Just a few more:
"I don’t care if people hate my guts; I assume most of them do. The important question is whether they are in a position to do anything about it."—William S. Burroughs
"Thank God for books as an alternative to conversation" —W. H. Auden
"Almost nobody dances sober, unless they happen to be insane" —H. P. Lovecraft
"A monster is a person who has stopped pretending" —Colson Whitehead, “A Psychotronic Childhood”
"When I split an infinitive, God damn it, I split it so it will stay split" —Raymond Chandler
"If you removed all of the homosexuals and homosexual influence from what is generally regarded as American culture you would be pretty much left with Let’s Make a Deal" —Fran Lebowitz, in The New York Times
"Don’t own anything you wouldn’t leave out in the rain" —Gary Snyder
"All I want to do is sit on my ass and fart and think of Dante"—Samuel Beckett
I hope that annoyed some of you or what's the point?
Posts
52 comments:
Trolling: A Literary History
Let me annoy you.
Also, put money in my pocket by buying stuff from the techno-fascist company that allows me a tiny percentage.
All while washing my shoes and killing small businesses.
That plywood sure is artistic.
What's the point?
-Althouse
Sorry, no, I am not annoyed. Amused is a better descriptor of my emotions right now. Really like the Lovecraft one.
"If you can’t annoy somebody … there’s little point in writing" —Kingsley Amis
"Whatever they criticize you for, intensify it" —Jean Cocteau.
Those statements make them sound like shallow people with daddy issues.
"If you can’t annoy somebody … there’s little point in writing" —Kingsley Amis
"Whatever they criticize you for, intensify it" —Jean Cocteau.
So in other words, more and worse Fang Fang comments.
Is paraphrasing allowed? "You can annoy all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but you cannot annoy all of the people all of the time."
Those statements make them sound like shallow people with daddy issues.
I was going to say it sounded like Trump, but I guess that’s the same thing.
Word play as a substitute for war. Electoral politics used to be our substitute for war, but they took Dominion over that. So word play will have to do.
These guys were defending original insights, not defending thinking like a typical girl.
Life is a comedy for those who think, and a tragedy for those who feel. - Somebody
Little known fact, Garner's son's native American name is Garners Quotations.
Writing and then getting paid for it is a good and lucky gig. Getting paid to write is the ultimate scam.
Quayle.
Actually most of those made me laugh because they represent how I think.
Others made me think and go...hmmm... yes. Especially "A monster is a person who has stopped pretending" —Colson Whitehead, “A Psychotronic Childhood”
The idea that Samuel Beckett wants to just sit and fart...also resonates with me. (lol...see what I did)
If you right to annoy others, who is the person that you are trying to please?
If that person is yourself, how can you tell a good writer from a bad writer?
The mentioned writers are bourgeois, they would be horrified at being held out as exemplars of the bourgeois, yet it is all bourgeois navel gazing: no one can judge your social class but your own social class.
I might need to buy this book. I create a weekly anacrostic puzzle for my local newspaper, each one built around a quote. The quotes need to be 150-200 characters in length which is a bit longer than the pithy quotes you usually see bandied about. Most of the ones Ann has included here are too short. But I like surprise, I like contrast, I like anti-cliche and these quotes are all that.
"I hope that annoyed some of you or what's the point?"
I'm a little annoyed that anyone would think it takes so little to annoy me.
“There is grace amongst writers and it is eternal.” Baltasar Gracian.
“It’s a great day! It’s a great life!” Grace Begley
Life is a comedy for those who think, and a tragedy for those who feel. - Somebody
One of my favorites. Earlier, it was rendered even more ostentatiously: "I have often said, and oftener think, that this world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel — a solution of why Democritus laughed and Heraclitus wept."
The notion of Heraclitus as the "weeping philosopher" and Democritus the "laughing philosopher" was legendary even in classical antiquity. Lucian's Philosophies for Sale is a tongue-in-cheek dialogue of Zeus and Hermes putting various philosophical schools, in the form of individual philosopher, on a slave auction block. They attempt to sell Heraclitus and Democritus as a pair, and the bidders are struck by the incongruity of an unending laugher and an incessant weeper. Understanding why the two behave this way becomes the obsession of the bidders.
Lucian is also once supposed to have said, in response to a comparison between philosophies and wines, "I can’t imagine how you can think philosophy and wine are similar—except in this one respect, that philosophers sell their learning as shopkeepers their wares; and most of them dilute it, too, and defraud customers."
Life is a comedy for those who think, and a tragedy for those who feel. Is a quote from a letter of Horace Walpole.
If one could reason with democrats, there wouldn't be any democrats.
"If you removed all of the homosexuals and homosexual influence from what is generally regarded as American culture you would be pretty much left with Let’s Make a Deal"
Monte Hall? Gay.
"The only good [Progressive] is a dead [Progressive]." - Phil Sheridan, Civil War general
Let’s Make a Deal" is the America I want. Capitalist Wayne Brady is extremely quick witted and talented. Tiffany Coyne is beautiful, follows instructions well, and doesn't talk much. I want to be Wayne Brady married to Tiffany Coyne. Other capitalists provide Wayne with free stuff that he gives to random people. The randoms can keep the free stuff or gamble it for a chance to win better free stuff. Sometimes the randoms gamble away their free stuff, sometimes they win a gas powered new car. They sing, they tell jokes, and dress up in silly costumes. No one talks about race, religion, or ethnicity. Everyone appears happy simply to be there. America, what a country!
"If you removed all of the homosexuals and homosexual influence from what is generally regarded as American culture you would be pretty much left with Let’s Make a Deal" —Fran Lebowitz, in The New York Times
~~~~~
Wait - is she saying this like it would be bad? Having trouble seeing the downside.
"Anyone who chooses to inflict his ideas on his fellow men must expect to be misunderstood."
Mencken from memory.
Narr
Prof knows
"No one but a blockhead ever wrote for anything but money."
Samuel Johnson.
Narr
Busted!
Does Jean Cocteau have a twin?
I have more success communicating with gentle persuasion based on common values.
I have more success communicating with gentle persuasion based on common values."
Your success seems to derive mostly from being a noxious ass and perpetual punchline.
Chandler was a genius.
Why is it that homosexuals are so smug and insecure?
Fran has a lot to be insecure about, but nothing to be smug about.
What a mediocrity she is...
And if you want to be technical about it, gay men have contributed at ton to culture and the arts.
Lesbians, not so much.
"I was going to say it sounded like Trump, but I guess that’s the same thing."
Farmer is officially as dumb as Inga and the rest.
JFC, it's not always about Trump!
I read a car blog that has recently gone way downhill.
They were part of a lefty media group so there is a lot of crossover between their 'life' sites and their car site.
Every damn car review or article, there is always a comment like, 'Sure the battery is small, but Trump's dick is even smaller.'
Then others would chime in, 'Yeah, fuck Trump!'
They were reviewing a Tesla, but whatever...
You people are truly sick.
"All of us learn to write in the second grade. Most of us go on to greater things."
Bob Knight
My favorite reading - by far - are collections of aphorisms. Never had an interest in reading any fiction, and that's sure what they shove down your throat in school.
Coincidentally, I'm coming out with a quote book, too. Just put in the last corrections, so it should come out within a month.
I've been collecting them for years, many of them from media interviews, so a good percentage of them haven't been seen before. (Yes, the Amis quote is there, but none of the others).
You want irritation? How about these:
"Every man has a woman in him, just as every woman has a man in her. Every black has many things in common with every white, just as every white has many things in common with every Oriental. These similarities are good, they're connections, they can help us live peacefully with one another. But the differences are more important than the similarities because the differences give life its fizz, its brew. Everything that makes life really challenging and interesting emerges out of these differences.
Tom Robbins
"Membership of a larger group is not an identity. Being Asian is not an identity. Being gay is not an identity. Being deaf, blind, or wheelchair-bound is not an identity, nor is being economically deprived."
Lionel Shriver
"By their logic, black actors should not be allowed to play Lear, Macbeth, Julius Caesar, or other “white” roles in Shakespeare, and nonwhite performers should be completely excluded from taking part in any opera or classical ballet given that both are “white” European art forms, in the same way that jazz or blues music could be said to belong exclusively to black people."
Jonathan Foreman
"I can live with offending people. In fact, it’s become politically important to offend people, because we have to fight back against this notion that being offensive should be against the law or something, and that everyone supposedly deserves “respect” for their often dopey views."
Lionel Shriver
"You can create excitement, you can do wonderful promotion and get all kinds of press... But if you don’t deliver the goods, people will eventually catch on."
Donald Trump
"[Style] is like anal sex. If that’s what I want to do to you and you’re not into it, then go away, because that’s what will keep happening."
