March 2012
74 posts
30 tags
From Reading Lolita in Tehran
Zarin: What am I to think of your slogans claiming that women who don't wear the veil are prostitutes and agents of Satan? You call this morality?...What about Christian women who don't believe in wearing veils? Are they all - every single one of them - decadent floozies?
Nyazi: But this is an Islamic country and this is the law, and whoever . . .
Vida: The law? You guys came in and changed the laws. Is it the law? So was wearing the yellow star in Nazi Germany. Should all the Jews have worn the star because it was the blasted law?
Zarin: Oh, don't even try to talk to him about that. He would call them all Zionists who deserved what they got.
February 2012
103 posts
22 tags
Handy Guide
Avoid adjectives of scale. Dandelion broth instead of duck soup. Don’t even think you’ve seen a meadow, ever. The minor adjustments in our equations still indicate the universe is insane, when it laughs a silk dress comes out its mouth but we never put it on. Put it on. Cry often and while asleep. If it’s raw, forge it in fire. That’s not a mountain, that’s crumble. If it’s fire,...
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“Fear of the world produces crystals in writing. One seeks the faultless,...”
– From The Diary of Anais Nin 1934-1939 by Anais Nin
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“I have to keep racing to avoid my past catching up with me and strangling me. I...”
– From The Diary of Anais Nin 1934-1939 by Anais Nin
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“Lolita belongs to a category of victims who have no defense and are never given...”
– From Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi
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“There, in that living room, we rediscovered that we were also living, breathing...”
– From Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi
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From I'm a Cyborg, but That's OK
Cha Young-goon: Please steal it...my sympathy
Park Il-soon: Sympathy? What's that?
Cha Young-goon: The feeling that stops me from killing those I should.
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From I'm a Cyborg, but That's OK: Cha Young-goon's...
1- Sympathy 2- Sadness 3- Restlessness 4- Hesitation 5- Useless Daydreaming 6- Guilt 7- Thankfulness
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“Somehow, by not mentioning his name, she knew that she had drawn him into the...”
– From The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
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From The God of Small Things
Estha: If you’re happy in a dream, Ammu, does that count?
Ammu: Does what count?
Estha: The happiness–does it count?
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“I was not a scientist. I was seeking a form of life which would be continuous...”
– From The Diary of Anais Nin 1934-1939 by Anais Nin
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“I often bought two of everything I liked. I felt the danger of loss. I wanted to...”
– From The Diary of Anais Nin 1934-1939 by Anais Nin
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“The best thing - in Shadow’s opinion, perhaps the only good thing - about...”
– From American Gods by Neil Gaiman
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From Murder on the Orient Express
Hercule Poirot: You are a philosopher, Mademoiselle.
Mary Debenham: That implies a detached attitude. I think my attitude is more selfish. I have learned to save myself useless emotion.
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The Dark Sooner
Then came the darker sooner, came the later lower. We were no longer a sweeter-here happily-ever-after. We were after ever. We were farther and further. More was the word we used for harder. Lost was our standard-bearer. Our gods were fallen faster, and fallen larger. The day was duller, duller was disaster. Our charge was error. Instead of leader we had louder, instead of lover,...
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Stargazers by Nightwish
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“Women and Nature have almost exactly the same reactions! Remember it is better...”
– From Murder in Mesopotamia by Agatha Christie
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From The Professor's Lover
If I take off my eyes and give them to you, will you take them? I want to tell you without having to confess anything, without having to tell you about the men that have passed through my mind just this morning. Imagine them. Imagine their hair pressed down with my hands. Am I guilty if I stand behind the window and look? If I only desire to bloody my fist? If my mirror holds a thousand...
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“A woman who doesn’t lie is a woman without imagination and without sympathy.”
– From Murder in Mesopotamia by Agatha Christie
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“Limitations of life. Doors closing as one walks forward. Curtains of silence....”
– From The Diary of Anais Nin 1934-1939 by Anais Nin
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“I feel the need to swing away from constant explanations. I want to run away...”
– From The Diary of Anais Nin 1934-1939 by Anais Nin
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“Doctor, if being a bitch is healthy, then I am the healthiest damn woman on the...”
– From Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs (via mem0rylaine)
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WatchDr. Breakfast by Stephen P. Neary
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“I think that most of us, anyway, read these stories that we know are not...”
– From Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
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“I am a cage, in search of a bird.”
– By Franz Kafka (via theblackroad)
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“The end of suffering does not justify the suffering, and so there is no end to...”
– From Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
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“Your life was less sad than your suicide might suggest.”
– From Suicide by Édouard Levé (via proustitute)
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Lesbos
Viciousness in the kitchen! The potatoes hiss. It is all Hollywood, windowless, The fluorescent light wincing on and off like a terrible migraine, Coy paper strips for doors — Stage curtains, a widow’s frizz. And I, love, am a pathological liar, And my child — look at her, face down on the floor, Little unstrung puppet, kicking to disappear — Why she is...
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“Socializing is as exhausting as giving blood. People assume we loners are...”
– By Anneli Rufus (via airplanes)
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Peach, Plum, Pear by Joanna Newsom
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The Applicant
First, are you our sort of a person? Do you wear A glass eye, false teeth or a crutch, A brace or a hook, Rubber breasts or a rubber crotch,
Stitches to show something’s missing? No, no? Then How can we give you a thing? Stop crying. Open your hand. Empty? Empty. Here is a hand
To fill it and willing To bring teacups and roll away headaches And do whatever you tell it. Will you...
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“[At the crematorium] The steel door of the incinerator went up and the muted hum...”
– From The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy 