Revolution #10Revolution #10
“There is revolution when what is deemed to be ordinary is put into question, when what is considered to be beyond the realm of choice is discovered not to be.” — Adam Phillips, “Commanded to Mourn”
Category: Lit & Crit
A comfortable fitA comfortable fit
“Most people do not invent themselves. Most of them choose to be what they already are.” — Leon Wieseltier, Kaddish
So pay attentionSo pay attention
“One of the things our traditions are there to do is to remind us what the best things about us are.” — Adam Phillips, “Commanded to Mourn”
Guidance is providedGuidance is provided
“The books tell you to open the books so that you can find out beforehand what will be the most significant events in your life.” — Adam Phillips, “Commanded to Mourn”
Damning the torpedoesDamning the torpedoes
“When you do not take fortune at her offer you must take her as you can find her.” — Admiral David Farragut, 1864 (quoted in The Civil War: A Narrative, by Shelby Foote)
To get there from hereTo get there from here
“Oh, for more faith and clearer sight! How stable is the City of God! How disordered the City of Man!” — Salmon P. Chase, 1864 (quoted in The Civil War: A Narrative, by Shelby Foote)
Suck on it, prosersSuck on it, prosers
“If you look at the history of literature, poetry is the one enduring genre from Homer to Ashbery—no other literary form has lasted as long. The novel is only two or three hundred years old…” – Jonathan Galassi (from Nathalie Handal interview in Guernica)
First, last, and alwaysFirst, last, and always
“Not every writer is going to be immortal, even writers who are very popular in their lifetime often sink out of relevance later on. You have to write for yourself finally.” – Jonathan Galassi (from Nathalie Handal interview in Guernica)
If you’re ever wondering what it takesIf you’re ever wondering what it takes
“Really being a writer is being at home and writing your book and reading.” – Jonathan Galassi (from Nathalie Handal interview in Guernica)
There it isThere it is
“My day is not yet done: the finest hour is over the low wall.” – Eugenio Montale, “Glory of Expanded Noon” (trans. Galassi)
Rising and fallingRising and falling
“We sometimes think that the historical imagination is the gift of seeing past — seeing past the surface squalors of an era to the larger truths. Really, history is all about seeing in, looking hard at things to bring them back to life as they were, while still making them part of life as it is.” — Adam Gopnik, “Inquiring Minds”
The imp of the originalThe imp of the original
“Originality (unless in minds of very unusual force) is by no means a matter, as some suppose, of impulse or intuition. In general, to be found, it must be elaborately sought, and although a positive merit of the highest class, demands in its attainment less of invention than negation.” — Edgar Allan Poe, “The Philosophy of Composition”
Hello, darkness, my old friendHello, darkness, my old friend
“Silence is not nothing, it’s something.” – Michel Hazanavicius (quoted by Tad Friend in “Sound of Silence”)
Challenger deepChallenger deep
“The dream of being a writer and the crazy price one has to pay for excellence are impossible to demonstrate or, really, even to fathom.” – John Lahr, “A Talent to Abuse”
If you know what to look forIf you know what to look for
“Whereas instruction doesn’t always delight, delight always instructs.” — Martin Amis, “Laureate of Terror”
Or her or it or all three, plusOr her or it or all three, plus
“The history of mankind is the history of our misunderstandings with god, for he doesn’t understand us, and we don’t understand him.” – José Saramago, Cain (trans. Costa)
Is it the same note?Is it the same note?
