Barry Unsworth - Morality Play - chapter 3
It was now that it came to me - a lesson that was to be learned over again in the days that followed - that the player is always trapped in his own play but he must never allow the spectators to suspect this, they must always think he is free. Thus the great art of the player is not in showing but concealing.
[28th Mar, 2005]
Tolstoy - Romain Rolland - chapter 3
At the very moment when [Tolstoy] was dreaming of living for others and of sacrificing himself, voluptuous or futile thoughts would assail him. The image of some Cossack woman, or 'the despair he would feel if his moustache were higher on one side than the other.'
C S Lewis, a Biography - A N Wilson - preface (quoting Lewis's A Grief Observed)
All reality is iconoclastic. The earthly beloved, even in this life, incessantly triumphs over your mere idea of her. And you want her to; you want her with all her resistances, all her faults, all her unexpectedness. That is, in her foursquare and independent reality. And this, not any image or memory, is what we are to love still, after she is dead.
C S Lewis, a Biography - A N Wilson - chapter 5
The friendship of his own sex was one of the great sources of joy in Lewis' life; and it was always axiomatic with him that friendship began, and perhaps continued, with two men 'seeing the same truth.' By many people of a less cerebral disposition, it is not considered necessary to agree with their friends on points of literary judgment, or even of theology. Lewis thought that it was; or perhaps it would be truer to say that he thought that he thought that it was. In point of fact, his friendship with Arthur Greeves was to outlast many changes of view on both sides.
C S Lewis, a Biography - A N Wilson - chapter 10
Nonetheless, no writer, however self-sufficient, writes without thought of an audience, and Tolkien was happy to discover anyone who could appreciate what he was up to.
C S Lewis, a Biography - A N Wilson - chapter 12
The Muses have been traditionally at war with Christ, ever since the period
of late classical antiquity, when Jerome and Augustine both viewed literary
excellence with the gravest suspicion. Lewis is one of those very rare writers
whose Muse appears to be an anima naturalita Christiana. There have been
plenty of good writers who were also Christians. Plenty of Christians who
have tried their hand at putting their beliefs into prose or poetry, usually
with calamitous aesthetic results. There have been very few with the gift
of Dante or Milton, who have written their best when being most Christian.
[Wilson generalising to make a point, as he so often does. See
Kathryn
Lindskoog's essay on Wilson's biography for some facts on the
matter.]
Lance Morrow - Metaphors of the World, Unite! - Essay in Time Magazine, 16th Oct, 1989
Others are haunted by the obliteration of artistic form, of moral values and all traditional stabilities. Some know that by now humankind has exhausted its capacity to surprise itself in the doing of evil.
Eugene O'Connor - Letter to the Sydney Morning Herald on the late Prof Fred Hollows - quoted in The Tablet, 10th March, 1993.
He made our penny-pinching, social-climbing, power-hungry, back-stabbing, two-faced, double-dealing, puny, pretentious, apathetic lives seem so hollow, Fred did. May his memory never let us rest in peace.
[17th Mar, 2005]
Klaus Eidam - The True Life of Johann Sebastian Bach - chapter 24
Following, paralleling and departing from Schweitzer, others have devoted themselves to similar analytical pursuits. They have counted Bach's notes and discovered arithmetic wonders in them, the causes for which are mere necessities of mere musical logic. They have found out that he produced his compositions with the help of the Cabala or exclusively because of the Cabala. They have inferred Bach's position on various Bible interpretations from the chords he noted down; conversely, they have investigated the influence of specialised theological literature on his harmony. The questions, 'What comes from where?' and 'What consists of what?' virtually form the foundation of academic Bach literature.
….Now theological material has nothing whatsoever to do with belief, and musical forms of expression have just as little to do with creativity. Insights like these and their ilk share one great characteristic: since no one can make music with them, they are completely useless and suited at best to persuade their authors that they know all about a subject which is completely inaccessible to them.
For all this has less than nothing to do with comprehension, with empathy for the working method of the artist. I have collaborated for decades with composers, conductors, directors, singers, and actors; they have allowed me much more than a 'few insights into their work.' There is one thing I can assure all those who are proud to be able to prove that Bach drew this from one place and that from another, that he composed this piece following Palestrina's example and that one according to the aesthetic categories of Gottsched, or even that he adapted his musical forms of expression to the view of contemporary theologians. In my entire life I have never known a composer whose ambition was to write like any other, a deceased one least of all. Nor have I ever met a conductor who wanted to copy someone else with his tempi, his conceptions of a work. And if one can induce a director to look at a colleague's production at all, he does not think for a moment about adopting this or that from him; rather, what he will do, and do quite differently, occurs to him almost on the spot. This is not because all these people are fools on some tangent of their own; there is no other reason for it than that they are artists and so they are creative and have their own ideas. In their art they are compelled to express and to fulfil themselves. 'It's about me when I write, always about me!' said Thomas Mann. The same goes for every artist.
[16th Mar, 2005]
Klaus Eidam - The True Life of Johann Sebastian Bach - chapter 16
Bach's Bible is preserved; in it we find some instructive annotations in
his hand to the first and second books of Chronicles. In I Chronicles 25,
we read, 'Moreover David and the captains of the host separated to the service
of…men who should prophesy with harps, with psalteries, and with cymbals.'