A.L. Kennedy
I even included a quote from one of AA's heroes for the "Failure" section:
"She knows that there's no success like failure / And that failure's no success at all."
"'Those statements make them sound like shallow people with daddy issues.'
"I was going to say it sounded like Trump, but I guess that’s the same thing."
BA-ZINGGGGG!!!!!!
"Wait - is she saying this like it would be bad? Having trouble seeing the downside."
No, she is not; quite the opposite.
"You can create excitement, you can do wonderful promotion and get all kinds of press... But if you don’t deliver the goods, people will eventually catch on."
Donald Trump
He would certainly this know "more than anyone else."
"Never apologize, never explain."
Narr
Pithy is betht.
What I find annoying is saying "a couple quotes" instead of "a couple of quotes."
The former is grammatically spongy.
"What I find annoying is saying "a couple quotes" instead of "a couple of quotes."
The former is grammatically spongy."
If you care about grammar: "quotations".
In the end, we are all children playing on a playground.
Narrow is the gate, and few go in that way. Broad is the path to destruction, and many go that way. Buddha could have said that. He punted, and pointed to Jesus the Messiah. Jesus flat out said it.
We walk around in physical bodies that are animated by an immortal soul.
This ain't about heaven or hell. This is about where do you want to go next.
Do you want to cheat and deceive people in this life? Where's that gonna getcha?
"If you removed all of the homosexuals and homosexual influence from what is generally regarded as American culture you would be pretty much left with Let’s Make a Deal"
Has Fran seen some of the contestants on LMAD?
"We walk around in physical bodies that are animated by an immortal soul."
It's a theory.
"Do you want to cheat and deceive people in this life?"
Not particularly, but a lot of people get off on that sort of thing and turnabout is fair play.
Narr
Always and everywhere
Narr- Always and everywhere. Would you like to share with the rest of the class who you are?
is it a risky novel if it does not annoy someone?
"[Style] is like anal sex. If that’s what I want to do to you and you’re not into it, then go away, because that’s what will keep happening."
A.L. Kennedy
Um ... okay ...
I guess for some people everything is like anal sex.
BTW, that sort of sounds like rape ...
No, I'm good. My profile gives a sense of my background, preferences, and influences. My 18 months of regular posting here should also provide insight.
A lot of people--particularly but hardly exclusively the most vocally pious, particularly but not exclusively Muslims-- spend large portions of their lives cheating and deceiving people. There's even a religious doctrine in Islam that encourages it-- you probably know it.
But power-hungry secular folk exist too, of course, and are as pleased to cheat and deceive as the worst. We've seen a lot recently (on both sides of our decayed and corrupted electoral system).
"Turnabout" on the part of any individual is to do unto those people and the powerful institutions they populate what they habitually do unto us smurfs.
Narr
(Prof. A. N. Noyance, MLIS MA)
Narr- You said 'Always and Everywhere'. I know your history here. I enjoy your posts.
But...you said, 'Always and everywhere'. Turnabout is never fair play.
Smurfs don't say 'Always and Everywhere'. Were you goofing on the secular people?
Who, in this world that Satan rules, says 'Always and Everywhere?'
Hercules, thanks. I'll be serious.
"Turnabout is never fair play." I'm really doubtful of "Never," just as you question "Always and Everywhere." I'd bet that if put to a fair vote, the proposition "turnabout is never fair play" would lose to "turnabout is fair play." But your theory of Satanic rule already implies that result.
Smurfs--we're all smurfs on this bus, and yes, I was goofing on the (my) secular people.
There's no reason for dumbass secular humanists to be exempt from my criticism of the crooked timber of humaninanity.
Narr
Enjoy your Saturday nights y'all
I don't agree that Secular Humanists are 'dumbasses'. I want to say that for the record. Logic and Reason is the stopping point for most folks. It's a bubble. There's more than that though.
Let's go mystical for a moment...When Buddha became enlightened, or so he said, he looked out on the people going about their bidness, and Buddha had compassion for them, because he could see they were lost. Buddha couldn't do a damn thing about it. He said he pierced the veil of illusion, but for others, all he could do is point to Immanuel.
Being lost is not being a dumbass. It's just...being lost. Merry Christmas.
Annoying Birkel is righteous.
"My clothes are predominantly black and my home is predominantly white."
-Fran Drescher
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