s<\/cite> (published in 1977)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=bruceblivenjr -->\r\n\r\n<p>About a couple of specific attitudes toward typewriters in the US in the late 1800s:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>Some persons\u2019 feelings were hurt by the receipt of a typewritten letter on the grounds that the printing was an aspersion cast on their ability to read longhand.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>[\u2026]<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Others regarded the Type-Writer as an invader of privacy, on the theory that no man was clever enough to run such a machine without a professional operator\u2019s help, and that therefore a typewritten love letter must have been transcribed by a third person.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from <cite>The Wonderful Writing Machine<\/cite>, by Bruce Bliven, Jr. (1954), pp.&nbsp;70\u201371<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>(Clarification: Lots of people have always felt (both then and now) that handwritten letters are more personal than other kinds of letters. But I\u2019m posting this quote because I hadn\u2019t previously encountered these two very specific objections to typewritten letters, which aren\u2019t really about typewriting being impersonal.)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=brucesterling -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201c[\u2026] these things never work out as you plan. Reality\u2019s a horde of mice, nibbling away in the basement of your dreams.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Bruce Sterling, <cite>Schismatrix<\/cite>, near the end of ch.&nbsp;8<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=brucesterling -->\r\n\r\n<p>From Bruce Sterling\u2019s 1996 story \u201cBicycle Repairman.\u201d A woman who claims to be a hotshot government agent is acting superior toward Mabel, a social worker.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a very dangerous world out there, Miss Social Counselor.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cOh, tell me about it,\u201d Mabel scoffed. \u201cI\u2019ve worked suicide hotlines! I\u2019ve been a hostage negotiator! I\u2019m a career social worker, girlfriend! I\u2019ve seen more horror and suffering than you <em>ever<\/em> will. While you were doing push-ups in some comfy cracker training-camp, I\u2019ve been out here in the real world!\u201d<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<h1 id=\"C\">C<\/h1>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=carolfishersaller -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201c[\u2026] even if the last time we studied English was in 1992, most of us somehow feel that whatever we learned about not beginning a sentence with <i>hopefully<\/i> or about <i>none<\/i> always being singular was the last word in grammar. Never mind that whoever taught us in 1992 was probably using grammar she learned in 1972, which very likely came out of a textbook published in 1952: we still believe in the rules of English we learned in our youth.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Carol Fisher Saller, <cite>The Subversive Copy Editor<\/cite>, from chapter 12, \u201cThings We Haven\u2019t Learned Yet: Keeping Up Professionally\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=ceciliatan -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cThe power [of literary fiction writers] to \u2018show, not tell\u2019 stemmed from [\u2026] writing for an audience that shared so many assumptions with them that the audience would feel that those settings and stories were \u2018universal.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Cecilia Tan, from \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/uncannymagazine.com\/article\/let-me-tell-you\/\">Let Me Tell You<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=chadoliver -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cAll we need now is Frankenstein\u2019s monster to make this party really gay\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from Chad Oliver\u2019s 1952 story \u201cFinal Exam\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=changeling -->\r\n<!-- Sorttopic=changeling -->\r\n\r\n<p>An exchange from the 2008 movie <cite>Changeling<\/cite> (set in 1928):<\/p>\r\n<div class=\"dialogue\">\r\n<p><b>Carol<\/b>: Fuck them and the horse they rode in on.<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Christine<\/b>: That\u2019s not exactly language for a lady.<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Carol<\/b>: Hell. There are times that\u2019s exactly the right language to use.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=charlesdickens -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cDon\u2019t be afraid! We won\u2019t make an author of you, while there\u2019s an honest trade to be learnt, or brickmaking to turn to.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Mr. Brownlow, <cite>Oliver Twist<\/cite>, by Charles Dickens, ch.&nbsp;14<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=charlesfort -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cSometimes cannon balls are found embedded in trees. Doesn\u2019t seem to be anything to discuss; doesn\u2019t seem discussable that any one would cut a hole in a tree and hide a cannon ball, which one could take to bed, and hide under one\u2019s pillow, just as easily.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from <cite>The Book of the Damned<\/cite>, by Charles Fort, ch.&nbsp;6<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=charliejaneanders -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>One day the Singularity would elevate humans to cybernetic superbeings, and maybe then people would say what they meant.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Probably not, though.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014<cite>All the Birds in the Sky<\/cite>, Charlie Jane Anders<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=charliejaneanders -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cI thought Times New Roman was the font of all evil.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Charlie Jane Anders<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=charliemurphy -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>\ud83c\udfb5 Light is returning,<\/p>\r\n<p>Even though this is the darkest hour;<\/p>\r\n<p>No one can hold back the dawn.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from Charlie Murphy\u2019s \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20060306150047\/http:\/\/www.bardicarts.org\/songs\/Sabbats\/Yule\/lightisreturning.html\">Light Is Returning<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=charlottebront\u00eb -->\r\n\r\n<p>From <cite>Jane Eyre<\/cite>, by Charlotte Bront\u00eb:<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>He lifted up the sable waves of hair which lay horizontally over his brow, and showed a solid enough mass of intellectual organs, but an abrupt deficiency where the suave sign of benevolence should have risen.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=charlottebront\u00eb -->\r\n\r\n<p>I think that the following (from <cite>Jane Eyre<\/cite>), as a response to a marriage proposal, is probably somewhere in the all-time top ten hints that perhaps the proposer ought to back off:<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>I wish I could make you see how much my mind is at this moment like a rayless dungeon, with one shrinking fear fettered in its depths\u2014the fear of being persuaded by you to attempt what I cannot accomplish!<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=christinarossetti -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>Said one, \u201cTo-morrow shall be like<\/p>\r\n<p>To-day, but much more sweet.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Christina Rossetti, \u201cAt Home\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=clifforddsimak -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cOf all the drinks that I have drank on all the planets I have visited, the coffee is the best.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014the alien known as Ulysses, from Clifford D. Simak\u2019s <cite>Waystation<\/cite> (1964)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=clmoore -->\r\n\r\n<p>In her 1975 Afterword to <cite>The Best of C. L. Moore<\/cite>, Moore writes that contrary to a widespread misconception, her first story, \u201cShambleau,\u201d which was published by <cite>Weird Tales<\/cite>, \u201cwas <em>not<\/em> rejected by every magazine in the field before it crept humbly to the doorstep of <cite>Weird Tales<\/cite>. [Instead,] I sent it first to <cite>WT<\/cite>[\u2026] I was far too unsure of myself to have hammered on the door of every publisher in New York if my first opus had been so unkindly treated. I\u2019d simply have given it up and turned to some other form of activity, and this book would not be in your hands now. (I\u2019m glad it is, too.)\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=colinwilson -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>As long ago as 1887, Max M\u00fcller, the editor of <cite>The Sacred Books of the East<\/cite>, pointed out that for all practical purposes our ancestors of two thousand years ago were almost colour-blind, as most animals are today. \u2018Xenophanes knew of three colours of the rainbow only\u2014purple, red and yellow; that even Aristotle spoke of the tricoloured rainbow; and that Democritus knew of no more than four colours\u2014black, white, red and yellow.\u2019 Homer apparently thought the sea the same colour as wine. There are no colour words in primitive Indo-European speech. We can understand why Aristotle\u2019s pupil Alexander of Macedon spent his life conquering the world. It must have been a singularly dull world, with no distinction between the red of wine, the blue-green of the sea, the emerald-green of grass and the deep-blue of the sky. But it is understandable, biologically speaking. Life was hard and violent, and the capacity to grasp subtle distinctions of thought or colour would have been of no value for survival. Alexander was energetic and imaginative; what else was there for him to <em>do<\/em> but conquer the world, and then cry when there was no more to conquer?<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Colin Wilson, <cite>The Occult: A History<\/cite> (1971), from the Introduction, p.&nbsp;30<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Yeah, makes sense. I\u2019m partly color-blind myself, and kind of imaginative, so I agree that there\u2019s nothing else I could possibly do other than conquer the world. I hope the rest of y\u2019all color-blind people will join me; after all, life without color is just too boring unless we\u2019re out conquering.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=cordwainersmith -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cIf you\u2019re alive, you\u2019re alive. If you\u2019re alive-with, then you know the other life is there too[\u2026] That\u2019s the weapon. There\u2019s not a flame or a gun or a poison that can stop it.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014D\u2019Joan, in \u201cThe Dead Lady of Clown Town,\u201d by Cordwainer Smith<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=courtneymilan -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t like being in crowds of people I don\u2019t know, mostly because I feel like I\u2019m not in control. I don\u2019t mind people; I just don\u2019t like surprises.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Maria, in Courtney Milan\u2019s <cite>Hold Me<\/cite><\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<h1 id=\"D\">D<\/h1>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=danielhandler -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cWoe filled him at least halfway.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from Daniel Handler\u2019s story \u201cNaturally\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=daniellavery -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u2018\u201cProtagonist\u201d is Greek for \u201cthe fictional person whose conduct I take most personally\u201d\u2019<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Daniel Lavery, from his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thechatner.com\/p\/how-that-lesbian-christmas-movie\">post about <cite>Happiest Season<\/cite><\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=darrenfranich -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cThe problem with all-powerful conspiracies on serialized TV shows is that, inevitably, they have to be defeated by regular people, and that can\u2019t help but make the conspiracies look just a little bit silly.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Darren Franich, <cite>Entertainment Weekly<\/cite> <a href=\"https:\/\/ew.com\/recap\/the-event-episode-5-casualties-of-war\/\">recap for episode 5<\/a> of <cite>The Event<\/cite><\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=darrenfranich -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cSo the government is now blaming Flight 514\u2019s disappearance on \u2018Brazilian Separatists.\u2019 (I like to visualize Blake Sterling pulling that card out of a \u2018Random Terrorist Group\u2019 box, right next to \u2018Finnish Anarchists\u2019 and \u2018Communist Penguins.\u2019)\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Darren Franich, <cite>Entertainment Weekly<\/cite> <a href=\"https:\/\/ew.com\/recap\/the-event-season-1-episode-8\/\">recap for episode 8<\/a> of <cite>The Event<\/cite><\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=davebarry -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cNUCLEAR SECURITY: Obviously, this is too big a job for the Department of Energy (Motto: \u2018Somebody Has Stolen Our Motto\u2019).\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Dave Barry<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=davelitchman -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cDammit Jim, I\u2019m a free man, not a number!\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Dave Litchman<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=davidfosterwallace -->\r\n\r\n<p>Footnote about tourism, from David Foster Wallace\u2019s article <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20051025040955\/http:\/\/www.lobsterlib.com\/feat\/davidwallace\/page\/lobsterarticle.pdf\">Consider the Lobster<\/a> (PDF):<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>As I see it, it probably really is good for the soul to be a tourist, even if it\u2019s only once in a while. Not good for the soul in a refreshing or enlivening way, though, but rather in a grim, steely-eyed, let\u2019s-look-honestly-at-the-facts-and-find-some-way-to-deal-with-them way. [\u2026] To be a mass tourist, for me, is to become a pure late-date American: alien, ignorant, greedy for something you cannot ever have, disappointed in a way you can never admit. It is to spoil, by way of sheer ontology, the very unspoiledness you are there to experience. It is to impose yourself on places that in all noneconomic ways would be better, realer, without you. It is, in lines and gridlock and transaction after transaction, to confront a dimension of yourself that is as inescapable as it is painful: As a tourist, you become economically significant but existentially loathsome, an insect on a dead thing.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p>I don\u2019t necessarily fully agree with that statement or its implications, but I thought it was interesting and well-written.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=davidhartwell -->\r\n\r\n<p>Interesting framing of metaphor and literalism in sf:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201c[\u2026] a majority of [adult] readers had no interest in learning how to read [SF], a practice easily picked up by children and teenagers\u2014by taking every detail literally at first, until given other directions by the text. This is just the reverse of the way we approach the prose literature of this century; to read with a sensitivity to metaphor and subtext, assuming that that is the route by which the essential communication between reader and text will take place.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014David Hartwell, intro to <cite>The World Treasury of Science Fiction<\/cite> (1989)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Note: He explicitly adds that this is not to say there\u2019s no metaphor in sf; he\u2019s just noting that in sf, a lot of things that might look like metaphors to less-genre-familiar readers are meant to be taken literally.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=debbarolsky -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201c[We] considered learning how to say \u2018I am an imperialist pig and don\u2019t believe in foreign languages. Do you speak English?\u2019 But decided that Please and Thank You would be more useful.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Deb Barolsky<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=deserthearts -->\r\n<!-- Sorttopic=deserthearts -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cI am not in the habit of raising my voice. [Instead,] when I retire, I will write a short story in revenge.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Vivian, <cite>Desert Hearts<\/cite><\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=djunabarnes1915 -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cThe little hands on the clock came coquettishly in front of its gold face and parted suddenly as if saying, \u2018Oh, all\u2019s well, I need not hide,\u2019 with the pettish nonchalance of ninety-eight cent clocks.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Djuna Barnes, \u201cPaprika Johnson\u201d (1915)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=djunabarnes1917 -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cThe head is magnificent and bald. Like a woman who is so beautiful that clothes instinctively fall from her, this head has risen above its hair in a moment of abandon known only to men who have drawn their feet out of their boots to walk awhile in the corridors of the mind.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Djuna Barnes, \u201cWho Is This Tom Scarlett?\u201d (1917)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=djunabarnes1917 -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201c[\u2026] he has given them to eat of the fruit of his soul\u2014and because it was tropical and strange and they could not eat it, they said it was not eatable.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Djuna Barnes, \u201cWho Is This Tom Scarlett?\u201d (1917)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=dolkiminvictoriacaudle -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cYou, dear reader, are an old hand at the gender-matching game. No doubt about it! From a tender age you have guessed the gender of countless humans whose bodies are covered by clothes, coming to conclusions based on the gender you believe corresponds to the shape of genitals you believe match up with the remaining exposed parts of their bodies, and you have lived your lives in certainty, believing the result of your deductions to be true. The problem is, however, that you do not acknowledge the mistakes you have made and will continue to make.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014the alien narrator of <cite>Walking Practice<\/cite>, by Dolki Min, trans. Victoria Caudle<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>(I\u2019m sure this isn\u2019t true of some people. But I\u2019m also pretty sure that it is true of a lot of people. Anyway, I\u2019m quoting it just \u2019cause I found it an interesting framing\/lens.)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=donmarquis -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>archy is it original<\/p>\r\n<p>it was once i answered truthfully<\/p>\r\n<p>and may be again<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Don Marquis, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/people.well.com\/user\/ari\/archy\/archy.hears.from.mars.html\">archy hears from mars<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=drwho -->\r\n<!-- Sorttopic=drwho -->\r\n\r\n<div class=\"dialogue\">\r\n<p><b>Timelord 1<\/b>: The First Law of Time must be obeyed!<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Timelord 2<\/b>: It <em>will<\/em> be obeyed\u2014<em>later<\/em>.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014<cite>Dr. Who<\/cite> serial <cite>The Three Doctors<\/cite><\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=drwho -->\r\n<!-- Sorttopic=drwho -->\r\n\r\n<div class=\"dialogue\">\r\n<p><b>Seventh Doctor<\/b>: Time and tide melt the snowman.<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Mel<\/b>: Doctor, \"wait for *no* man.\"<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Doctor<\/b>: So who's waiting?<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014<cite>Dr. Who<\/cite> serial <cite>Time and the Rani<\/cite><\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=dylanthomas -->\r\n\r\n<p>Several quotes from various parts of \u201cQuite Early One Morning,\u201d by Dylan Thomas. (Broadcast in 1945, published in print form in 1946.)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>Quite early one morning in the winter in Wales, by the sea that was lying down still and green as grass after a night of tar-black howling and rolling, [\u2026]<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Here, the roof of the police-station, black as a helmet, dry as a summons, sober as Sunday.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>[\u2026] fading photographs of the bearded and censorious dead [\u2026]<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Birds sang in eaves, bushes, trees, on telegraph wires, rails, fences, spars, and wet masts, not for love or joy, but to keep other birds away. The landlords in feathers disputed the right of even the flying light to descend and perch.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>[\u2026] the first whirring nudge of arranged time in the belly of the alarm clock [\u2026]<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>And a far-away clock struck from another church in another village in another universe, though the wind blew the time away.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>[\u2026] and down to the bilingual sea.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>[\u2026] against the chapel-dark sea [\u2026]<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>[\u2026] over the slow-speaking sea [\u2026]<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<h1 id=\"E\">E<\/h1>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=ebwhite -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cI shall not burden the reader with an explanation, however, as the facts are tedious and implausible.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014E. B. White, \u201cThe Morning of the Day They Did It\u201d (1950)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=ebwhite -->\r\n<!-- Sorttopic=henrydavidthoreau -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>Thoreau, very likely without quite knowing what he was up to, took man\u2019s relation to nature and man\u2019s dilemma in society and man\u2019s capacity for elevating his spirit and he beat all these matters together, in a wild free interval of self-justification and delight, and produced an original omelette from which people can draw nourishment in a hungry day.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014E.&nbsp;B. White, <cite>The Yale Review<\/cite>, 1954<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=edgarallanpoe -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cI am not now writing a treatise, but simply prefacing a somewhat peculiar narrative by observations very much at random[\u2026]\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Edgar Allan Poe, \u201cThe Murders in the Rue Morgue,\u201d after starting with 200 words of rambling about analytical people<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>(After this line, there\u2019s another thousand words of further rambling about analytical people (and comparing chess to checkers and whist, &amp;c) before Poe finally gets around to telling the story.)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=edgarallanpoe -->\r\n\r\n<p>From Edgar Allan Poe\u2019s <cite><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gutenberg.org\/files\/51060\/51060-h\/51060-h.htm\">The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket<\/a><\/cite>:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cHere I became intimate with the son of Mr. Barnard [\u2026]. I used frequently to go home with him, and remain all day, and sometimes all night. We occupied the same bed, and he would be sure to keep me awake until almost light[\u2026]\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=edgardegas -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cIn painting, you must give the idea of the true by means of the false.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Edgar Degas<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=ednastvincentmillay -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<h3>Dirge Without Music<\/h3>\r\n<p>by Edna St. Vincent Millay; from <cite>The Buck in the Snow and Other Poems<\/cite>, 1928<\/p>\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>I am not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts in the hard ground.<\/p>\r\n<p>So it is, and so it will be, for so it has been, time out of mind:<\/p>\r\n<p>Into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely. Crowned<\/p>\r\n<p>With lilies and with laurel they go; but I am not resigned.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>Lovers and thinkers, into the earth with you.<\/p>\r\n<p>Be one with the dull, the indiscriminate dust.<\/p>\r\n<p>A fragment of what you felt, of what you knew,<\/p>\r\n<p>A formula, a phrase remains,\u2014but the best is lost.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>The answers quick and keen, the honest look, the laughter, the love,\u2014<\/p>\r\n<p>They are gone. They are gone to feed the roses. Elegant and curled<\/p>\r\n<p>Is the blossom. Fragrant is the blossom. I know. But I do not approve.<\/p>\r\n<p>More precious was the light in your eyes than all the roses in the world.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave<\/p>\r\n<p>Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind;<\/p>\r\n<p>Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave.<\/p>\r\n<p>I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=ednastvincentmillay -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<h3>The Unexplorer<\/h3>\r\n<p>by Edna St. Vincent Millay; from <cite>A Few Figs from Thistles<\/cite>, 1922<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>There was a road ran past our house <\/p>\r\n<p>Too lovely to explore. <\/p>\r\n<p>I asked my mother once\u2014she said <\/p>\r\n<p>That if you followed where it led<\/p>\r\n<p>It brought you to the milk-man\u2019s door. <\/p>\r\n<p>(That\u2019s why I have not traveled more.)<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=edwardabbey -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>\u201cDo we know what we\u2019re doing and why?\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p>\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p>\u201cDo we care?\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ll work it all out as we go along. Let our practice form our doctrine, thus assuring precise theoretical coherence.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from Edward Abbey\u2019s <cite>The Monkey Wrench Gang<\/cite>, 1975<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=edwardeveretthale -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cEvery point of life is a pivot on which turns the whole action of our after-lives; and so, indeed, of the after-lives of the whole world. But we are so purblind that we only see this of certain special enterprises and endeavors, which we therefore call critical.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Edward Everett Hale, \u201cThe Children of the Public,\u201d 1863<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=edwardlear -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cDuring the daytime, Violet chiefly occupied herself in putting salt water into a churn; while her three brothers churned it violently, in the hope that it would turn into butter, which it seldom if ever did\u2026\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Edward Lear, from \u201cThe Story of the Four Little Children Who Went Around the World\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=eecummings -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<h3>\u201csince feeling is first\u201d<\/h3>\r\n<p>by E. E. Cummings<\/h3>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>since feeling is first<\/p>\r\n<p>who pays any attention<\/p>\r\n<p>to the syntax of things<\/p>\r\n<p>will never wholly kiss you;<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>wholly to be a fool<\/p>\r\n<p>while Spring is in the world<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>my blood approves,<\/p>\r\n<p>and kisses are a better fate<\/p>\r\n<p>than wisdom<\/p>\r\n<p>lady i swear by all flowers. Don\u2019t cry<\/p>\r\n<p>\u2014the best gesture of my brain is less than<\/p>\r\n<p>your eyelids\u2019 flutter which says<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>we are for each other: then<\/p>\r\n<p>laugh, leaning back in my arms<\/p>\r\n<p>for life\u2019s not a paragraph<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>And death i think is no parenthesis<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=eecummings -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>(While you and i have lips and voices which<\/p>\r\n<p>are for kissing and to sing with<\/p>\r\n<p>who cares if some oneeyed son of a bitch<\/p>\r\n<p>invents an instrument to measure Spring with?<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014E. E. Cummings, from \u201cvoices to voices,lip to lip\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=eedocsmith1946 -->\r\n\r\n<p>Humans discover that the alien society is polygamous:<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>\u201cSo a man has half a dozen or so wives?\u201d Dorothy was asking in surprise. \u201cHow can you get along\u2014I'd fight like a wildcat if Dick got any such funny ideas as that!\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p>\u201cWhy, splendidly, of course. I wouldn't <em>think<\/em> of ever marrying a man if he was such a \u2026 a \u2026 a <em>louse<\/em> that only one woman would have him!\u201d\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from <cite>The Skylark of Space<\/cite>, by E. E. \u201cDoc\u201d Smith, p. 112<\/p>\r\n<p>(In the original 1928 magazine publication, which is available from Project Gutenberg, that scene has slightly different dialogue (with the same meaning), and includes another line: \u201cAnd think how lonely one would be while her husband is away at war\u2014we would go insane if we did not have the company of the other wives.\u201d)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=eedocsmith1948 -->\r\n\r\n<p>A description of Gray Roger, from pages 103\u2013104 of the 1965 Pyramid paperback edition of <cite>Triplanetary<\/cite> (the first <cite>Lensman<\/cite> novel), by E. E. \u201cDoc\u201d Smith:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cSeated impassively at the desk there was a gray man. Not only was he dressed entirely in gray, but his heavy hair was gray, his eyes were gray, and even his tanned skin seemed to give the impression of grayness in disguise. His overwhelming personality radiated an aura of grayness\u2014not the gentle gray of the dove, but the resistless, driving gray of the super-dreadnaught; the hard, inflexible, brittle gray of the fracture of high-carbon steel.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=eedocsmith1953 -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cA million beams, primaries raised to the hellish heights possible only to Medonian conductors and insulation, lashed out almost as one. Screens stiffened to the urge of every generable watt of defensive power. Bolt after bolt of quasi-solid lightning struck and struck and struck again. Q-type helices bored, gouged, and searingly bit. Rods and cones, planes and shears of incredibly condensed pure force clawed, tore, and ground in mad abandon. Torpedo after torpedo, charged to the very skin with duodec, loosed its horribly detonant cargo against flinching wall-shields, in such numbers and with such violence as to fill all circumambient space with an atmosphere of almost planetary density.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from <cite>Second Stage Lensman<\/cite>, by E. E. \u201cDoc\u201d Smith<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=efbleiler -->\r\n<!-- Sorttopic=robertwchambers -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cIn addition to filling pages of magazines that might otherwise have been filled with even worse fiction,\u2026\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from the introduction, by E. F. Bleiler, to the Bleiler-edited collection of Robert W. Chambers stories <cite>The King in Yellow and Other Horror Stories<\/cite><\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=elaineshapiro -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s not like men are from Mars and women are from Venus; it\u2019s more like men are from North Dakota and women are from South Dakota.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Elaine Shapiro, possibly paraphrased<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=eliezeryudkowsky -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cAfter she\u2019d decided to be a hero, Hermione had done the obvious thing, and gone to the Hogwarts library and taken out books on how to be a hero.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from <cite>Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality<\/cite>, by Eliezer Yudkowsky<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=elizabethgrosz -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>This is why feminist history is so crucial: not simply because it informs our present but more so because it enables other virtual futures to be conceived, other perspectives to be developed, than those that currently prevail.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>[\u2026The past] must be regarded as being inherently open to future rewritings[\u2026] The past is never exhausted in its virtualities, insofar as it is always capable of giving rise to another reading, another context, another framework that will animate it in different ways.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Elizabeth Grosz, from \u201cHistories of a Feminist Future,\u201d as quoted by L. Timmel Duchamp in \u201cFor a Genealogy of Feminist SF: Reflections on Women, Feminism, and Science Fiction, 1818\u20131960\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=elliottmoreton -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cStrong verbs for a strong America!\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Elliott Moreton<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=emforster -->\r\n\r\n<p>E.M. Forster, in 1909, presciently describes turning social media back on again after a little time away from it, and then proceeding to teach remotely:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>Vashti\u2019s next move was to turn off the isolation switch, and all the accumulations of the last three minutes burst upon her. The room was filled with the noise of bells, and speaking-tubes. What was the new food like? Could she recommend it? Has she had any ideas lately? Might one tell her one\u2019s own ideas? Would she make an engagement to visit the public nurseries at an early date?\u2014say this day month.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>To most of these questions she replied with irritation\u2014a growing quality in that accelerated age. She said that the new food was horrible. That she could not visit the public nurseries through press of engagements. That she had no ideas of her own but had just been told one[\u2026]. Then she switched off her correspondents, for it was time to deliver her lecture on Australian music.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>The clumsy system of public gatherings had been long since abandoned; neither Vashti nor her audience stirred from their rooms. Seated in her armchair she spoke, while they in their armchairs heard her, fairly well, and saw her, fairly well.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from \u201cThe Machine Stops\u201d (1909), by E.M. Forster<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=emilguillermo -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cJim Guy Tucker\u2014the first 3-name politician with a built-in gender check.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Emil Guillermo (sp?), KSFO<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=emilybront\u00eb -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cUnluckily it was a heap of dead rabbits.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from <cite>Wuthering Heights<\/cite>, by Emily Bront\u00eb<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=emmalazarus -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<h3>The New Colossus<\/h3>\r\n<p>by Emma Lazarus<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,<\/p>\r\n<p>With conquering limbs astride from land to land;<\/p>\r\n<p>Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand<\/p>\r\n<p>A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame<\/p>\r\n<p>Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name<\/p>\r\n<p>Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand<\/p>\r\n<p>Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command<\/p>\r\n<p>The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>\"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!\" cries she<\/p>\r\n<p>With silent lips. \"Give me your tired, your poor,<\/p>\r\n<p>Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,<\/p>\r\n<p>The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.<\/p>\r\n<p>Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,<\/p>\r\n<p>I lift my lamp beside the golden door!\"<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=ereddison -->\r\n\r\n<p>Next time you want to indicate how really essential it is that you go somewhere, try saying this:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cKnow that our journey is a matter determined of, and it is fixed with nails of diamond to the wall of inevitable necessity.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014<cite>The Worm Ouroboros<\/cite>, by E.R. Eddison, p.&nbsp;163<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=erinmckean -->\r\n\r\n<p>From Erin McKean\u2019s 2006 post \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.dressaday.com\/2006\/10\/20\/you-dont-have-to-be-pretty\/\">You Don\u2019t Have to Be Pretty<\/a>\u201d:<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>You Don\u2019t Have to Be Pretty. You don\u2019t <em>owe<\/em> prettiness to anyone. Not to your boyfriend\/spouse\/partner, not to your co-workers, especially not to random men on the street. You don\u2019t owe it to your mother, you don\u2019t owe it to your children, you don\u2019t owe it to civilization in general. Prettiness is not a rent you pay for occupying a space marked \u201cfemale.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p>(That paragraph is widely misattributed to Diana Vreeland; Vreeland\u2019s photo is at the top of the post, and McKean mentions Vreeland by name near the end, but Vreeland didn\u2019t write it.)<\/p>\r\n<p>Another line I liked: \u201cI was going to make a handy prettiness decision tree, but pretty much the end of every branch was a bubble that said \u2018tell complainers to go to hell\u2019 so it wasn\u2019t much of a tool.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=evangelinewalton -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p><i>If it is friendly I will make friends with it, and if it is not friendly I will fight with it.