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- Happy Birthday, Leadbelly
- “I’m not offended by all the dumb blonde jokes because I know I’m not dumb… and I also know that I’m not blonde.” — Dolly Parton
- “I don’t think my books should be in prison libraries.” — Patricia Highsmith, 1966
- “I pretended to be somebody I wanted to be until finally I became that person. Or he became me.” — Archie Leach
- “I never told a joke in my life.” — Andy Kaufman
- “In France, I’m an auteur; in Germany, a filmmaker; in Britain; a genre film director; and, in the USA, a bum.” — John Carpenter
- Shadow and pools of light
- “Precision and accuracy are necessary for both white and black writers. ‘A black aesthetic’ should not be an excuse for sloppy writing.” — poet and publisher Dudley Randall
- “When I was discovered, everything happened like dominos. I don’t know how to talk about it now because it’s too mindblowing. It’s so unreal, and yet it’s real.” — Faye Dunaway
- Mirrors #24
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- Maddy on Happy Birthday, Leadbelly
- Melissa Sutherland on “I never told a joke in my life.” — Andy Kaufman
- Maddy on “I’m not offended by all the dumb blonde jokes because I know I’m not dumb… and I also know that I’m not blonde.” — Dolly Parton
- Molly Larson Cook on R.I.P. Sam Schacht
- Melissa Sutherland on “I never told a joke in my life.” — Andy Kaufman
- Leena Myller on “It wasn’t there, and then it was there.” David Lynch on Elvis
- Leena Myller on “It wasn’t there, and then it was there.” David Lynch on Elvis
- sheila on “When I was discovered, everything happened like dominos. I don’t know how to talk about it now because it’s too mindblowing. It’s so unreal, and yet it’s real.” — Faye Dunaway
- Maddy on “When I was discovered, everything happened like dominos. I don’t know how to talk about it now because it’s too mindblowing. It’s so unreal, and yet it’s real.” — Faye Dunaway
- sheila on “When I was discovered, everything happened like dominos. I don’t know how to talk about it now because it’s too mindblowing. It’s so unreal, and yet it’s real.” — Faye Dunaway
- Maddy on “When I was discovered, everything happened like dominos. I don’t know how to talk about it now because it’s too mindblowing. It’s so unreal, and yet it’s real.” — Faye Dunaway
- sheila on “I can pick a good song, but I sure couldn’t pick a good man.” — Ruth Brown
- Clary on “I can pick a good song, but I sure couldn’t pick a good man.” — Ruth Brown
- sheila on Colm Tóibín, Gary Indiana, and Los Angeles
- Maddy on Colm Tóibín, Gary Indiana, and Los Angeles
- sheila on Colm Tóibín, Gary Indiana, and Los Angeles
- sheila on Colm Tóibín, Gary Indiana, and Los Angeles
- Scott Abraham on Colm Tóibín, Gary Indiana, and Los Angeles
- sheila on Colm Tóibín, Gary Indiana, and Los Angeles
- Scott Abraham on Colm Tóibín, Gary Indiana, and Los Angeles
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Tag Archives: Darkness at Noon
Everybody Breaks, Bro: Costa-Gavras’ The Confession
The fourth shot in Costa-Gavras’ excruciating film The Confession. If Robert Conquest explained the machinations behind the Soviet show trials in the 1930s in The Great Terror, and if, in Darkness at Noon, Arthur Koestler walked you through the the … Continue reading
Posted in Movies
Tagged Arthur Koestler, Costa-Gavras, Darkness at Noon, politics, Robert Conquest, The Great Terror
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Beware Perfect Language
“Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it. Every concept that can … Continue reading
2013 Books Read
It’s been a hell of a year. Devastating as well as redemptive. I started it out in Memphis, and end it here in New Jersey. And now my new niece Pearl has arrived! It’s been both a busy year as … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged A.S. Byatt, Anne Fadiman, Annie Proulx, Arthur Koestler, Balkans, books read, Darkness at Noon, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Edvard Radzinsky, Elinor Lipman, England, friends, George Eliot, H.L. Mencken, Henry James, Herman Melville, Hungary, Ireland, J.D. Salinger, Jeanette Winterson, Joan Acocella, Joan Didion, John Banville, Joseph Heller, Joshua Ferris, Lester Bangs, Lorrie Moore, Patricia Highsmith, Philip K. Dick, Russia, Sam Cooke, Shakespeare, Stalin, Tana French, The Netherlands, The Only Game In Town, Thomas Carlyle, Victor Serge, Yugoslavia
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The Books: “Darkness at Noon” (Arthur Koestler)
Daily Book Excerpt: Adult fiction: Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler Darkness at Noon is one of the most important books of the 20th century. The book is, as the New Statesman aptly described it: “One of the few books … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged Arthur Koestler, Darkness at Noon, fiction, politics, Russia, Stalin, war
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2005 Books Read
Here is the complete list of books I read in 2005. Underworld: A Novel, by Don DeLillo – which I had started in the fall of 2004- before I went to Ireland – and it took me FOREVER to finish … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged American Sphinx, books read, Charming Billy, Children of the Arbat, Crowds and Power, Darkness at Noon, East of Eden, Edmund Burke, Harry Potter, L.M. Montgomery, Middlemarch, Miracle at Philadelphia, The Great Terror, The Pigman, Underworld, W.B. Yeats, Year of Magical Thinking
4 Comments