josh blog

Ordinary language is all right.

One could divide humanity into two classes:
those who master a metaphor, and those who hold by a formula.
Those with a bent for both are too few, they do not comprise a class.

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14 Jan '09 09:31:56 AM

'It is wrong that anyone should become attached to me even though they do so gladly and of their own accord. I should be misleading those in whom I aroused such a desire, for I am no one's goal nor have I the means of satisfying anyone. Am I not ready to die? Then the object of their attachment will die. Thus, just as I should be culpable if I made someone believe a falsehood, even though I used gentle means of persuasion, and it gave them pleasure to believe it and me pleasure that they should: in the same way I am culpable if I make anyone love me. And, if I attract people to become attached to me, I must warn those who might be ready to consent to the lie that they must not believe it, whatever benefit I might derive from it: and likewise that they must not become attached to me, because they must devote their lives and efforts to pleasing God or seeking him. (Mlle Pèrier has the original of this note.)'

13 Dec '08 03:35:49 AM

'you better try being stupid, insteada smart'

13 Dec '08 02:01:18 AM

In 'I Will Survive', perhaps in other disco, the string section actually makes a musical comment on the main song during the break. If the break featured one of the instruments from the band, it would seem like it was still in the vernacular. With strings instead, it wins more inexpensive poignancy.

13 Dec '08 12:59:09 AM

I don't know if I've ever paid attention to 'God Save the Queen' all the way through: I have only just now heard the part that elevates it, 'there's no future in England's dreaming'.

10 Dec '08 07:15:41 AM

'lower middle class still carryin bus passes'

4 Dec '08 06:09:41 AM

500 - Tom Ewing's new writing project.

2 Dec '08 07:45:13 AM

'The child's taunt, "My old cat will probably be dancing with" - if it really is a taunt and not the involuntarily friendly image of child, cat, and mouse dancing, the two animals on their hind legs - once appropriated by the poem, no longer has the last word.'

25 Nov '08 07:05:03 AM

'The whole thing comes to depend thus on the quality of bewilderment characteristic of one's creature'

21 Nov '08 06:37:54 AM

'This is the only Instance, it is believed, when he condescended to take Notice of any Thing that had been written against him; and here his chief Intention seems to have been to make Sport.'