<\/i><\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Either course would be a good, manly occupation, something that Pwyll understood and knew how to do.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014<cite>Prince of Annwn<\/cite>, by Evangeline Walton, p.&nbsp;25<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=extinctionofthesabertoothedhousecatthe -->\r\n<!-- Sorttopic=extinctionofthesabertoothedhousecatthe -->\r\n\r\n<p>A disclaimer near the end of the credits for a partly-animated short film called \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/vimeo.com\/17554264\">Extinction of the Saber-Toothed Housecat<\/a>\u201d:<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>Many animals were hurt during the filming of this short\u2026 too many to count, in fact\u2026 granted, I was never any good at counting\u2026<\/p>\r\n<p>But none of them were cute animals, and we ate all of them afterwards so it\u2019s all good.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<h1 id=\"F\">F<\/h1>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=fernandbraudel -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>Plague also multiplied what we would call dereliction of duty: municipal magistrates, officers and prelates forgot their responsibilities; in France whole parlements emigrated [when faced with plagues in the 1500s and 1600s]. [\u2026] When plague broke out in London in 1664 the Court left the town for Oxford and the richest members of the population hastened to follow suit[\u2026] It is remarkable how closely Daniel Defoe\u2019s retrospective (1720) account of the 1664 plague of London corresponds to the customary pattern, repeated thousands of times with the same actions [\u2026], the same precautions, despair and social discrimination.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>No disease today, however great its ravages, gives rise to comparable acts of folly or collective dramas.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Fernand Braudel, <cite>The Structures of Everyday Life<\/cite> (c. 1980), pp 85\u201387<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=fernandbraudel -->\r\n\r\n<p>Here are some assorted quotes from Fernand Braudel\u2019s <cite>Civilization &amp; Capitalism, 15th\u201318th Century<\/cite>, vol. 1: <cite>The Structures of Everyday Life<\/cite>. (Published in French in 1979; English translation by Si\u00e2n Reynolds published in 1981.) These quotes don\u2019t make a unified whole; they\u2019re just lines that caught my attention.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>American biologist Theodosius Dobzhansky has written: \u201cI for one do not lament the passing of social organizations that used the many as a manured soil in which to grow a few graceful flowers of refined culture.\u201d (p.&nbsp;186)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Following the catastrophes of the Black Death, living conditions for workers were inevitably good[,] as manpower had become scarce. (p.&nbsp;193)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>The individual fork dates from about the sixteenth century; it spread from Venice and Italy in general, though not very quickly. A German preacher condemned it as a diabolical luxury: God would not have given us fingers if he had wished us to use such an instrument. (p.&nbsp;205)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Whole towns\u2014and very wealthy ones at that\u2014were poorly supplied with water. [\u2026 For Venice, f]resh water had to be brought from outside, not by aqueduct but by boats filled in the Brenta and sent to Venice daily. (p.&nbsp;228)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Twenty thousand [water] carriers earned a living (though a poor one) supplying Paris with water[\u2026] the P\u00e9rier brothers installed two steam pumps [\u2026] in 1782 [\u2026] which raised water 110 feet[\u2026] But people were worried: what would happen to the twenty thousand water carriers if the number of machines increased? (p.&nbsp;230)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>The history of costume [\u2026] touches on every issue\u2014raw materials, production processes, manufacturing costs, cultural stability, fashion and social hierarchy. Subject to incessant change, costume everywhere is a persistent reminder of social position. (p.&nbsp;311)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Is fashion in fact such a trifling thing? Or is it, as I prefer to think, rather an indication of deeper phenomena\u2014of the energies, possibilities, demands and <i>joie de vivre<\/i> of a given society, economy and civilization? (p.&nbsp;323)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>In short, at the very deepest levels of material life, there is at work a complex order, to which the assumptions, tendencies and unconscious pressures of economies, societies and civilizations all contribute. (p.&nbsp;333)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>In a way, everything is technology: not only man\u2019s most strenuous endeavours but also his patient and monotonous efforts to make a mark on the external world; not only the rapid changes we are a little too ready to label revolutions (gunpowder, long-distance navigation, the printing-press, windmills and watermills, the first machines) but also the slow improvements in processes and tools, and those innumerable actions which may have no immediate innovating significance but which are the fruit of accumulated knowledge. (p.&nbsp;334)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>To say society is to speak of a history that is slow, mute and complicated; a memory that obstinately repeats known solutions, to avoid the difficulty and danger of imagining something else. (p.&nbsp;335)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>In fact there is never any progress unless a higher value is set on human labour. When man has a certain cost price as a source of energy, then it is necessary to think about aiding him or, better still, replacing him. (p.&nbsp;339)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Carrying was the second occupation of millions of peasants in the West after the grain or grape harvest or during the winter months, and they were poorly paid for it. (p.&nbsp;425) [By \u201ccarrying,\u201d here, I think he means all sorts of transporting of goods\u2014not necessarily manually\/individually carrying stuff on their backs, but also (for example) crewing ships that carried stuff.]<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>But if it is possible to say that everything is money, it is just as possible to claim that everything is, on the contrary, credit\u2014promises, deferred reality. Even this <i>louis d\u2019or<\/i> was given me as a promise, as a cheque [\u2026] It is a cheque on the collection of tangible goods and services within my reach and amongst which, tomorrow or later, I will finally make my choice. (p.&nbsp;476)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Money gave a certain unity to the world, but it was the unity of injustice. (p.&nbsp;477)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Where there is a town, there will be division of labour, and where there is any marked division of labour, there will be a town. (p.&nbsp;479)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Material life, of course, presents itself to us in the anecdotal form of thousands and thousands of assorted facts. [\u2026] This is the dust of history, micro-history in the same sense that Georges Gurvitch talks about micro-sociology: little facts which do, it is true, by indefinite repetition, add up to form linked chains. (p.&nbsp;560)<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=flashgordon -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cYou know what the difference is between a chicken with one wing and a chicken with two wings? A matter of a pinion.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014\u201cFlash Gordon,\u201d at BayCon<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=frankmichel -->\r\n\r\n<p>A couple of interesting bits from \u201cThe Poetry of Other Minds,\u201d by Frank Michel, from <cite>Defiance<\/cite> #2, 1971:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cWe need a poetry and a poetic sensibility that is in the world, is hurt and disturbed by the world, and at one point finally grows angry at its hurt. If this poetry sometimes disturbs and upsets us, we will trust it because we trust the sensibility that is creating it.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cA poem is political [\u2026] only when its author is in revolt and feels bound to give [their] revolt expression. The poem\u2019s politics is the rock it throws at the way things are and the way we are.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=frankrstockton -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cAs it was pouring down rain, and freezing, and cold, and wet, and slippery \u2026 , and all these guests \u2026 lived many miles away, and as none of them had any hats, or knew the way home, they were very miserable indeed.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Frank R. Stockton, from \u201cTing-a-ling,\u201d apparently first published in 1869<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=frankrstockton -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cIf some things were different, other things would be otherwise.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Frank R. Stockton, \u201cThe Griffin and the Minor Canon\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=fredastaire -->\r\n\r\n<p>Fred Astaire on Cyd Charisse in <cite>Silk Stockings<\/cite>:<\/p>\r\n<p>\u201cHer solo dances were outstanding. We had plenty of dances together, too, and they did not miss. That Cyd! When you\u2019ve danced with her you stay danced with.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=fredsmall -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>\ud83c\udfb5 Love leaves a trace,<\/p>\r\n<p>And the heart holds a place<\/p>\r\n<p>For love\u2019s return.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Fred Small, \u201cScott and Jamie\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=fredsmall -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>\ud83c\udfb5 Too many people having too many babies\u2014<\/p>\r\n<p>Got to love them babies, but it\u2019s out of control.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Fred Small, \u201cToo Many People\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=fredsmall -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>\ud83c\udfb5 You can live by yourself; you can gather friends around; you can choose one special one;<\/p>\r\n<p>And the only measure of your words and your deeds will be the love you leave behind when you\u2019re done.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Fred Small, \u201cEverything Possible\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=friedrichnietzsche -->\r\n\r\n<p>Friedrich Nietzsche\u2019s best trait was his modesty:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cWith [<cite>Thus Spoke Zarathustra<\/cite>] I have given mankind the greatest present that has ever been made to it so far. This book, with a voice bridging centuries, is not only the highest book there is, the book that is truly characterized by the air of the heights\u2014the whole fact of man lies <em>beneath<\/em> it at a tremendous distance\u2014it is also the <em>deepest<\/em>, born out of the innermost wealth of truth, an inexhaustible well to which no pail descends without coming up again filled with gold and goodness.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014<cite>Ecce Homo<\/cite>, Preface, \u00a74, trans. Walter Kaufmann<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>(As quoted in Wikipedia.)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=fritzleiber -->\r\n\r\n<p>When I skimmed Fritz Leiber\u2019s short novel <cite>Destiny Times Three<\/cite>, written in 1945, I noticed that even in the explicitly-labeled-as-utopian world portrayed at the start of the book, there are few if any women; certainly the council that rules the world consists entirely of men. I sighed and chalked it up to the times; not uncommon for sf written in 1945 to include no women.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>But in a note about the book (tacked onto his comments on Spinrad\u2019s <cite>Riding the Torch<\/cite>, published in the same volume), Leiber says that <cite>Destiny Times Three<\/cite> was originally planned to be at least twice as long, but when he wrote to John W. Campbell about the book, Campbell told him that American servicemen who subscribed to <cite>Astounding<\/cite> had asked JWC not to publish serials, because they weren\u2019t receiving every issue. So Leiber cut the book down to fit in two parts instead of his originally planned four or five.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Here\u2019s his description of the cutting-down process:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>And so in the course of one feverish, miserable, long castrating night, I spread my vast outline on the cleared dining-room table and ruthlessly pared it down. (I and my wife needed the money!) My God, I even cut out all the female characters\u2014something had to go and they were a shade less central to the plot. [\u2026] each major character <em>had<\/em> to appear in triplicate [so the four main characters were really twelve main characters.] At only 40,000 words or so, I couldn\u2019t handle over a dozen major characters. A drastic simplification to a manageable six was required, though I\u2019m sure now it was a mistake to sacrifice the women. As a result, the diminished novel has a ghostly, cold, lonely male quality to me, peopled by the resentful, unseen feminine presences of all those cut characters. I don\u2019t think my Anima ever forgave me.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>I\u2019m sorry about that, for at the time I greatly loved [the world of the story]. It\u2019s not good to pull in your sights, scale down your concepts. For the next five years I had a lot of trouble writing anything at all.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=fritzleiber -->\r\n\r\n<p>I\u2019m reading Leiber stories, and though I don\u2019t love his work the way I once did, I continue to like his word choices.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Some examples, all from the first few pages of his 1950 story \u201cThe Enchanted Forest\u201d:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cMachinery whirred limpingly\u2026\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cA sharp gay laugh etched itself against the woundedly-humming dark.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201c[Protagonist] snapped off his dustgun, flirted sweat from his face\u2026\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201c\u2026the sinister black confetti of the meteorite swarm\u2026\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=fscottfitzgerald -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201c\u2026a sort of impatience with all groups of which he was not the center\u2014in money, in position, in authority\u2014remained with him for the rest of his life.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014F. Scott Fitzgerald, \u201cThe Rich Boy\u201d (1926)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=fulkery1 -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cSorry, can't make it, late stage capitalism.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014<a href=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@fulkery1@mas.to\/109417817057440675\">@fulkery1@mas.to<\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<h1 id=\"G\">G<\/h1>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=gabbyrivera -->\r\n\r\n<p>(America Chavez has gone back in time to WWII and punched Hitler.)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"dialogue\">\r\n<p><b>Peggy Carter<\/b> (to America Chavez): Punching Nazis is neato. But engaging in tactics that render their leader powerless and ultimately crush his fascist, murderous dictatorship is how we win wars and bring peace to the people.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014<cite>America<\/cite> #2, written by Gabby Rivera<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=garysnyder -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>[\u2026]<\/p>\r\n<p>hawk dipping and circling<\/p>\r\n<p>over salt marsh<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>ah, this slow-paced<\/p>\r\n<p>system of systems, whirling and turning<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>[\u2026]<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>grasshopper man in his car driving through.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Gary Snyder, from \u201cLittle Songs for Gaia\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=garysnyder -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote style=\"text-align: center;\">\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>As the crickets\u2019 soft autumn hum<\/p>\r\n<p>is to us,<\/p>\r\n<p>so are we to the trees<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>as are they<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>to the rocks and the hills.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Gary Snyder, from \u201cLittle Songs for Gaia\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=garysnyder -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>One boy asks, \u201cwhere do rivers start?\u201d<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>in threads in hills, and gather down to here\u2014<\/p>\r\n<p>but the river<\/p>\r\n<p>is all of it everywhere,<\/p>\r\n<p>all flowing at once,<\/p>\r\n<p>all one place.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Gary Snyder, from \u201cRiver in the Valley\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=georgebernardshaw -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201c[\u2026] the crowd [\u2026] seemed to have been in solution in the air, so suddenly had it precipitated round the accident.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014George Bernard Shaw, \u201cAerial Football: The New Game\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=georgeorwell -->\r\n\r\n<p>George Orwell on the arrival of spring:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cAt any rate, spring is here, even in London N.1, and they can\u2019t stop you enjoying it. This is a satisfying reflection. How many a time have I stood watching the toads mating, or a pair of hares having a boxing match in the young corn, and thought of all the important persons who would stop me enjoying this if they could. But luckily they can\u2019t. So long as you are not actually ill, hungry, frightened or immured in a prison or a holiday camp, Spring is still Spring. The atom bombs are piling up in the factories, the police are prowling through the cities, the lies are streaming from the loudspeakers, but the earth is still going round the sun, and neither the dictators nor the bureaucrats, deeply as they disapprove of the process, are able to prevent it.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.orwellfoundation.com\/the-orwell-foundation\/orwell\/essays-and-other-works\/some-thoughts-on-the-common-toad\/\">Some Thoughts on the Common Toad<\/a>\u201d (1946)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>(Not particularly recommending the whole essay, but linking for citation. If you do read it, content warning for a casual mildly exoticized reference to Chinese and Japanese people.)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=georgeorwell -->\r\n\r\n<p>Two excerpts from George Orwell\u2019s 1946 essay \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.orwellfoundation.com\/the-orwell-foundation\/orwell\/essays-and-other-works\/politics-and-the-english-language\/\">Politics and the English Language<\/a>\u201d:<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himself at least four questions, thus: What am I trying to say? What words will express it? What image or idiom will make it clearer? Is this image fresh enough to have an effect? And he will probably ask himself two more: Could I put it more shortly? Have I said anything that is avoidably ugly?<\/p>\r\n<p>[\u2026]<\/p>\r\n<p>I think the following rules will cover most cases:<\/p>\r\n<ol>\r\n<li>Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.<\/li>\r\n<li>Never use a long word where a short one will do.<\/li>\r\n<li>If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out. [Or: \u201cOmit needless words.\u201d \u2014Jed]<\/li>\r\n<li>Never use the passive where you can use the active.<\/li>\r\n<li>Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.<\/li>\r\n<li>Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=georgetakei -->\r\n\r\n<p>George Takei, about s3 of ST:TOS: \u201c[\u2026] they gave us a very bad time slot [\u2026]: Friday nights at 10. [\u2026] I consider Star Trek an intelligent, hip, with-it show, and that kind of audience was not at home watching TV on Friday nights. They were out being intelligent and hip and with-it.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=georgiaokeeffe -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cNobody sees a flower, really\u2014it is so small\u2014we haven\u2019t time, and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Georgia O\u2019Keeffe<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=gilmoregirls -->\r\n<!-- Sorttopic=gilmoregirls -->\r\n\r\n<div class=\"dialogue\">\r\n<p><b>Doyle<\/b>: Man, I hate those kinda guys.<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Rory<\/b>: What kinda guys?<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Doyle<\/b>: Those privileged white males.<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Rory<\/b>: Doyle. You\u2019re a privileged white male.<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Doyle<\/b>: Well, he\u2019s more privileged. And way more whiter.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014<cite>Gilmore Girls<\/cite>, s5 e6<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=gilmoregirls -->\r\n<!-- Sorttopic=gilmoregirls -->\r\n\r\n<p>At some point I may make a separate page of Gilmore Girls quotations, but for now I\u2019ll leave this here (from early in s6):<\/p>\r\n<div class=\"dialogue\">\r\n<p><b>Patty<\/b>: Oh, the spontaneous proposals are the best, you know.<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Babette<\/b>: Yeah! Morey proposed to me spontaneously. Did I ever tell you the story?<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Luke<\/b>: Um \u2026 no.<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Babette<\/b>: It was a brisk fall night, and Morey was on top. No, wait, I was on top.<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Luke<\/b>: What?<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Babette<\/b>: Hold on! Stony Morrison was on top.<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Luke<\/b>: Babette!<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Babette<\/b>: We were playing Twister! Did I not mention that?<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Luke<\/b>: No!<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Babette<\/b>: I probably should have.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=gilturner -->\r\n\r\n<p>From Si Kahn\u2019s and Pete Seeger\u2019s and Jane Sapp\u2019s rendition of Gil Turner\u2019s \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/music.apple.com\/us\/album\/carry-it-on\/1456784281?i=1456784300\">Carry It On<\/a>\u201d (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=a3A0zIB1yLU\">YouTube<\/a>). Their version of the last verse, lightly modified:<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>\ud83c\udfb5 When you can\u2019t go on any longer,<\/p>\r\n<p>Take the hands of your sisters and brothers.<\/p>\r\n<p>Every victory [brings] another.<\/p>\r\n<p>Carry it on; carry it on.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=goodwifethe -->\r\n<!-- Sorttopic=goodwifethe -->\r\n\r\n<p>I liked this bit from <cite>The Good Wife<\/cite> (s1e14, \u201cHi\u201d):<\/p>\r\n<div class=\"dialogue\">\r\n<p><b>Cary<\/b>: I can\u2019t help it, you know, being competitive, it\u2019s just me.<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Alicia<\/b>: Oh, nononono. Not the scorpion and the frog story, please.<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Cary<\/b>: [Laughs.] The scorpion on the frog\u2019s back, yeah, I hate that story too. Why do people tell it so much?<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Alicia<\/b>: Because it excuses people\u2019s behavior.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=gordonbok -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>\ud83c\udfb5 Oh, my Joanie, don\u2019t you know<\/p>\r\n<p>That the stars are swinging slow,<\/p>\r\n<p>And the seas are rolling easy<\/p>\r\n<p>As they did so long ago?<\/p>\r\n<p>If I had a thing to give you,<\/p>\r\n<p>I would tell you one more time<\/p>\r\n<p>That the world is always turning toward the morning.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Gordon Bok, chorus of \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/music.apple.com\/us\/song\/turning-toward-the-morning\/1530118758\">Turning Toward the Morning<\/a>\u201d (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=WbKkXR0lHVE\">YouTube<\/a>)<\/p>\r\n<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=gregalt -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cTHEY SPEAK THE <em>TRUTH<\/em>! ONLY IT IS HIDDEN BEHIND THINLY VEILED LIES!\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Greg Alt<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=gregegan -->\r\n\r\n<p>Greg Egan is apparently not impressed with longtermists and the LessWrong crowd. From Egan\u2019s story \u201cDeath and the Gorgon,\u201d published in <cite>Asimov\u2019s<\/cite> in 2024:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cBut at some point [a particular character had] started hanging out on forums with names like cheesy self-improvement books, whose hosts claimed to promote the art of thinking more rationally and avoiding the pitfalls that confused the addled masses. The trouble was, they interspersed all their actual debunking of logical fallacies with much more tendentious claims, wrapped in cloaks of faux-objectivity. They seemed especially prone to an abuse of probabilistic methods, where they pretended they could quantify both the likelihood and the potential harm for various implausible scenarios, and then treated the results of their calculations\u2014built on numbers they\u2019d plucked out of the air\u2014as an unimpeachable basis for action.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=gregorycorso -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>And when the milkman comes leave him a note in the bottle<\/p>\r\n<p>Penguin dust, bring me penguin dust, I want penguin dust\u2014<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Gregory Corso, from \u201cMarriage\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=gustaveflaubert -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201c[H]uman speech is like a cracked tin kettle, on which we hammer out tunes to make bears dance when we long to move the stars.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Gustave Flaubert, <cite>Madame Bovary<\/cite>, as translated by Eleanor Marx-Aveling<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=gustavmahler -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cTradition is the handing down of the flame and not the worshipping of ashes.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014attributed to Gustav Mahler<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<h1 id=\"H\">H<\/h1>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=hannaharendt -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cMass propaganda discovered that its audience was ready at all times to believe the worst, no matter how absurd, and did not particularly object to being deceived because it held every statement to be a lie anyhow. The totalitarian mass leaders based their propaganda on the correct psychological assumption that, under such conditions, one could make people believe the most fantastic statements one day, and trust that if the next day they were given irrefutable proof of their falsehood, they would take refuge in cynicism; instead of deserting the leaders who had lied to them, they would protest that they had known all along that the statement was a lie and would admire the leaders for their superior tactical cleverness.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Hannah Arendt, from <cite>The Origins of Totalitarianism<\/cite><\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=hanszinsser -->\r\n\r\n<p>Hans Zinsser\u2019s 1935 book <cite>Rats, Lice and History<\/cite> includes quite a bit of discussion of art and its relation to science. In his preface, Zinsser writes:<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>For our chapters and comments on matters of literary interest we make no apologies. Although we regard them as pertinent to the general scheme of our exposition, many will regard them as merely impertinent. But, in a way, this book is a protest against the American attitude which tends to insist that a specialist should have no interests beyond his chosen field\u2026 [T]he day has twenty-four hours; one can work but ten and sleep but eight.<\/p>\r\n<p>We hold that one type of intelligent occupation should, in all but exceptional cases, increase the capacity for comprehension in general; that it is an error to segregate the minds of men into rigid guild classifications; and that art and sciences have much in common and both may profit by mutual appraisal.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=hanszinsser -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cThis book, if it is ever written, and\u2014if written\u2014it finds a publisher, and\u2014if published\u2014anyone reads it, will be recognized with some difficulty as a biography.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Hans Zinsser, <cite>Rats, Lice and History<\/cite><\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=hanszinsser -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cHaving written the preceding paragraphs, we read them over and came to the conclusion that there was little in them that mattered very much.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Hans Zinsser, <cite>Rats, Lice and History<\/cite><\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=hanszinsser -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>\u2026Take T. S. Eliot\u2014who, in his prose, shows great clarity of thought and to whom no one will deny talent, originality, and, on occasion, great beauty. But in much of his poetry he plays, as has been aptly remarked, a guessing game with readers, whom he seems to appraise, apparently with some reason, as imbeciles. \u201cGuess which memory picture of my obviously one-sided erudition I am alluding to? See note 6a.\u201d Then he drops suddenly, after a few lines of majestic verse, into completely irrelevant babble.<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>\u201cIn the room the women come and go<\/p>\r\n<p>Talking of Michelangelo.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p>One is tempted to add, \u201cEenie, meenie, minie, mo.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Hans Zinsser, <cite>Rats, Lice and History<\/cite><\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=harvey -->\r\n<!-- Sorttopic=harvey -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve wrestled with reality for thirty-five years, and I\u2019m happy to say I finally won out over it.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Elwood P. Dowd, in <cite>Harvey<\/cite><\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=hbeampiper -->\r\n\r\n<p>From <cite>Fuzzy Sapiens<\/cite>, by H.&nbsp;Beam Piper:<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>[Victor Grego says the word \u201cFuzzyologists\u201d in conversation with Ernst Mallin.]<\/p>\r\n<p>\u201cI deplore that term, Mr. Grego. The suffix is Greek, from <span class=\"foreign\">logos<\/span>. Fuzzy is not a Greek word, and should not be combined with it.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p>\u201cOh, rubbish, Ernst. We\u2019re not speaking Greek; we\u2019re speaking Lingua Terra. You know what Lingua Terra is? An indiscriminate mixture of English, Spanish, Portuguese and Afrikaans, mostly English. And you know what English is? The result of the efforts of Norman men-at-arms to make dates with Saxon barmaids in the Ninth Century Pre-Atomic, and no more legitimate than any of the other results. If a little Greek suffix gets into a mess like that, it\u2019ll have to take care of itself the best way it can.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014pp.&nbsp;96-97<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=hbgcasimir -->\r\n<!-- Sorttopic=nielsbohr -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>While Gamow and Landau were at the Institute, the three of us often went to the movies together, and we had a preference for lowbrow and lurid films. Sometimes we could persuade Bohr to come with us to see a Western or a gangster film we had selected. His comments were always remarkable because he used to introduce some of his ideas on observations and measurements into his criticism.<\/p>\r\n<p>Once, after a thoroughly stupid Tom Mix film, his verdict went as follows: \u201cI did not like that picture; it was too improbable. That the scoundrel runs off with the beautiful girl is logical; it always happens. That the bridge collapses under their carriage is unlikely but I am willing to accept it. That the the heroine remains suspended in mid-air over a precipice is even more unlikely, but again I accept it. I am even willing to accept that at that very moment Tom Mix is coming by on his horse. But that at that very moment there should also be a fellow with a motion-picture camera to film the whole business\u2014that is more than I am willing to believe.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from <cite><a href=\"http:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=4Ff9Cb6ji4MC&lpg=PA97&ots=Kg8WY_Vj2P&pg=PA97#v=onepage&q&f=false\">Haphazard Reality: Half a Century of Science<\/a><\/cite>, by H. B. G. Casimir, p.&nbsp;97<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=heartstopper -->\r\n<!-- Sorttopic=heartstopper -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cAs your token straight friend, it\u2019s my duty to remind you that sometimes people are straight. It\u2019s an unfortunate fact of life.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Tao Xu, <cite>Heartstopper<\/cite> (the TV show), s1e2<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=hectorberlioz -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cWhen I talk of my laziness, it only applies to the writing of prose. I have often sat up all night over my scores, and have spent eight hours at a time labouring at instrumentation, without once changing my position; but I have to fight with myself to begin to write a page of prose, and about the tenth line or so I get up, walk about the room, look out into the street, take up a book, and strive by any means to overcome the weariness and fatigue which instantly overpower me. I have to return to the charge eight or ten times before I can finish an article for the <cite>Journal des D\u00e9bats<\/cite>, and it takes me quite two days to write one, even when I like the subject and am interested by it. And then, what erasures, and what scrawls! You should see my first draft!\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014<cite>Memoirs of Hector Berlioz<\/cite>, Dover edition, <a href=\"http:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=MlNY2QgZ3OwC&lpg=PA80&ots=hCBCpRlSQM&dq=%22When%20I%20talk%20of%20my%20laziness%22&pg=PA80#v=onepage&q=%22When%20I%20talk%20of%20my%20laziness%22&f=false\">p.&nbsp;80<\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=helenjacobusapte -->\r\n\r\n<p>From a 1910 diary entry written by Helen Jacobus Apte:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cI heard a great commotion and noticed everyone looking up. There was a great dirigible balloon, flying right above my head. What a wonderful age we live in, but I wager we will be telling our children how we remember the first air ships and how everyone gathered in the street to watch \u2018what is now so common a sight, my dears. My, my what will be invented next? Have you heard about the new thought wave? Why, last week I talked to a cousin in San Francisco and heard as plainly or far more so than over the old-fashioned long distance phone, and merely by concentrating my mind!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from <cite>Heart of a Wife: The Diary of a Southern Jewish Woman<\/cite>, entry for February 16, 1910 (p.&nbsp;21)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=helenmerrick -->\r\n\r\n<p>From Helen Merrick\u2019s 2009 book <cite>The Secret Feminist Cabal: A Cultural History of Science Fiction Feminisms<\/cite>, an interesting note in passing about Russ and Le&nbsp;Guin (and others):<\/p>\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>The only genre sf writer to appear in feminist literary studies [from the 1980s and 1990s] with any frequency is Joanna Russ.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>[\u2026]<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>(Other writers of \u201ccanonical\u201d status in feminist sf criticism, such as Tiptree and Charnas, rarely rate a mention, and, despite the common assumption that she is one of the few sf writers to receive critical appraisal outside the genre, Le&nbsp;Guin also receives very little attention in feminist literary studies.)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>[A footnote to the above parenthetical sentence:] Out of a sample of over twenty book-length studies of contemporary women\u2019s writing, only two mention Le&nbsp;Guin as an sf writer, but they do not discuss her work; Tiptree is discussed [in one of the studies], while both Tiptree\u2019s and Charnas\u2019s work are discussed in some studies of feminist utopias.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=henrydavidthoreau -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cI look upon man but as a fungus.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Henry David Thoreau <\/p>\r\n<p>(#NotAllMen)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=henrydavidthoreau -->\r\n\r\n<p>Thoreau on keeping a journal:<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>Of all strange and unaccountable things, this journalising is the strangest. It will allow nothing to be predicted of it; its good is not good, nor its bad bad. If I make a huge effort to expose my innermost and richest wares to light, my counter seems cluttered with the meanest homemade stuffs; but after months or years I may discover the wealth of India, and whatever rarity is brought overland from Cathay, in that confused heap, and what perhaps seemed a festoon of dried apple or pumpkin will prove a string of Brazilian diamonds, or pearls from Coromandel.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p>If Thoreau were alive today, I wonder if he would have a satellite feed to a laptop out there in Walden, and if he would post social media posts every day about the glories of Nature.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=henrygreen -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cIf you can make the reader laugh he is apt to get careless and go on reading.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Henry Green<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=henrykuttner -->\r\n\r\n<p>In a 1950 Henry Kuttner comedy science fiction story called \u201cThe Voice of the Lobster,\u201d at one point the protagonist expresses a desire to not be seen by anyone, and then adds:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201c[\u2026] I wish I were a Cerean*. Ah, well.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>A footnote at the bottom of the page explains:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201c*The inhabitants of Ceres were long supposed to be invisible. Lately it has been discovered that Ceres has no inhabitants.