January 2012
27 posts
oneironautical asked: Hello Neil. What are your Reichenbach theories?
Microminiaturised Sherlock inside a robot duplicate of Sherlock, of course.
“I remain fiercely aware of this powerful element of film criticism; that what the reviewer brings to the cinema is every bit as important as what’s up there on the screen”
—Mark Kermode, The good the bad and the multiplex - pg. 178
“Rather than being the greatest actor of his generation, Brando was actually Ron Burgandy.”
—Mark Kermode, The good the bad and the multiplex - pg.19
“The hours spent on the drill field do not have as their major goal teaching the person to parade efficiently. The aim is discipline … The entire aim of military training is to reduce the foot soldier to this state [automaton], to eliminate any traces of ego, and to assure, through extended exposure, an internalised acceptance of military authority.”
—Stanley Milgram, Obedience to authority - pg181
“Submission to authority is a powerful and prepotent condition in man.”
—Stanley Milgram, Obedience to authority - pg. 125
“… for many people obedience may be a deeply ingrained behaviour tendency, indeed, a prepotent impulse overriding training in ethics, sympathy, and moral conduct.”
—Stanley milgram, Obedience to authority - pg 3
“… for ten, maybe twenty yards of that walk back up the track, I could feel something behind me, like some great bird of prey about to strike, and I have to admit that this feeling was both vivid and frightening. Of course, that bird of prey was nothing more than the product of my own imagination, I knew that; but knowing it did not diminish the feat I experienced, if only for a few thrilling seconds - which goes to show, not only how well she had learned to play her chosen role, but also how superstitious I had become.”
—John Burnside, A summer of drowning - pg. 240
I don't know why but I'm diggin' quotes from this book.
‘He wants to tell this man, this boy, that he’s wrong, that the soul is wet and dark, a creature that takes up residence in the human body like a parasite and feeds on it, a creature hungry for experience and power and possessed of an inhuman joy that cares nothing for its host, but lives, as it must live, in perpetual, disfigured longing.’
Must read this soon I think. Really enjoying A summer of drowning at the mo’
“She had lost her bounce, it was true, and she had started to relax - but she was relacing into something terrible, and she was going about the world in a state of complete indifference to whatever might come, a wild girl with dream patterns and faint, dark animals etched on her skin, a creature who had passed beyond fear and was, therefore, beyond saving.”
—John Burnside, A summer of drowning - pg. 238 -9
“It was like when you’re walking past a lonely house out on the point, some rainy evening, and somebody indoors switches on a lamp, turning the windows to a pale, thin gold, smaller and more local, all at once, softened and warmed and hjemlig.”
—John Burnside, A summer of drowning, pg. 158
(hjemlig is Danish for homely, or domestic)
(hjemlig is Danish for homely, or domestic)
“… but to teach herself that it doesn’t matter how other people see us. All that matters is the private self, the thing you are before you are the person that others make you out to be.”
—John Burnside, A summer of drowning - pg. 149
“People used to believe that someone, or something, was watching them. Some thought it was the gods or angels, others pictured their dead ancestors , watching from beyond the grave and, in every case, they felt safer in the knowledge that they were seen. Perhaps they were being judged, but they were also being forgiven. It was a childish sensation, and some of the time they knew that, but they believed it anyway, because they wanted it to be true. They wanted to think of themselves as witnessed from some unknown vantage point: it made them feel more real. That divine gaze was meant to stand on opposition to the looks they were subjected to every day, looks that made them feel less real. They knew that they were diminished by the way other people saw them, but that didn’t matter because, every day and moment by moment, they were magnified by heaven. They were wrong, of course. Nobody watches us. We are not witnessed - or not, at least, by anyone who might be inclined to forgiveness.”
—John Burnisde, A summer of drowning - pg.131
All clear →
susanhatedliterature.net
Sequel to Blackout, and set in the Mr. Dunworthy ‘verse. Or at least that’s what I’m calling this series-ish of books. This is my first read for the 2012 Science Fiction Experience & you can find out…
“The winters are long,” she said, as she refilled his glass. “And the summers are sleepless. Everybody goes a little crazy from time to time.”
—John Burnside, A summer of drowning - pg.96
“For if Kyrre’s stories had one thing in common, it was this: no matter what form we give it, or how elaborately it is contrived, order is an illusion and, eventually, something will emerge from the background noise and the shadows and upset everything we are so determined to believe in.”
—John Burnside, A summer of drowning - pg 77
“Maybe it is true that we all depend on one another, that everything in the world depends on everything else - but we also depend on the spaces in between. We need the spaces, because the spaces are where the order lies. That’s why I like maps, because they recognise the gaps between one thing and another. They stand in mute opposition those who think that connections are all that matter. People who reach out to others, just to touch them, even when they don’t want to be touched.”
—John Burnside, A summer of drowning - pg 63
