Category: Lit & Crit

Listen to it rantListen to it rant

“Fueled by self-love, the I is at its most garrulous inside its lonely garage.” – Will Schutt, “Storm”

Use your low beamsUse your low beams

“Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” – E. L. Doctorow

Uncomfortable in their own skinUncomfortable in their own skin

“How do people come to know themselves? One way is by reading fiction. The profound act of empathy demanded by a novel, forcing the reader to suspend disbelief and embody a stranger’s skin, prompts reflection and self-questioning. But most people don’t read novels.” – Nathaniel Rich, “James Baldwin & the Fear of a Nation”

Guilty as chargedGuilty as charged

“People who shut their eyes to reality simply invite their own destruction, and anyone who insists on remaining in a state of innocence long after that innocence is dead turns himself into a monster.” – James Baldwin, “Stranger in the Village”

Breathe deep the gathering gloomBreathe deep the gathering gloom

“A novel insistently demands the presence and passion of human beings, who cannot ever be labeled. Without this passion we may all smother to death, locked in those airless, labeled cells, which isolate us from each other and separate us from ourselves.” – James Baldwin, “Preservation of Innocence”

Same as we ever wereSame as we ever were

“In good fiction, as in real life, there tend not to be sentimental heroes and cruel villains but only deeply compromised human beings who struggle with their sins and shortcomings as best they can.” – Nathaniel Rich, “James Baldwin & the Fear of a Nation”

The crux of the matterThe crux of the matter

“Race was—is—the fundamental American issue, underlying not only all matters of public policy (economic inequality, criminal justice, housing, education) but the very psyche of the nation.” – Nathaniel Rich, “James Baldwin & the Fear of a Nation”

A powerful acidA powerful acid

“Hatred, which could destroy so much, never failed to destroy the man who hated and this was an immutable law.” – James Baldwin, “Notes of a Native Son”

It’s called racismIt’s called racism

“Police killings of unarmed black children, indifference to providing clean drinking water to a majority-black city, or efforts to curtail the voting rights of minority citizens are not freak incidents but outbreaks of a chronic national disease.” – Nathaniel Rich, “James Baldwin & the Fear of a Nation”

AlwaysAlways

“A real writer is always shifting and changing and searching.” – James Baldwin (quoted by Nathaniel Rich in “James Baldwin & the Fear of a Nation”)

Drilling downDrilling down

“If it were in my power to change the mercantile laws of literary society, I could easily spin out my existence writing and rewriting the same story in the hope that I might end up understanding it and making it clear to others.” – Ignazio Silone (quoted by Dorothy Day in The Catholic Worker, January 1968)

In case you were wondering whyIn case you were wondering why

“The industrial world destroys nature not because it doesn’t love it but because it is not afraid of it.” – Mary Ruefle, “On Fear”

First hit’s freeFirst hit’s free

“Seduction is the new opium of the masses. It is liberty for a world without liberty, joy for a world without joy.” – Tiqqun, Preliminary Materials for a Theory of the Young-Girl (trans. Reines)

Schooling the fishSchooling the fish

“Great pressure is brought to bear to make us undervalue ourselves. On the other hand, civilization teaches that each of us is an inestimable prize. There are, then, these two preparations: one for life and the other for death. Therefore we value and are ashamed to value ourselves, are hard-boiled. We are schooled in quietness and, if one of us takes his measure occasionally, he does so coolly, as if he were examining his fingernails, not his soul, frowning at the imperfections he finds as one would at a chip or a bit of dirt. Because, of course, we are called upon to accept the imposition of all kinds of wrongs, to wait in ranks under a hot sun, to run up a clattering beach, to be sentries, scouts or workingmen, to be those in the train when it is blown up, or those at the gates when they are locked, to be of no significance, to die. The result is that we learn to be unfeeling toward ourselves and incurious. Who can be the earnest huntsman of himself when he knows he is in turn a quarry? Or nothing so distinctive as quarry, but one of a shoal, driven toward the weirs.” – Saul Bellow, Dangling Man

Making the world go ’roundMaking the world go ’round

“Supply is supply, and demand is demand. They will be satisfied, be it with combs, fifes, rubber, whisky, tainted meat, canned peas, sex, or tobacco. For every need there is an entrepreneur, by a marvelous providence. You can find a man to bury your dog, rub your back, teach you Swahili, read your horoscope, murder your competitor. In the megalopolis, all this is possible. There was a Parisian cripple in the days of John Law, the Scottish speculator, who stood in the streets renting out his hump for a writing desk to people who had no convenient place to take their transactions.” – Saul Bellow, Dangling Man

Same as it ever wasSame as it ever was

“I started back, choosing unfamiliar streets. They turned out to be no different from the ones I knew.” – Saul Bellow, Dangling Man

Pain is how we know we’re not dead yetPain is how we know we’re not dead yet

“Trouble, like physical pain, makes us actively aware that we are living, and when there is little in the life we lead to hold and draw and stir us, we seek and cherish it.” – Saul Bellow, Dangling Man

Is this all?Is this all?