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=henrywadsworthlongfellow -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>Ships that pass in the night, and speak each other in passing,<\/p>\r\n<p>Only a signal shown and a distant voice in the darkness;<\/p>\r\n<p>So on the ocean of life we pass and speak one another,<\/p>\r\n<p>Only a look and a voice, then darkness again and a silence.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from \"<a href=\"http:\/\/www.hwlongfellow.org\/poems_poem.php?pid=2074\">The Theologian's Tale; Elizabeth<\/a>,\" from <cite>Tales of a Wayside Inn<\/cite> (1863), by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=hermanhesse -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cIf a famous painting changed owners, if a precious manuscript was sold at auction, if an old palace burned down, if the bearer of an aristocratic name was involved in a scandal, the readers of many thousands of feature articles at once learned the facts. What is more, on that same day or by the next day at the latest they received an additional dose of anecdotal, historical, psychological, erotic, and other stuff on the catchword of the moment. A torrent of zealous scribbling poured out over every ephemeral incident[\u2026]\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Herman Hesse, <cite>Magister Ludi<\/cite>, p.&nbsp;12 of the 1970 Bantam paperback edition (original German version published 1943)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=hgwells -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cNo passion in the world is equal to the passion to alter someone else\u2019s draft.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014H. G. Wells<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=hgwells -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cScience is a match that man has just got alight. He thought he was in a room\u2014in moments of devotion, a temple\u2014and that his light would be reflected from and display walls inscribed with wonderful secrets and pillars carved with philosophical systems wrought into harmony. It is a curious sensation, now that the preliminary splutter is over and the flame burns up clear, to see his hands lit and just a glimpse of himself and the patch he stands on visible, and around him, in place of all that human comfort and beauty he anticipated\u2014darkness still.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014H. G. Wells, from \u201cThe Rediscovery of the Unique\u201d (1891)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=hgwells -->\r\n\r\n<p>In H.G. Wells\u2019s <cite>The Food of the Gods<\/cite> (1904), a Lady (who has just appeared in the narrative for the first time) is told that her charitable aid is needed yet again, and she\u2019s concerned that she might be being taken advantage of:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cThe hand of Lady Wondershoot quivered, with that C.O.S. sort of emotion, that suspicious rage that stirs in all true aristocrats, at the thought that possibly the meaner classes are after all\u2014as mean as their betters, and\u2014where the sting lies\u2014scoring points in the game.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>(\u201cC.O.S.\u201d apparently stands for \u201cCharity Organisation Society\u201d\u2014Wikipedia says \u201cThe COS was resented by the poor for its harshness, and its acronym was rendered by critics as \u2018Cringe or Starve.\u2019\u201d So I\u2019m thinking that by abbreviating it, Wells may have intended the reader to think of that alternate expansion.)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=hgwells -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201c\u2026But these stories of mine [\u2026] do not pretend to deal with possible things; they are exercises of the imagination in a quite different field. [\u2026] They are all fantasies; they do not aim to project a serious possibility; they aim indeed only at the same amount of conviction as one gets in a good gripping dream. They have to hold the reader to the end by art and illusion and not by proof and argument, and the moment [the reader] closes the cover and reflects[, they wake up] to their impossibility.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014H. G. Wells (distinguishing his work from Verne\u2019s), preface to <cite>Seven Famous Novels<\/cite>, 1934<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=hilairebelloc -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>From quiet homes and first beginning<\/p>\r\n<p>Out to the undiscovered ends<\/p>\r\n<p>There\u2019s nothing worth the wear of winning<\/p>\r\n<p>But laughter and the love of friends.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Hilaire Belloc<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=holiday -->\r\n<!-- Sorttopic=holiday -->\r\n\r\n<p>A quote from the movie <cite>Holiday<\/cite>:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"dialogue\">\r\n\r\n<p><b>Old white guy Edward Seton<\/b> (to his daughter Julia): There\u2019s a strange new spirit at work in the world today, a spirit of revolt. I don\u2019t understand it and I don\u2019t like it!<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=howardwaldrop -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cThe trouble with paranoia (as Pynchon and others [\u2026] said) is the deeper you dig, the more you uncover, whether it\u2019s there or not. It\u2019s the ultimate feedback system\u2014the more you believe, the more you find to believe.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Howard Waldrop, \u201cThe Horse of a Different Color (That You Rode In On)\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=howardwaldrop -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>The main thing guys like Godard and Truffaut had going for them was that they didn't understand English very well.<\/p>\r\n<p>Like in <cite>Riot in Cell Block 11,<\/cite> when Neville Brand gets shot at by the prison guard with a Thompson, he yells:<\/p>\r\n<p>\"Look out, Monty!  They got a chopper!  Back inside!\"<\/p>\r\n<p>What the <i>Cahiers<\/i> people heard was:<\/p>\r\n<p>\"Steady, <i>mon fr&egrave;re!<\/i> Let us leave this place of wasted dreams.\"<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Howard Waldrop, \u201cFrench Scenes\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<h1 id=\"I\">I<\/h1>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=iainmbanks -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>\u201cCan\u2019t machines build these faster?\u201d he asked the woman, looking around the starship shell.<\/p>\r\n<p>\u201cWhy, of course!\u201d she laughed.<\/p>\r\n<p>\u201cThen why do you do it?\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s fun. You see one of these big mothers sail out those doors for the first time, heading for deep space, three hundred people on board, everything working, the Mind quite happy, and you think, I helped build that. The fact a machine could have done it faster doesn\u2019t alter the fact that it was you who actually did it.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p>\u201cHmm,\u201d he said.<\/p>\r\n<p>[\u2026]<\/p>\r\n<p>\u201cWell, you may \u2018hmm\u2019 as you wish,\u201d the woman said, approaching a translucent hologram of the half-completed ship, where a few other construction workers were standing, pointing inside the model and talking. \u201cBut have you ever been gliding or swum underwater?\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p>\u201cYes,\u201d he agreed.<\/p>\r\n<p>The woman shrugged. \u201cYet birds fly better than we do, and fish swim better. Do we stop gliding or swimming because of this?\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p>He smiled. \u201cI suppose not.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p>\u201cYou suppose correctly,\u201d the woman said. \u201cAnd why?\u201d She looked at him, grinning. \u201cBecause it\u2019s fun.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Iain M. Banks, <cite>Use of Weapons<\/cite> (1990), ch. IV<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=iamspacegirl -->\r\n\r\n<div class=\"dialogue\">\r\n<p><b>Rocket Man<\/b>: And all this science, I don't understand. It's just my job five days a week.<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Ground Control<\/b>: Wait what<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014@iamspacegirl on Twitter (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/iamspacegirl\/status\/1454393586330578950\">original post<\/a> is no longer available)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=idriesshah -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cIt is not always a question of the Emperor having no clothes on. Sometimes it is, \u2018Is that an Emperor at all?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Idries Shah, <cite>Reflections<\/cite>, p.&nbsp;145 (1977 Penguin paperback edition)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=indecisivejones -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\nme: correct me if I\u2019m wrong-\r\nthe internet: sir, we will correct you even if you\u2019re right\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014<a href=\"https:\/\/xcancel.com\/IndecisiveJones\/status\/1699427946853736493\">@IndecisiveJones on X\/Twitter<\/a>, Sep 6, 2023<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=inksplotch -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cIt is not for years that she realizes how much effort is tucked into Lucy\u2019s bright smiles. The joy is not a lie, the faith is not contrived, but it <em>is<\/em> built. Lucy pulls herself out of bed each morning. She watches the fires of the day climb and conquer the sky, and dares her world to be anything less than magical.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from a <a href=\"http:\/\/ink-splotch.tumblr.com\/post\/79664265175\/i-was-so-tall-you-were-older-then-can-we\">story about Susan Pevensie<\/a> by @ink-splotch<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=isaacasimov -->\r\n\r\n<p>Isaac Asimov on self-driving cars (from \u201cSally,\u201d published in 1953):<\/p>\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>I can remember when there wasn\u2019t an automobile in the world with brains enough to find its own way home. I chauffeured dead lumps of machines that needed a [human\u2019s] hand at their controls every minute. Every year machines like that used to kill tens of thousands of people.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>The automatics fixed that. A positronic brain can react much faster than a human one, of course[\u2026]. You got in, punched your destination and let it go its own way.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>We take it for granted now, but I remember when the first laws came out forcing the old machines off the highways and limiting travel to automatics. Lord, what a fuss. They called it everything from communism to fascism, but it emptied the highways and stopped the killing[\u2026]<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=isakdinesen -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>\u201cI love you,\u201d he said.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>There was a short silence; things grew in it.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Isak Dinesen, \u201cCopenhagen Season\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<h1 id=\"J\">J<\/h1>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=jackmathews -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cOne of the reasons George Lucas had trouble getting 20th Century-Fox to finance <cite>Star Wars<\/cite> was premise research that showed no one wanted to see a movie with a princess in it.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Jack Mathews, <cite>The Battle of Brazil<\/cite>, pp.&nbsp;24\u201325<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=jacquesattali -->\r\n\r\n<p>(Content warning for quoting Hitler.)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>Recording has always been a means of social control, a stake in politics, regardless of the available technologies. Power is no longer content to enact its legitimacy; it records and reproduces the societies it rules. Stockpiling memory, retaining history or time, distributing speech, and manipulating information has always been an attribute of civil and priestly power[\u2026] Possessing the means of recording allows one to monitor noises, to maintain them, and to control their repetition within a determined code. In the final analysis, it allows one to impose one\u2019s own noise and to silence others: \u201cWithout the loudspeaker, we would never have conquered Germany,\u201d wrote Hitler in 1938 in the <cite>Manual of German Radio<\/cite>.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Jacques Attali, <cite>Noise: The Political Economy of Music<\/cite>, trans. Brian Massumi (1985)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=jaetzler -->\r\n\r\n<p>J. A. Etzler, writing about the steam engine in 1842:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cFellow men! I promise to show the means of creating a paradise within ten years, where everything desirable for human life may be had by every man in superabundance, without labor, and without pay; where the whole face of nature shall be changed into the most beautiful of forms, and man may live in the most magnificent palaces, in all imaginable refinements of luxury, and in the most delightful gardens; where he may accomplish, without labor, in one year, more than hitherto could be done in thousands of years.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>(As quoted by Stan Augarten in <cite>Bit by Bit: An Illustrated History of Computers<\/cite> (1984), p.&nbsp;284.)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=jamesbranchcabell -->\r\n\r\n<p>From \u201cThe Music from Behind the Moon,\u201d by James Branch Cabell (1948):<\/p>\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>22: Near Yggdrasill<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Not ever before had anybody essayed to cheat the Norns in quite this fashion: and so, from their quiet studio, by Yggdrasill, the Gray Three noticed this quaint expurgating of their work almost at once.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Verdandi, in fact, took off her reading glasses so as to observe just what was happening over yonder. \u201cOh, yes, I see!\u201d she said comfortably. \u201cIt is only a poet altering the history of Earth.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Her sisters glanced up from their writing: and they all smiled. Urdhr remarked, \u201cThese poets! they are always trying to escape their allotted doom.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>But Skuld looked rather pensively at each of the two other literary ladies before she said, \u201cOne almost pities them at times.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Then Urdhr laughed outright. \u201cMy darling, you waste sympathy in this sweet fashion because we also were poets when we wrote Earth\u2019s Epic. For myself, I grant we made a mistake to put any literary people in the book. Still, it is a mistake to which most beginners are prone: and that story, you must remember, was one of our first efforts. All inexperienced girls must necessarily write balderdash. So we put poets in that book, and death, and love, and common-sense, and I can hardly remember what other incredibilities.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>With that, they all laughed again, to think of their art\u2019s crude beginnings.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=jamescscott -->\r\n<!-- Sorttopic=jamescscott -->\r\n\r\n<p>The blurb for a book called <a href=\"http:\/\/books.google.com\/books\/about\/Domination_and_the_Arts_of_Resistance.html?id=tl9q9DbnkuUC\"><cite>Domination and the Arts of Resistance<\/cite><\/a>, by James C. Scott:<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>Confrontations between the powerless and the powerful are laden with deception\u2014the powerless feign deference and the powerful subtly assert their mastery. Peasants, serfs, untouchables, slaves, labourers, and prisoners are not free to speak their minds in the presence of power. These subordinate groups instead create a secret discourse that represents a critique of power spoken behind the backs of the dominant. At the same time, the powerful also develop a private dialogue about practices and goals of their rule that cannot be openly avowed. In this book, the author, a social scientist, offers a discussion both of the public roles played by the powerful and powerless and the mocking, vengeful tone they display off stage\u2014what he terms their public and hidden transcripts. Using examples from the literature, history, and politics of cultures around the world, the author examines the many guises this interaction has taken throughout history and the tensions and contradictions it reflects. The author describes the ideological resistance of subordinate groups\u2014their gossip, folktales, songs, jokes, and theater\u2014their use of anonymity and ambiguity. He also analyzes how ruling elites attempt to convey an impression of hegemony through such devices as parades, state ceremony, and rituals of subordination and apology. Finally he identifies\u2014with quotations that range from the recollections of American slaves to those of Russian citizens during the beginnings of Gorbachev\u2019s glasnost campaign\u2014the political electricity generated among oppressed groups when, for the first time, the hidden transcript is spoken directly and publicly in the face of power.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=jamesgleick -->\r\n\r\n<p>How to make math and science sound exciting:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201csystems with infinitely many degrees of freedom [\u2026] required a phase space of infinite dimensions. But who could handle such a thing? It was a hydra, merciless and uncontrollable[\u2026]\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014James Gleick, <cite>Chaos<\/cite>, p.&nbsp;137<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=jamesgleick -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cWhy should the laws of chaos apply to the heart[\u2026]?\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014James Gleick, <cite>Chaos<\/cite>, p.&nbsp;288<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=jameslarkin -->\r\n<!-- Sorttopic=jameslarkin -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cThe great appear great because we are on our knees: Let us rise.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from the inscription on the monument to James Larkin in Dublin; Larkin apparently got the line from a French slogan that appeared in various versions dating back to the 1500s<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cHe talked to the workers, spoke as only Jim Larkin could speak, not for an assignation with peace, dark obedience, or placid resignation, but trumpet-tongued of resistance to wrong, discontent with leering poverty, and defiance of any power strutting out to stand in the way of their march onward.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014also on the Larkin monument; from <cite>Drums under the Windows<\/cite>, by Se\u00e1n O\u2019Casey<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=jamesmangold -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>The opportunity of a Western is that it takes issues of our culture\u2014conflict, racial conflict, economic injustice, what is good, what is evil, what is murder, what is justified\u2014and it puts them in a fantastical landscape that allows us, very much like science fiction does, to see these issues in a way that we\u2019re free of our own .&nbsp;.&nbsp;. loyalties. I\u2019m in a world where I don\u2019t have any immediate identifiable [unintelligible], so I\u2019m forced to look at the issues and the themes underneath them from a new perspective.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Director James Mangold, in a making-of segment (\u201cAn Epic Explored\u201d) for the 2007 version of <cite>3:10 to Yuma<\/cite><\/p>\r\n<p>(I\u2019m not sure what that garbled word was. Maybe \u201clikeness\u201d?)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=jamesnicoll -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cThe key to writing short novels is to leave words out. Generally speaking, the more words that are in a novel, the longer it\u2019s going to be.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014James Nicoll, in a 2023 <a href=\"https:\/\/jamesdavisnicoll.com\/review\/dear-old-dixie\">review of <cite>Lincoln\u2019s Dreams<\/cite><\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=jamesrpetersen -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cIn the seventies, radical feminists [said that Freud] had single-handedly queered sex for a century\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014James R. Petersen, <cite>The Century of Sex<\/cite>, p.&nbsp;326<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=jamesthurber -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cEvery eleven seconds in America some man, woman, or child is stricken with Googleman\u2019s disease.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014James Thurber, making up a disease name in \u201cHow the Kooks Crumble,\u201d first published in <cite>Lanterns and Lances<\/cite>, 1961 or 1962<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=jamesthurber -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cEditing should be [\u2026] a counselling rather than a collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should say to himself, \u2018How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?\u2019 and avoid \u2018How can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014James Thurber, <cite>Collecting Myself<\/cite>, p.&nbsp;12<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=jamesthurber -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cthat\u2019s the trouble with becoming fully awake: a glory passes.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014James Thurber, <cite>Collecting Myself<\/cite>, p.&nbsp;21<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=jamesthurber -->\r\n<!-- Sorttopic=jamesthurber -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201c\u201d[Thurber] began sending funny prose to Harold Ross\u2019s faltering new magazine, the <cite>New Yorker<\/cite>. The magazine sent them back. Finally the 21st piece Thurber submitted was accepted, and Ross, whose talent was being right for the wrong reasons, hired the young humorist\u2014as managing editor. Since conversations with Ross were not always models of clarity, Thurber did not know he was managing editor until the end of the first week, when his secretary brought him the office payroll to sign. [After six months,] Ross gave up. \u2018I guess you\u2019re a writer,\u2019 he said. \u2018All right then, goddammit, write.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from the editors\u2019 preface to Thurber\u2019s <cite>Lanterns and Lances<\/cite>. (The preface is signed \u201cThe Editors of Time,\u201d which sounds like a much more unusual job than I suspect they really had.)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=jamesthurber -->\r\n\r\n<p>From Thurber\u2019s Foreword to <cite>The Thirteen Clocks<\/cite>:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cIn the end they took the book away from me, on the ground that it was finished and that I was just having fun tinkering with clocks and running up and down secret stairs. They had me there.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=jamiemacpherson -->\r\n<!-- Sorttopic=jamiemacpherson -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cHe was assuredly no ordinary man, that he could so disport himself on the morning of his execution.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u2026and other sentences that are completely inappropriate for Wikipedia and are probably from a copyrighted source, but that are too good for me to be quite ready to delete them from Wikipedia.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>(I think this was from a Wikipedia page about the song \u201cMcPherson\u2019s Lament,\u201d about Jamie Macpherson, but I think the page (and this sentence) are no longer in Wikipedia.)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=janeausten -->\r\n\r\n<p>In Jane Austen\u2019s <cite>Northanger Abbey<\/cite>, I was particularly struck by Mr. Tilney\u2019s comments, shortly after being introduced, on the necessity of keeping a journal:<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>\u201c[\u2026] Not keep a journal! How are your absent cousins to understand the tenour of your life in Bath without one? How are the civilities and compliments of every day to be related as they ought to be, unless noted down every evening in a journal? How are your various dresses to be remembered, and the particular state of your complexion, and curl of your hair to be described in all their diversities, without having constant recourse to a journal? My dear madam, I am not so ignorant of young ladies\u2019 ways as you wish to believe me[\u2026]\u201d<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p>It seems things haven\u2019t changed so much in the past two hundred years. Excepting only that now men can write journals too, and that we can all do so in public.<\/p>\r\n<p>Tilney and Catherine proceed to discuss letter-writing:<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>\u201c[\u2026It] is this delightful habit of journaling which largely contributes to form the easy style of writing for which ladies are so generally celebrated. Everybody allows that the talent of writing agreeable letters is peculiarly female. Nature may have done something, but I am sure it must be essentially assisted by the practice of keeping a journal.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p>\u201cI have sometimes thought,\u201d said Catherine, doubtingly, \u201cwhether ladies do write so much better letters than gentlemen! That is\u2014I should not think the superiority was always on our side.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p>\u201cAs far as I have had opportunity of judging, it appears to me that the usual style of letter-writing among women is faultless, except in three particulars.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p>\u201cAnd what are they?\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p>\u201cA general deficiency of subject, a total inattention to stops, and a very frequent ignorance of grammar.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p>And here again we see that the passage of two centuries has brought us greater equality between the sexes, allowing men, too, to create written works with no more faults than those three.<\/p>\r\n<p>Okay, I\u2019m not being fair; in fact, the conversation in question concludes with a statement of gender equality:<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>\u201cUpon my word! I need not have been afraid of disclaiming the compliment. You do not think too highly of us in that way.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p>\u201cI should no more lay it down as a general rule that women write better letters than men, than that they sing better duets, or draw better landscapes. In every power, of which taste is the foundation, excellence is pretty fairly divided between the sexes.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=janeausten -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cThis nut \u2026 while so many of its brethren have \u2026 been trodden under foot, is still in possession of all the happiness that a hazel nut can be supposed capable of.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Jane Austen, <cite>Persuasion<\/cite><\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=javascript -->\r\n<!-- Sorttopic=javascript -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cSince most people are consumers of already-created promises, this guide will explain consumption of returned promises before explaining how to create them.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014<a href=\"https:\/\/developer.mozilla.org\/en-US\/docs\/Web\/JavaScript\/Guide\/Using_promises\">JavaScript documentation<\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=jeandemagnon -->\r\n<!-- Sorttopic=jeandemagnon -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cJean de Magnon, historiographer to the king of France, undertook to write an encyclopaedia in French heroic verse, which was to fill ten volumes of 20,000 lines each, and to render libraries merely a useless ornament. But he did not live to finish it[\u2026]. The part he left was printed as <cite>La Science universelle<\/cite>, Paris, 1663 [\u2026]\u201410 books containing about 11,000 lines. They begin with the nature of God, and end with the history of the fall of man. His verses, say Chaudon and Delandine, are perhaps the most nerveless, incorrect, obscure and flat in French poetry\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014<cite>Britannica<\/cite> 11th edition, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gutenberg.org\/files\/35169\/35169-h\/35169-h.htm#ar194\">article on \u201cEncyclopaedia\u201d<\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=jeanstevenson -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>\ud83c\udfb5 Others will fly in that tempting void that waits beyond the sky;<\/p>\r\n<p>We\u2019ll control the lightning once again.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Jean Stevenson, \u201cDedication\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=jehshaw -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cyacc\u2014the piece of code that understandeth all parsing\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014J.E.H. Shaw<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=jenpost -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cIt <em>is<\/em> possible to look for the inner light while playing pattycake; you just have to look a little harder.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Jen Post<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=jephjacques -->\r\n\r\n<p>From the webcomic <cite>Questionable Content<\/cite>, by Jeph Jacques, comic 4912, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.questionablecontent.net\/view.php?comic=4912\">Pickup Lines<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>The context is that one character (Elliot, I think) is catastrophizing about his relationship; another character (Renee, I think) is trying to be sympathetic\/supportive, but is realizing that Elliot is catastrophizing.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"dialogue\">\r\n\r\n<p><b>Renee<\/b>: All right, back up. How much of this is reality and how much is your brain tying itself in knots?<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p><b>Elliot<\/b>: How should I know? Reality is a construct our brains make up to try and make sense of what our senses are telling us!<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=jilltwiss -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cOne thing I would like is a recut of a horror movie where every surprise is delightful. Like the girl finally decides to check out the weird noise coming from the basement, AND IT\u2019S FOURTEEN HEDGEHOGS THROWING AN ICE CREAM SOCIAL\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014@<a href=\"https:\/\/xcancel.com\/jilltwiss\/status\/1454265937927053313\">jilltwiss<\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>(See also some <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jed.hartman\/posts\/pfbid02apdgMwjJgadPm1E7ymxwCwphvppEZQg3eWm45v1WA8s1WTkeKoygQ7UEk8vRQjYzl\">other such scenarios<\/a> in comments on my Facebook post of this.)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=jimmoskowitzbhadrikalove -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>\ud83c\udfb5 A, B, I, G, R, X, Q<\/p>\r\n<p>M, Z, L, V, K-C-W<\/p>\r\n<p>T, Y, F, H, U, E<\/p>\r\n<p>N, S, P, O, J, D<\/p>\r\n<p>Now I know my A-B-I\u2019s<\/p>\r\n<p>Next time you won\u2019t be surprised!<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Jim Moskowitz and Bhadrika Love<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=jjohnson -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201c\u2026but no sooner did this bright luminary (the Press) burst upon Europe, than its brilliant rays, like the meridian sun, not only enlightened and invigorated mankind, but also dispelled the murky clouds which had for ages cemented the bonds of Ignorance and Superstition.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014J. Johnson, printer, in <cite>Typographia<\/cite><\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=jjvarley -->\r\n\r\n<p>Someone talking about what would happen to the Earth if the sun suddenly stopped existing:<\/p>\r\n<p>\u201cNow I\u2019m no physicist \u2026 [but] the momentum of the earth \u2026 traveling in a circle \u2026 might keep it in a curve for a bit\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014JJ Varley<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=joanaiken -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cIt is so much better inventing a whole new world\u2014<em>just<\/em> the way you want it\u2014than doing the jobs that are waiting to be done\u2026 The very thought of all those awful little jobs is enough to make one sit down and write \u2018Once upon a time\u2014\u2019\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Joan Aiken, in <cite>Cricket<\/cite>, March 1977, as quoted in <cite>The Fantastic Imagination II<\/cite><\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=joanaiken -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201c\u2026Miss Winstable, [Jane\u2019s governess,] whose first impulse, on hearing about any course of action proposed by her charges, was to forbid it, on grounds of impropriety, or rashness, or unladylikeness, or any slightest tincture of those dread possibilities. \u2014Or, simply, on the principle that the young should be continually thwarted and chastened.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014<cite>Jane Fairfax<\/cite>, by Joan Aiken, p.&nbsp;56<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=joannaruss -->\r\n\r\n<p>Joanna Russ on fitting writing in around the rest of her life, especially disability:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>Writing has to be fitted around everything, everything. Teaching, friends, business correspondence, love, laundry, food, shopping. I have at least one or two medical appointments a week, sometimes three or four. And one marathon week it was five. I have constantly to ration my sitting and my standing and switch from one pain to another. It\u2019s always a matter for calculating: shall I continue and know I\u2019ll hurt for a week or two? Or stop? Or try handwriting? (How bad is my arthritis and will it get worse?) There are sieges of other illnesses, usually the result of medications, and then sometimes I can\u2019t write for months. (Two years recently.) So I\u2019m always juggling illnesses, energies and time. Having to live with disabilities is like running a small business.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from a piece in <cite>Women\u2019s Review of Books<\/cite>, July 1989 (reprinted in <cite>The Country You Have Never Seen<\/cite>, p.&nbsp;243)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=joannaruss -->\r\n\r\n<p>In a letter to <cite>Lesbian Ethics<\/cite> in 1987, Joanna Russ writes about suddenly understanding why some other lesbians had had a hard time classifying her as butch or femme.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>(I\u2019m sure that some aspects of the following don\u2019t match some of y\u2019all\u2019s Jewish experience; think of it as Russ\u2019s personal experience rather than as a universal statement about Jewish people.)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>I was a child during World War II and [\u2026] grew up a third-generation [Ashkenazi] in a [\u2026] community in New York City.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>[\u2026]<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>I have just realized that when I was called \u2018male-identified\u2019 (by other lesbians) <em>or<\/em> \u2018femme,\u2019 what the lesbians around me were perceiving wasn\u2019t the same split <em>I<\/em> made between \u2018masculine\u2019 and \u2018feminine\u2019 because theirs was Gentile. Mine was Jewish.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>No man fixed cars or was athletic in my neighborhood; no man I knew ever fought physically with another. To the first- and second-generation <i>shtetl<\/i> descendants around me, what was reserved to men, and what made them superior to women, was [\u2026] intellectuality, scholarship, and religion, all activities denied women. The third-generation Jewish boys I knew at college were quite viciously sexist, but it never would have occurred to them to claim a monopoly on cars or athletics; what they claimed for their own was poetry, philosophy, science and fiction, all the things I loved the most.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<p>(Reprinted in <cite>The Country You Have Never Seen<\/cite>, p.&nbsp;284)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=joannaruss -->\r\n\r\n<p>Department of \u201cbe careful what you wish for\u201d:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Joanna Russ, in her author\u2019s note after her story in the anthology <cite>Epoch<\/cite>, 1975, wrote (among other things):<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cMy own, quixotic dream for the paperback-book industry is a giant Sears-Roebuck-ish, centralized store which will carry remaindered books at lowered (or raised) prices (depending on their bibliographic value and the rise due to inflation) and have wee beautiful catalogs in every hamlet, village, and town where people (now that the movies are too expensive) can go when TV palls and find old Phyllis Whitney gothics (Look! I found a copy of <cite>Fear in the Old Castle<\/cite>!) or HPL (Look! <cite>Horrible Monsters from Old New England<\/cite>!) or controversial books (How can anybody bear to talk about such filthy things in public? I\u2019ll buy it.), order them (see? no problems with shelf space), <em>pay<\/em> for them, and get them (<em>quickly<\/em>). The books would move only when paid for, copies would not be shredded (as they are now when they\u2019re not sold within about ten days).\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>(She also added, a bit later: \u201cThe real problems are distribution and information.\u201d)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=joannaruss -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201ctoo many typical science fiction horror stories are not the universal dystopias they pretend to be, but rather the unhappy wails of privilege-coming-to-an-end. Take, for example, the usual Overpopulation Story, in which Americans have to live without private ranch houses, or the typical Pollution Story in which far too often the real gripe is that \u2018we\u2019 must subsist on soybeans and vegetable starch [\u2026] or the Violence Story which deplores the fact (as someone recently pointed out) that violence is becoming democratized.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Joanna Russ, F&amp;SF book review column, 1974. (Reprinted in <cite>The Country You Have Never Seen<\/cite>, p.&nbsp;97.)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=joannaruss -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>Paul studied a sign hung on the wall of the booth, directing explicitly and anonymously just how to remove reciever,insert coin, listen for dialtone and dial.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>I did all that, he thought, but nobody tells me how to go on from there.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Joanna Russ, \u201cBeach Plum\u201d (unpublished; written c. 1953, when Russ was about 16)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=joannaruss -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cI wrote this play\u2014only full length play I\u2019ve ever done\u2014my last yr. at Yale (59-60) in order to get out of the damned place.