W.H. Auden’s Obiter Dicta
A professor is one who talks in someone else’s sleep. ☛ W.H. Auden The Life of a Poet by Charles Osborne, London: Michael O’Mara Books Limited, 1995, p. 339. Amazon. I was able to track down the original source for this quote with the kind assistance of Alan Jacobs, editors of The Age of Anxiety: [...]
Portrait of Michel Houellebecq (2010)
☛ The New Yorker: accompanying photo for James Woods’ review of The Map and the Territory by Michel Houellebecq, January 23, 2011, p. 79. Photo by WireImage contributor Dominique Charriau. © WireImage. The original caption by WireImage reads as follows: Michel Houellebecq gives a press conference after he received the 2010 Prix Goncourt at Restaurant [...]
“When we remember that we are all mad…” by Mark Twain
When we remember that we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained. ☛ Mark Twain’s Notebook, Authorized Edition: The Complete Works of Mark Twain, edited by Albert Bigelow Paine, vol. XXII, New York: Harper and Brothers, 1935, p. 345. In the book, this quote appears under the chapter XXXI “Vienna”. Mark Twain [...]
Kafka’s Aphorisms: Believing in progress
Believing in progress does not mean believing that any progress has yet been made. That is not the sort of belief that indicates real faith. ☛ The Zürau Aphorisms of Franz Kafka by Franz Kafka, translated by Geoffrey Brocks and Michael Hofmann, New York: Schocken Books, §48 (Random House, Google books, Amazon). This aphorism was [...]
Blanchot on the analogy between writing and suicide
Writers fall into the same trap as do suicide victims except that instead of taking one death for another, “la mort contente” for “le mourir,” they mistake the book for the work, “le livre” for “l’oeuvre.” Both tend to a point by taking the initiative and exercising skill and know-how, but this point escapes any [...]
