Quotes from books that have lit you up

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
I think the choice of crab there is perfect, somehow, not sure why. I suppose because we would never think of a crab being an individual but at the same time crabs are relatable enough (with their two eyes, two forelimbs etc) to individualise when prompted.
 

ghost

Well-known member
it's perfect because of the many forms of carcinisation—a crab is a certain thing that recurs, not always as a crustacean
 

version

Well-known member
A couple from the end of that Caillois book on stones.

"Life appears: a complex dampness, destined to an intricate future and charged with secret virtues, capable of challenge and creation. A kind of precarious slime, of surface mildew, in which a ferment is already working. A turbulent, spasmodic sap, a presage and expectation of a new way of being, breaking with mineral perpetuity and boldly exchanging it for the doubtful privilege of being able to tremble, decay, and multiply."

" ... the tree of life goes on putting out branches. A multitude of new inscriptions is added to the writing in stones. Images of fishes swim among dendrites of manganese as though among clumps of moss. A sea lily sways on its stem in the heart of a piece of slate. A phantom shrimp can no longer feel the air with its broken antennae. The scrolls and laces of ferns are imprinted in coal. Ammonites of all sizes, from a lentil to a millwheel, flaunt their cosmic spirals everywhere. A fossil trunk, turned jasper and opal like a frozen fire, clothes itself in scarlet, purple, and violet. Dinosaurs' bones change their petit-point tapestries into ivory, gleaming pink or blue like sugared almonds.

Every space is filled, every interstice occupied. Even metal has insinuated itself into the cells and channels from which life has long since disappeared. Compact and insensible matter has replaced the other kind in its last refuge, taking over its exact shapes, running in its finest channels, so that the first image is set down forever in the great album of the ages. The writer has disappeared, but each flourish - evidence of a different miracle - remains, an immortal signature."
 

WashYourHands

Cat Malogen
The Queen of the Woods has cut bright boughs of various
flowering.
These knew her influential eyes. Her awarding hands
can pluck for each their fragile prize.
She speaks to them accordingly to precedence. She knows
what’s due to this elect society. She can choose twelve
gentlemen. She knows who is most lord between the high
trees and on the open down.
Some she gives white berries
some she gives brown
Emil has a curious crown it’s
made of golden saxifrage.
Fatty wears sweet-briar,
he will reign with her for a thousand years.
For Balder she reaches high to fetch his.
Ulrich smiles for his myrtle wand.
That swine Lillywhite has daisies to his chain — you’d hardly
credit it.
She plaits torques of equal splendour for Mr Jenkins and
Billy Crower.
Hansel with Goronwy share dog-violets for a palm, where
they lie in a serious embrace beneath the twisted tripod.
Sion gets St John’s Wort — that’s fair enough.
Dai Great-coat, she can’t find him anywhere — she calls
both high and low, she had a very special one for him.
Among this July noblesse she is mindful of December wood
— when the trees of the forest beat each other because of him.
She carries to Aneirin-in-the-nullah a rowan sprig, for the
glory of Guenedota. You could hear what she said to
him, because she was careful for the Disciplines of the Wars.
 

DLaurent

Well-known member
Been reading John Gray and it goes over my head. When I was at school I loved Roald Dahl, my teacher would scold me for it but could do nothing about my book of choice.

From Matilda

Screenshot 2023-10-19 at 21.33.08.png
 

mixed_biscuits

_________________________
Wes Anderson has saved a lot of bother by casting himself as every character in every one of his films. He should take a vow of silence for an afternoon, sit in a cafe and gradually realise the great diversity that is out there of people's personalities, intelligences, ways of speaking, ways of acting etc. etc.
 

version

Well-known member
Wes Anderson has saved a lot of bother by casting himself as every character in every one of his films. He should take a vow of silence for an afternoon, sit in a cafe and gradually realise the great diversity that is out there of people's personalities, intelligences, ways of speaking, ways of acting etc. etc.

Is this from The Silence?
 
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