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“Give not thyself up, then, to fire, lest it invert thee, deaden thee, as for the time it did me. There is a wisdom that is woe; but there is a woe that is madness.”
― Moby-Dick or, The Whale
― Moby-Dick or, The Whale
“If through no fault of his own the hero is crushed by a bulldozer in Act II, we are not impressed. Even though life is often like this—the absconding cashier on his way to Nicaragua is killed in a collision at the airport, the prominent statesman dies of a stroke in the midst of the negotiations he has spent years to bring about, the young lovers are drowned in a boating accident the day before their marriage—such events, the warp and woof of everyday life, seem irrelevant, meaningless. They are crude, undigested, unpurged bits of reality—to draw a metaphor from the late J. Edgar Hoover, they are “raw files.” But it is the function of great art to purge and give meaning to human suffering, and so we expect that if the hero is indeed crushed by a bulldozer in Act II there will be some reason for it, and not just some reason but a good one, one which makes sense in terms of the hero’s personality and action. In fact, we expect to be shown that he is in some way responsible for what happens to him.”
― The Oedipus Cycle: Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone
― The Oedipus Cycle: Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone
“How can we satisfy ourselves without going on in infinitum? And, after all, what satisfaction is there in that infinite progression? Let us remember the story of the Indian philosopher and his elephant. It was never more applicable than to the present subject. If the material world rests upon a similar ideal world, this ideal world must rest upon some other; and so on, without end. It were better, therefore, never to look beyond the present material world.”
― Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion
― Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion
“In life, the visible surface of the Sperm Whale is not the least among the many marvels he presents. Almost invariably it is all over obliquely crossed and re-crossed with numberless straight marks in thick array, something like those in the finest Italian line engravings. But these marks do not seem to be impressed upon the isinglass substance above mentioned, but seem to be seen through it, as if they were engraved upon the body itself. Nor is this all. In some instances, to the quick, observant eye, those linear marks, as in a veritable engraving, but afford the ground for far other delineations. These are hieroglyphical; that is, if you call those mysterious cyphers on the walls of pyramids hieroglyphics, then that is the proper word to use in the present connexion. By my retentive memory of the hieroglyphics upon one Sperm Whale in particular, I was much struck with a plate representing the old Indian characters chiselled on the famous hieroglyphic palisades on the banks of the Upper Mississippi. Like those mystic rocks, too, the mystic-marked whale remains undecipherable.”
― Moby-Dick or, The Whale
― Moby-Dick or, The Whale
“I think of myself as a bad writer with big ideas, but I'd rather be that than a big writer with bad ideas.”
― Elric: The Stealer of Souls
― Elric: The Stealer of Souls
The Extra Cool Group! (of people Michael is experimenting on)
— 155 members
— last activity Aug 28, 2013 03:21AM
*Note: This group, although it lives on in a sense, like a photograph, capturing a moment so people can look back later and go, "Oh, wow, you looked s ...more
*Note: This group, although it lives on in a sense, like a photograph, capturing a moment so people can look back later and go, "Oh, wow, you looked s ...more
The Guttering Flame
— 75 members
— last activity Nov 29, 2011 12:35PM
This is a little society, a cadre, a coterie of the unlike-minded. Here we discuss Comic Books (or Graphic Novels, if you prefer) as art, aesthetic, l ...more
This is a little society, a cadre, a coterie of the unlike-minded. Here we discuss Comic Books (or Graphic Novels, if you prefer) as art, aesthetic, l ...more
The Great Gormenghast Read
— 88 members
— last activity Mar 22, 2021 03:54PM
This group is for those who wish to participate in a planned read of the original Gormenghast novels as penned by Mervyn Peake before his death. The ...more
This group is for those who wish to participate in a planned read of the original Gormenghast novels as penned by Mervyn Peake before his death. The ...more
Herman Melville
— 64 members
— last activity Apr 03, 2017 09:35PM
Dedicated to the discussion and appreciation of Melville's works and life, open to lubbers and sea-dogs alike. ...more
Dedicated to the discussion and appreciation of Melville's works and life, open to lubbers and sea-dogs alike. ...more
SCOTUS History and Philosophy
— 48 members
— last activity Jul 20, 2022 07:53AM
A discussion of cases and issues and books related to the U.S. Note that this group is basically defunct. I am referring people to Alan Johnson's very ...more
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A discussion of cases and issues and books related to the U.S. Note that this group is basically defunct. I am referring people to Alan Johnson's very ...more
J.G. Keely’s 2023 Year in Books
Take a look at J.G. Keely’s Year in Books. The good, the bad, the long, the short—it’s all here.
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