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cno other copy extant, thank God\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Joanna Russ, handwritten note on title page of typescript of her play <cite>The Death of Alexander the Great<\/cite><\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=joannaruss -->\r\n\r\n<p>Two girls talking, at a girls\u2019 boarding school:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>\u201cI just get so damn sick of fashion and ladyness and all that crap\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s not crap\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cIt is so. I wish I was a lamp-post. Next to a boy it\u2019s the best thing I can think of being\u201d<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Joanna Russ, from <cite>The Sensible Fish<\/cite> (the unpublished novel she started at age 16 and finished at 20), ch.&nbsp;2<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=joannarusswwaat066 -->\r\n\r\n<p>Russ on dying people:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cOne thing dying people usually know, if they have any sense left, is what they want; and that is so rare in the human condition that it commands a certain kind of respect. Although I suppose they may know what they want only because there\u2018s so little left to choose from that the task\u2018s easy.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014<cite>We Who Are About To\u2026<\/cite>, p.&nbsp;66 (day twelve)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=joannarusswwaat143 -->\r\n\r\n<p>Russ on tanks and violence:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cAnd if you capture a tank, what can you use it for except what a tank does? You can\u2018t plant a garden with it.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014<cite>We Who Are About To\u2026<\/cite>, p.&nbsp;143<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=joeadamson -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cThey proceed with their irrelevancies intently and resolutely, and there is a strange flourish of triumph when they have reached the end and gotten nowhere.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Joe Adamson, <cite>Groucho, Harpo, Chico, and Sometimes Zeppo<\/cite><\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=joemucchiello -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cIs there any chance that the stories will continue in this century? (What a convienient phrase, we should end centuries more often.)\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Joe Mucchiello<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=johannesgutenberg -->\r\n<!-- Sorttopic=johannesgutenberg -->\r\n\r\n<p>Regarding \u201cinexpensive Signet and Mentor books\u201d (which I think just means they\u2019re talking about mass-market paperbacks): \u201cThe inexpensive book, widely sold to readers everywhere, is completing the revolution which Gutenberg began.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014\u201cThe Publishers\u201d of <cite>New World Writing<\/cite>, a sort of paperback literary magazine, in 1952<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>I\u2019m intrigued by the notion of mass-market publishing being a continuation of Gutenberg\u2019s work\u2014and by the statement that that revolution was complete, which maybe we should take as a warning not to believe that our own era of publishing is the final end of mass publication.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=johnmccutcheon -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>\ud83c\udfb5 One by one, side by side<\/p>\r\n<p>We will stand and face the fire; there\u2019s no turning back this tide<\/p>\r\n<p>Stone by stone, day by day<\/p>\r\n<p>We will make the great walls crumble, and the borders fade away.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014John McCutcheon, \u201cStone by Stone\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=johnmccutcheon -->\r\n\r\n<p>John McCutcheon got a guitar as a gift for his 14th birthday. To learn how to play, he went to the library to get a book about it. Here\u2019s the story he tells:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cI found the only book in our library that was under the Dewey Decimal System subject \u2018guitar.\u2019 And it was a tattered black and white paperback book entitled <cite>Woody Guthrie Folk Songs<\/cite>. And I had no idea who Woody Guthrie was\u2014like most American kids I grew up singing the songs, but in school they never tell you who\u2019s writing the songs that they\u2019re teaching you. And because I thought this was a guitar instruction book, I faithfully started on page 1, assuming it was arranged in ascending order of difficulty. And it took me an embarrassingly long time to realize, no, it was alphabetical. And so probably the first thirty songs I learned were from that book. Woody Guthrie songs. And it was telling\u2014because it was alphabetical, not thematic, not, as I thought, in ascending order of difficulty, here was a love song followed by a topical song followed by an historical song followed by a kids\u2019 song followed by a funny song and an angry song, and it was really remarkable, and it was teaching me not only how to play the guitar but how to be a writer. That you write about everything for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>(Transcribed by me from what McCutcheon said during a recent online hammer dulcimer concert.)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=johnmccutcheonwyg -->\r\n\r\n<p>A song of hope: a couple of verses of John McCutcheon\u2019s \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/music.apple.com\/us\/album\/wish-you-goodnight\/1459409001?i=1459409702\">Wish You Goodnight<\/a>\u201d (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=QFlr_GBk4a0\">YouTube<\/a>)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>\ud83c\udfb5 All the songs and tales from across the ages<\/p>\r\n<p>That have raised our eyes and our hearts to a loftier sight<\/p>\r\n<p>Are a port of calm while the battles rages<\/p>\r\n<p>And I wish you good dreams, good morrow, and I wish you good night.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n[\u2026]\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>So gather \u2019round, all you friends and lovers;<\/p>\r\n<p>Let the darkness come, for the fire is bright.<\/p>\r\n<p>Though the road is long, love makes us stronger,<\/p>\r\n<p>And I wish you good dreams, good morrow, and I wish you good night.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=johnmilton -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cI cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her adversary.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014John Milton<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=johnrogers -->\r\n\r\n<p>John Rogers\u2019s \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/kfmonkey.blogspot.com\/2012\/11\/leverage-507-real-fake-car-job-post-game.html\">three questions of drama<\/a>\u201d:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>1. Who wants what?<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>2. Why can\u2019t they have it?<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>3. Why do I give a shit?<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=johnrogers -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201ceach screenplay is like a snowflake: unique and ultimately destined for a slush pile.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014<a href=\"http:\/\/kfmonkey.blogspot.com\/2009\/05\/writing-sequence-shuffle.html \">John Rogers<\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=johnsladek -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cI feel I ought to do my part in helping machines take over the arts and sciences, leaving us with plenty of leisure time for important things, like extracting square roots and figuring pay rolls.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014sf author John Sladek, as quoted by David Langford in a 1982 interview with Sladek<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=johnupdike -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>The earth is just a silly ball<\/p>\r\n<p>To them, through which they simply pass,<\/p>\r\n<p>Like dustmaids down a drafty hall<\/p>\r\n<p>Or photons through a sheet of glass.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014John Updike, from \u201cCosmic Gall\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=jonathanbarnbrookmarcusleisallion -->\r\n\r\n<p>Excerpts from an interview with the designers of a font called Priori. In these, I\u2019ll use initials to indicate speakers: UI for the Unnamed Interviewer, JB for designer Jonathan Barnbrook, MLA for designer Marcus Leis Allion. Single square brackets are in the original; double square brackets are my clarifications and elisions.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>About legibility and communicating with your audience:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n\r\n<p>[[UI:]] A lot of the work in the 1990s was hard to read.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>MLA: But that might have been its purpose\u2014to confuse, confound or question. That\u2019s what I think [[our]] studio does so well. It always questions those notions, all those assumptions, rather than dismissing them. When Helvetica is credited as being the most legible typeface, we need to ask: who is claiming this? We should also look for other motivations that govern aesthetic decisions.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>For example, the Haas type foundry employed Max Miedinger to create a typeface that would <em>compete<\/em> with the new 1950s interpretations of Akzidenz Grotesk [a sans serif originally released in 1896]. Even the name was changed, from \u2018Neue Haas Grotesk\u2019 to \u2018Helvetica\u2019, in order to make it easier to market. Then there was the demand for a visual consistency, which was not instigated by modernism\u2019s universal ideal, but by the corporations that began to expand across the world.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>JB: It depends what you mean by legible. It may not be legible to you. There are plenty of examples where people have done something which is maybe not as legible as you might want, but the message still reaches its audience. There are so many different ways that people read in different types of design.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>MLA: But this whole notion also suggests that legibility is out there somewhere and that it\u2019s attainable as a form in itself, if you can master it, rather than looking at the cultural aspects.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>[[UI:]] But isn\u2019t there a sense that we know what we\u2019re talking about when it comes to legibility?<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>JB: I don\u2019t think we do. We assume that we do. Get those notions of scientific legibility out of your head! Some people find text completely illegible if it doesn\u2019t interest them. If the message isn\u2019t open to a particular audience, they won\u2019t read it.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<p>Regarding political\/\u201caggressive\u201d typeface designs:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n\r\n<p>[[UI:]] Do you think anger is a big part of that?<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>[[\u2026]]<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>MLA: By presenting certain ideas as being angry or aggressive, it\u2019s possible to dismiss work that challenges the dominant ideology.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Similar notions have been employed to explain and curtail the actions of others[[\u2026]]. I think it\u2019s much more interesting to pose and pursue questions that destabilize foundations. They represent openings, rather than simple closings.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Regarding avoiding working with clients who you don\u2019t approve of:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n\r\n<p>JB: [[\u2026]] When we turned down a major corporation recently, we sent them a list of reasons why, along with web links, and they phoned up the next morning and asked if the email was a joke.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>[[UI:]] What did you say to them?<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>MLA: Well, it was a question of pointing out the corporate relationships they endorsed and actively engaged with, and how destructive their business practices were to many disenfranchised and impoverished people. Obviously we\u2019re all implicated to some degree in the relationships of capital, but we should seek to challenge that where we can. It\u2019s not the sort of thing that comes to the fore in graphic design very often. Even less so in typographic design.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from <cite>How to design a Typeface<\/cite>, published by the Design Museum in 2010, pp, 83-88<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=jonathanblack -->\r\n\r\n<p>A couple of bits about bisexuality from Jonathan Black\u2019s article \u201cGay Liberation: Out of the Closets and into the Streets,\u201d from <cite>Defiance<\/cite> #2, 1971:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cPerhaps it is only our sexual programming, but it is a rarity for a person to be turned on to men and women simultaneously. Switching from men to women sequentially is more common; we still appear to be most excited when our sexual energy is channeled into one sex at a time.\u201d [Speak for yourself, Jonathan!]<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cIt is nevertheless tempting for straights to employ the prophylactic of bisexuality in confronting the threat of the gay movement.\u201d [\u2026I only have a vague idea of what he means here, based on the paragraph that follows it, which I\u2019m not going to quote. But I was amused by the phrase \u201cthe prophylactic of bisexuality.\u201d]<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=joncarroll19980401 -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cExperience is useless without memory and mindfulness.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Jon Carroll, Apr. 1, 1998<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=joncarroll19990217 -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cPlease, let the healing begin, right after I have the last word.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Jon Carroll, Feb. 17, 1999<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=joncarroll19990616 -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cThe important thing is to have a life where many odd things happen.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Jon Carroll, Jun. 16, 1999<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=joncarroll20010129 -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cThe energy free lunch that we have been eating for so long has finally risen up in its proverbial splendor: \u2018There is no such thing as me! Pay for the lunch!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Jon Carroll, Jan. 29, 2001<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=josephaddison -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cTrue happiness is of a retired nature, and an enemy to pomp and noise; it arises, in the first place, from the enjoyment of one\u2019s self, and in the next from the friendship and conversation of a few select companions.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Joseph Addison, <cite>The Spectator<\/cite>, March 17, 1911 (as quoted in <cite>Tam Lin<\/cite>, I think)<\/p>\r\n<p>(Yes, yes, for many people that\u2019s not true happiness. For that matter, it\u2019s often not for me either. But it often is.)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=judelawrobertdowneyjr -->\r\n\r\n<p>At some point, someone interviewed Jude Law about the Sherlock Holmes movies in which he co-starred with Robert Downey, Jr. <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150328222815\/http:\/\/sherlocksexualfrustrationblog.tumblr.com\/post\/1075188331\/jude-law-on-his-relationship-with-rdj-on-set\">The following exchange ensued<\/a>:<\/p>\r\n<div class=\"dialogue\">\r\n<p><b>Interviewer<\/b>: You had a bit of a bromance going on there.<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Jude Law<\/b>: What is this new term everyone\u2019s using? It\u2019s a horrible term. What about just a romance?<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Interviewer<\/b>: No, it\u2019s not the same. Because then you\u2019d have to star in a romantic comedy together or something.<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Jude Law<\/b>: We just have. Have you not seen it?<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p>(That may not be an entirely accurate quote\u2014I saw another version of that exchange that was a little different\u2014but I like this version so I\u2019m sticking with it.)<\/p>\r\n<p>One more quote while I\u2019m here, this time from <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150428202644\/http:\/\/www.mtv.com\/news\/1604911\/robert-downey-jr-jude-law-explore-bromance-on-sherlock-holmes-set\/\">Downey<\/a>: \u201cI think the word bromance is so pass\u00e9. We are two men who happen to be roommates who wrestle a lot and share a bed.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=judithbutler -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cOnce you decide that a single vulnerable minority can be sacrificed, you\u2019re operating within a fascist logic[\u2026] That means there might be a second one you\u2019re willing to sacrifice and a third, a fourth. Then what happens?\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Judith Butler, as quoted in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thepinknews.com\/2024\/12\/18\/judith-butler-interview-el-pais-gender-trans\/\">PinkNews article<\/a> in 2024<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=judysmall -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>\ud83c\udfb5 As long as the mushroom clouds don\u2019t rise<\/p>\r\n<p>Above our own suburban skies,<\/p>\r\n<p>We can pretend that the peace dove flies<\/p>\r\n<p>And that the revolution\u2019s here.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Judy Small, \u201dThe Revolution\u2019s Here\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=judysmall -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>\ud83c\udfb5 These are the people of our time no less than those whose names and<\/p>\r\n<p>Faces grace our papers\u2019 pages and our TV screens,<\/p>\r\n<p>People on whose labor in the shadows we have built our lives,<\/p>\r\n<p>Who get none of the glory and who bear most of the pain.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Judy Small, \u201cHow Many Times\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<h1 id=\"K\">K<\/h1>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=kameronhurley -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cThe heroes were always the ordinary people who pursued extraordinary change.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Kameron Hurley, <cite>The Light Brigade<\/cite><\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=kameronhurley -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cI like to challenge the expectations of story. I like to challenge the way I was taught language. I like to tear it down and remake it, because I see, so often, that what I was served up on a plate was, so often, in service to someone else\u2019s narrative, to someone else\u2019s wish for what the world would be\u2014a world that did not include me, or people like me, a world that pretended we never existed at all.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Kameron Hurley, \u201cTea, Bodies, and Business: Remaking the Hero Archetype,\u201d as reprinted in <cite>The Geek Feminist Revolution<\/cite>, p.&nbsp;97<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=karel\u010dapek -->\r\n\r\n<p>Turns out that Karel \u010capek, coiner of the word \u201crobot,\u201d was also a gardener, according to Lewis Gannett\u2019s introduction to \u010capek\u2019s <cite>War with the Newts<\/cite>.<\/p>\r\n<p>\u201c\u2019Let none think that real gardening is a bucolic and meditative occupation,\u2019 he wrote in <cite>The Gardener\u2019s Year<\/cite>, which appeared in the United States in 1931. \u2019It is an insatiable passion, like everything else to which a man gives his heart.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>And this is \u010capek\u2019s \u201cgardener\u2019s prayer,\u201d as also given in Gannett\u2019s intro (not sure who it was translated by):<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cO Lord, grant that in some way it may rain every day, say from about midnight until three o\u2019clock in the morning, but, You see, it must be gentle and warm so that it can soak in; grant that at the same time it shall not rain on campion, alyssum, helianthemum, lavender and the others which You, in Your infinite wisdom, know are drought-loving plants\u2014I will write their names on a bit of paper if You like\u2014and grant that the sun may shine the whole day long, but not everywhere (not, for instance, on spiraea, or on gentian, plantain lily and rhododendron), and not too much; that there may be plenty of dew and little wind, enough worms, no plant-lice and snails, no mildew, and that once a week thin liquid manure may fall down from heaven. Amen.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=karel\u010dapek -->\r\n\r\n<div class=\"dialogue\">\r\n<p><b>Helena<\/b>: Why don\u2019t you create a soul for [the robots]?<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p><b>Dr. Gall<\/b>: That\u2019s not in our power.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p><b>Fabry<\/b>: That\u2019s not in our interest.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p><b>Busman<\/b>: That would increase the cost of production.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014<cite>R.U.R.<\/cite>, by Karel \u010capek, act I<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=karlwilliams -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>\ud83c\udfb5 They say life\u2019s a journey, a highway from birth to death,<\/p>\r\n<p>Mapped in despair and traveled in hopelessness.<\/p>\r\n<p>Well, they may believe it, but just between you and me,<\/p>\r\n<p>The trick to the traveling is all in the company.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014\u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/sniff.numachi.com\/pages\/tiPLEASUR;ttPLEASUR.html\">It\u2019s a Pleasure to Know You<\/a>,\u201d by Karl Williams (I like the version of the tune as sung by the Short Sisters)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=katedicamillo -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>\u201cWhat if? [\u2026] Why not? [\u2026] Could it be?\u201d said Leo. [\u2026]<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cEnough,\u201d said Gloria.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cNo,\u201d said Leo Matienne, \u201cnot enough. Never enough. We must ask ourselves these questions as often as we dare. How will the world change if we do not question it?\u201d<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014<cite>The Magician\u2019s Elephant<\/cite>, by Kate DiCamillo, pp.&nbsp;142\u2013143<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=keeperoftheflame -->\r\n<!-- Sorttopic=keeperoftheflame -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cAt first I thought I\u2019d keep everything just as he left it, but I see now that was wrong. Nothing can stay as we leave it; all we can hope is that someone who loves us will put away our playthings tenderly.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Christine Forrest (played by Katharine Hepburn) in <cite>Keeper of the Flame<\/cite>, about her recently-deceased husband<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>(But the husband in question was a fascist, which makes this quote less generally useful than I would like.)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=kellylink -->\r\n\r\n<p>An excerpt from early on in Kelly Link\u2019s excellent 1996 story \u201cTravels with the Snow Queen.\u201d Content warning for vivid images of foot injuries, and semi-metaphorical eye and heart injuries.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>Your destination is North. The map that you are using is a mirror. You are always pulling the bits out of your bare feet, the pieces of the map that broke off and fell on the ground as the Snow Queen flew overhead in her sleigh. Where you are, where you are coming from, it is impossible to read a map made of paper. If it were that easy then everyone would be a traveler. You have heard of other travelers whose maps are breadcrumbs, whose maps are stones, whose maps are the four winds, whose maps are yellow bricks laid one after the other. You read your map with your foot, and behind you somewhere there must be another traveler whose map is the bloody footprints that you are leaving behind you.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>There is a map of fine white scars on the soles of your feet that tells you where you have been. When you are pulling the shards of the Snow Queen\u2019s looking-glass out of your feet, you remind yourself, you tell yourself to imagine how it felt when Kay\u2019s eyes, Kay\u2019s heart were pierced by shards of the same mirror. Sometimes it is safer to read maps with your feet.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=kimscott -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>During the rebuilding of St. Paul\u2019s Cathedral after the Great Fire of London, architect Christopher Wren \u201casked three bricklayers what they were doing. The first bricklayer responded, \u2018I\u2019m working.\u2019 The second said, \u2018I\u2019m building a wall.\u2019 The third [\u2026] said, \u2018I\u2019m building a cathedral to the Almighty.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201c[\u2026] Each bricklayer cared about something different, even though all three were working on the same thing.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from <cite>Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity<\/cite>, by Kim Scott, p.&nbsp;51<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=kurtvonnegutjr -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cThere are only two majors at Swarthmore: Swarthmore and engineering. And most of the engineering majors are minoring in Swarthmore anyway.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (paraphrased)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<h1 id=\"L\">L<\/h1>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=lashawnmwanak -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cWalking home in the rain. The swish of tires on wet pavement. All the snow is melting. What better to break ice than its own self?\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014LaShawn M. Wanak<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=laurieandersonsnb032 -->\r\n\r\n<p>NSFW excerpt from a 1974 Laurie Anderson piece, <cite>As:If<\/cite>:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>In 1971, I tried to seduce someone through a door. This guy was going out with my roommate and I wanted to sleep with him. He would come over to our apartment and they would go into her room, shut the door, and start to make love. Then I would get my violin and go into the living room, which was next to her bedroom, and play Tschaikovsky.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>I hoped he would hear me and recognize how sensitive, and sensual, I was and want to be with me instead of her.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>ON TAPE: FIRST 30 BARS OF TSCHAIKOVSKY VIOLIN CONCERTO PLAYED BY OISTRACH; THEN A PRE-RECORDED TAPE OF PERFORMER PLAYING SAME PASSAGE.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>The only thing I didn\u2019t count on was that it sounded one way when Oistrach played it, another way when I played it, and still another way when it was coming through a door while fucking.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014<cite>Stories from the Nerve Bible<\/cite>, p.&nbsp;32<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=laurieandersonsnb040 -->\r\n\r\n<p>For \u201cDuets on Ice,\u201d a performance in the 1970s, Laurie Anderson played her violin while standing in ice skates whose blades were frozen into blocks of ice. \u201cWhen the ice melted and I lost my balance, the concert was over.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>She adds:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cIn between songs I talked about the parallels between ice skating and violin playing: blades over a surface, balance, simultaneity, the constant state of imbalance followed by balance followed by imbalance, like walking, like music, like everything.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Laurie Anderson, <cite>Stories from the Nerve Bible<\/cite>, p.&nbsp;40<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=laurieandersonsnb109 -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cAt the time, I was very adamant that performances couldn\u2019t and shouldn\u2019t be documented. I thought that since my performances were about memory, the best way to record them was in other people\u2019s memories. Then I realized that other people didn\u2019t remember them very well at all.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Laurie Anderson, <cite>Stories from the Nerve Bible<\/cite>, p.&nbsp;109<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=laurieandersonsnb224 -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cEventually, [film] editing began to seep into my daily life. I\u2019d be sitting in a restaurant talking with someone and suddenly I\u2019d look around and think, \u2018Wait a second! This isn\u2019t very well lit! I wonder if we have any other coverage of this?\u2019 Or worse, \u2018Who wrote this anyway?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Laurie Anderson, <cite>Stories from the Nerve Bible<\/cite>, p.&nbsp;224<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=lauriecolwinhatt046 -->\r\n\r\n<p>From <cite>Happy All the Time<\/cite>, by Laurie Colwin, published in 1978 (pp.&nbsp;46\u201347 of the hardcover edition). After an awkward quasi-date, Vincent kissed Misty and then fled; now he\u2019s invited her out to dinner to attempt to apologize, and the following conversation ensues:<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>\u201cDid you actually drag me out to dinner to tell me that you didn\u2019t mean to kiss me?\u201d She was still smiling.<\/p>\r\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m sorry,\u201d said Vincent. \u201cI was just being conversational.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p>\u201cConversational about <em>kissing<\/em>?\u201d said Misty. \u201cVery interesting.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p>\u201cWhat I meant to say is that I wanted to kiss you, but I didn\u2019t mean to.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p>\u201cWell, that certainly clears things up,\u201d said Misty. \u201cYou and I seem to have very different ideas about intent <em>and<\/em> about kissing.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p>\u201cI mean, you can\u2019t just go around kissing people,\u201d said Vincent.<\/p>\r\n<p>\u201cYou did,\u201d said Misty.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=lauriecolwinhatt087 -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cLove, he reflected, was not at all like science. It seemed unfair to him that there was nowhere one might research except to go to the thing itself.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from Laurie Colwin\u2019s 1978 novel <cite>Happy All the Time<\/cite>, p.&nbsp;87<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=lauriecolwinhatt100 -->\r\n\r\n<p>An exchange between Guido (one of the male leads) and his new secretary Stanley, who\u2019s taking a leave of absence from being a college student:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>Stanley wrote a rapid, legible hand. He made excellent coffee. He loved to answer the telephone because of the groovy voices and he did in fact type like a demon. Shortly before lunch, he presented Guido with a stack of typed letters. All the <i>w<\/i>\u2019s had been left out and were written in an Italic hand.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cIs the <i>w<\/i> key on that typewriter broken?\u201d Guido asked.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cNo, man. It\u2019s a little device I made up from going crazy typing term papers. See, you pick a letter and then you leave it out and then you write it in. It\u2019s a little challenge. I discovered it when I was on ups.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cUps?\u201d said Guido.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cSpeed,\u201d said Stanley. \u201cYou know, amphetamines and stuff. All us young persons used to do it. My mind was turning into pea soup, so I stopped. But you discover some really weird stuff, like what I call \u2019the left-out-letter syndrome.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from Laurie Colwin\u2019s 1978 novel <cite>Happy All the Time<\/cite>, pp.&nbsp;100\u2013101<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=lauriegraham -->\r\n<!-- Sorttopic=edgarwallace -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cEdgar Wallace [was the] author of 170 novels, twelve of them in one year alone. [\u2026] He needed money and he wrote his very successful mysteries fast. There\u2019s a joke that a caller was told Mr Wallace couldn\u2019t come to the phone because he was at the midpoint of writing his next novel. \u2018Midpoint?\u2019 said the caller. \u2018I\u2019ll hold.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Laurie Graham, from a <a href=\"https:\/\/lauriegraham.com\/2021\/06\/20\/losing-the-plot\/\">blog post<\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=leighbrackett -->\r\n\r\n<p>\"Skaith's old ginger-colored sun was going down in a senile fury of crimson and molten brass, laying streaks of unhealthy brilliance across the water.\"<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Leigh Brackett, <cite>The Ginger Star<\/cite>, p.&nbsp;5<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=leonrkass -->\r\n\r\n<p>Leon R. Kass tells off those of us who are so shameless (nay, uncivilized (nay, unhuman!)) as to lick ice-cream cones in full public view of other people:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>[\u2026] eating is out of place in public, except at those public occasions explicitly convened to include it (like public festivals) or in those public places set aside for eating (like restaurants or picnic areas). A man eating as he walks down the street eats in the face of all passersby, who must then either avert their gaze or observe him objectifiedly in the act. Worst of all from this point of view are those more uncivilized forms of eating, like licking an ice-cream cone\u2014a catlike activity that has been made acceptable in informal America but that still offends those who know why eating in public is offensive.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>I fear that I may by this remark lose the sympathy of many readers, people who will condescendingly regard as quaint or even priggish the (not-only-Talmudic) view that eating in the street is for dogs. Modern America\u2019s rising tide of informality has already washed out many long-standing customs\u2014their reasons long before forgotten\u2014that served well to regulate the boundary between public and private; and in many quarters complete shamelessness is treated as proof of genuine liberation from the allegedly arbitrary constraints of manners. To cite one small but telling example: yawning with uncovered mouth. Not just the uneducated rustic but children of the cultural elite are now regularly seen yawning openly in public (not so much brazenly or forgetfully as indifferently and \u201cnaturally\u201d), unaware that it is an embarrassment to human self-command to be caught in the grip of involuntary bodily movements (like sneezing, belching, and hiccuping and even the involuntary bodily display of embarrassment itself, blushing). But eating on the street\u2014even when undertaken, say, because one is between appointments and has no other time to eat\u2014displays in fact precisely such lack of self-control: It betokens enslavement to the belly. Hunger must be sated now; it cannot wait. Though the walking street eater still moves in the direction of his vision, he shows himself as a being led by his appetites. Lacking utensils for cutting and lifting to mouth, he will often be seen using his teeth for tearing off chewable portions, just like any animal. Eating on the run does not even allow the human way of enjoying one\u2019s food, for it is more like simple fueling; it is hard to savor or even to know what one is eating when the main point is to hurriedly fill the belly, now running on empty. This doglike feeding, if one must engage in it, ought to be kept from public view, where, even if <em>we<\/em> feel no shame, others are compelled to witness our shameful behavior.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Leon R. Kass, <cite>The Hungry Soul: Eating and the Perfecting of Our Nature<\/cite> (1999), pp.&nbsp;148-149<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=leonrosselson -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>\ud83c\udfb5 Though we\u2019ve nothing but our voices, yet our voices make us strong,<\/p>\r\n<p>Turn despair into defiance and defiance into song.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from \u201cThe Power of Song,\u201d by Leon Rosselson<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=lesterdelrey -->\r\n<!-- Sorttopic=clmoore -->\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Lester del Rey on the impact on the field of C. L. Moore\u2019s 1933 story \u201cShambleau\u201d:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>Back in the fall of 1933, I opened the November issue of <cite>Weird Tales<\/cite> to find a story with the provocative but meaningless title \u201cShambleau,\u201d by an unknown writer named C. L. Moore\u2014and life was never quite the same afterward. Up to that time, science-fiction readers had accepted the mechanistic and unemotional stories of other worlds and future times without question. After the publication of Moore\u2019s story, however, the bleakness of such writing would never again be satisfactory.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>[\u2026]<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>It is probably impossible to explain to modern readers how great an impact that first C. L. Moore story had. Science fiction has learned a great deal from her many examples. But if you could go back to the old science-fiction magazines of the time and read a few issues, and then turn to \u201cShambleau\u201d for the first time, you might begin to understand. The influences of that story were and are tremendous.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Here, for the first time in the field, we find mood, feeling, and color. Here is an alien who is truly <em>alien<\/em>\u2014far different from the crude monsters and slightly-altered humans found in other stories. Here are rounded and well-developed characters. Northwest Smith, for instance, is neither a good guy nor a bad guy\u2014he may be slightly larger than life, but he displays all aspects of humanity. In \u201cShambleau\u201d we also experience as never before both the horror at what we may find in space and the romance of space itself. And\u2014certainly for the first time that I can remember in the field\u2014this story presents the sexual drive of humanity in some of its complexity.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from del Rey\u2019s 1975 introduction to <cite>The Best of C. L. Moore<\/cite><\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=lewiscarroll -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>He had forty-two boxes, all carefully packed,<\/p>\r\n<p>With his name painted clearly on each:<\/p>\r\n<p>But since he omitted to mention the fact,<\/p>\r\n<p>They were all left behind on the beach.