Through the windows he could see Mack and the boys sitting on the pipes in the vacant lot, dangling their feet in the mallow weeds and taking the sun while they discoursed slowly and philosophically of matters of interest but of no importance.
Entries Tagged as 'Literature'
Matters of Interest but no Importance – “Cannery Row” – John Steinbeck
November 18th, 2011 · No Comments · Literature, Philosophy, Quotes
Tags:conversation·life·philosophy
The Bargain – “Cannery Row” – John Steinbeck
November 17th, 2011 · No Comments · Literature, Prose, Writing
They finished the deal with dignity and Lee Chong threw in a quarter pint of Old Tennis Shoes. And then Horace Abbeville walking very straight went across the lot and past the cypress tree and across the track and up the chicken walk and into the building that had been his, and he shot himself [...]
Tags:prose
Teachers – “An Artist of the Floating World” – Kazuo Ishiguro
October 11th, 2011 · No Comments · Art, Culture, Japan, Japanese, Literature
A teacher or mentor whom one admires greatly in early adulthood will leave his mark, and indeed, long after one has come to re-evaluate, perhaps even reject, the bulk of that man’s teachings, certain traits will tend to survive, like some shadow of that influence, to remain with one throughout one’s life… ..the way I [...]
Consolation in Failure – “An Artist of the Floating World” – Kazuo Ishiguro
October 10th, 2011 · No Comments · Japan, Japanese, Literature, Philosophy
If one has failed only where others have not had the courage or will to try, there is a consolation – indeed, a deep satisfaction – to be gained from this observation when looking back over one’s life.
Tags:Consolation·Japan·philosophy
Beauty – “An Artist of the Floating World” – Kazuo Ishiguro
October 10th, 2011 · No Comments · Japan, Japanese, Literature, Philosophy
It’s hard to appreciate the beauty of a world when one doubts its very validity.
Tags:Japan·philosophy
One – the Floating World – “An Artist of the Floating World” – Kazuo Ishiguro
October 10th, 2011 · No Comments · Japan, Japanese, Literature, Philosophy
The best things, he always used to say, are put together of a night and vanish with the morning. What people call the floating world, Ono, was a world Gisaburo knew how to value.’
Tags:Beauty·Japan·philosophy·Transience
Art and the Hierarchy of Needs – “Cultural Amnesia” – Clive James
September 28th, 2011 · No Comments · Art, Civilisation, Culture, History, Humanism, Literature, Totalitarianism
We also have to grasp that art proves its value by still mattering to people who have been deprived of every other freedom: indeed instead of mattering less, it matters more. Very true – the willingness of people in repressed regimes to risk their lives in the name of artistic expression is telling.
We Are The People You’re Talking About – “Revolutionary Road” – Richard Yates
September 22nd, 2011 · No Comments · American, Criticism, Culture, Elitism, Literature
I remember looking at you and thinking ‘God, if only he’d stop talking.’ Because everything you said was based on this great premise of ours that we’re somehow very special and superior to the whole thing, and I wanted to say ‘But we’re not! Look at us! We’re just like the people you’re talking about! [...]
Tags:elitism·superiority
Solar Relationships – “Tender is the Night” – F Scott Fitzgerald
August 17th, 2011 · No Comments · Description, Literature, Love
She hated the beach, resented the places where she had played planet to Dick’s sun.
Tags:
Scared to Talk – “Tender is the Night” – F Scott Fitzgerald
August 17th, 2011 · No Comments · Literature, Love, Marriage, Prose
There was little they dared talk about in these days; seldom did they find the right word when it counted, it arrived always a moment too late when one could not reach the other any more. To- night Augustine’s outburst had shaken them from their separate reveries; with the burn and chill of the spiced [...]
Tags:Marriage·relationships
