Pragmatic knowledgePragmatic knowledge
“Enjoying living was learning to get your money’s worth and knowing when you had it.” – Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises
Author: Tetman Callis
Mount up!Mount up!
“Caffeine puts a man on her horse and a woman in his grave.” – Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises
A call for blessingsA call for blessings
“May the corn-stalks grow as long as my stretches, and may the will of the Holder of the Roads of Life shelter me from dangers as he sheltered his children in the days of the ancients.” – “The Maiden the Sun Made Love to, and Her Boys,” Zuñi Folk Tales, Frank Cushing
Let that be a lessonLet that be a lesson
“Perhaps had men been more grateful and wiser, the Sun-father had smiled and dropped everywhere the treasures we long for, and not hidden them deep in the earth and buried them in the shores of the sea. And perhaps, moreover, all men would have smiled upon one another and never enlarged their voices nor strengthened their arms in anger toward one another.” – “The Maiden the Sun Made Love to, and Her Boys,” Zuñi Folk Tales, Frank Cushing
Form a line on the rightForm a line on the right
“Doing right keeps right; doing wrong makes wrong, which, to make right, one must even pay.” – “The Cock and the Mouse,” Zuñi Folk Tales, Frank Cushing
But we do it anywayBut we do it anyway
“Remember that war is always a far worse muddle than anything you can produce in peace.” – Sir A. P. Wavell (quoted in Robert K. Krick’s Conquering the Valley)
I do not knowI do not know
“Is it not well that even for a little time the light of life shine—though it shine through fear and sadness—than be cut off altogether? For who knows where the trails tend that lead through the darkness of the night of death?” – “Atahsaia, the Cannibal Demon,” Zuñi Folk Tales, Frank Cushing
And at other times besidesAnd at other times besides
“You have to live with yourself to live by yourself.” – Eugene Marten, In the Blind
Getting their priorities straightGetting their priorities straight
“Pretty girls care very little how their husbands look, being pretty enough themselves for both. But they like to have them able to think and guess at a way of getting along occasionally.” – “How the Corn-Pests Were Ensnared,” Zuñi Folk Tales, Frank Cushing
Tail wagging or between his legs?Tail wagging or between his legs?
“There are two kinds of laugh with women. One of them is a very good sort of thing, and makes young men feel happy and conceited. The other kind is somewhat heartier, and makes young men feel depressed and very humble.” – “How the Corn-Pests Were Ensnared,” Zuñi Folk Tales, Frank Cushing
More sugar!More sugar!
“A color-coded map of American personal indebtedness could be laid on top of the Centers for Disease Control’s color-coded map that illustrates the fantastic rise in rates of obesity across the United States since 1985 without disturbing the general pattern. The boom in trading activity in individual stock portfolios; the spread of legalized gambling; the rise of drug and alcohol addiction; it is all of a piece. Everywhere you turn you see Americans sacrifice their long-term interests for a short-term reward.” – Michael Lewis, Boomerang
We export this stuff, tooWe export this stuff, too
“It isn’t a problem with government; it’s a problem with the entire society. It’s what happened on Wall Street in the run-up to the subprime crisis. It’s a problem of people taking what they can, just because they can, without regard to the larger social consequences. It’s not just a coincidence that the debts of cities and states spun out of control at the same time as the debts of individual Americans. Alone in a dark room with a pile of money, Americans knew exactly what they wanted to do, from the top of the society to the bottom. They’d been conditioned to grab as much as they could, without thinking about the long-term consequences.” – Michael Lewis, Boomerang
A long position on short storiesA long position on short stories
“There is no such thing as a riskless asset. The reason an asset pays a return is that it carries risk.” – Michael Lewis, Boomerang
Good cause, one would hopeGood cause, one would hope
“Once—as was the case with many, if not all, of the animals—the Rattlesnakes were a people, and a splendid people too. Therefore we kill them not needlessly, nor waste the lives even of the other animals without cause.” – “How the Rattlesnakes Came To Be What They Are,” Zuñi Folk Tales, Frank Cushing
It’s also known as “hallucinating”It’s also known as “hallucinating”
“When you borrow a lot of money to create a false prosperity, you import the future into the present. It isn’t the actual future so much as some grotesque silicone version of it. Leverage buys you a glimpse of a prosperity you haven’t really earned.” — Michael Lewis, Boomerang
This has not changed (would you like to buy some Facebook shares?)This has not changed (would you like to buy some Facebook shares?)