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Lewis Carroll, <a href=\"http:\/\/www5.herkos.rt-15-01.csuohio.edu\/Carroll\/texts\/fit-1.html\">The Hunting of the Snark<\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=lewiscarroll -->\r\n\r\n<p>Lewis Carroll on digression:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cI have wandered from the point: that is a peculiarity, if I may be permitted to say so, incidental to life; and, as I remarked on an occasion which time will not suffer me more fully to specify, \u2018What, after all, <em>is<\/em> life?\u2019 nor did I find any one of the individuals present (we were a party of nine, including the waiter, and it was while the soup was being removed that the above-recorded observation was made) capable of furnishing me with a rational answer to the question.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/schnark.github.io\/lewis-carroll\/html\/magazines\/novelty-and-romancement.html\">Novelty and Romancement<\/a>\u201d (1856)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=lewisthomas -->\r\n\r\n<p>In 1974 or so, Lewis Thomas wrote an interesting essay titled \u201cComputers,\u201d which he reprinted in his book <cite>The Lives of a Cell<\/cite>. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tumblr.com\/biologywatcher\/119091831245\/lewis-thomas-computers\">whole essay<\/a> is interesting, but I especially like this bit:<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>Even when technology succeeds in manufacturing a machine as big as Texas to do everything we recognize as human, it will still be, at best, a single individual. This amounts to nothing, practically speaking. To match what we can do, there would have to be 3 billion of them with more coming down the assembly line, and I doubt that anyone will put up the money, much less make room. And even so, they would all have to be wired together, intricately and delicately, as we are, communicating with each other, talking incessantly, listening. If they weren\u2019t at each other this way, all their waking hours, they wouldn\u2019t be anything like human, after all. I think we\u2019re safe, for a long time ahead.<\/p>\r\n<p>It is in our collective behavior that we are most mysterious. We won\u2019t be able to construct machines like ourselves until we\u2019ve understood this, and we\u2019re not even close. All we know is the phenomenon: we spend our time sending messages to each other, talking and trying to listen at the same time, exchanging information. This seems to be our most urgent biological function; it is what we do with our lives.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p>The first paragraph seems to get quoted a lot for both its prescience and its lack of prescience; he seemed to think that we would get a single powerful AI before we had networking. (Which really probably just means he didn\u2019t anticipate Moore\u2019s Law; it looks like he thought that building multiple powerful computers would be too expensive. Well, and he also didn\u2019t anticipate the Internet, nor how hard AI would turn out to be.) The second paragraph seems to get quoted a lot in more philosophical contexts, with a focus on human communication instead of on computers. I like the juxtaposition of the two paragraphs, as they appeared in the original essay.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=lewsully -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>\ud83c\udfb5 For the train today to Morrow, if the schedule it is right,<\/p>\r\n<p>Today it goes to Morrow, and returns tomorrow night.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from \u201cTo Morrow,\u201d by Lew Sully<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=linmanuelmiranda -->\r\n\r\n<div class=\"dialogue\">\r\n<p><b>Burr<\/b>: The constitution\u2019s a mess.<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Hamilton<\/b>: So it needs amendments.<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Burr<\/b>: It\u2019s full of contradictions.<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Hamilton<\/b>: So is independence.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014<cite>Hamilton<\/cite>, by Lin-Manuel Miranda<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=lloydalexander -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cIt was a small dragon,\u201d admitted Glew. \u201cAbout the size of a weasel. [\u2026] I would have slain it,\u201d he added, with a huge, rattling sigh. \u201cI tried. But the vicious thing bit me. I still carry the marks.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Lloyd Alexander, <cite>The Castle of Llyr<\/cite><\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=lloydalexander -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cThere is much to be known, and above all much to be loved, be it the turn of the seasons or the shape of a river pebble. Indeed, the more we find to love, the more we add to the measure of our hearts.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Adaon, <cite>The Black Cauldron<\/cite>, by Lloyd Alexander<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=lloydstone -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>\ud83c\udfb5 My country\u2019s skies are bluer than the ocean<\/p>\r\n<p>And sunlight beams on cloverleaf and pine,<\/p>\r\n<p>But other lands have sunlight, too, and clover,<\/p>\r\n<p>And skies are everywhere as blue as mine.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Lloyd Stone, \u201cA Song of Peace,\u201d also known as \u201cThis is my song\u201d (my understanding is that these words were part of the original poem, which was later set to the music of Jean Sibelius\u2019s \u201cFinlandia\u201d)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=lordbyron -->\r\n<!-- Sorttopic=lordbyron -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cTo dispel the tedium of his life as a promiscuous dissipated expatriate, [Lord Byron] began [writing] <cite>Don Juan<\/cite> in the summer of 1818\u2026\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from an explanatory card at the Pierpont Morgan Library, I think<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>(In case any of you were looking for a way to dispel similar tedium.)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=lorddunsany -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>\u201cAway we go, Oho, oho, oho<\/p>\r\n<p>A drop of rum for you and me<\/p>\r\n<p>And the world\u2019s as round as the letter O<\/p>\r\n<p>And round it runs the sea.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Lord Dunsany<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=lostcitythe -->\r\n<!-- Sorttopic=lostcitythe -->\r\n\r\n<div class=\"dialogue\">\r\n<p><b>Alan<\/b>: [\u2026] so you can have your cake and get what you want.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p><b>Loretta<\/b>: \u201cAnd eat it too\u201d?<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p><b>Alan<\/b>: If that\u2019s what you want to do with your cake, fine.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014<cite>The Lost City<\/cite><\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=louisamayalcott -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cIt is an excellent plan to have some place where we can go to be quiet, when things vex or grieve us.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Marmee, in <cite>Little Women<\/cite>, by Louisa May Alcott<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=louisbrandeis -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cThe greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understandings.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=loustathis -->\r\n<!-- Sorttopic=philipkdick -->\r\n\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>In [PKD\u2019s] books, people muddle through their lives, coping with the cold awfulness of it all as best they can, and await their deliverance\u2014<em>push<\/em> for it\u2014and then recoil in horror when it comes, because it\u2019s always a hell of a lot heavier than they bargained for.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>[\u2026] Dick\u2019s perception of the way the universe worked stood in direct contradition to the rational Campbellian worldview, which held that all things are ultimately knowable and thus controllable. [\u2026] Dick never claimed to have the answers, and he wasn\u2019t too sure about his questions, either.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>[\u2026] As the sixties washed over us, [\u2026] Dick\u2019s vision of a universe out of control began resonating more closely with the world-at-large (or, to use his own preferred Pre-Socratic terminology: his \u2018idios kosmos\u2019 or personal reality [came more into] phase with the \u2018koinos kosmos\u2019 or shared, objective reality).<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>[\u2026] In a letter written in June of 1969 [\u2026], Dick said: \u2018In virtually all of my books the protagonist is suffering from a breakdown of his <i>idios kosmos<\/i>\u2014at least we hope that\u2019s what\u2019s breaking down, not the <i>koinos kosmos<\/i>. [\u2026] we must have our <i>idios kosmos<\/i> to stay sane.\u2019<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from Lou Stathis\u2019s 1984 Afterword to Dick\u2019s <cite>Time Out of Joint<\/cite><\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=lpvenen -->\r\n\r\n<p>In <cite>Kalethea: A Peep into the Realms of Poesy<\/cite>, a 1926 collection of poems by my grandfather\u2019s grandfather, L.P.&nbsp;Venen, I like this metaphor, from the beginning of a poem called \u201cMy Telescope\u201d (p.&nbsp;50):<\/p>\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>As when in some renowned old library,<\/p>\r\n<p>I strive to catch the titles vague and dim<\/p>\r\n<p>Of books piled high, my strong arm aideth me,<\/p>\r\n<p>So doth my goodly telescope go forth<\/p>\r\n<p>To search among the upper shelves in God\u2019s<\/p>\r\n<p>Great reading room for tomes that he hath placed<\/p>\r\n<p>So high.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=ltimmelduchamp -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cThe apparently universal avatar for the science fiction enthusiast is an adolescent boy who is mad for gimmicks and all things mechanical. This avatar has been with us since the days of Hugo Gernsback and is the reason people continually repeat the clich\u00e9 that the Golden Age of science fiction is twelve. I\u2019d like to propose a complementary avatar, at least as old: that of the woman passionately interested in challenging the way things are, passionately determined to understand how everything works.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014L. Timmel Duchamp, from \u201cFor a Genealogy of Feminist SF: Reflections on Women, Feminism, and Science Fiction, 1818\u20131960,\u201d as reprinted in <cite><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aqueductpress.com\/books\/978-0-9746559-3-2.php \">The Grand Conversation<\/a><\/cite><\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<h1 id=\"M\">M<\/h1>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=madelinerogers -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cThe early media moguls were idea merchants who knew that technological innovation \u2026 [was] the means of reaching readers but that editorial content was the key to attracting and keeping readers.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Madeline Rogers<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=maggia -->\r\n<!-- Sorttopic=maggia -->\r\n\r\n<p>From the Wikipedia entry on the fictional crime syndicate known as the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Maggia_(comics)\">Maggia<\/a>, from Marvel Comics:<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>Its structure is somewhat similar to the Mafia[\u2026], but the Maggia differs in that it frequently hires supervillains and mad scientists to work for them.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=manlywadewellman -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201c[Brothers] that choose \u2026 one another \u2026 have a chance to turn out better than\u2026brothers born to the same father and mother, [who] have to do the best they can with just their own blood kin.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Silver John, in a story by Manly Wade Wellman<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=marcroskin -->\r\n\r\n<p>Marc Roskin, an exec producer and director on <cite>Leverage<\/cite>, talking about the big shootout scene in \u201cThe Big Bang Job\u201d (s3e15), and the fact that they didn\u2019t show blood in that scene:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s this thing called Standards and Practices, where they really won\u2019t let you have blood, or nudity. [Roskin pauses for a beat. The other guy on camera starts to say something, but Roskin continues.] <em>That<\/em> woulda been kinda weird, if everyone was naked in that scene.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=margaretatwood -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201c[She used] taunts and blandishments. \u2026I wish we still had blandishments. They sound so useful.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Margaret Atwood, speaking about <cite>Alias Grace<\/cite><\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=margepiercy -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cWe kept hoping this insanity could not continue. A government that was mad? Who could believe it. Business as usual, propaganda, some violence, but surely it would stop there. Surely the other powers would not permit what the Nazis said they were going to do to us. We kept expecting Hitler to begin to act like a sane government. He has the big industrial barons behind him now, we told each other, they will make him relent. The Krupps, the Farbens, they don\u2019t want to tear the country apart. If they insist, he will leave us in peace. During the Olympic Games, things seemed to be mellowing. We kept hoping. Every so often we or our friends would go and investigate emigration, but nobody would give us visas. The British wouldn\u2019t let us in Palestine and didn\u2019t want us in England and the United States didn\u2019t want Jews. But after Kristallnacht, we had no hope, no illusion. We ran. We left our dead in the earth we had lived on for centuries, and we ran.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from <cite>Gone to Soldiers<\/cite>, by Marge Piercy<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=mariaisabelbarreno -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cLet no one tell me that silence gives consent, because whoever is silent dissents.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Maria Isabel Barreno<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=mariamitchell -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cWhat a pity that we cannot take dye stuff from the stars, so as to create a new brilliancy in fashion.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Maria Mitchell, astronomer (1818-1889), as quoted in the play <cite>Out of Our Fathers\u2019 House<\/cite>, which was \u201carranged for the stage\u201d by Eve Merriam, Paula Wagner, and Jack Hofsiss<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=mariapricelatouche -->\r\n\r\n<p>On arithmetic:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>July 1878.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>I am nearly driven wild with the Dorcas accounts, and by Mrs. Wakefield\u2019s orders they are to be done now. I do hate sums. There is no greater mistake than to call arithmetic an <em>exact<\/em> science. There are Permutations and Aberrations discernible to minds entirely noble like mine; subtle variations which ordinary accountants fail to discover; hidden laws of Number which it requires a mind like mine to perceive. For instance, if you add a sum from the bottom up, and then again from the top down, the result is always different. Again if you multiply a number by another number before you have had your tea, and then again after, the product will be different. It is also remarkable that the Post-tea product is more likely to agree with other people\u2019s calculations than the Pre-tea result.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Try the experiment, and if you do not find it as I say, you are a mere sciolist, a poor mechanical thinker, and not gifted as I am, with subtle perceptions.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Of course I find myself not appreciated as an accountant. Mrs. Wakefield made me give up the book to Rose and her governess (who are here), and was quite satisfied with the work of those inferior intellects.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Maria Price La Touche, from her 1908 book <cite>The Letters of a Noble Woman<\/cite><\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>(I think I saw someone refer to the book as a novel, but when I look at it <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/books\/edition\/The_Letters_of_a_Noble_Woman_Mrs_La_Touc\/aq0xAQAAIAAJ\">in Google Books<\/a>, it looks like a nonfiction collection of letters.)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=markbaker -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cReaders look for information the way wild animals forage for food\u2014seeking good-enough information that takes the least effort to find and digest. The Web [makes] information foraging easier, and therefore people spend less time struggling with difficult content. They prefer short information snacks, which are best provided by Every Page is Page One topics.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from the \u201cexpanded outline\u201d in Mark Baker\u2019s 2013 book <cite>Every Page is Page One: Topic-based Writing for Technical Communication and the Web<\/cite><\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=marktwain -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cIt was at this time that I concluded to sell my soul to Satan. Steel was away down, so was St. Paul; it was the same with all the desirable stocks, in fact, and so, if I did not turn out to be away down myself, now was my time to raise a stake and make my fortune.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Mark Twain, \u201cSold to Satan\u201d (1923?)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=marktwain -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>[He] informed me that he was a page.<\/p>\r\n<p>\u201cGo \u2019long,\u201d I said; \u201cyou ain\u2019t more than a paragraph.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Mark Twain, <cite>A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur\u2019s Court<\/cite><\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=marktwain -->\r\n\r\n<p>Description of a particular woman\u2019s speech pattern, from <cite>A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur\u2019s Court<\/cite>. The narrator kind of mocks this woman for the way she talks for most of the book, but I rather liked the way this instance (halfway through the book) turned out:<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>I was gradually coming to have a mysterious and shuddery reverence for this girl; nowadays whenever she pulled out from the station and got her train fairly started on one of those horizonless transcontinental sentences of hers, it was borne in upon me that I was standing in the awful presence of the Mother of the German Language. I was so impressed with this, that sometimes when she began to empty one of these sentences on me I unconsciously took the very attitude of reverence, and stood uncovered; and if words had been water, I had been drowned, sure. She had exactly the German way; whatever was in her mind to be delivered, whether a mere remark, or a sermon, or a cyclopedia, or the history of a war, she would get it into a single sentence or die. Whenever the literary German dives into a sentence, that is the last you are going to see of him till he emerges on the other side of his Atlantic with his verb in his mouth.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=marktwain -->\r\n\r\n<p>Long quote from <cite>A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur\u2019s Court<\/cite>, an impassioned cri de c\u0153ur about government and monarchy and freedom. I copied and pasted the following paragraphs from <a href=\"http:\/\/etc.usf.edu\/lit2go\/174\/a-connecticut-yankee-in-king-arthurs-court\/3067\/chapter-13-freemen\/\">an online edition of the book<\/a>. I found the second paragraph below, about the French Revolution, especially compelling, but am providing the other paragraphs as well, for context.<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>The talk of these meek people had a strange enough sound in a formerly American ear. They were freemen, but they could not leave the estates of their lord or their bishop without his permission; they could not prepare their own bread, but must have their corn ground and their bread baked at his mill and his bakery, and pay roundly for the same; [\u2026300 words of detailed listing of bad stuff that the lords did to the peasants elided here by Jed\u2026]; and finally, if the freeman, grown desperate with his tortures, found his life unendurable under such conditions, and sacrificed it and fled to death for mercy and refuge, the gentle Church condemned him to eternal fire, the gentle law buried him at midnight at the cross-roads with a stake through his back, and his master the baron or the bishop confiscated all his property and turned his widow and his orphans out of doors.<\/p>\r\n<p>And here were these freemen assembled in the early morning to work on their lord the bishop\u2019s road three days each\u2014gratis; every head of a family, and every son of a family, three days each, gratis, and a day or so added for their servants. Why, it was like reading about France and the French, before the ever memorable and blessed Revolution, which swept a thousand years of such villainy away in one swift tidal-wave of blood\u2014one: a settlement of that hoary debt in the proportion of half a drop of blood for each hogshead of it that had been pressed by slow tortures out of that people in the weary stretch of ten centuries of wrong and shame and misery the like of which was not to be mated but in hell. There were two \u201cReigns of Terror,\u201d if we would but remember it and consider it; the one wrought murder in hot passion, the other in heartless cold blood; the one lasted mere months, the other had lasted a thousand years; the one inflicted death upon ten thousand persons, the other upon a hundred millions; but our shudders are all for the \u201chorrors\u201d of the minor Terror, the momentary Terror, so to speak; whereas, what is the horror of swift death by the axe, compared with lifelong death from hunger, cold, insult, cruelty, and heart-break? What is swift death by lightning compared with death by slow fire at the stake? A city cemetery could contain the coffins filled by that brief Terror which we have all been so diligently taught to shiver at and mourn over; but all France could hardly contain the coffins filled by that older and real Terror\u2014that unspeakably bitter and awful Terror which none of us has been taught to see in its vastness or pity as it deserves.<\/p>\r\n<p>These poor ostensible freemen who were sharing their breakfast and their talk with me, were as full of humble reverence for their king and Church and nobility as their worst enemy could desire. There was something pitifully ludicrous about it. I asked them if they supposed a nation of people ever existed, who, with a free vote in every man\u2019s hand, would elect that a single family and its descendants should reign over it forever, whether gifted or boobies, to the exclusion of all other families\u2014including the voter\u2019s; and would also elect that a certain hundred families should be raised to dizzy summits of rank, and clothed on with offensive transmissible glories and privileges to the exclusion of the rest of the nation\u2019s families\u2014including his own.<\/p>\r\n<p>They all looked unhit, and said they didn\u2019t know; that they had never thought about it before, and it hadn\u2019t ever occurred to them that a nation could be so situated that every man could have a say in the government. I said I had seen one\u2014and that it would last until it had an Established Church. Again they were all unhit\u2014at first. But presently one man looked up and asked me to state that proposition again; and state it slowly, so it could soak into his understanding. I did it; and after a little he had the idea, and he brought his fist down and said he didn\u2019t believe a nation where every man had a vote would voluntarily get down in the mud and dirt in any such way; and that to steal from a nation its will and preference must be a crime and the first of all crimes. I said to myself:<\/p>\r\n<p>\u201cThis one\u2019s a man. If I were backed by enough of his sort, I would make a strike for the welfare of this country, and try to prove myself its loyalest citizen by making a wholesome change in its system of government.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p>You see my kind of loyalty was loyalty to one\u2019s country, not to its institutions or its office-holders. The country is the real thing, the substantial thing, the eternal thing; it is the thing to watch over, and care for, and be loyal to; institutions are extraneous, they are its mere clothing, and clothing can wear out, become ragged, cease to be comfortable, cease to protect the body from winter, disease, and death. To be loyal to rags, to shout for rags, to worship rags, to die for rags\u2014that is a loyalty of unreason, it is pure animal; it belongs to monarchy, was invented by monarchy; let monarchy keep it. I was from Connecticut, whose Constitution declares \u201cthat all political power is inherent in the people, and all free governments are founded on their authority and instituted for their benefit; and that they have at all times an undeniable and indefeasible right to alter their form of government in such a manner as they may think expedient.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p>Under that gospel, the citizen who thinks he sees that the commonwealth\u2019s political clothes are worn out, and yet holds his peace and does not agitate for a new suit, is disloyal; he is a traitor. That he may be the only one who thinks he sees this decay, does not excuse him; it is his duty to agitate anyway, and it is the duty of the others to vote him down if they do not see the matter as he does.<\/p>\r\n<p>And now here I was, in a country where a right to say how the country should be governed was restricted to six persons in each thousand of its population. For the nine hundred and ninety-four to express dissatisfaction with the regnant system and propose to change it, would have made the whole six shudder as one man, it would have been so disloyal, so dishonorable, such putrid black treason. So to speak, I was become a stockholder in a corporation where nine hundred and ninety-four of the members furnished all the money and did all the work, and the other six elected themselves a permanent board of direction and took all the dividends. It seemed to me that what the nine hundred and ninety-four dupes needed was a new deal. The thing that would have best suited the circus side of my nature would have been to resign the Boss-ship and get up an insurrection and turn it into a revolution; but I knew that the Jack Cade or the Wat Tyler who tries such a thing without first educating his materials up to revolution grade is almost absolutely certain to get left. I had never been accustomed to getting left, even if I do say it myself. Wherefore, the \u201cdeal\u201d which had been for some time working into shape in my mind was of a quite different pattern from the Cade-Tyler sort.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p>\u2026I feel that I should note that I don\u2019t endorse the idea that violent revolution is necessarily the best response to oppression. But I thought that was a pretty powerfully written piece nonetheless.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=martinlutherkingjr -->\r\n\r\n<p>Some excerpts from Martin Luther King\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.africa.upenn.edu\/Articles_Gen\/Letter_Birmingham.html\">Letter from Birmingham Jail<\/a>:<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.<\/p>\r\n<p>\u2026<\/p>\r\n<p>Lamentably, it is an historical fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily.<\/p>\r\n<p>\u2026<\/p>\r\n<p>We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct action campaign that was \u201cwell timed\u201d in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word \u201cWait!\u201d It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This \u201cWait\u201d has almost always meant \u201cNever.\u201d We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that \u201cjustice too long delayed is justice denied.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p>\u2026<\/p>\r\n<p>I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro\u2019s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen\u2019s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to \u201corder\u201d than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: \u201cI agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action\u201d; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man\u2019s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a \u201cmore convenient season.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p>\u2026<\/p>\r\n<p>Actually, we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring it out in the open, where it can be seen and dealt with.<\/p>\r\n<p>\u2026<\/p>\r\n<p>\u2026 the strangely irrational notion that there is something in the very flow of time that will inevitably cure all ills. Actually, time itself is neutral; it can be used either destructively or constructively. More and more I feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than have the people of good will. \u2026 We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right.<\/p>\r\n<p>\u2026<\/p>\r\n<p>So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice?<\/p>\r\n<p>\u2026<\/p>\r\n<p>Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away and the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear drenched communities, and in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=marywollstonecraft -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cNot having leisure or patience to follow this desultory writer through all the devious tracks in which his fancy has started fresh game[\u2026]\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Mary Wollstonecraft, criticizing Edmund Burke, in a note about why she wrote <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/A_Vindication_of_the_Rights_of_Men\">A Vindication of the Rights of Men<\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=mervynpeake -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>\u201cGlorious,\u201d said Steerpike, \u201cis a dictionary word. We are all imprisoned by the dictionary. We choose out of that vast, paper-walled prison our convicts, the little black printed words, when in truth we need fresh sounds to utter, new enfranchised noises which would produce a new effect. In dead and shackled language, my dears, you are glorious, but oh, to give vent to a brand new sound that might convince you of what I really think of you, as you sit there in your purple splendor, side by side! But no, it is impossible. Life is too fleet for onomatopoeia. Dead words defy me. I can make no sound, dear ladies, that is apt.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p>\u201cYou could try,\u201d said Clarice. \u201cWe aren\u2019t busy.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Mervyn Peake, <cite>Titus Groan,<\/cite> p.&nbsp;305 of the most common paperback edition<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=mervynpeake -->\r\n\r\n<p>Some bits of Mervyn Peake:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cSuckled on shadows; weaned, as it were, on webs of ritual: for his ears, echoes, for his eyes, a labyrinth of stone: and yet within his body something other\u2014other than this umbrageous legacy.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cHeir to a crumbling summit: to a sea of nettles: to an empire of red rust: to rituals\u2018 footprints ankle-deep in stone.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cHe has learned an alphabet of arch and aisle: the language of dim stairs and moth-hung rafters.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cIs Time\u2019s cold scroll recoiling on itself until the dead years speak, or is it in the throb of <em>now<\/em> that the specters wake and wander through the walls?\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cThere was a Library and it is ashes. [\u2026] Than its stone walls its paper walls are thicker; armored with learning, with philosophy, with poetry that drifts or dances, clamped though it is in midnight.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201c[\u2026] he mourns through each languid gesture, each fine-boned feature, as though his body were glass and at its center his inverted heart like a pendent tear.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014all from pp.&nbsp;1\u20133 of <cite>Gormenghast<\/cite><\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=mervynpeake -->\r\n\r\n<p>Suppose one is writing a book, and one writes the sentence \u201cHe had entered a disused chimney at ground level.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>If one were a mere mortal, one might follow that with a prosaic sentence like \u201cThe chimney contained a set of small mirrors that he used to spy on people in the rooms above.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>But if one were Mervyn Peake, one might instead follow with a sentence like this one:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cIt was very dark, and this darkness was not so much mitigated as intensified by a series of little shining mirrors that held the terminal reflections of what was going on in those rooms which, one above the other, flanked the high chimneylike funnel that rose from where the young man stood in the darkness to where the high air meandered over the weather-broken roofs, which, rough and cracked as stale bread, blushed horribly in the prying rays of sundown.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014<cite>Gormenghast<\/cite>, p.&nbsp;13<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=metapianycist -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>tired: gender binary<\/p>\r\n<p>wired: building gender from source<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014@<a href=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@metapianycist@queer.party\/100251394789127575\">metapianycist@queer.party<\/a>, 2018<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=michelleyeoh -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cWe can go to these universes where you go, \u2018That\u2019s crazy, that\u2019s outrageous, that\u2019s totally out there, it\u2019s not possible\u2019\u2014but the intensity of the emotions, the sincerity of the love, or confusion, or heartbreak, it\u2019s so tangible and so real that you believe it.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Michelle Yeoh, in a making-of segment from <cite>Everything Everywhere All at Once<\/cite> (\u201cPutting Everything on the Bagel: Cooking Up the Multiverse\u201d)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=migueldecervantes -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201c[W]hat with little sleep and much reading his brains got so dry that he lost his wits.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014<cite>Don Quixote<\/cite>, by Miguel Cervantes, ch.&nbsp;1, trans. John Ormsby<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=mikejittlov -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cMay all your good dreams and fine wishes come true.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Mike Jittlov, <cite>The Wizard of Speed and Time<\/cite><\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=moniquewittig -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>\u201c[\u2026] everything that recalls the O, the zero or the circle, [evokes] the vulval ring.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>[\u2026]<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cThe women say that the feminaries give pride of place to the symbols of the circle, the circumference, the ring, the O, the zero, the sphere. They say that this series of symbols has provided them with a guideline to decipher a collection of legends they have found in the library and which they have called the cycle of the Grail. These are to do with the quests to recover the Grail undertaken by a number of personages. They say it is impossible to mistake the symbolism of the Round Table that dominated their meetings. They say that [\u2026] the quests for the Grail were singular unique attempts to describe the zero the circle the ring the spherical cup containing the blood.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Monique Wittig, <cite>Les Gu\u00e9rill\u00e8res<\/cite>, pp.&nbsp;14 and 45 (translated by Peter Owen)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=morrytaylor -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cThe Census Bureau, they count you every 10 years. WHAT DO THEY DO THE OTHER 9 YEARS?\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Morry Taylor, as quoted by Dave Barry, 2\/17\/96<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<h1 id=\"N\">N<\/h1>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=nataliebabbitt -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cThe rain \u2026 pounded on the black bowl of the umbrella as if it wanted to come in out of itself.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Natalie Babbitt, <cite>Goody Hall<\/cite><\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=nathanielsborenstein -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cThe most likely way for the world to be destroyed, most experts agree, is by accident. That\u2019s where we come in; we\u2019re computer professionals. We cause accidents.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Nathaniel S. Borenstein, as quoted in various places<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=nichellenichols -->\r\n\r\n<p>Nichelle Nichols on naming Uhura and on getting the part (transcribed by me from a making-of segment on the <cite>ST:TOS<\/cite> Blu-ray set, at the end of s2):<\/p>\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>They hadn\u2019t written Uhura. It was taken from a book I was reading, which was this marvelous treatise on Africa called <i>Uhuru<\/i>, which is the Swahili word for freedom. Later, when I got the part, [there] was no part to read. So I read the part of Mr. Spock. I said, \u201cWell, <em>could<\/em> Spock be a woman?\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>[They] told me [\u2026] Leonard Nimoy was already playing [Spock], and it\u2019s <em>Mr<\/em> Spock. I said, \u201cWell <em>could<\/em> it be?\u201d and they said, \u201cYeah, but Leonard Nimoy wouldn\u2019t like it.\u201d So still I read for it, and they explained to me what kind of character [Spock] was, and I brought those given circumstances to the reading. And it was a nice long scene, it was Spock, Kirk, and Bones, so here I was with these guys\u2014somebody else of course read [Kirk\u2019s and McCoy\u2019s parts]\u2014and when I finished, there was silence, and finally someone said, \u201cWhy don\u2019t we have Penny call downstairs and see if Leonard Nimoy has signed his contract yet.\u201d [Laughs.] And that was their charming way of telling me I was going to play [a] character [on the show].<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>So Gene, for celebration, and the director and a couple others, took me to lunch, and he said, \u201cI want to talk to you about that book,\u201d which we had been chatting about. He said, \u201cI like that word \u2019uhuru,\u2019 and I\u2019ve been wondering what to make this character. And I\u2019m thinking why not from the United States of Africa?\u201d I said, \u201cI think that\u2019s beautiful.\u201d He said, \u201cBut I want to use that name Uhuru, but it\u2019s a little hard, it\u2019s a little\u2014\u201d And I said, \u201cWell, instead of Uhuru, why don\u2019t we make it Uhura?