Quotes From Books

[SredniVashtar]

I love that book. Good paranormal theme too.

Which bit in particular? Do you mean the stuff in Malaya? A lot of it was based on experiences from his own life, apparently.

[Mind Flayer Monk]

-----
"...the people of Shanghai were friendlier. Gone were the vigilante mobs of Red Guards who raced through the cities of China in the 1960s, tarring and feathering foreign diplomats in the streets of Shanghai, dragging members of the Communist party Politburo into Peking stadium with dunce hats on their heads, to confess their guilt for plotting against Chairman Mao. One man in a dunce hat was the former Minister of Public Security, General Lo, whom I had admired for his commendable aphorism "It is better to confess than not to confess." He was given a chance to practice what he preached, fulfilling the Orwellian prophecies. "
-----

From The Soong Dynasty by Sterling Seagrave

General Lo  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luo_Ruiqing

[zeebo]

Just a thought Monk but you might want to check out Paul Theroux's Riding the Iron Rooster.  He chronicles his year-long trip to the four corners of China, and along the way he looks for echoes from the Mao days.  Pretty interesting read imho.

[Mind Flayer Monk]

Just a thought Monk but you might want to check out Paul Theroux's Riding the Iron Rooster.  He chronicles his year-long trip to the four corners of China, and along the way he looks for echoes from the Mao days.  Pretty interesting read imho.

I'll look around for it, thanks.

[zeebo]

I'll look around for it, thanks.

Some people think he's a grump.  But just remember, one man's "grumpy" is another man's "wry".   

[SredniVashtar]

This bit comes shortly after Cornelius Appin has revealed that he has taught the cat Tobermory to speak perfect English. From the short story 'Tobermory' by Saki:


"Mr. Appin concluded his remarkable statement in a voice which he strove to divest of a triumphant inflection. No one said "Rats," though Clovis's lips moved in a monosyllabic contortion which probably invoked those rodents of disbelief."

[BobGrau]

Which bit in particular? Do you mean the stuff in Malaya? A lot of it was based on experiences from his own life, apparently.

That, but also the more humdrum, everyday paranormal...ity of Catholicism. I dunno, it's been a while since I read it. But I'll always remember the concept of an arresting opening.

[BobGrau]

The first sentence from the terribly underrated 'Earthly Powers' by Anthony Burgess. Highly recommended, by the way.


"It was the afternoon of my eighty-first birthday, and I was in bed with my catamite when Ali announced that the archbishop had come to see me."

PS did you first hear of this in an episode of Mark Thomas's Comedy Product? I did, and then later realised I actually had the book already.

[SredniVashtar]

PS did you first hear of this in an episode of Mark Thomas's Comedy Product? I did, and then later realised I actually had the book already.

No, I first came to Burgess at the time the infamous hatchet job biography by Roger Lewis came out. I thought that anyone who could inspire that sort of demented loathing must have something to recommend him. I have been a fan/bore ever since on the subject. I think he is one of the most unjustly neglected novelists out there, ripe for rediscovery. I never knew about the Mark Thomas connection, and that raises him a good deal in my estimation, as I had always found him rather annoying, sort of Ben-Elton lite.

Lewis micturated on 'Earthly Powers' as 'a parody of a great novel, rather than a great novel' which is incredibly unfair. It shows a mind working at the height of it's considerable powers, and I would recommend the book to anyone. Deeply serious and incredibly funny. Although Burgess commanded a hairstyle that would make Dave's look positively conventional, I think he was an incredible intellect, and even his weaker works have something to recommend them. Of course, he was a dreadful show-off and charlatan at the same time, but that just adds to the appeal for me.

[BobGrau]

No, I first came to Burgess at the time the infamous hatchet job biography by Roger Lewis came out. I thought that anyone who could inspire that sort of demented loathing must have something to recommend him. I have been a fan/bore ever since on the subject. I think he is one of the most unjustly neglected novelists out there, ripe for rediscovery. I never knew about the Mark Thomas connection, and that raises him a good deal in my estimation, as I had always found him rather annoying, sort of Ben-Elton lite.

Lewis micturated on 'Earthly Powers' as 'a parody of a great novel, rather than a great novel' which is incredibly unfair. It shows a mind working at the height of it's considerable powers, and I would recommend the book to anyone. Deeply serious and incredibly funny. Although Burgess commanded a hairstyle that would make Dave's look positively conventional, I think he was an incredible intellect, and even his weaker works have something to recommend them. Of course, he was a dreadful show-off and charlatan at the same time, but that just adds to the appeal for me.