“The worlds we sought were never those we saw; the worlds we bargained for were never the worlds we got.” – Saul Bellow, Dangling Man

Point of viewPoint of view

“All comfort in life is based upon a regular occurrence of external phenomena. The changes of the day and night, of the seasons, of flowers and fruits, and all other recurring pleasures that come to us, that we may and should enjoy them—these are the mainsprings of our earthly life. The more open we are to these enjoyments, the happier we are; but if these changing phenomena unfold themselves and we take no interest in them, if we are insensible to such fair solicitations, then comes on the sorest evil, the heaviest disease—we regard life as a loathsome burden.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Poetry and Life

It’s not hardIt’s not hard

“The best of us will try to live by a few simple rules: do justly, love mercy, walk humbly with thy God, and never draw to an inside straight.” – Stephen Jay Gould, “The Streak of Streaks”

Some would say impossibleSome would say impossible

“Take care not to alienate the heart by wrongs;
To win it back, when it has shied away, is hard.
When love is lost, this heart becomes
A broken glass that cannot be repaired.”

– The Arabian Nights (trans. Lyons, et al.)

No, it isn’tNo, it isn’t

“The world is all swagger and deceit.” – The Arabian Nights (trans. Lyons, et al.)

MonochromitisMonochromitis

“Whoever thinks that all women are alike is suffering from a disease of madness for which there is no cure.” – The Arabian Nights (trans. Lyons, et al.)

Learned helplessnessLearned helplessness

“It takes patience to associate with women and whoever loves them needs to be magnanimous. They are always picking quarrels with men and annoying them, as they are proud of being the fair sex, boasting of their own superiority and despising men. This is particularly true when they see that their husbands love them, and they respond to this with pride, coquetry and misdeeds of every kind. If a man becomes angry when he sees his wife doing something that he dislikes, there can be no association between the two of them, for the only men whom women find acceptable are the magnanimous and long-suffering. If a man is not prepared to put up with his wife and to overlook her evil deeds, then he cannot successfully associate with her. It is said that were women up in the sky, men would crane their necks to look at them.” – The Arabian Nights (trans. Lyons, et al.)

Keeping things balancedKeeping things balanced

“When you read what fate inscribes
On Time’s forehead, you would shed tears of blood.
If Time’s right hand preserves a man from harm,
Its left will pour him out a cup of doom.”

– The Arabian Nights (trans. Lyons, et al.)

With friends like that . . .With friends like that . . .

“When glory and good luck befriend a man,
Disasters and misfortunes keep away.
Friends come as uninvited parasites,
And even supposed guardians act as pimps.
He farts and people take it as a song,
While any smell he makes is sweet perfume.”

– The Arabian Nights (trans. Lyons, et al.)

Such is the way of dogsSuch is the way of dogs

“On his way the poor man finds all things against him;
The earth itself closes its doors to him.
You find him hated, though he does no wrong;
You see hostility but not its cause.
At the sight of a rich man you find the dogs
Turning towards him, as they wag their tails,
But if it is a poor wretch whom they see
They come to bark at him and bare their teeth.”

– The Arabian Nights (trans. Lyons, et al.)

Homeless and forlornHomeless and forlorn

“Poverty is exile in one’s native land,
While wealth will make a stranger feel at home.”

– The Arabian Nights (trans. Lyons, et al.)

Pick a recent examplePick a recent example

“What are the three things whose ugliness cannot be set aside? Stupidity, a mean nature, and lying.” – The Arabian Nights (trans. Lyons, et al.)

As for the others . . .As for the others . . .

“A king cannot be called a king unless he is bountiful and just, a good and generous ruler, who treats his subjects well, maintaining the laws and customs with which they are familiar. He should establish justice among them, avoiding bloodshed and protecting them from harm. He should be marked out by his constant attention to the poor; he should aid both high and low alike, giving them their rightful dues, so that they may call down blessings upon him and obey his commands. There can be no doubt that a king like this will be beloved by his subjects.” – The Arabian Nights (trans. Lyons, et al.)