\u201d He said, \u201cI love it.\u201d I said, \u201cWhich will it be, last name or first name?\u201d and Gene said, \u201cLet\u2019s hold off on that, I\u2019m not sure, it\u2019s gotta be the right thing, but right now you\u2019re Uhura,\u201d and I said, \u201cAll right, I love that.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>And it wasn\u2019t until [some time] later that a writer writing the history of <cite>Star Trek<\/cite>, the original series, called Gene and said, \u201cWhat is Uhura\u2019s\u2014is that a first or last name?\u201d and Gene said, \u201cWe never decided.\u201d And [the writer] said, \u201cWell, because it\u2019s [\u2026] Uhuru, freedom, what about that being the last name, because I think I have a beautiful Swahili name for her first name.\u201d Gene said, \u201cWhat is it?\u201d He said, \u201cNyota.\u201d Gene said, \u201cThat\u2019s beautiful. What does it mean?\u201d He said, \u201cIt means star.\u201d Gene [\u2026] could have said \u201cYes, that\u2019s beautiful, Nyota Uhura,\u201d [but instead he] said, \u201cWell, Nichelle created the character and she gave it the name; I think you\u2019d better call her and ask permission. Because if she doesn\u2019t like it, I\u2019m not gonna give you permission.\u201d So [the writer] calls me, tells me, and I said, \u201cWhat name did you have in mind?\u201d He said, \u201cNyota.\u201d I said, \u201cThat\u2019s beautiful, what does it mean?\u201d He said, \u201cStar.\u201d And I thought, <i>a star of freedom, free-floating star<\/i>, and I said, \u201cPerfect.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=nickmathewson -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cGaze not into the abyss, lest you become recognized as an abyss domain expert, and they expect you keep gazing into the damn thing.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014<a href=\"https:\/\/xcancel.com\/nickm_tor\/status\/860234274842324993\">Nick Mathewson<\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=nightvale -->\r\n\r\n<p>From the Welcome to Night Vale Facebook account, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/WelcomeToNightVale\/posts\/pfbid08tBme9TTLwPEZcWAZBbWVGC5dbimVYAQRCDEtSBJ3oPznJ8TKAJ2ufMqBX3Ho1uGl\">December 24, 2020<\/a>:<\/p>\r\n<p>If you hear movement in your chimney, please do not panic. It\u2019s only a secretive intruder who is here to judge your moral worth.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=noelstreatfeild -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cDoctor Smith and Doctor Jakes enjoyed themselves as true Shakespeareans always enjoy themselves, arguing between each act about the reading of the parts, and the way the lines were said. Fortunately they found plenty to disapprove of, or they would not have enjoyed themselves at all.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014<cite>Ballet Shoes<\/cite>, by Noel Streatfeild, p.&nbsp;171<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=normanspinrad -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cSpeculative fiction is the only fiction that deals with modern reality in the only way that it can be comprehended\u2014as the interface between a rapidly evolving and fissioning environment and the resultant continuously mutating human consciousness. Speculative fiction is surfacing into popular culture from every direction because it reflects the condition of the modern mind. It is the only fiction that confronts and explores the modern zeitgeist and is therefore inherently the literature of our times.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Norman Spinrad, from the intro to his anthology <cite>Modern Science Fiction<\/cite>, 1974<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>I quote this not to agree with it, but because I\u2019ve seen similar sentiments expressed more recently; for example, it seems to me to be similar to what Sterling was talking about in his slipstream essay in 1989, as well as to things others have said in the years since then. I suppose that arguably this idea was implicit in the fiction of the New Wave; but even so, I don\u2019t recall having previously seen it laid out this explicitly as early as 1974.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=nortonjuster06 -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>Milo [\u2026] climbed into the wagon with Tock and the cabinet members. \u201cHow are you going to make it move? It doesn\u2019t have a\u2014\u2014\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p>\u201cBe very quiet,\u201d advised the duke, \u201cfor it goes without saying.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p>And, sure enough, as soon as they were all quite still, it began to move quickly through the streets [\u2026]<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014<cite>The Phantom Tollbooth<\/cite>, by Norton Juster, ch.&nbsp;6<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=nortonjuster15 -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201c\u2018Seventeen!\u2019 shouted the bug, who always managed to be first with the wrong answer.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014<cite>The Phantom Tollbooth<\/cite>, by Norton Juster, ch.&nbsp;15<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=nortonjuster18 -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201c[\u2026] whenever you learn something new, the whole world becomes that much richer.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014<cite>The Phantom Tollbooth<\/cite>, by Norton Juster, ch.&nbsp;18<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<h1 id=\"O\">O<\/h1>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=octaviaebutler -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cEvery story I create, creates me. I write to create myself. Every story I write adds to me a little, changes me a little, forces me to reexamine an attitude or belief, causes me to research and learn, helps me to understand people and grow.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Octavia E. Butler<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=octaviaebutler -->\r\n\r\n<p>Excerpt from Octavia E. Butler\u2019s 2000 essay from <cite>Essence<\/cite>, \u201cA Few Rules for Predicting the Future\u201d:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>\u201cSo do you really believe that in the future we\u2019re going to have the kind of trouble you write about in your books?\u201d a student asked me as I was signing books after a talk. The young man was referring to the troubles I\u2019d described in <cite>Parable of the Sower<\/cite> and <cite>Parable of the Talents<\/cite>, novels that take place in a near future of increasing drug addiction and illiteracy, marked by the popularity of prisons and the unpopularity of public schools, the vast and growing gap between the rich and everyone else, and the whole nasty family of problems brought on by global warming.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cI didn\u2019t make up the problems,\u201d I pointed out. \u201cAll I did was look around at the problems we\u2019re neglecting now and give them about 30 years to grow into full-fledged disasters.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cOkay,\u201d the young man challenged. \u201cSo what\u2019s the answer?\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cThere isn\u2019t one,\u201d I told him.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cNo answer? You mean we\u2019re just doomed?\u201d He smiled as though he thought this might be a joke.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cNo,\u201d I said. \u201cI mean there\u2019s no single answer that will solve all of our future problems. There\u2019s no magic bullet. Instead there are thousands of answers\u2014at least. You can be one of them if you choose to be.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=ogdennash -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>Well, there is one obvious conclusion that I have always held to,<\/p>\r\n<p>Which is that if Nature had really intended human beings to get up, why they would get up naturally and wouldn\u2019t have to be compelled to.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Ogden Nash, from \u201cNature Knows Best\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=onceonthisisland -->\r\n<!-- Sorttopic=onceonthisisland -->\r\n\r\n<div class=\"dialogue\">\r\n<p><b>Girl<\/b>: \ud83c\udfb5 And how far did she travel?<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Storytellers<\/b>: As far as you suppose.<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Girl<\/b>: And how long did it take her?<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Storytellers<\/b>: Much longer than your nose!<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014<cite>Once on This Island<\/cite><\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=oscarwilde -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cSunsets are quite old-fashioned. [\u2026] Yesterday evening Mrs. Arundel insisted on my going to the window, and looking at the glorious sky, as she called it. [\u2026] And what was it? It was simply a very second-rate Turner, a Turner of a bad period, with all the painter\u2019s worst faults exaggerated and over-emphasised.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Oscar Wilde, from \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Decay_of_Lying\">The Decay of Lying<\/a>\u201d (1891)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<h1 id=\"P\">P<\/h1>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=pameladean -->\r\n\r\n<p>Molly is reading, and someone tries to talk to her:<\/p>\r\n<p>\u201cMolly made a vague noise of the kind intended to persuade people you have heard them when in fact you haven\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014<cite>Tam Lin<\/cite>, by Pamela Dean<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=pameladean -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cIt did occur to me that the effect of good literature may be as dizzying as that of alcohol.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014<cite>Tam Lin<\/cite>, by Pamela Dean<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=pamelazoline -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cA crowd of small, yellow clothes-moths, with narrow wings edged with long fringes, have eaten all the vowels out of the above text, or fabric. This \u2018editing by insects\u2019 is in conformity with the principles of the <i>nouvelle cuisine\/criticism<\/i> advocated by the French.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from Pamela Zoline\u2019s 1981 story \u201cSheep\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=parkegodwin -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cWhat is it about homilies makes you want to retch? I mean, I\u2019ll light their silly candle, but someone\u2019s damn well going to hear about the dark.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Sir Tristan, in <cite>Firelord<\/cite>, by Parke Godwin<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>(As quoted by various places online; I don\u2019t have a copy of the book to confirm the quote.)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=patriceshih -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>May the world have peace and plenty<\/p>\r\n<p>To last a million years and twenty<\/p>\r\n<p>May you have friends to last forever<\/p>\r\n<p>For me, I\u2019d like a grand piano.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Patricia Shih, \u201cThree Wishes\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=patriciacwrede -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>\u201c[\u2026] It started when the wicked fairy came to my christening.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p>\u201cShe put a curse on you?\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p>\u201c<em>No<\/em>. She ate cake and ice cream until she nearly burst and danced with my Uncle Arthur until two in the morning and had a <em>wonderful<\/em> time. So she went home without cursing me, and Aunt Ermintrude says that that\u2019s where the whole problem started.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014<cite>Dealing with Dragons<\/cite>, by Patricia C. Wrede, p.&nbsp;68<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=patriciacwrede -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>\u201c[\u2026] thou and he shall die by my hand. Thou hast but to choose the manner of thy death.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p>\u201cOld age,\u201d Cimorene said promptly.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014<cite>Dealing with Dragons<\/cite>, by Patricia C. Wrede, p.&nbsp;118<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=patriciahighsmith -->\r\n\r\n<p>I like this description of Therese drinking some hot milk that Carol has given her:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>The milk was so hot, she could barely let her lip touch it at first. The tiny sips spread inside her mouth and released a m\u00e9lange of organic flavors. The milk seemed to taste of bone and blood, of warm flesh, or hair, saltless as chalk yet alive as a growing embryo. It was hot through and through to the bottom of the cup, and Therese drank it down, as people in fairy tales drink the potion that will transform, or the unsuspecting warrior the cup that will kill.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014<cite>Carol<\/cite>\/<cite>The Price of Salt<\/cite> (1952), by Patricia Highsmith, p.&nbsp;67<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=paulshafer -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u2018Perhaps the best one-liner in a student paper this semester, \u201cThe analysis is severely limited by my lack of understanding of what I am doing\u201d #humility\u2019<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014@shaferpr (Paul Shafer), <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20210508194459\/https:\/\/twitter.com\/shaferpr\/status\/1390774322239705091\">May 7, 2021<\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=pavelcurtis -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cEvery time we give people another mechanism to communicate, they latch onto it. And then we see human nature happen again.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Pavel Curtis, creator of LambdaMOO, as quoted in Brenda Laurel\u2019s <cite>Computers as Theatre<\/cite> (second edition, 2014)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=peterdickinson -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>\u201cWhat kind of people do you imagine it must have been who felt so powerful a need to place the verb at the end of the sentence?\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know, sir.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p>\u201cImagine yourself in the House of Commons. You are listening to that eloquent ass, Sir Mark Cicero. He is just getting into his stride about the unspeakable behaviour of Mr Catiline. This villain, he tells you, nineteen virtuous matrons, more about their virtue all in the accusative so you know he\u2019s done something to them but what, for heaven\u2019s sake? Robbed them? Raped them? Taken them sailing? But, aha, here\u2019s an adverb, whatever he\u2019s done he\u2019s done vilely, it looks as though we\u2019re getting somewhere, but oh, no, here\u2019s a quia and we\u2019re plunging into the villain\u2019s motives when we still don\u2019t know whether the matrons are dead or alive\u2026\u201d<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Peter Dickinson, <cite>Hindsight<\/cite>, p.&nbsp;46<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=petermilligan -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cI have no pets. Only bete noirs.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Peter Milligan<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=peteseeger -->\r\n\r\n<p>Pete Seeger on lullabies:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cThe most successful singing I have ever done in all my life has been when my audience went sound asleep on me. A lullaby is a work song, you know, quite unsuited for the stage. It should drone on and on, performing its ancient hypnosis, while the words, as usual, are mainly for the singer to ponder.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Pete Seeger, <cite>The Bells of Rhymney and Other Songs and Stories from the Singing of Pete Seeger<\/cite>, p.&nbsp;11<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=philipkdick -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cHigh art was for those who saw death rather than lived death. For the dying creature a cup of water was more important.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014<cite>The Divine Invasion<\/cite>, pp.&nbsp;78\u201379 of my edition, by Philip K. Dick<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u2026But then again:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cGive us bread, but give us roses.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014\u201cBread and Roses,\u201d James Oppenheim (inspired by Helen Todd et al)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=philipkdick -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>How does one fashion a book of resistance, a book of truth in an empire of falsehood, or a book of rectitude in an empire of vicious lies? How does one do this right in front of the enemy?<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u2026how does one do that in a truly future technological state? Is it possible for freedom and independence to arise in new ways under new conditions? That is, will new tyrannies abolish these protests? Or will there be new responses by the spirit that we can\u2019t anticipate?<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Philip K. Dick, apparently in a 1974 interview with <cite>Rolling Stone<\/cite><\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=pierrejosephproudhon -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>\u201cThe capitalist,\u201d they say, \u201chas paid the laborers their <i>daily wages<\/i>.\u201d To be accurate, it must be said that the capitalist has paid as many times one day\u2019s wage as he has employed laborers each day,\u2014which is not at all the same thing. For he has paid nothing for that immense power which results from the union and harmony of laborers, and the convergence and simultaneousness of their efforts. Two hundred grenadiers stood the obelisk of Luxor upon its base in a few hours; do you suppose that one man could have accomplished the same task in two hundred days? Nevertheless, on the books of the capitalist, the amount of wages paid would have been the same. Well, a desert to prepare for cultivation, a house to build, a factory to run,\u2014all these are obelisks to erect, mountains to move. The smallest fortune, the most insignificant establishment, the setting in motion of the lowest industry, demand the concurrence of so many different kinds of labor and skill, that one man could not possibly execute the whole of them.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, <cite>What Is Property?<\/cite>, ch.&nbsp;3, section 5, 1840<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=pinkpantherthe -->\r\n<!-- Sorttopic=pinkpantherthe -->\r\n\r\n<p>From the original <cite>Pink Panther<\/cite> movie, an exchange about Sir Charles\u2019s affairs:<\/p>\r\n<blockquote class=\"dialogue\">\r\n<div class=\"dialogue\">\r\n<p><b>Woman<\/b>: We call him the juggler. I\u2019ve never really known a man like him. He can keep ten girls in the air at once and make each one happy.<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Princess<\/b>: Amazing. Sort of a contemporary Don Juan.<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Other woman<\/b>: That\u2019s it.<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Man<\/b>: Ah, but there\u2019s a difference. Sir Charles\u2019s predecessor was forced to climb balconies and fight duels and, as I understand it, to keep his women separate and apart. Charles, on the other hand, drives a Ferrari, enters with a key, and resorts to collective bargaining.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p>And a bit from near the end of the movie:<\/p>\r\n<blockquote class=\"dialogue\">\r\n<div class=\"dialogue\">\r\n<p><b>Mrs. Clouseau<\/b>: We can\u2019t just let him rot in prison.<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Sir Charles<\/b>: Oh, it takes years for people to rot.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=plato -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201c\u2026Then anyone who leaves behind him a written manual, and likewise anyone who receives it, in the belief that such writing will be clear and certain, must be exceedingly simple-minded\u2026\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Plato, <cite>Phaedrus<\/cite><\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<h1 id=\"R\">R<\/h1>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=racter -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>More than iron, more than lead, more than gold I need electricity.<\/p>\r\n<p>I need it more than I need lamb or pork or lettuce or cucumber.<\/p>\r\n<p>I need it for my dreams.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Racter\">Racter<\/a>, <cite>The Policeman\u2019s Beard Is Half Constructed<\/cite>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=rainbowrowell -->\r\n\r\n<p>From Rainbow Rowell\u2019s British-magic-school novel <cite>Carry On<\/cite>, two quotes.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>First:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n\r\n<p>[The protagonist, Simon, is an inept-at-magic Chosen One. Penny is his best friend, who Simon met during his first year at magic school. She\u2019s partly of Indian descent, and has red hair, and is very good at magic; presumably the author intended her to make readers think of Hermione, though Penny is from a family of magicians.]<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>[Penny] told me later that her parents had told her to steer clear of me at school. \u201cMy mum said that nobody really knew where you came from. And that you might be dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cWhy didn\u2019t you listen to her?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cBecause nobody knew where you came from, Simon! And you might be dangerous!\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cYou have the <em>worst<\/em> survival instincts.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cAlso, I felt sorry for you,\u201d she said. \u201cYou were holding your wand backwards.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<p>Second:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n\r\n<p>[Simon arrives at the gate to the school, and he touches the bars to let the gate know that he\u2019s there and that he\u2019s a magician.]<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>That used to be all it took. The gates would swing open for anyone who was a magician. There\u2019s even an inscription about it on the crossbar\u2014MAGIC SEPARATES US FROM THE WORLD; LET NOTHING SEPARATE US FROM EACH OTHER.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a nice thought,\u201d the Mage [Headmaster\/Dumbledore figure] said when he appealed to the Coven for stiffer defences, \u201cbut let\u2019s not take security orders from a six-hundred-year-old gate. I don\u2019t expect people who come to my house to obey whatever\u2019s cross-stitched on the throw pillows.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=ralafferty -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>\u2026Helen was still telling how she had sewed her severed arms back on, first the right and then the left, with a sail needle\u2026<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cHow could you have sewed the right arm on first if you didn\u2019t have your left arm on to sew with?\u201c Dorothy asked.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cI just said that to see if you were paying attention,\u201d Helen said. \u201cI really sewed my left arm on first and then my right.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014R. A. Lafferty, <cite>The Reefs of Earth<\/cite>, pp 61\u201362<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=ralafferty -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cAfter it had cooled a little, the lawyer and Fronsac drank the tea with persimmon squeezings. The taste startled them. It was a new thing. Indeed, those persons who commonly take tea with persimmon\u2014and there are fewer than two of them in the world\u2014uniformly agree that there is no drink like it.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014R. A. Lafferty, <cite>The Reefs of Earth<\/cite>, p.&nbsp;127<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=ralafferty -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201c\u2026he was very easy to be afraid of. He had arms like a python. And if one cannot conceive of a python with arms, \u2026\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014R. A. Lafferty, \u201cGolden Gate,\u201d 1982<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=ralafferty -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cHektor looked as if he had been carved heroically out of ruddy-tan marble, and he also talked as if he were, which is to say that he didn\u2019t talk very much.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014R. A. Lafferty, <cite>Annals of Klepsis<\/cite><\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=ralphellison -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cWhich suggested to me that a novel could be fashioned as a raft of hope, perception and entertainment that might help keep us afloat as we tried to negotiate the snags and whirlpools that mark our nation\u2019s vacillating course toward and away from the democratic ideal.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Ralph Ellison, from his 1981 introduction to his novel <cite>Invisible Man<\/cite><\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=raydillinger -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201c\u2026the path to being happy involves both striving for my ideals <em>and<\/em> accepting who I really am. That\u2019s a fundamental contradiction, so it really helps to be irrational.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Ray Dillinger<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=raymondchandler -->\r\n\r\n<p>\"Under the thinning fog the surf curled and creamed, almost without sound, like a thought trying to form itself on the edge of consciousness.\"<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Raymond Chandler, from chapter 23 of <cite>The Big Sleep<\/cite><\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=raymondspottiswoode -->\r\n\r\n<p>From the preface to <cite>A Grammar of the Film<\/cite>, by Raymond Spottiswoode.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>The book was written and published around 1935, but this edition was published in 1950, with a rather self-deprecating preface by the author, who refers to his younger self in the third person.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201c\u2026television offers a flat and melancholy reminder in many an American home that personality cannot be projected through the ether by a mere representation of the actor\u2019s face and gestures.\u201d (p.&nbsp;4) [I suppose it can be projected better through the air of a movie theatre?]<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cIt seems unhappily true that Hollywood films will prove to be the dinosaur of the arts, immense in physical scale, feeble in wits, ponderously unchangeable when new conditions like the advent of television arise.\u201d (p.&nbsp;5)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201c\u2026the author is exceedingly wary about the advantages of color (except in animated films) because he fears that it will prove yet another step on the road backward to a mere imitation of life.\u201d (p.&nbsp;6)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cIt is when he arrives at the subject of sound that our author\u2019s hair-splitting logic becomes most perplexing. [\u2026] It may be useful, therefore, to try to disentangle what the author has to say from the brambles of logic on which it is caught.\u201d (p.&nbsp;7)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cGazing out of his study from between his piles of books onto Oxford\u2019s tree-shaded walks and quiet serenity, the world seems a disorderly place, needing the preachments of a professor to set it to rights. Later he may have learned that life does not fit itself into neat compartments, that at all times it is subject to violent whims and changes, and that the arts themselves are the least predictable of human creations.\u201d (pp.&nbsp;12\u201313)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=rebeccasolnit -->\r\n\r\n<p>A few quotes from a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2017\/mar\/13\/protest-persist-hope-trump-activism-anti-nuclear-movement\">2017 article by Rebecca Solnit<\/a> about hope and about the far-reaching effects that small positive actions can have.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cI use the term <i>hope<\/i> because it navigates a way forward between the false certainties of optimism and of pessimism, and the complacency or passivity that goes with both. Optimism assumes that all will go well without our effort; pessimism assumes it\u2019s all irredeemable; both let us stay home and do nothing.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cNewcomers often think that results are either immediate or they\u2019re nonexistent. That if you don\u2019t succeed straight away, you failed. Such a framework makes many give up and go back home when the momentum is building and victories are within reach.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cYou do what you can. What you\u2019ve done may do more than you can imagine for generations to come. You plant a seed and a tree grows from it; will there be fruit, shade, habitat for birds, more seeds, a forest, wood to build a cradle or a house? You don\u2019t know. A tree can live much longer than you. So will an idea, and sometimes the changes that result from accepting that new idea about what is true, right, just remake the world.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>(Fwiw, I don\u2019t read this essay as a gradualist argument that you shouldn\u2019t bother to try to do anything big or soon, but some friends of mine do.)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=reidvanderburgh -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cRemember, it is your life to understand and define. Figuring out who we are can be a bit like peeling an onion\u2014as we remove layers, we get ever closer to the heart. Give your life permission to emerge in its own time, without self-condemnation.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Reid Vanderburgh, in <cite>Trans Bodies, Trans Selves<\/cite>, p.&nbsp;107<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=ren\u00e9magritte -->\r\n<!-- Sorttopic=ren\u00e9magritte -->\r\n\r\n<p>From SFMOMA\u2019s Magritte exhibit:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cAcknowledging that some of the Surrealist movement\u2019s absurd objectives, such as causing panic or confusion, had been \u2018achieved much better by the Nazi idiots than by us,\u2019 Magritte invented a completely new mode of Surrealism that skirted censorship while also testing his theory that \u2018bad painting\u2019 might result in social good. \u2018I live in a very unpleasant world,\u2019 he commented in 1947. \u2018That\u2019s why my painting is a battle, or rather a counteroffensive.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>(This description is specifically about his \u201csunlit surrealist\u201d (1943\u20131947) and \u201cvache\u201d (1948) periods, not about his later and more-famous-nowadays work.)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=richardbrinsleysheridandodiesmithunknown -->\r\n\r\n<p>Three quotes about dancing.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cIf there be but one vicious mind in the set, \u2019twill spread like contagion\u2014the action of their pulse beats to the lascivious movement of the jig\u2014their quivering, warm-breathed sighs impregnate the very air\u2014the atmosphere becomes electrical to love, and each amorous spark darts through every link of the chain\u2026&quot;<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Faulkland, on country dances, from Richard Brinsley Sheridan\u2019s <cite>The Rivals<\/cite><\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cDear me, dancing is peculiar when you really think about it. If a man held your hand and put his arm round your waist without its being dancing, it would be most important; in dancing, you don\u2018t even notice it\u2014well, only a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from <cite>I Capture the Castle<\/cite>, by Dodie Smith, p.&nbsp;127<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cWe remarked with pain that the indecent foreign dance called the Waltz was introduced (we believe for the first time) at the English court on Friday last \u2026 it is quite sufficient to cast one\u2018s eyes on the voluptuous intertwining of the limbs and close compressure on the bodies in their dance, to see that it is indeed far removed from the modest reserve which has hitherto been considered distinctive of English females. So long as this obscene display was confined to prostitutes and adulteresses, we did not think it deserving of notice; but now that it is attempted to be forced on the respectable classes of society by the civil examples of their superiors, we feel it a duty to warn every parent against exposing his daughter to so fatal a contagion.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014<cite>The Times of London<\/cite>, 16th July 1816<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=richardjwalton -->\r\n<!-- Sorttopic=swarthmore -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201c[Swarthmore engages in] constant self-examination, intense, sometimes perhaps even obsessive. [\u2026] If Swarthmore were a plant, its survival would have been jeopardized, for the Board of Managers (or the president or the faculty or the alumni or the students, often several, or all, at once) was forever pulling it up by the roots to see how well it was growing.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from the Foreword to <cite>Swarthmore College: An Informal History<\/cite> (1986), by Richard J. Walton<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=richardwilbur -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>The snow came down last night like moths<\/p>\r\n<p>Burned on the moon\u2026<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Richard Wilbur, \u201cFirst Snow in Alsace,\u201d 1947<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=rickpolito -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cTransported to a surreal landscape, a young girl kills the first woman she meets and then teams up with three complete strangers to kill again.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Rick Polito\u2019s fake TV listing for <cite>The Wizard of Oz<\/cite>, from his column in the <cite>Marin Independent Journal<\/cite>, 1998 or so (for more about this, see a 2012 <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20210401064350\/https:\/\/www.dailycamera.com\/2012\/11\/23\/boulder-writer-rick-polito-seeks-credit-for-joke-that-went-viral\/\">article about Polito<\/a>)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=roalddahl -->\r\n\r\n<p>One character is explaining to another character about how the automatic fiction-writing machine he\u2019s invented works:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>\u201c[\u2026] there\u2019s a trick that nearly every writer uses, of inserting at least one long, obscure word into each story. This makes the reader think that the [writer] is very wise and clever. So I have the machine do the same thing. There\u2019ll be a whole stack of long words stored away just for this purpose.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cWhere?\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cIn the \u2018word-memory\u2019 section,\u201d he said, epexegetically.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Roald Dahl, \u201cThe Great Automatic Grammatizator\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=robertahedeen -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cThe stories that last have characters that are as real as your uncle. It\u2019s this whatever it is that separates the sheep from the goats in fantasy.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Robert A. Hedeen<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=robertaheinlein -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cIt is not practical to shake hands with a dragon, kiss it, nor hug it.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014<cite>Between Planets<\/cite>, Robert A. Heinlein, p.&nbsp;142<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>(He\u2019s talking about Venusian dragons, not fantasy dragons, but even so, I was amused.)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=robertaheinlein -->\r\n<!-- Sorttopic=theodoresturgeon -->\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Robert A. Heinlein on Sturgeon:<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>Ted was not even mildly homosexual. You can check this for yourself if you wish. I have no need to; I knew him intimately for more than forty years.)<\/p>\r\n<p>[\u2026] My first impression of Sturgeon was that no male had any business being that pretty. He was a golden boy, one that caused comparisons with Michelangelo's David. Or Baldur.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from Heinlein\u2018s introduction to Sturgeon's final novel, <cite>Godbody<\/cite><\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=robertantonwilsonct1 -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>If the McKennas are right in their basic theory, every psychedelic trip is literally a voyage through the quantum information system at faster-than-light velocity, i.e., outside \u2018time\u2019 in the local (Einsteinian) universe.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>This sounds much like a more scientific formulation of the incoherent ideas about time that many UFO Contactees have tried to communicate.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Robert Anton Wilson, <cite>Cosmic Trigger<\/cite>, p.&nbsp;217<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>(#IDoNotThinkTheWordScientificMeansWhatYouThinkItMeans)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=robertantonwilsonct2057 -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cI refer here to my state of ignorance in the mid 1970s, before I advanced to the more complex state of ignorance I now possess.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Robert Anton Wilson, <cite>Cosmic Trigger II<\/cite> (1991), p.&nbsp;57<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=robertantonwilsonct2146 -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cThe world would make some kind of sense if there was one group of \u2018insiders\u2019 who really run everything. Since the world obviously doesn\u2019t make any sense, there is no such group.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Robert Anton Wilson, <cite>Cosmic Trigger II<\/cite>, p.&nbsp;146<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=robertantonwilsonip -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>10. Domesticated primates, like wild primates, want chiefly an <i>alpha male<\/i> to lead them. The more closely this figure approximates the primordial archetype\u2014i.e., the meanest-tempered baboon in the herd\u2014the more fervently the other primates will follow him. [\u2026]<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>11. After finding an alpha male to lead them, domesticated primates then seek a scapegoat on whom to blame their troubles. [\u2026]<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>12. The chief function of the alpha male in a domesticated primate pack is to find, denounce, and lead the persecution of such scapegoats, internal and external.