Thomas just quoted it at the start of a show to describe the kind of day he'd had, but it stuck with me. Only other Burgess book I've read is Any Old Iron, several times. To get us back on topic:
"I'm no metallurgist, merely a retired terrorist and Professor of Philosophy..."

[Mind Flayer Monk]

This isn't from a book, but instead from a book review of 1381: The Year of the Peasants' Revolt by Juliet Barker.

During the Peasants' Revolt of 1831, the rebels entered London and killed any government official they could find. They were stopped when Richard the II rode out to meet them.

----
"What stopped them was the astonishing courage of young Richard, who when the mayor of London killed the rebel chief Wat Tyler in a brawl, rode forward and shouted to the rebels, “Go home. I will be your leader”â€"and they went, either awed by the divinity that doth hedge a king, or unwilling to kill the king who had authorized the small charters of emancipation they had tucked into their hats and purses and belts. As far as they were concerned, the goose had laid the golden egg. For the next two or three weeks, many English subjects enjoyed a holiday from many of the constraints that had held good for centuries.
...
Barker concludes that the king did in fact sympathize with the rebels; he rescinded his concessions reluctantly and was convinced from then onward that it was the upper rather than the lower classes who were truly dangerous. If so, he was right: earls were to depose him in 1399 and murder him, not churls. But it seems fanciful to read his mind as it was in 1381, when there is really no evidence either way."
----

From the web article: Two Cheers for the Middle Ages by Eric Christiansen

[SredniVashtar]

This isn't from a book, but instead from a book review of 1381: The Year of the Peasants' Revolt by Juliet Barker.

During the Peasants' Revolt of 1831, the rebels entered London and killed any government official they could find. They were stopped when Richard the II rode out to meet them.

----
"What stopped them was the astonishing courage of young Richard, who when the mayor of London killed the rebel chief Wat Tyler in a brawl, rode forward and shouted to the rebels, “Go home. I will be your leader”â€"and they went, either awed by the divinity that doth hedge a king, or unwilling to kill the king who had authorized the small charters of emancipation they had tucked into their hats and purses and belts. As far as they were concerned, the goose had laid the golden egg. For the next two or three weeks, many English subjects enjoyed a holiday from many of the constraints that had held good for centuries.
...
Barker concludes that the king did in fact sympathize with the rebels; he rescinded his concessions reluctantly and was convinced from then onward that it was the upper rather than the lower classes who were truly dangerous. If so, he was right: earls were to depose him in 1399 and murder him, not churls. But it seems fanciful to read his mind as it was in 1381, when there is really no evidence either way."
----

From the web article: Two Cheers for the Middle Ages by Eric Christiansen

That's interesting. Although Richard II ended up being deposed because he was unpopular with everyone, especially the peasants who had to bear the burden of high taxes to pay for his wars. Froissarts's Chronicles has a lot about that and is worth reading. He was also French and the people used to refer to him as 'Richard of Bordeaux', which was probably not a good reputation to have at the time of the Hundred Years War with France.

[Eddie Coyle]

  "Tell someone he's a Nazi long enough, and he just may become one, just for the hell of it and as a way of saying 'F You' to the powers that be"

     Alexander Cockburn, 1995  excerpted in "A Colossal Wreck", 2013

[Mind Flayer Monk]

----
"The truth is, getting and staying clean is often filled with a series of serendipitous events, the least of which is simply not having died. One easily assumes the hand of greater powers at work. Even at my most delusional I wasn't one for the idea of fate, but day after day of keeping sober often suggested I was being led, as my own will was as good to me as a punctured and deflated balloon."

---

From Too Much To Dream: A Psychedelic American Boyhood by Peter Bebergal

[SredniVashtar]

From 'Enderby Outside', by Anthony Burgess.

"Then, instead of expensive mouthwash, he had breathed on Hogg-Enderby, bafflingly (for no banquet would serve, because of the known redolence of onions, onions) onions. ‘Onions,’ said Hogg."

[Eddie Coyle]

  E.J. Dionne - Why Americans Hate Politics, 1991.

   " Over time, the ordinary elitism of the well off and educated was linked to Leninist elitism in which student radicals viewed themselves as a radical vanguard in alliance with the people of the Third World. Herbert Marcuse helped New Left develop theories that the cast the working class, Marx's motive force of history, right into history's dustbin...with the young left writing off the working class, the working class wrote off the young left. The cops and construction workers swinging fists and billy clubs at these children of affluence. The political right...was only too happy to rescue the working class from Marcuse's dustbin and harvest it's ballots"

[droog]

This

That book looks great!  I'll have to find a copy and compare notes.  Here's my favorite book quote, from George Orwell's "1984":

"If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever."

Sadly true and just nails it.

[RealCool Daddio]

"Everyone poops."

