Heteroglossic or something.If only I had been able to start writing! But, however I set about it (all too similarly, alas, to the resolve to give up alcohol, to go to bed early, to get enough sleep, and to keep fit), whether it was in a spurt of activity, with method, with pleasure, in depriving myself of a walk, or postponing it and reserving it as a reward, taking advantage of an hour of feeling well, making use of the inaction forced upon me by a day's illness, the inevitable result of my efforts was a blank page, untouched by writing, as predestined as the forced card that you inevitably end up drawing in certain tricks, however thoroughly you have first shuffled the pack. I was merely the instrument of habits of not working, of not going to bed, of not sleeping, which had to fulfill themselves at any cost; if I offered no resistance, if I made do with the pretext they drew from the first opportunity that arose for them to act as they chose, I escaped without serious harm, I still slept for a few hours toward morning, I managed to read a little, I did not overexert myself; but if I tried to resist them, by deciding to go to bed early, to drink only water, to work, they became annoyed, they resorted to strong measures, they made me really ill, I was obliged to double my dose of alcohol, I did not go to bed for two days, I could not even read, and I would vow to be more reasonable in the future -- that is to say, less wise -- like the victim who allows himself to be robbed for fear of being murdered if he puts up resistance. - from The Guermantes Way by Marcel ProustThere dwelt in Athens a young gentleman of great patrimony, and of so comely a personage, that it was doubted whether he were more bound to Nature for the lineaments of his person, or to Fortune for the increase of his possessions. But Nature impatient of comparisons, and as it were disdaining a companion or copartner in her working, added to this comeliness of his body such a sharp capacity of mind, that not only she proved Fortune counterfeit, but was half of that opinion that she herself was only current. This young gallant, of more with than wealth, and yet of more wealth than wisdom, seeing himself inferior to none in pleasant conceits, thought himself superior to all in honest conditions, insomuch that he deemed himself so apt to all things, that he gave himself almost to nothing, but practicing of those things commonly which are incident to these sharp wits, fine phrases, smooth quipping, merry taunting, using jesting without mean, and abusing mirth without measure. As therefore the sweetest rose hath his prickle, the finest velvet his brack, the fairest flower his bran, so the sharpest wit hath his wanton will, and the holiest head his wicked way. And true it is that some men write and most men believe, that in all perfect shapes, a blemish bringeth rather a liking every way to the eyes, than a loathing any way to the mind. Venus had her mole in her cheek which made her more amiable: Helen her scar on her chin which Paris called cos amoris, the whetstone of love. Aristippus his wart, Lycurgus his wen: So likewise in the disposition of the mind, either virtue is overshadowed with some vice, or vice overcast with some virtue. Alexander valiant in war, yet given to wine. Tully eloquent in his glozes, yet vainglorious: Solomon wise, yet too wanton: David holy but yet an homicide: none more witty than Euphues, yet at the first none more wicked. The freshest colors soonest fade, the teenest razor soonest turneth his edge, the finest cloth is soonest eaten with moths, and the cambric sooner stained than the coarse canvas: which appeared well in this Euphues, whose wit being like wax apt to receive any impression, and having the bridle in his own hands, either to use the rein or the spur, disdaining counsel, leaving his country, loathing his old acquaintance, thought either by wit to obtain some conquest, or by shame to abide some conflict, and leaving the rule of reason, rashly ran unto destruction. Who preferring fancy before friends, and his present humor, before honor to come, laid reason in water being too salt for his taste, and followed unbridled affection, most pleasant for his tooth. When parents have more care how to leave their children wealthy than wise, and are more desirous to have them maintain the name, than the nature of a gentleman: when they put gold into the hands of youth, where they should put a rod under their girdle, when instead of awe they make them past grace, and leave them rich executors of goods, and poor executors of godliness, then it is no marvel, that the son being left rich by his father's will, become retchless by his own will. - excerpt from John Lyly's Euphues: The Antanomy of Wit (1578)Watched "Wag the Dog," the made-for-TV cut, yesterday. (arrow left, forward slash, "p," arrow right)Excerpt from: Faith, Certainty and the Presidency of George W. BushBy RON SUSKIND (for The New York Times, October 17, 2004)
In the summer of 2002, after I had written an article in Esquire that the White House didn't like about Bush's former communications director, Karen Hughes, I had a meeting with a senior adviser to Bush. He expressed the White House's displeasure, and then he told me something that at the time I didn't fully comprehend -- but which I now believe gets to the very heart of the Bush presidency.The aide said that guys like me were ''in what we call the reality-based community,'' which he defined as people who ''believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.'' I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. ''That's not the way the world really works anymore,'' he continued. ''We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.''