“A wrong note that is played out of élan, you hear it differently than one that is played out of fear.” – Hélène Grimaud (quoted by D. T. Max in “Her Way”)
Not to mention the rest of human cultureNot to mention the rest of human culture
“Without stories, memory falters; and without memory imagination fails.” – Peter Schjeldahl, “Faces in Time”
It may beIt may be
“More than love, sex, courtship, and marriage; more than inheritance, ambition, rivalry, or disgrace; more than hatred, betrayal, revenge, or death, orphanhood—the absence of the parent, the frightening yet galvanizing solitude of the child—may be the defining fixation of the novel as a genre, what one might call its primordial motive or matrix, the conditioning psychic reality out of which the form itself develops.” — Terry Castle, “Don’t Pick Up”
The access points are conveniently locatedThe access points are conveniently located
“Learning isn’t a set of things that we know but a world that we enter.” — Adam Gopnik, “Broken Kingdom”
One can always hopeOne can always hope
“War is cruelty. There is no use trying to reform it. The crueler it is, the sooner it will be over.” – William Tecumseh Sherman, 1863 (quoted in The Civil War: A Narrative, by Shelby Foote)
It could happen even to someone niceIt could happen even to someone nice
“A person whose financial requirements are modest and whose curiosity, skepticism, and indifference to reputation are outsized is a person at risk of becoming a journalist.” — Louis Menand, “Browbeaten”
When the hub gives way, the wheel flies to piecesWhen the hub gives way, the wheel flies to pieces
“Remember what Socrates tells Euthyphro, who supposed that the good could be defined by what the gods had willed: if what the gods will is based on some other criterion of goodness, divine will isn’t what makes something good; but if goodness is simply determined by divine will there’s no way for us to assess that judgment. In other words, if you believe that God ordains morality–constitutes it through his will–you still have to decide where God gets morality from. If you are inclined to reply, ‘ Well, God is goodness; He invents it,’ you threaten to turn morality into God’s plaything, and you deprive yourself of any capacity to judge that morality.” — James Wood, “Is That All There Is?” (emphasis in original)
A naked definition of sovereigntyA naked definition of sovereignty
“I would banish all minor questions, assert the broad doctrine that as a nation the United States has the right, and also the physical power, to penetrate to every part of our national domain, and that we will do it—that we will do it in our own time and in our own way; that it makes no difference whether it be in one year, or two, or ten, or twenty; that we will remove and destroy every obstacle, if need be, take every life, every acre of land, every particle of property, everything that to us seems proper; that we will not cease till the end is attained; that all who do not aid us are enemies, and that we will not account to them for our acts.” – William Tecumseh Sherman, 1863 (quoted in The Civil War: A Narrative, by Shelby Foote)
How one or two things workHow one or two things work
“Editing has pushed me to recognize when my own work is not succeeding and how essential revision is to the process. It’s also taught me that belief in a piece is essential to publication. Editing inspires, perhaps even demands, belief in a poem or story, enough to publish work that’s operating at its best quality. Also, to be on this end of the process increases my enthusiasm about submitting my own work and helps me accept any rejections. Because I’ve been in the position of saying, ‘We already have a story about ninja alien cats so while this is a good story, it’s too much ninja alien cats for one issue.’ So in that respect, I’m more accepting of rejection as a natural occurrence in the submissions process. On the flip side though, having edited and sent acceptances, I know it happens, that this isn’t some weird numbers game, that if the work demonstrates quality writing and is a good fit for a journal, it will get accepted.” – Gina Keicher (quoted in “An Interview with the Editors of Salt Hill,” by Roxane Gay)
Our best Other friendOur best Other friend
“Cats and birds are wonderful, but they keep their own counsel and their own identity. They sit withing their own circles, even in the house, and let us spy, occasionally, on what it’s like out there. Only the dog sits right at the edge of the first circle of caring, and points to the great unending circles of Otherness that we can barely begin to contemplate.” – Adam Gopnik, “Dog Story”
And a falling awayAnd a falling away
“In the presence of real tragedy you feel neither pain nor joy nor hatred, only a sense of enormous space and time suspended, the great doors open to black eternity.” – Michael Shaara, The Killer Angels
But some of the people are still fooled all the timeBut some of the people are still fooled all the time
“You always know the truth. Wait long enough and the mind will tell you.” – Michael Shaara, The Killer Angels
We left it lying around here somewhereWe left it lying around here somewhere
“No two things on earth are equal or have an equal chance, not a leaf nor a tree. There’s many a man worse than me, and some better, but I don’t think race or country matters a damn. What matters is justice.” – Michael Shaara, The Killer Angels
They’re everywhereThey’re everywhere
“There has been nothing which I have found to require a greater effort of patience than to bear the criticisms of the ignorant, who pronounce everything a failure which does not equal their expectations or desires, and can see no good result which is not in the line of their own imaginings.” – Jefferson Davis (quoted by Shelby Foote in The Civil War: A Narrative)