From Everyone Poops.

[aldousburbank]

----
"The truth is, getting and staying clean is often filled with a series of serendipitous events, the least of which is simply not having died. One easily assumes the hand of greater powers at work. Even at my most delusional I wasn't one for the idea of fate, but day after day of keeping sober often suggested I was being led, as my own will was as good to me as a punctured and deflated balloon."

---

From Too Much To Dream: A Psychedelic American Boyhood by Peter Bebergal

Just ordered this. Thanks for the tip. 

[Eddie Coyle]

  Hamilton Jordan to Robert Scheer, Playboy, 1976.

   "this government is going to be run by people you've never heard of. If Cyrus Vance were named Secretary of State and Zbigniew Brzezinski head of National Security in the Carter Administration, then I'd say we failed and I would quit. But that's not going to happen"

     Yes. The latter didn't happen.

[chefist]

  Hamilton Jordan to Robert Scheer, Playboy, 1976.

   "this government is going to be run by people you've never heard of. If Cyrus Vance were named Secretary of State and Zbigniew Brzezinski head of National Security in the Carter Administration, then I'd say we failed and I would quit. But that's not going to happen"

     Yes. The latter didn't happen.

Money and dirty laundry make many hypocrites...

[Eddie Coyle]

Money and dirty laundry make many hypocrites...

  And in his case, a lot of Bolivian Marching Powder.

[Eddie Coyle]

   "What Huxley teaches is that in the age of advanced technology, spiritual devastation is more likely to come from an enemy with a smiling face than from one whose countenance exudes hate and suspicion. In the Huxleyan prophecy, Big Brother does not watch us, by his choice. We watch him, by ours. There is no need for wardens or gates or Ministries of Truth"

              Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death(1985), on why Huxley's Brave New World is a  more likely scenario than Orwell's 1984.

[chefist]

   "What Huxley teaches is that in the age of advanced technology, spiritual devastation is more likely to come from an enemy with a smiling face than from one whose countenance exudes hate and suspicion. In the Huxleyan prophecy, Big Brother does not watch us, by his choice. We watch him, by ours. There is no need for wardens or gates or Ministries of Truth"

              Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death(1985), on why Huxley's Brave New World is a  more likely scenario than Orwell's 1984.

Populations staring addictively into their digital devices oblivious to their own self made incarceration...pretty spot on!

[SredniVashtar]

Populations staring addictively into their digital devices oblivious to their own self made incarceration...pretty spot on!

Sorry, I was just typing a response to this, while browsing YouTube and checking Facebook, when I bumped into a women in the street who spilled coffee all over my trousers.

First, where can I send the invoice? Because this is clearly your fault.

Second, your point was both ignorant and fatuous and had no connection with reality!

[chefist]

Sorry, I was just typing a response to this, while browsing YouTube and checking Facebook, when I bumped into a women in the street who spilled coffee all over my trousers.

First, where can I send the invoice? Because this is clearly your fault.

Second, your point was both ignorant and fatuous and had no connection with reality!

Yea, wish I didn't need a smart phone...however, it is the expectation of those around me (friends, family and professional) that require I have it...the cult of immediate gratification...I long for the days of just having a phone on a desk at work or in the kitchen at home...answering the list of emails AT WORK instead of using personal time for such activities...

Ugh, not all new things are the best things...

[Eddie Coyle]

Populations staring addictively into their digital devices oblivious to their own self made incarceration...pretty spot on!

     These dummies today have no idea that they're giving away any last vestige of personal freedom.

     
Sent from my I-phone, sitting on the shitter on the second floor of 2879 Farragut Road, South Boston, MA, USA 02127.

[chefist]

     These dummies today have no idea that they're giving away any last vestige of personal freedom.

     
Sent from my I-phone, sitting on the shitter on the second floor of 2879 Farragut Road, South Boston, MA, USA 02127.

LOL I'm happy to be at my desk and peeking over at BG to see what has been posted...there are definitely some very intelligent folks around here...it's fun to share thoughts back and forth with like minded individuals who all have their fondness of Art Bell to bind them together in such a tenuous manner...

[Eddie Coyle]

LOL I'm happy to be at my desk and peeking over at BG to see what has been posted...there are definitely some very intelligent folks around here...it's fun to share thoughts back and forth with like minded individuals who all have their fondness of Art Bell to bind them together in such a tenuous manner...

   At GeorgeNooryRules.com, they're having a stirring debate of "what's your favorite color?' and to be followed by "favorite foods stuck in your mustache" poll.

[Caruthers612]

       "Never stop reading. Literature is where humanity hides its broad-mindedness."

                            --Glen Duncan, Tululla Rising