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My World Visitor Map!
-|r3n|- |3 r a c| l 3 y
AIM = sintesi1985
Their plane has stopped in the middle of America where they're sitting in blueblack morning mist on the steps of Andrew Jackson's estate.
"'There's a writer for you,' he said, 'Knows everything and at the same time he knows nothing.' ... Writers aren't people exactly. Or, if they're any good, they're a whole lot of people trying so hard to be one person. It's like actors, who try so pathetically not to look in mirrors. Who lean backward trying --- only to see their faces in the reflecting chandeliers."
then, on the plane:
"'You writers and artists poop out and get all mixed up and somebody has to come in and straighten you out.' He shrugged his shoulders. "You seem to take things so personally, hating people and worshipping them---always thinking people are so important---especially yourselves. You just ask to be kicked around. I like people and I like them to like me but I wear my heart where God put it---on the inside.'" - Monroe Stahr
Above from The Love of the Last Tycoon by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Facts all come with points of view
Facts don't do what I want them to
Facts just twist the truth around
Facts are living turned inside out
-The Talking Heads
"The past does not drive or determine the historical narrative; rather, the cultural practices of writing determine how we comprehend the past." - The Saturated Self by Kenneth J. Gergen
"Personality is an unbroken string of successful gestures." - F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
"Individuals themselves cannot "mean" anything; their actions are nonsensical until coordinated with the actions of others. If I extend my hand and smile, the gesture hovers at the edge of absurdity until reciprocated by another."- The Saturated Self by Kenneth J. Gergen
"I always thought it was better to be a fake somebody than a real nobody." - Matt Damon in The Talented Mr. Ripley
"The promise of progress thrusts them into a lifetime struggle toward a summit never to be attained, evoking in the end a sense of failure, of having been unable to realize "what I could have been, should have been," or "wanted to be." - The Saturated Self by Kenneth J. Gergen
"If in the culture into which we are born there are always persons who will urge us to theatricalize our lives by supplying us with a repeatable past, there will also be persons (possibly the same ones) in whose presence we learn to prepare ourselves for surprise. It is in the presence of such persons that we first recognize the geniuses we are. ... This means that we can be moved only by persons who are not what they are; we can be moved only when we are not who we are, but are what we cannot be." - James P. Carse in his book Finite and Infinite Games: Vision of Life as Play and Possibility
"shush, sir, you are hot and you have the contract to prove it. 'i am hot' on paper with your signature" - Louisa
"Darling, I handle people, not situations."- Joan Collins as Alexis on Dynasty
“…But, in spite of these things, it was a gay and magnificent revel. The tastes of the duke were peculiar. He had a fine eye for colors and effects. He disregarded the decora of mere fashion. His plans were bold and fiery, and his conceptions glowed with barbaric lustre. There are some who would have thought him mad. His followers felt that he was not. It was necessary to hear and see and touch him to be sure that he was not…†– Edgar Allan Poe, The Mask of the Red Death
"I pretended to be somebody I wanted to be, and, finally, I became that person. Or he became me." - Cary Grant in an ad for TCM in a People magazine that asked on the cover, "Has TV Plastic Surgery Gone Too Far?" purchased outside of Atlanta in a lonely silent Kroger/community center at 12:30am June 2, 2004. This written at 3:46am in Angela's sister's room listening to Blue Monday by New Order- Angela having left to the "garage" after reading a letter from her uncle. She had to cry. I love you dearest Angela, and everything will be alright, and everything, even the darkest things, happen for a reason. And you cannot say otherwise-- we manufacture reason. [hugs and good will to all who read this] (:
"He is a genuis, which is as far from being an idiot as you can get before reaching madness." - Peggy Hill on King of the Hill
"It is fair to analyze Anthony as far as he could analyze himself; further than that it is, of course, presumption. He found in himself a growing horror and loneliness. The idea of eating alone frightened him; in preference he dined often with men he detested. Travel, which had once charmed him, seemed, at length, unendurable, a business of color without substance, a phantom chase after his own dream's shadow. If I am essentially weak, he thought, I need work to do, work to do...It seemed a tragedy to want nothing-- and yet he wanted something, something... He was Anthony Patch, brilliant, magnetic, the heir of many years and many men. This was his world now-- and that last strong irony he craved lay in the offing." --Both from The Beautiful and Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald
IM: sintesi1985 Aries, Chinese Ox
"It's very strange. We always have the idea of missing--missing love, missing tenderness, missing a birthday, missing the people we love. This is the spirit of traveling." - Phillipe Starck