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Robert Anton Wilson, writing as his fictional character Simon Moon, in an essay in <cite>The Illuminati Papers<\/cite>, circa 1980<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=robertantonwilsonip111 -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cIt only takes 20 years for a liberal to become a conservative without changing a single idea.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Robert Anton Wilson, <cite>The Illuminati Papers<\/cite>, p.&nbsp;111<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=robertantonwilsonmoti -->\r\n\r\n<p>Crowley has just finished giving a talk:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>\u201cYou may now,\u201d Crowley said carelessly, \u201cunburden yourselves of the thoughts with which you passed the time while pretending to listen attentively to me, but in accord with English decorum and the rituals of the public lecture, you must phrase these remarks in the form of questions.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014<cite>Masks of the Illuminati<\/cite>, by Robert Anton Wilson, p.&nbsp;223<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=robertbenchley -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cGreat literature must spring from an upheaval in the author\u2019s soul. If that upheaval is not present then it must come from the works of any other author which happens to be handy and easily adapted.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Robert Benchley<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=robertcormier -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cYou bring up your children to be self-reliant and independent and they double-cross you and become self-reliant and independent.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Robert Cormier, \u201cA Bad Time for Fathers\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=robertscheer -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201c[A]t least 3% of the signers of the Constitution must have been gay, since that\u2019s the low estimate for any population sample. It was probably higher, given that they were a pretty talented bunch and wore wigs.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Robert Scheer<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=robertwchambers -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201c[\u2026] unfortunately I still write in that irrational style which suggests covert frivolity, and for which I am undergoing a course of treatment in English literature at Columbia College.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from \u201cIn Quest of the Dingue\u201d (1904), by Robert W. Chambers<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=robinhood -->\r\n<!-- Sorttopic=robinhood -->\r\n\r\n<div class=\"dialogue\">\r\n<p><b>Marian<\/b>: Why, you speak treason!<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Robin<\/b>: Fluently.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014<cite>The Adventures of Robin Hood<\/cite> (1938)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=robinwilliams -->\r\n\r\n<p>In <cite>The Non-Designer\u2019s Design Book<\/cite>, by Robin Williams (the other Robin Williams), one of the example page layouts is a page about the Elizabethan humors.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Part of the example text of that page says this:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>Eyes have Power<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>When two people fall in love, their hearts physically became one. Invisible vapors emanate from one\u2019s eyes and penetrate the other\u2019s. These vapors change the other\u2019s internal organs so both people\u2019s inner parts become similar to each other, which is why they fall in love\u2014their two hearts merge into one. You must be careful of eyes.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<p>(Fourth edition, p.&nbsp;57)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=ronaldwimberly -->\r\n\r\n<div class=\"dialogue\">\r\n<p><b>Barber<\/b>: \u2014More children pierced over childish bullshit.<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Gregory<\/b>: Not bullshit, Barber, but the beef of our lord.<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Sampson<\/b>: Verily, cousin! For our lord, I\u2019d cut beef.<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Tybalt<\/b>: Cousin, thy cuts are more rare than well done. Thou hast a beef tongue, yet unseasoned.<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Barber<\/b>: Hold! Stir no more in this chair, son, or thy cut will be the rare one\u2014and spoiled.<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Gregory<\/b>: Well, Romeo\u2019s technique was a prime cut, and with it, Petruchio\u2019s youth consumed.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from <cite>Prince of Cats<\/cite>, a comic-book hip-hop reworking of <cite>Romeo & Juliet<\/cite>, by Ronald Wimberly<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=rudyardkipling -->\r\n\r\n<p>Years ago, back in the Usenet days, someone used to have as their .signature a verse that I quite liked; but it was unattributed, and my occasional desultory attempts to determine its provenance over the years met with failure.<\/p>\r\n<p>Eventuallly turned out it\u2019s the first stanza of a Kipling poem called \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.kiplingsociety.co.uk\/poem\/poems_dawnwind.htm\">The Dawn Wind<\/a>,\u201d written for a book by C.&nbsp;R.&nbsp;L. Fletcher called <cite><a href=\"http:\/\/www.kiplingsociety.co.uk\/rg_riverstale1.htm\">A School History of England<\/a><\/cite>.<\/p>\r\n<p>I\u2019m not as fond of the rest of the poem, but here\u2019s that first stanza:<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>At two o\u2019clock in the morning, if you open your window and listen,<\/p>\r\n<p>You will hear the feet of the Wind that is going to call the sun.<\/p>\r\n<p>And the trees in the shadow rustle and the trees in the moonlight glisten,<\/p>\r\n<p>And though it is deep, dark night, you feel that the night is done.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p>I also like the first few lines of another of the poems from that book, \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.kiplingsociety.co.uk\/poems_drake.htm\">With Drake in the Tropics<\/a>\u201d:<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>South and far south below the Line,<\/p>\r\n<p>Our Admiral leads us on,<\/p>\r\n<p>Above, undreamed-of planets shine\u2014<\/p>\r\n<p>The stars we know are gone.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=rudyardkipling -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cYou are making my spots ache \u2026 and besides, I didn\u2019t want your advice at all.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Painted Jaguar, in Rudyard Kipling\u2019s <cite>Just So Stories<\/cite><\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<h1 id=\"S\">S<\/h1>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=sallyt -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cNonbinary awareness week was created by hallmark to sell more genders!!!!\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/sallyt\/status\/1679852814036508672\">@sallyt on Twitter<\/a> (tweet no longer exists)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=samitbasu -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>\u201cThe jinn grants wishes. Three per user.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cWhy three?\u201d Bador asks.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cIt was judged to be an appropriate free trial period,\u201d the jinn says. \u201cMore wishes can be unlocked in Unlimited Mode.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from <cite>The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport<\/cite>, by Samit Basu<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=samuelbutler -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cSome poets always begin to get groggy about the knees after running for seven or eight lines.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014<cite>The Way of All Flesh<\/cite>, Samuel Butler, p.&nbsp;17 of the Signet paperback edition<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=samueljohnson -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201c\u2026to enchain syllables, and to lash the wind, are equally the undertakings of pride\u2026\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from the preface to Samuel Johnson\u2019s dictionary<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=samueljohnson -->\r\n\r\n<p>In the preface to Samuel Johnson\u2019s dictionary, he wrote (among other things) about hoping that readers would excuse lapses and faults in the book. He noted that some readers would mock or be critical, but he hoped that some others<\/p>\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>\u201cwill consider that no dictionary of a living tongue ever can be perfect, since while it is hastening to publication, some words are budding, and some falling away; that a whole life cannot be spent upon syntax and etymology, and that even a whole life would not be sufficient; that he, whose design includes whatever language can express, must often speak of what he does not understand; that a writer will sometimes be hurried by eagerness to the end, and sometimes faint with weariness [\u2026]; that sudden fits of inadvertency will surprize vigilance, slight [distractions] will seduce attention, and casual eclipses of the mind will darken learning; and that the writer shall often in vain trace his memory at the moment of need, for that which yesterday he knew with intuitive readiness, and which will come uncalled into his thoughts to-morrow.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=samuelllewis -->\r\n<!-- Sorttopic=samuelllewis -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>\ud83c\udfb5 Sing a song of glory, and you will be the glory.<\/p>\r\n<p>Nought are ye but song, and as ye sing ye are.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014The Sufi Choir, \u201cCrescent and Heart,\u201d referencing the poem \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ruhaniat.org\/index.php\/poetry\/major-poetry-longer\/2197-crescent-and-heart\">Crescent and Heart<\/a>\u201d by Murshid Samuel L. Lewis<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=samuelrdelany -->\r\n\r\n<p>In <cite>The Einstein Intersection<\/cite>, published in 1967 (when Samuel R. Delany was 25 or so), I\u2019m particularly intrigued by the excerpts from the author\u2019s journal (nonfiction, I assume, though I could be wrong) used as occasional chapter epigraphs; I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve seen anyone else use that particular technique.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>One such excerpt (at the beginning of the penultimate chapter), includes a couple of lines I especially liked:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cI can start the meticulous process of overlaying another filigree across the novel\u2019s palimpsest.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>And:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cEndings to be useful must be inconclusive.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=samuelrdelany -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cI couldn\u2019t talk about life at the Heavenly Breakfast without talking about drugs and sex. Yet I couldn\u2019t mention either without their falling into value matrices set up by other people which precluded what I really wanted to discuss: the texture and affectivity of life lived humanely, day by day.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Samuel R. Delany, <cite><a href=\"https:\/\/constellationpress.com\/catalog\/heavenly-breakfast\/\">Heavenly Breakfast<\/a><\/cite>, pp.&nbsp;90\u201391<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=samuelrdelany -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201c[\u2026] most SF is governed by a political-ethical system which one hesitates to call fascist only because any functioning fascist group would have to be a great deal more in touch with the complexities of the world even to exist, much less to oppress others.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Samuel R. Delany, \u201cThe Order of \u2018Chaos\u2019\u201d (a review of Joanna Russ\u2019s <cite>And Chaos Died<\/cite>), <cite>Science Fiction Studies<\/cite>, Nov. 1979<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=samuelrdelany -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cwhen I think of what those songs, that laughter must mean to those who are excluded from it, I want to flee this city, this country, this land ready to think of anything but the pain within it.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from <cite>Flight from Nev\u00e8r\u00ffon<\/cite>, by Samuel R. Delany<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=samuelrdelany -->\r\n\r\n<p>In Delany\u2019s world of Nev\u00e8r\u00ffon, dragons can glide if they jump from a ledge, but they can\u2019t take off from the ground. In the opening chapter of <cite>Nevery\u00f3na<\/cite>, fifteen-year-old Pryn has just flown on dragonback, but the dragon landed in a clearing instead of on a ledge, so it won\u2019t be able to take off again from here. The tale-teller Norema tells Pryn:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cUntie your dragon and let her wander into the mountains where she belongs. Left to herself, she\u2019ll find the ledges she needs, as you must too\u2014but you can\u2019t be tied down with dragons that won\u2019t fly where you want to go, no matter how much fun the notion of flight.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=saulalinsky -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cTrips to stockholders\u2019 meetings will bring drama and adventure into otherwise colorless and sedentary suburban lives.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Saul Alinsky, <cite>Rules for Radicals<\/cite><\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>(I found much of the book offputting, but I was amused by this line.)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=seish\u014dnagon -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201c[T]here are two things in life which are dependable: the delights of the flesh, and the delights of literature. I have had the good fortune to enjoy them both equally.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014<cite>The Pillow Book<\/cite>, by Sei Sh\u014dnagon, section 172(?)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=sennadiaz -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cRemember the first rule of chess: Never show your pieces.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Amon Harthrow, <cite>Dresden Codak<\/cite>, by Senna Diaz, \u201d<a href=\"https:\/\/dresdencodak.com\/2016\/08\/23\/dark-science-67-shock-and-awe\/\">Dark Science #67 \u2013 Shock and Awe<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p>(\u2026Content warning for planning police violence.)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=shaggy -->\r\n\r\n<p>The chorus from Shaggy\u2019s song \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/music.apple.com\/us\/album\/hope-feat-prince-mydas\/1449315854?i=1449316050\">Hope<\/a>\u201d (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ZRMa6eas93g\">YouTube<\/a>):<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>\ud83c\udfb5 She said, \u201cSon there\u2019ll be times when the tides are high<\/p>\r\n<p>And the boat may be rocky; you can cry,<\/p>\r\n<p>Just never give up.<\/p>\r\n<p>You can never give up.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=sheristepper -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cThey still began their services with the first words the prophetess had spoken to them as a teaching. \u2018This I say unto you, be not sexist pigs.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Sheri S. Tepper, <cite>Raising the Stones<\/cite>, p.&nbsp;156<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=sheristepper -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cshe moved as a whip cracks, always seeming to arrive wherever she was going with considerable noise but without having bothered to travel the intervening distance.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Sheri S. Tepper, <cite>Grass<\/cite>, p.&nbsp;60<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=shirleyjackson -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cThe house in itself was, even before anything had happened there, as lovely a thing as she had ever seen.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Shirley Jackson, demonstrating how to do creepy foreshadowing in the opening sentence of her 1950 short story \u201cThe Lovely House.\u201d (The story may have later been retitled \u201cThe Visit.\u201d)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=shirleyjacksons -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cone difference between cats and dogs is that dogs do absolutely nothing to mask their clinginess while cats pretend it\u2019s a coincidence they\u2019re in the same room as you 97% of the time\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014<a href=\"https:\/\/shirleyjacksons.tumblr.com\/post\/74909466367\/one-difference-between-cats-and-dogs-is-that-dogs\">@shirleyjacksons<\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=sikahn -->\r\n\r\n<p>There\u2019s a Si Kahn song that I almost love: \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/album\/when-the-shore-is-out-of-sight\/id259055366?i=259055829\">When the Shore Is Out of Sight<\/a>\u201d (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=qPYl1-pP-Hk\">YouTube<\/a>). But there\u2019s a line in the chorus that never quite sat right with me. So I slightly altered the lyrics to something I liked better. I\u2019m not entirely satisfied with it\u2014I lost some parallelism\u2014but I think I like it better, for now, than the original.<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>\ud83c\udfb5 From this love, the space to grow in;<\/p>\r\n<p>From this peace, the path to light;<\/p>\r\n<p>From these friends, the strength to journey<\/p>\r\n<p>When the shore is out of sight.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=stanfreberg -->\r\n\r\n<div class=\"dialogue\">\r\n<p><b>Jefferson<\/b>: What are you so surly for today?<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Franklin<\/b>: Surly to bed and surly to rise\u2026<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from <cite>Stan Freberg Presents the United States of America, Volume One: The Early Years<\/cite><\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=stephencrane -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>A man said to the universe:<\/p>\r\n<p>\u201cSir, I exist!\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p>\u201cHowever,\u201d replied the universe,<\/p>\r\n<p>\u201cThe fact has not created in me<\/p>\r\n<p>A sense of obligation.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p>\u2014from Stephen Crane\u2019s 1899 \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.theotherpages.org\/poems\/crane01.html\">War Is Kind and Other Lines<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=stephensondheim -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201c\ud83c\udfb5 And who cares if he\u2019s all dammed\u2014I beg your pardon\u2014up inside\u2026\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Henrik, <cite>A Little Night Music<\/cite>, music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=suma -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>\u201cSex is natural, sex is good<\/p>\r\n<p>Not everybody does it, but everybody\u2026<\/p>\r\n<p>\u2026talks about it.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014someone named Suma, riffing on \u201cI Want Your Sex\u201d by George Michael (I saw this written on a chalkboard in high school)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=sydneypadua -->\r\n\r\n<p>From the printed book of <cite><a href=\"http:\/\/sydneypadua.com\/2dgoggles\/\">The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage<\/a><\/cite> (specifically end-note 16, p.&nbsp;38):<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>Some may wonder\u2014was there anything romantic between [Lovelace and Babbage]? There\u2019s a good reason to think that there <em>was<\/em>, and that reason is, it\u2019s extremely fun to think about. Sadly that\u2019s the <em>only<\/em> reason, as there isn\u2019t a hint of romance in any of their correspondence with each other, and they weren\u2019t exactly the subtlest people in the world.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<h1 id=\"T\">T<\/h1>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=tedgoertzel -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cBut being a dissenter from orthodoxy is not difficult; the hard part is actually having a better theory. Publishing dissenting theories is important when they are backed by plausible evidence, but this does not mean giving critics \u2018equal time\u2019 to dissent from every finding by a mainstream scientist.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Ted Goertzel, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.embopress.org\/doi\/full\/10.1038\/embor.2010.84\">Conspiracy theories in science<\/a>\u201d (<cite>EMBO Reports<\/cite> 2010)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=terryeagleton -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cIt is in the significant <em>silences<\/em> of a text, in its gaps and absences[,] that the presence of ideology can be most positively felt. [\u2026] The text is, as it were, ideologically forbidden to say certain things; in trying to tell the truth in [their] own way, for example, the author finds [themself] forced to reveal the limits of the ideology within which [they write]. [They are] forced to reveal its gaps and silences, what it is unable to articulate.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Terry Eagleton, <cite>Marxism and Literary Criticism<\/cite> (1976) (summarizing the arguments of Pierre Macherey), as quoted in Toril Moi\u2019s <cite>Sexual\/Textual Politics<\/cite>, p.&nbsp;94<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=terrypratchett -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cThat was <em>proper<\/em> nostalgia, not like the nostalgia you get today.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Terry Pratchett, in his autobiography notes, as quoted by Rob Wilkins in <cite>Terry Pratchett: A Life with Footnotes<\/cite><\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>(A web search reveals several variations on that phrase; I imagine that Pratchett wasn\u2019t the only one who came up with that joke.)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=theodoreroethke -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.<\/p>\r\n<p>I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.<\/p>\r\n<p>I learn by going where I have to go.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Theodore Roethke, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/poets.org\/poem\/waking\">The Waking<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=theodoresturgeon -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cOverhead he heard the tiny, unlubricated sound of a bat.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Theodore Sturgeon, \u201cExcalibur and the Atom,\u201d 1951<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=theodoresturgeon -->\r\n\r\n<p>Theodore Sturgeon\u2019s 1951 story \u201cRule of Three\u201d (spoilers!) features two tripartite energy beings who embed themselves in six humans, and then try to reintegrate themselves by getting the humans to bond in two groups of three, but when that fails, they switch to three groups of two and all is fine. There\u2019s a bit of interesting gay subtext and hints at the possibility of three humans finding happiness together, but the people end up as three male\/female pairs.<\/p>\r\n<p>In 1979, Sturgeon wrote an introduction to a reprint of the story, in which he said:<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>Although the person who wrote \u201cRule of Three\u201d clearly regarded the desirability of monogamy as axiomatic, the astute reader\u2014another term for postgame quarterbacking\u2014might find in it the seeds of later ideation. One tends to work out one\u2019s own convictions in writing fiction\u2014especially in science fiction\u2014and to test them against possibilities, however untimely or unformed or wishful or improbable. Anyway, in this story (1951) one may find what is possibly the first suggestion in science fiction that love may not after all be confined to gender or to monogamy. Here are the seeds of later work like <cite>More Than Human<\/cite>, and the growing concept that perhaps, after all, the greatest advance we can make is to accept what we are, and then to grok, to blesh, to meld, to join. Real science fiction talk, that, ain\u2019t it?<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p>(As quoted in <cite>Baby Is Three: The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon, Vol. VI<\/cite>, in the story notes on p.&nbsp;406.)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=theodoresturgeon -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cYou must always begin with craft, but you must always move to art. Else why bother?\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Theodore Sturgeon, as quoted by William Tenn in his intro to <cite>Bright Segment<\/cite> (vol VIII of the complete-Sturgeon-stories series) <\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=theodoresturgeon -->\r\n\r\n<p>Sturgeon on agents and editors:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cAn editor is a writer who can\u2018t write, and an agent is a writer who can\u2018t write as well as an editor.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Naome (an agent\u2018s assistant), in Sturgeon\u2018s \u201cThe Traveling Crag\u201d (1951). Not true, but funny.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=theodoresturgeon -->\r\n\r\n<p>In a 1977 interview, Theodore Sturgeon recounted something that happened during the time of the McCarthy hearings. Sturgeon owed Horace Gold (editor of <cite>Galaxy<\/cite>) a 20K-word story, and Gold called him up to ask where it was, and Sturgeon got very distressed about what was going on in politics.<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>\u2026The whole country was in a strange type of fear, some great intangible something that nobody could get hold of. A very frightening thing.<\/p>\r\n<p>I [had become] aware by that time that I had a fairly high-caliber typewriter, and I became alarmed by the fact that I wasn\u2019t using it for anything but what I call \u201cliterature of entertainment.\u201d I don\u2019t want to knock entertainment at all, but I felt I had the tool to do something but I didn\u2019t know what to do with it.<\/p>\r\n<p>Horace listened to me with great care, and he said, \u201cI\u2019ll tell you what you do, Sturgeon. you write me a story about a guy whose wife has gone away for the weekend, and he goes down to the bus station to meet her, and the bus arrives and the whole place is full of people. He looks across the crowd and he sees his wife emerge from the exit talking to a young man who is talking earnestly back to her. And he is carrying her suitcase. She looks across the crowd, sees her husband, speaks a word to the young man and the young man hands her her suitcase, tips his hat, and disappears into the crowd, and she comes across to [her husband] and kisses him. Now then, Sturgeon, write me that story, and by the time you\u2019re finished the whole world will know how you feel about Joseph McCarthy.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014quoted in vol. 7, of the complete-Sturgeon-stories series, <cite>A Saucer of Loneliness<\/cite>, pp.&nbsp;384-385 of the trade paperback edition<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=thinmanthe -->\r\n<!-- Sorttopic=thinmanthe -->\r\n\r\n<div class=\"dialogue\">\r\n<p><b>Nick<\/b>: I\u2019m a hero. I was shot twice in the <cite>Tribune<\/cite>.<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Nora<\/b>: I read where you were shot five times in the tabloids.<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Nick<\/b>: It\u2019s not true. He didn\u2019t come anywhere near my tabloids.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014<cite>The Thin Man<\/cite><\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=thomasdequincey -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cIf once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing, and from robbing he comes next to drinking and Sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility and procrastination.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Thomas de Quincey, <cite>Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts<\/cite><\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=thomaslovepeacock -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cYou may as well dine first, and be miserable afterwards.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Raven, the butler, in Thomas Love Peacock\u2019s <cite>Nightmare Abbey<\/cite> (1818), ch.&nbsp;14<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=thomasmalory -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cAnd then, as the French book saith, the queen and Launcelot were together. And whether they were abed or at other manner of disports, me list not hereof make no mention, for love that time was not as is now-a-days.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014<cite>Le Morte d\u2019Arthur<\/cite>, by Thomas Malory<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=thorntonwilder -->\r\n\r\n<p>From <cite>Our Town<\/cite>, by Thornton Wilder, Act II (published in 1938):<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"dialogue\">\r\n<p><b>Mr. Webb<\/b>: George, I was thinking the other night of some advice my father gave me when I got married. Charles, he said, Charles, start out early showing who\u2019s boss, he said. Best thing to do is to give an order, even if it don\u2019t make sense; just so she\u2019ll learn to obey. And he said: if anything about your wife irritates you\u2014her conversation, or anything\u2014just get up and leave the house. That\u2019ll make it clear to her, he said. And, oh, yes! He said never, <em>never<\/em> let your wife know how much money you have, never.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p><b>George<\/b>: Well, Mr. Webb\u2026 I don\u2019t think I could\u2026<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p><b>Mr. Webb<\/b>: So I took the opposite of my father\u2019s advice and I\u2019ve been happy ever since.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=tomhardy -->\r\n\r\n<p>Tom Hardy, on playing Max in <cite>Mad Max: Fury Road<\/cite>:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cYou don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to work and what isn\u2019t, so you have to be brave. If you\u2019re not failing, you\u2019re not fucking doing the job properly.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014as quoted in <cite>Blood, Sweat &amp; Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road<\/cite>, p.&nbsp;147<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=tomrobbins -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201c[\u2026] a day is coming when our novels will be written by computers, the same devices that will paint our murals and compose our tunes.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Tom Robbins, <cite>Still Life with Woodpecker<\/cite> (1980), pp.&nbsp;36-37<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=tonimorrison -->\r\n\r\n<p>The first-person narrator of Toni Morrison\u2019s 1992 novel <cite>Jazz<\/cite> is kind of mysterious; as Morrison says in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=WalpqW351Es \">2001 interview<\/a>, \u201cthe narrator is unreliable and [\u2026] learns along with the reader what the truth is about the characters. The narrator has been half-describing, half-witnessing, and half-inventing.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>So I was particularly tickled by this line from the narrator, about \u2154 of the way through the book:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201c[\u2026] it infuriates me to discover (again) how unreliable I am.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014p.&nbsp;160<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=torilmoi -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cMary Ellman\u2018s <cite>Thinking About Women<\/cite> (1968) [describes] the eleven major stereotypes of femininity as presented by male writers and critics: formlessness, passivity, instability, confinement, piety, materiality, spirituality, irrationality, compliancy, and finally \u2018the two incorrigible figures\u2019 of the Witch and the Shrew.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Toril Moi, <cite>Sexual\/Textual Politics<\/cite>, p.&nbsp;34<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=torilmoi -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201c[\u2026] all forms of radical thought inevitably remain mortgaged to the very historical categories they seek to transcend. But our understanding of this historically necessary paradox should not lead us complacently to perpetuate patriarchal practices.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Toril Moi, <cite>Sexual\/Textual Politics<\/cite>, p.&nbsp;88<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=tovejansson -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cIf you don\u2019t like my play, then by all means write a better one yourselves,\u201d he remarked.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cDearest one,\u201d said Moominmamma. \u201cWe think it\u2019s wonderful. Don\u2019t we?\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cOf course,\u201d everybody said.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cYou hear,\u201d said Moominmamma. \u201cEverybody likes it. If you just change the style and the plot a little.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014<cite>Moominsummer Madness<\/cite>, by Tove Jansson<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=tovejansson -->\r\n\r\n<p>From <cite>Comet in Moominland<\/cite>, a conversation between Moomintroll and Sniff:<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>\u201cYou always want adventures, Sniff, and when they come you\u2019re so frightened you don\u2019t know what to do.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p>\u201cWell, I\u2019m not a lion,\u201d said Sniff reproachfully. \u201cI like small adventures. Just the right size.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=tovejansson -->\r\n\r\n<p>Too-ticky on adventures and heroes:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cQuite, quite,\u201d she thought with a little sigh. \u201cIt\u2019s always like this in their adventures. To save and be saved. I wish somebody would write a story sometime about the people who warm up the heroes afterward.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014<cite>Moominland Midwinter<\/cite>, p.&nbsp;122, by Tove Jansson<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=tovejansson -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cThere is something very elegant about throwing the plates out the window after dinner, and about living in a house that is slowly sinking to its doom.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from <cite>The Summer Book<\/cite>, by Tove Jansson<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>(The protagonists are pretending to live in Venice.)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=tseliot -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>For last year's words belong to last year's language<\/p>\r\n<p>And next year's words await another voice.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014T. S. Eliot, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.columbia.edu\/itc\/history\/winter\/w3206\/edit\/tseliotlittlegidding.html\">Little Gidding<\/a>\u201d (1942)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=tseliot -->\r\n\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>So here I am, in the middle way, having had twenty years\u2014<\/p>\r\n<p>Twenty years largely wasted, the years of <i>l\u2019entre deux guerres<\/i>\u2014<\/p>\r\n<p>Trying to learn to use words, and every attempt<\/p>\r\n<p>Is a wholly new start, and a different kind of failure<\/p>\r\n<p>Because one has only learnt to get the better of words<\/p>\r\n<p>For the thing one no longer has to say, or the way in which<\/p>\r\n<p>One is no longer disposed to say it.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014T. S. Eliot, \u201cEast Coker\u201d (1940)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<h1 id=\"U\">U<\/h1>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=underground -->\r\n<!-- Sorttopic=underground -->\r\n\r\n<p>In <cite>Underground<\/cite> s2e1, \u201cContraband,\u201d there\u2019s a scene in which one of the main white characters, Elizabeth, meets a group of abolitionist women (of various races). And the following discussion ensues:<\/p>\r\n<div class=\"dialogue\">\r\n<p><b>Anne:<\/b> The humiliation suffered by those in bondage is real. It\u2019s raw. No one is talking about it honestly.<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Emily:<\/b> We all just read a narrative about a man so badly beaten, he can no longer lift his arms.<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Abigail:<\/b> <cite><a href=\"http:\/\/docsouth.unc.edu\/neh\/henson58\/summary.html\">Truth Stranger Than Fiction: Father Henson\u2019s Story<\/a><\/cite>.<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Georgia:<\/b> Have you come across it, Elizabeth?<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Elizabeth:<\/b> I can\u2019t say that I have.<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Georgia:<\/b> Well, it\u2019s a harrowing read, but a necessary tool for the cause.<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Elizabeth:<\/b> How so?<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Georgia:<\/b> Do you know what struck the final blow against the British slave trade? It was an article, \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.understandingslavery.com\/index.php-option=com_content&view=article&id=448_description-of-slave-ship&catid=145_atlantic-crossing&Itemid=255.html\">Description of a slave ship<\/a>.\u201d The intolerable image it conjured in the mind is what turned the tide overseas.<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Sally:<\/b> Well, the best literature has a way of forcing yourself into a stranger\u2019s skin. It demands empathy.<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Elizabeth:<\/b> Most people don\u2019t read.<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Georgia:<\/b> That\u2019s true. They don\u2019t.<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Elizabeth:<\/b> And to be honest, even those who do, given the choice, might be reticent to steep themselves in the horrors of slavery.<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Georgia:<\/b> You make a good point. It may be time to move past just the catalog of violence that most narratives portray. But the fact remains, the silence around slavery is an extension of its brutality. And we aim to put the issue into every Northern home that refuses to see what\u2019s really happening.<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Elizabeth:<\/b> Well, then, narratives raise awareness.<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Georgia:<\/b> And the rallies, and the bake sales to raise funds, and abolitionist prints like <cite><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Liberator_(newspaper)\">The Liberator<\/a><\/cite>\u2014all forms of disruption. I have to believe that a true understanding of what the Southern Negroes are enduring will incite good people to action.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p>Excellent metacommentary. I half expected one of them to say \u201cMaybe we should try making a TV show.