“One of the hidden causes of the current global financial crisis is that the people who saw it coming had more to gain from it by taking short positions than they did by trying to publicize the problem.” — Michael Lewis, Boomerang
Can’t hardly cross the street with all the trafficCan’t hardly cross the street with all the traffic
“It is hard to live above time. The church bell sounds the hours and the neighborhood streets are trafficked with our pasts.” — Christine Schutt, “Winterreise”
Venus was her nameVenus was her name
What that mote in Ol’ Sol’s eye?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXCHehlDpgw
Then we saw its faceThen we saw its face
“A banking system is an act of faith: it survives only for as long as people believe it will.” – Michael Lewis, Boomerang
Well, you know, we all wanna change the worldWell, you know, we all wanna change the world
“Revolutions develop the high qualities of the good and the great, but they cannot change the nature of the vicious and the selfish.” – Jefferson Davis, 1862 (quoted in Shelby Foote’s The Civil War: A Narrative)
Slut for sleep, wakeful and to no availSlut for sleep, wakeful and to no avail
“One does not go to sleep, you had to let sleep come to you, you had to bescatter its path with samples of yourself, maybe just pellets from your thinking, and not be afraid to be a whore for it.” — Gary Lutz, “Womanesque”
I know what boys likeI know what boys like
“The only thing that will ever even begin to understand a penis is another penis.” — Gary Lutz, “Womanesque”
Don’t need that weepy old thing, anyhowDon’t need that weepy old thing, anyhow
“The body had only so many quarts of water in it in which the heart might as well just go and get itself drowned once and for all.” — Gary Lutz, “Womanesque”
(Hey! I just found out–one of my short story collections (I don’t know which one, I sent them four) was a finalist in the 2011 Dzanc Books Short Story Collection Contest.)
It is for the security of the homelandIt is for the security of the homeland
“Evil that is everyday is lost in life, goes shrewdly into it; becomes a part of habitual blood. First it is a convenient receptacle for blame. It holds all hate. We fasten to it—the permanent and always good excuse. If it were not for it, ah then, we say, we would improve, we would succeed, we would go on. And then one day it is necessary, as if there’s been a pain to breathing for so long that when the pain at last subsides, out of fright, we suffocate.” – William Gass, “Mrs. Mean”
Black magic writer, I’m just a black magic writer…Black magic writer, I’m just a black magic writer…
“The people by me primitively guess that I am enemy and hate me: not alone for being different, or disdaining work, or worse, not doing any; but for something that would seem, if spoken for them, words of magic; for I take their souls away—I know it—and I play with them; I puppet them up to something; I march them through strange crowds and passions; I snuffle at their roots.” – William Gass, “Mrs. Mean”
Happens to civilians, tooHappens to civilians, too
“For the military historian, failure to maintain focus on the true objective is among the easiest mistakes to detect. For the soldier it is among the most difficult blunders to avoid.” – Robert G. Tanner, Stonewall in the Valley
They called it “Bloody Angle”They called it “Bloody Angle”
“The trench on the Rebel side of the works was filled with their dead piled together in every way with their wounded. The sight was terrible and ghastly. We helped off their wounded as well we could, and searched for our own wounded in front. Captain Corey was killed and never found. Captain Thomas was found with twelve bullet wounds. He had fallen and then been shot to pieces, possibly by his friends. The horses of the regular battery were so shot that each was not over ten or twelve inches thick.” – Erasmus C. Gilbreath, 20th Indiana Volunteer Infantry Regiment, Spotsylvania, Virginia, May, 1864 (quoted in If It Takes All Summer, William D. Matter)
The cure is flight and/or avoidanceThe cure is flight and/or avoidance
“There is no use in hearing the term ‘apartment complex’ unless it is taken immediately to mean a syndrome, a fiesta of symptoms.” – Gary Lutz, “Femme”
My father shows on my south sideMy father shows on my south side
“I have been told that when people say they see my father in me, I am to do one of two things. The first is just to tell them that it must be only because he’s trying to get their attention because he wants something again. Otherwise he wouldn’t be showing himself in me of all people. The other is for when people have already stayed too long. I’m supposed to say, ‘Where? Point him out. Show me where, so I can pull him out all the way. Maybe I can shit him out. Think that would work? Let’s go see.’ I have done both, but sometimes I just picture my body glassed over and my father motioning from within, bobbing up now and then between my bones, no big trouble.” – Gary Lutz, “The Summer I Could Walk Again”
Same as it ever wasSame as it ever was
“Is it one mistake after another, or is it the same one divvied up to make it last from one day to the next?” – Gary Lutz, “The Summer I Could Walk Again”