I've read exactly one book by Saul Bellow so have no idea if this is characteristic of him. Is it?
(And do you have a Rolodex or collection of these bon mots? Do you post ones you've just come across in your real reading? Or -- rather than depend on the principles of randomness and chaos -- do you actually try to hunt down ones which will capture where your soul is at the moment?)
I haven't been reading Bellow recently. It's just something I came across on the Internet.
Some of the quotations I use on here I have encountered in current reading. Rather more I remember from years ago, and have to hunt down again. Quite a few I look up specifically for a particular mood or occasion (there's one particularly good online anthology I use a lot, arranged by topic - but I don't want to give away my 'secrets').
A leading presenter on China Central Television's English-language channel has revealed himself to be a xenophobic hate-monger. WHY does he still have a job? Lobby for his dismissal - by any and all means.
Days Ai Weiwei was detained
80
With ironic, sinister symmetry, the celebrity artist/activist was incarcerated on the same day that my friend Wu Yuren was finally released from 10 months' detention.
Now, like Wu, he's been released on extremely restrictive 'bail' terms - but could face re-arrest at any moment. He was detained incommunicado from April 3rd to June 22nd 2011.
Days Wu Yuren was in prison
307
"Released on parole" after 10 months; "parole" lifted another year later. The original charges against him were apparently dropped without his trial ever being formally concluded.
Froog is an escaped lawyer - but there is no need for alarm; he is only a danger to himself, not to the general public. An eternal wanderer, he now lives in an exotic city somewhere in the 'Third World' *, where he is held prisoner by an unfinished novel (or, more precisely, an unstarted novel). He spends a lot of time running, writing, taking photographs, and falling in love with women who fail to appreciate him. He also spends a lot of time in bars.
[* OK, I'll come clean: I've been living in Beijing since summer '02.]
2 comments:
A cheery note!
I've read exactly one book by Saul Bellow so have no idea if this is characteristic of him. Is it?
(And do you have a Rolodex or collection of these bon mots? Do you post ones you've just come across in your real reading? Or -- rather than depend on the principles of randomness and chaos -- do you actually try to hunt down ones which will capture where your soul is at the moment?)
I haven't been reading Bellow recently. It's just something I came across on the Internet.
Some of the quotations I use on here I have encountered in current reading. Rather more I remember from years ago, and have to hunt down again. Quite a few I look up specifically for a particular mood or occasion (there's one particularly good online anthology I use a lot, arranged by topic - but I don't want to give away my 'secrets').
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