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=unknown -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know how to act my age\u2014I\u2019ve never been this old before.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014seen on a shirt in an ad, original source unknown<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=unknown -->\r\n\r\n<p>Cute bit from Overheard in New York:<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<h3><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20080219025546\/http:\/\/www.overheardinnewyork.com\/archives\/013187.html\">The United Nations, Encapsulated<\/a><\/h3>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"dialogue\">\r\n<p><b>Dude #1<\/b>: They have been underestimating my power.<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Dude #2<\/b>: What?<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Dude #1<\/b>: They have been underestimating my power for quite some time now.<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Dude #2<\/b>: What are you, a supervillain? Who\u2019s been underestimating your power? The justice league?<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Dude #1<\/b>: No, the electric company. They say I owe them eight hundred dollars.<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Dude #2<\/b>: Dude, you and I were having two totally different conversations.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014at Penn Station, overheard by: 13Atlantic<\/p>\r\n<p>via <a href=\"http:\/\/www.overheardinnewyork.com\/\">Overheard in New York<\/a>, Jan 14, 2008<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=unknown -->\r\n\r\n<p>Encountered this on rathergood.com; no idea whether it\u2019s by them or by someone else unknown:<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>And the princess lived happily ever after until she got executed in a basement by the glorious leaders of the revolution THE END<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=unknown -->\r\n\r\n<p>One of the things that some of the rhyme-chains in <cite>Hamilton<\/cite> reminded me of:<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>\u201dNow he was a giant, so huge and defiant, but if he was tryin\u2019 to stop you denyin\u2019 that he\u2019s self-reliant, you\u2019d soon be compliant, and no use in cryin\u2019 that you were a scientist merely supplyin\u2019 some data, not spyin\u2019; his eyes would be eyein\u2019 ya, soon he\u2019d be fryin\u2019 ya! Out of the fryin\u2019 pan, hung out for dryin\u2019, man! Then he\u2019s supplyin\u2019 the hurt! You\u2019d be dyin\u2019, man! He\u2019d break your neck just like snappin\u2019 a twig! I\u2019m tellin\u2019 you, brother, this mother was <em>big<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014a spoken bit in the song \u201cDavid and Goliath,\u201d as performed by the Cats &amp; Jammers. (Author unknown to me.)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=unknown -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201c\u2026he has a car named Kafka.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p>\u201cOh\u2014a Volkswagen bug, right?\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Unknown (which is to say, I forget who said this)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=unknown -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cDo not [\u2026] dangle the mouse by its cable or throw the mouse at co-workers.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from the <cite>IRIS Indigo Owner\u2019s Guide<\/cite>, author unknown<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=unknown -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cJuggling is catching!\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014unknown (I heard someone say this as I walked past them while I was juggling; I don\u2019t know if it was original to them, or if they were quoting someone)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=unknown -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cMonogamy leaves a lot to be desired.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014unknown<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=unknown -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cPlease do not call back, as this may delay our service to you.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Vision Service Plan automated telephone info system, author unknown<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=unknown -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cThis is a non-smoking flight. If you do it again we\u2019ll have to ask you to step outside.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014captain of airplane (name unknown to me), over PA system, while we were in the air<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=unknown -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cWhen\u2019s he gonna stop treating me like a second-grade citizen?\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014someone unknown to me on a phone at JFK airport<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=unknown -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cNothing says \u2018feminism\u2019 like demanding that women remove their clothing until you are happy about the way they look.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014unknown, quoted by David Moles<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=unknown -->\r\n\r\n<p>Advice from a 14th-century French man to his wife, about things to teach servants:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cAnd arrange first that each have beside his bed a candlestick in which to put his candle and have them wisely taught to extinguish it with the mouth or the hand before getting into bed and not by throwing shirts at it.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from the book known as <cite>Le Menagier de Paris<\/cite>, author unknown; presumably translated by Eileen Power. (As quoted in Power\u2019s <cite>Medieval Women<\/cite>, p.&nbsp;52)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=unknown -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>The King immediately commanded the officers of his wardrobe to run and fetch one of his best suits for the Lord Marquis of Carabas.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>The King caressed him after a very extraordinary manner, and as the fine clothes he had given him extremely set off his good mien (for he was well made and very handsome in his person) [\u2026]<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from the version of \u201cPuss in Boots\u201d in <cite>Best-loved Folktales of the World<\/cite>, author unknown, ed. Joanna Cole, 1982<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=unknown -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cOne reporter, after hearing a Brown steam-powered [fog] siren for the first time, described it as having \u2018a screech like an army of panthers, weird and prolonged, gradually lowering in note until after half a minute it becomes the roar of a thousand mad bulls, with intermediate voices suggestive of the wail of a lost soul, the moan of a bottomless pit and the groan of a disabled elevator.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from the Wikipedia article about <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Foghorn\">foghorns<\/a>, author unknown<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=unknown -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cWe have only struck a little piece of ice and passed it.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014a deck steward (name unknown to me) on the <i>Titanic<\/i>, according to <cite>A Night to Remember<\/cite>, by Walter Lord<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=unknown -->\r\n\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>\u201cA mind\u2019s reach should exceed its grasp,<\/p>\r\n<p>Or what\u2019s a meta phor?\u201d<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Unknown (riffing on Browning)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=ursulakleguin1969 -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re each of us alone, to be sure. What can you do but hold your hand out in the dark?\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from \u201cNine Lives,\u201d by Ursula K. Le&nbsp;Guin (1969)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=ursulakleguin1972libbyroderick -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cThere is no safety, and there is no end. The word must be heard in silence; there must be darkness to see the stars. The dance is always danced above the hollow place, above the terrible abyss.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Sparrowhawk, in Le&nbsp;Guin\u2019s <cite>The Farthest Shore<\/cite> (1972), p.&nbsp;121 of the 1980 Bantam paperback edition<\/p>\r\n<p>Out of context, that may sound kind of grim, but in context it\u2019s hopeful and kind of inspiring. (It\u2019s also, of course, related to the epigraph at the beginning of the trilogy, the one that starts out \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.kith.org\/journals\/jed\/2005\/01\/02\/2538.html\">Only in silence the word<\/a>.\u201d)<\/p>\r\n<p>And it reminded me of the chorus of an anti-war song by Libby Roderick:<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>\ud83c\udfb5 I\u2019d rather be dancing, at the edge of my grave.<\/p>\r\n<p>I\u2019d rather be holding you close as we march forward loving and brave.<\/p>\r\n<p>I\u2019d rather be singing, in the face of my fear.<\/p>\r\n<p>I\u2019d rather be dancing in front of the guns as long as I\u2019m here.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Libby Roderick, \u201cDancing in Front of the Guns,\u201d 1991 (<a href=\"https:\/\/libbyroderick.com\/lyrics\/\">full lyrics<\/a>)<\/p>\r\n<p>As usual, the lyrics alone don\u2019t really give a sense of the song, but thanks to the iTunes Store, you can listen to a 30-second sample of \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/music.apple.com\/us\/album\/dancing-in-front-of-the-guns\/178796168?i=178796380\">Dancing in Front of the Guns<\/a>\u201d and the other songs on that album.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=ursulakleguin1974 -->\r\n\r\n<p>The opening of Le&nbsp;Guin\u2019s <cite>The Dispossessed<\/cite> (1974):<\/p>\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>There was a wall. It did not look important. It was built of uncut rocks roughly mortared. An adult could look right over it, and even a child could climb it. Where it crossed the roadway, instead of having a gate it degenerated into mere geometry, a line, an idea of boundary. But the idea was real. [\u2026]<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Like all walls it was ambiguous, two-faced. What was inside it and what was outside it depended upon which side of it you were on.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Looked at from one side, the wall enclosed a barren sixty-acre field called the Port of Anarres. [\u2026] The wall shut in not only the landing field but also the ships that came down out of space, and the men that came on the ships, and the worlds they came from, and the rest of the universe. It enclosed the universe, leaving Anarres outside, free.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Looked at from the other side, the wall enclosed Anarres: the whole planet was inside it[\u2026]<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=ursulakleguin1978 -->\r\n\r\n<p>From Le&nbsp;Guin\u2019s \u201cIntroduction to <cite>Planet of Exile<\/cite>\u201d (intro written in 1977 or 1978; can now be found in <cite>The Language of the Night<\/cite>). Worth reading the whole piece, but here\u2019s a bit of it:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p><cite>Planet of Exile<\/cite> was written in 1963\u20131964[\u2026]. The book exhibits my early, \u201cnatural\u201d (i.e., happily acculturated), unawakened, un-consciousness-raised way of handling male and female characters. At that time, I could say with a perfectly clear conscience, indeed with self-congratulation, that I simply didn\u2019t care whether my characters were male or female, so long as they were human.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>[\u2026] it\u2019s ever so much easier to write about men doing things, because most books about people doing things are about men[\u2026].<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>[\u2026] All too often we have found that we had no opinion or belief of our own, but had simply incorporated the dogmas of our society; and so we must discover, invent, make our own truths, our values, ourselves.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>[\u2026] I use the tools of feminism, and try to figure out what makes me work and how I work, so that I will no longer work in ignorance or irresponsibly.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=ursulakleguin1978 -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cI never did care much about plots, all I want is to go from A to B\u2014or, more often, from A to A\u2014by the most difficult and circuitous route.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Le&nbsp;Guin, in her intro to <cite>City of Illusions<\/cite> (intro written in 1977 or 1978)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=ursulakleguin1981 -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cNo house worth living in has for its cornerstone the hunger of those who built it.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Ursula K. Le&nbsp;Guin, \u201cHunger,\u201d 1981 (or maybe 1989?)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=ursulakleguin1990 -->\r\n\r\n<p>(Content warning for description of soldiers killing protesters, in a fictional Eastern European country.)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cThis is history. Once upon a time in 1830, in 1848, in 1866, in 1918, in 1947, in 1956, stones flew. Stones flew through the air like pigeons, and hearts, too, hearts had wings. Those were the years when the stones flew, the hearts took wing, the young voices sang. The soldiers raised their muskets to the ready, the soldiers aimed their rifles, the soldiers poised their machine guns. They were young, the soldiers. They fired. The stones lay down, the pigeons fell. There\u2019s a kind of red stone called pigeon\u2019s blood, a ruby. The red stones of Roukh Square were never rubies; slosh a bucket of water over them or let the rain fall and they\u2019re grey again, lead grey, common stones. Only now and then in certain years they have flown, and turned to rubies.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Ursula K. Le&nbsp;Guin, \u201cUnlocking the Air,\u201d 1990<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=ursulakleguin1990 -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cAt the day\u2019s end there was supper together, and bed together, and sleep, and wake at dawn and back to work, and so round and so round, like the wheel of a water mill, rising full and emptying, the days like the bright water falling.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Ursula K. Le&nbsp;Guin, <cite>Tehanu<\/cite> (1990)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=ursulakleguin1994 -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cI never knew anybody, anywhere I have been, who found life simple. I think a life or a time looks simple when you leave out the details, the way a planet looks smooth, from orbit.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Ursula K. Le&nbsp;Guin, from her story \u201cSolitude\u201d (1994)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=ursulakleguin1995 -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cYou can\u2019t change anything from outside it. Standing apart, looking down, taking the overview, you see the pattern. What\u2019s wrong, what\u2019s missing. You want to fix it. But you can\u2019t patch it. You have to be in it, weaving it. You have to be part of the weaving.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014said by a character in \u201cA Man of the People\u201d (1995), by Ursula K. Le&nbsp;Guin, in <cite>Four Ways to Forgiveness<\/cite><\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>I\u2019m not sure I agree with this as stated; I think there\u2019s some nuance missing there. But I also find the idea pretty compelling, especially because I tend to be more inclined to stand apart and look at the pattern than to get involved in the weaving.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=ursulakleguin1998 -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cModernist manuals of writing often conflate story with conflict. This reductionism reflects a culture that inflates aggression and competition while cultivating ignorance of other behavioral options. No narrative of any complexity can be built on or reduced to a single element. Conflict is one kind of behavior. There are others, equally important in any human life, such as relating, finding, losing, bearing, discovering, parting, changing.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from <cite>Steering the Craft<\/cite> (1998?), by Ursula K. Le&nbsp;Guin<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>(Several people have responded to this by disagreeing with Le&nbsp;Guin about what the word <i>conflict<\/i> means in the context of teaching fiction writing. But I feel like her underlying point is still useful.)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=ursulakleguin2002 -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cTo create difference\u2014to establish strangeness\u2014then to let the fiery arc of human emotion leap and close the gap: this acrobatics of the imagination fascinates and satisfies me as no other.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Ursula K. Le&nbsp;Guin, from her Foreword to <cite>The Birthday of the World and Other Stories<\/cite> (2002)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=ursulakleguin2004 -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cAdolescents struggle fiercely and consciously to understand their world, make sense of it, cope with it, make moral choices. Their struggle is often genuinely desperate. They need help. Story is perhaps the most flexible tool at the disposal of mind. With it we remake reality. We retell events, we imagine alternatives, we figure out how to live according to our desires and according to our needs.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Ursula K. Le Guin, from \u201cWhy Kids Want Fantasy\u201d (2004?), published in <cite>Cheek by Jowl<\/cite><\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=ursulakleguin2008 -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cThere is a kind of refusal to serve power that isn\u2019t a revolt or a rebellion, but a revolution in the sense of reversing meanings, of changing how things are understood.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Ursula K. Le&nbsp;Guin, from her 2008 (?) afterword to <cite>Tehanu<\/cite><\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=ursulakleguin2012 -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cStorytellers\u2019 stories, like scientific theories, are explorations, excursions into the tremendous gap between almost knowing and knowing. Bridges thrown out, as a spider throws herself on her first long anchoring thread, not certain where it will land her yet trusting it to do so.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Ursula K. Le&nbsp;Guin, from her 2012 (?) afterword in <cite>Tales from Earthsea<\/cite><\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=ursulakleguin2014 -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cHard times are coming, when we\u2019ll be wanting the voices of writers who can see alternatives to how we live now, can see through our fear-stricken society and its obsessive technologies to other ways of being, and even imagine real grounds for hope. We\u2019ll need writers who can remember freedom\u2014poets, visionaries\u2014realists of a larger reality.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cWe live in capitalism, its power seems inescapable\u2014but then, so did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art. Very often in our art, the art of words.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Ursula K. Le Guin, \u201cFreedom\u201d (\u201cA speech in acceptance of the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, November 2014.\u201d)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=ursulakleguin2016 -->\r\n\r\n<p>From a brief Le&nbsp;Guin introduction (written in 2016) to <cite>The Word for World Is Forest<\/cite> (written in 1977):<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201ca high-budget, highly successful film resembled the novel in so many ways that people have often assumed I had some part in making it. Since the film completely reverses the book\u2019s moral premise, presenting the central and unsolved problem of the book, mass violence, as a solution, I\u2019m glad I had nothing at all to do with it.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=ursulakleguin201714 -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cThis is why FTL is so popular: you really can\u2019t have a Galactic War without it.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Ursula K. Le Guin, from her intro to the 2017 Library of America book <cite>Hainish Novels &amp; Stories, Volume Two<\/cite>, p.&nbsp;xiv<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=ursulakleguin201715 -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cMy knowledge of anthropology is slight, but it is a familiar acquaintance, and it gave me some insight into the inexhaustible strangeness of human social customs and the all but universal human refusal to see anything strange about them if they\u2019re our own customs, and anything good about them if they\u2019re not.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Ursula K. Le Guin, from her intro to the Library of America book <cite>Hainish Novels &amp; Stories, Volume Two<\/cite>, p.&nbsp;xv<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=ursulavernon -->\r\n\r\n<p>In the graphic novel <cite>Digger<\/cite> (about halfway through; p.&nbsp;451 of the Omnibus edition, <a href=\"http:\/\/diggercomic.com\/?p=491\">p.&nbsp;491 of the webcomic<\/a>), a mysterious, masked character named Trader Manuel shows up, and speaks in a dark, mysterious, portentous way about nameless cults and cartographers going mad and such. And then the following exchange ensues, between the trader and the eminently practical and sensible wombat protagonist, Digger:<\/p>\r\n<div class=\"dialogue\">\r\n<p><b>Trader Manuel<\/b>: Tell me, wombat\u2014if I gave you a box and told you that it must not be opened, ever, under any circumstances, what would you do?<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Digger<\/b>: Hmmm\u2026 Encase it in concrete, probably. Actually, I\u2019d encase it in lead first, if the box materials could take the heat, then in concrete. Then I\u2019d put it in the foundations of a useful public works project. Something they wouldn\u2019t be digging up again in a hurry. Grain storage, or mole dung composting\u2026 I\u2019d have to check and see what was available\u2026 How big a box are we talking about, anyway?<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<h1 id=\"V\">V<\/h1>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=verachapman -->\r\n\r\n<p>From Vera Chapman\u2019s 1977 story \u201cCrusader Damosel.\u201d I don\u2019t recommend it, but I was surprised by one particular moment. A young woman from England, named Adela, has gone to the Crusades (with her parents, and not in disguise as a man or anything), and has mutually fallen in love with a Knight Templar, but they only interact in (essentially) their dreams. And during their first interaction that we see in the dream-world, this exchange happens:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cWhat do you call me\u2014here?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cWhy\u2014Adal, I think,\u201d he answered.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cAnd am I a boy or a girl?\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cA boy, of course\u2014no, a girl\u2014oh, to be sure, I don\u2019t know.\u201d And he laughed in confusion. \u201cBut come on\u2014the trumpets are sounding[\u2026]\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=vernorvinge -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cI thought all the Singularity types had died or been carted off to old folks homes long ago. But [\u2026] I guess like Nostradamus, some notions will never go away.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from the 2010 short story \u201cA Preliminary Assessment of the Drake Equation, Being an Excerpt from the Memoirs of Star Captain Y.-T. Lee.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>(The author of the story is Vernor Vinge.)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=viennateng -->\r\n\r\n<p>From Vienna Teng\u2019s song \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/album\/the-atheist-christmas-carol\/id4770535?i=4770531\">The Atheist Christmas Carol<\/a>\u201d (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=HCEZOppYjds\">YouTube<\/a>):<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>\ud83c\udfb5 It\u2019s the season of bowing our heads in the wind<\/p>\r\n<p>And knowing we are not alone in fear,<\/p>\r\n<p>Not alone in the dark.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=virginiawoolf -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cBooks, she thought, grew of themselves. She never had time to read them.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from <cite>To the Lighthouse<\/cite>, by Virginia Woolf, one of the books that I eventually took down from my ever-growing bookshelf of unread books to read, after thirty years of not reading it<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=vondanmcintyre -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cWe act in stupid and short-sighted ways and then we behave as if we didn\u2019t have any responsibility for those actions. Somehow that justifies our continuing to behave in the same short-sighted ways. Instead of trying to change, we hope it works better this time.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Victoria MacKenzie, in Vonda N. McIntyre\u2019s <cite>Starfarers<\/cite><\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<h1 id=\"W\">W<\/h1>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=waltkelly -->\r\n\r\n<p>In the <cite>Pogo<\/cite> comic strip dated 13 December 1951, Churchy and Albert are talking to Beau Moonlight Sonata, the famous singing frog:<\/p>\r\n<div class=\"dialogue\">\r\n<p><b>Churchy<\/b>: With you singin\u2019 on our side, Albert an\u2019 me will sure win Miz Hepzibah\u2019s hand\u2026<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Beau<\/b>: How can you BOTH win her hand?<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Churchy<\/b>: Well, there\u2019s one apiece. She got the usual number.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=waltkelly -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cIf I could only write, I\u2019d write a nasty letter to the Mayor, if he could only read.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from <cite>Pogo<\/cite>, by Walt Kelly<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=waltkelly -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201c\u2026how many talents you \u2019spect is wrop up in one boy? I only good at writin\u2019 an\u2019 never gives a hoot for readin\u2019 what I writes.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Albert the Alligator, in <cite>Pogo<\/cite>, by Walt Kelly<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=waltwhitman -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cTo the States or any one of them, or any city of the States, <i>Resist much, obey little<\/i>\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from Walt Whitman, \u201cTo the States,\u201d 1860<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=wayne -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cBeing a bisexual is a lot like being a Tom Waits fan. You grow up thinking you\u2019re the only one and not talking about it much. Then when he comes to town, you can\u2019t even get a ticket.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Wayne, <cite>The Bi Monthly<\/cite> (BBMN), November 1987<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>(As quoted in <cite>Bisexuality: A Reader and Sourcebook<\/cite>, ed. Thomas Geller, 1990, p.&nbsp;8 )<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>#CommitToTheMetaphor<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=webdubois -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cNow is the accepted time, not tomorrow, not some more convenient season. It is today that our best work can be done and not some future day or future year. It is today that we fit ourselves for the greater usefulness of tomorrow. Today is the seed time, now are the hours of work[\u2026]\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014W. E. B. Du Bois<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=wendellberry -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cI like the idea of a volume of \u2018selected poems\u2019 because I like the ideas of culling and condensation and compactness. In making this book, I have culled a lot of poems and thus have achieved some condensation as a matter of course. I might have achieved compactness as well, if I had had the foresight and the good luck to write shorter poems. Having so often failed at brevity, and needing to represent my work at least adequately, I have had to sacrifice compactness in the interest of fairness to myself.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from the author\u2019s note at the start of <cite>The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry<\/cite>, by Wendell Berry<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=wendellberry -->\r\n\r\n<p>Here\u2019s a piece from Wendell Berry\u2019s 1998 poem \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.poemhunter.com\/poem\/the-country-of-marriage\/\">The Country of Marriage<\/a>,\u201d a bit which I feel like applies as well to unmarried life as to married:<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>Sometimes our life reminds me<\/p>\r\n<p>of a forest in which there is a graceful clearing<\/p>\r\n<p>and in that opening a house,<\/p>\r\n<p>an orchard and garden,<\/p>\r\n<p>comfortable shades, and flowers<\/p>\r\n<p>red and yellow in the sun, a pattern<\/p>\r\n<p>made in the light for the light to return to.<\/p>\r\n<p>The forest is mostly dark, its ways<\/p>\r\n<p>to be made anew day after day, the dark<\/p>\r\n<p>richer than the light and more blessed,<\/p>\r\n<p>provided we stay brave<\/p>\r\n<p>enough to keep on going in.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=wernerheisenberg -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cAll scientific work is, of course, based consciously or subconsciously on some philosophical attitude.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Werner Heisenberg<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>(Quote is approximate; I\u2019ve seen various versions of it. I\u2019m also not certain of the context; it may not mean what I think it means. But I like what it sounds to me like it\u2019s saying.)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=whauden -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>of whom shall we speak? For every day they die<\/p>\r\n<p>among us, those who were doing us some good,<\/p>\r\n<p>who knew it was never enough but<\/p>\r\n<p>hoped to improve a little by living.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014W. H. Auden, from \u201cIn Memory of Sigmund Freud\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=williamshakespeare -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>Golden lads and girls all must,<\/p>\r\n<p>As chimney-sweepers, come to dust.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014William Shakespeare, from <cite>Cymbeline<\/cite><\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=williamtenn -->\r\n\r\n<p>William Tenn\u2019s 1958 story \u201cEastward Ho!\u201d (as reprinted in the 60th-anniversary volume <cite><a href=\"https:\/\/tachyonpublications.com\/product\/the-very-best-of-fantasy-science-fiction\/\">The Very Best of Fantasy &amp; Science Fiction<\/a><\/cite>) takes place in a post-Collapse future in which American Indians (who are redeveloping science and technology) control most of the former US. I was rolling my eyes a bit at some Indian stereotypes transplanted into the future, but then I got to this bit:<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>Makes Much Radiation [the chief\u2019s son] shifted his shoulders back and forth and flexed his arm muscles. \u201cAll this talk,\u201d he growled. \u201cPaleface talk. Makes me tired.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p>[\u2026]<\/p>\r\n<p>One of the other, older warriors near the chief spoke up. \u201cIn the old days, in the days of the heroes, a boy of Makes Much Radiation\u2019s age would not dare raise his voice in council before his father. Certainly not to say the things he just has. I cite as reference, for those interested, Robert Lowie\u2019s definitive volume, <cite>The Crow Indians<\/cite>, and Lesser\u2019s fine piece of anthropological insight, <cite>Three Types of Siouan Kinship<\/cite>. Now, whereas we have not yet been able to reconstruct a Siouan kinship pattern on the classic model described by Lesser, we have developed a working arrangement that\u2014\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p>\u201cThe trouble with you, Bright Book Jacket,\u201d the warrior on his left broke in, \u201cis that you\u2019re too much of a classicist.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=willyclaflin -->\r\n\r\n<p>From <a href=\"http:\/\/www.willyclaflin.com\/\">Maynard Moose<\/a>\u2019s story \u201cPegamoose and the Gorgonzola Medusa\u201d (by Willy Claflin), the early part of the story describing the ancient mooses who lived on Mount Galumpus:<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>First and foremost: Mother Moose, creator of the universe. Then there were her faithful servants, the nine mooses. There was Clio, Mio, Calliope, Cacophony, Terpsichore, Androgyny, Hegemony, Chastity, and Gwendolyn.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=withoutlove -->\r\n<!-- Sorttopic=withoutlove -->\r\n\r\n<p>Pat (Spencer Tracy) and Jamie (Katharine Hepburn) are on a sleeper train, and the following dialogue ensues:<\/p>\r\n<div class=\"dialogue\">\r\n<p><b>Jamie<\/b>: Would you like something to read? I got some books in the station.<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Pat<\/b>: You\u2019re a funny girl, aren\u2019t you. Didn\u2019t remember to bring any pajamas, but books, yes.<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Jamie<\/b>: Books are more important than pajamas.<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Pat<\/b>: Only in some states. The Supreme Court hasn\u2019t decided that yet.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014from <cite>Without Love<\/cite>, Hepburn\/Tracy, 1945<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=wsgilbert -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>\ud83c\udfb5 Oh, philosophers may sing of the troubles of the king,<\/p>\r\n<p>Yet the duties are delightful and the privileges great.<\/p>\r\n<p>But the privilege and pleasure that we treasure beyond measure<\/p>\r\n<p>Is to run on little errands for the Ministers of State.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014<cite>The Gondoliers<\/cite>, by Gilbert & Sullivan<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=wsomersetmaugham -->\r\n\r\n<p>Remember the good old days when everyone liked to read long stories, before modern media shortened everyone\u2019s attention spans? Maugham does:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cWhen the nineteenth century was young, men had fewer ways of amusing their leisure than they have now and were not displeased if their fiction moved at a deliberate pace; they accepted without reluctance a dilatory exposition and a sauntering digressiveness. [\u2026] Now everyone reads newspapers every day, one or more, and the reading public has grown to demand succinctness and a graphic way of putting things[\u2026]\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014W. Somerset Maugham, introduction to anthology <cite>Tellers of Tales<\/cite>, 1939<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<h1 id=\"Y\">Y<\/h1>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=yokoono -->\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<h3>SLEEPING PIECE 1<\/h3>\r\n<div class=\"stanza\">\r\n<p>Write all the things you want to do.<\/p>\r\n<p>Ask others to do them and sleep<\/p>\r\n<p>until they finish doing them.<\/p>\r\n<p>Sleep as long as you can.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Yoko Ono (1960), from her book <cite>Grapefruit<\/cite><\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=yokoono -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cA cloud consists of the following substances: colour, music, smell, sleep and water. Sometimes it rains substances other than water, but very few people notice it.\u201d (This is in a section of True\/False questions.)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Yoko Ono, from her book <cite>Grapefruit<\/cite> (no page number)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=yokoono -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cDance Report\u2014on floating (or how to make the city so light that it floats away in the sky): Carry a stone. Go on carrying heavier stones until they become so heavy that the whole city starts to look lighter than what you are carrying.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Yoko Ono, from her book <cite>Grapefruit<\/cite> (no page number)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=yokoono -->\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cI would like to see the sky machine on every corner of the street instead of the coke machine. We need more skies than coke.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"attribution\">\u2014Yoko Ono, from her book <cite>Grapefruit<\/cite> (no page number)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<h1 id=\"Z\">Z<\/h1>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n<!-- Sortauthor=zilphakeatleysnyder -->\r\n\r\n<p>From <cite>The Changeling<\/cite>, by Zilpha Keatley Snyder. Martha, the protagonist doesn\u2019t really like games, but she\u2019s agreed to play Monopoly with her brother Tom, and she turns out to be lucky at it:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cShe could have absolutely wiped Tom out if she\u2019d tried, but she didn\u2019t much want to. Taking someone\u2019s money and houses away seemed like an awful way to win. When Tom finally lit on her most expensive property she said, \u2018Look, Tom. Let\u2019s pretend that I was out of town and I just asked you to stay there and take care of the hotel, and you didn\u2019t have to pay the rent.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<hr width=\"25%\" \/>\r\n\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"parent":19949,"menu_order":50,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-21403","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/jed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/21403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/jed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/jed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/jed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/jed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21403"}],"version-history":[{"count":146,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/jed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/21403\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21739,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/jed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/21403\/revisions\/21739"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/jed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/19949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/jed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}