And a few verses later: 'So the number of them, with their brethren that
were instructed in the songs of the Lord, even all that were cunning, was
two hundred fourscore and eight.' Next to this Bach's handwritten note appears:
'N.B. This chapter is the true foundation of all church music
pleasing
to God.' The end of chapter 28 reads: 'And, behold, the course of the priests
and Levites, even they shall be with thee for all the service of the house
of God: and there shall be with thee for all manner of workmanship every
willing skilful man, for any manner of service.' In his marginalia Bach calls
this 'a marvellous proof that along with other institutions of the worship
service music was also especially ordered by the Spirit of God through David.'
Finally, a third note is found in 2 Chronicles 5:12-14, in which the music
of the Levites and priests in transporting the Ark of the Covenant is described.
Bach writes: 'N.B. In a devotional music God's grace is always present.'
The notes show how deeply Bach's music was grounded in his faith. But they are not just evidence of his profound religiosity; they also demonstrate how highly he valued music itself: from his standpoint it was no less an element of the worship service than the sermon. In the Psalms he could have found many more references to worship through music; it is significant that he commented upon only these two 'political' passages. To his mind, judging by the passages he annotated, in church the musician faced the theologian with equal rights. This was the point of view from which he created his music for the worship service.
For a church musician, there is to this day no better stance, though it is not the stance of all theologians.
[15th Mar, 2005]
Klaus Eidam - The True Life of Johann Sebastian Bach - chapter 7
By no means did Bach compose only sacred music, although his music as a whole was for him a holy thing to which he was absolutely committed. The most devout person can also very well be the most open-minded, because he has an unshakeable standpoint in this world and so does not have to close himself off from it. Similarly Bach's music making was not bound only to the church; because of his steadfastness in the faith, it was a music that remained open to the world.
[9th Mar, 2005]
Charles Dickens - Martin Chuzzlewit - chapter XIX
"And so the gentleman's dead, sir! Ah! The more's the pity." She [Mrs Gamp] didn't even know his name. "But it's what we must all come to. It's as certain as being born, except that we can't make our calculations as exact. Ah! Poor dear!"
Charles Dickens - Martin Chuzzlewit - chapter XXV
The lady in question [Mrs Gamp] was by this time in the doorway, curtsying to Mrs Mould. At the same moment a peculiar fragrance was borne upon the breeze, as if a passing fairy had hiccoughed, and had previously been to a wine-vaults.
Charles Dickens - Martin Chuzzlewit - chapter XL
"Which shows," said Mrs Gamp, casting up her eyes, "what a little way you've travelled into this wale of life, my dear young creetur! As a good friend of mine has frequent made remark to me, which her name, my love, is Harris, Mrs Harris through the square and up the steps a-turnin' round by the tobacker shop, 'O Sairey, Sairey, little do we know wot lays afore us!' 'Mrs Harris, ma'am,' I says, 'not much, it's true, but more than you suppoge. Our calcilations, ma'am,' I says, 'respectin' wot the number of a family will be, comes most times within one, and oftener than you would suppoge, exact.' 'Sairey,' says Mrs Harris, in a awful way, 'tell me wot is my individgle number.' 'No, Mrs Harris,' I says to her, 'ex-cuge me, if you please. My own,' I says, 'has fallen out of three-pair backs, and had damp doorsteps settled on their lungs, and one was turned up smilin' in a bedstead, unbeknown. Therefore, ma'am,' I says, 'seek not to proticipate, but take' em as they come and as they go.'"
"Mine," says Mrs Gamp, "mine is all gone, my dear young chuck. And as to husbands, there's a wooden leg gone likeways home to its account, which in its constancy of walkin' into wine vaults, and never comin' out again 'till fetched by force, was quite as weak as flesh, if not weaker."
Dorothy L Sayers - Clouds of Witnesses - Chapter 4
But to Lord Peter the world presented itself as an entertaining labyrinth of side-issues. He was a respectable scholar in five or six languages, a musician of some skill and more understanding, something of an expert in toxicology, a collector of rare editions, an entertaining man-about-town, and a common sensationalist. He had been seen at half-past twelve on a Sunday morning walking in Hyde Park in a top-hat and frock-coat, reading The News of the World. His passion for the unexplored led him to hunt up obscure pamphlets in the British Museum, to unravel the emotional history of income-tax collectors, and to find out where his own drains led to.
Dorothy L Sayers - Whose Body - Chapter 1
[Lord Peter's] long, amiable face looked as if it had generated spontaneously from his top hat, as white maggots breed from Gorgonzola.
[19th Feb, 2005]
Iron John - Robert Bly - pg 55
William James praises 'the number and fantastic and unnecessary character' of the human being's wants.
Iron John - Robert Bly - pg 77
It is said that in marriage, the man and woman give each other 'his or her nethermost beast' to hold. Each holds the leash for the 'nethermost beast' of the other. It's a wonderful phrase.
Iron John - Robert Bly - pg 93
The younger body learns at what frequency the masculine body vibrates. It begins to grasp the song that adult male cells sing, and how the charming, elegant, lonely, courageous, half-shamed male molecules dance.
Iron John - Robert Bly - pg 94
Slowly, over months or years, that son's body-strings begin to resonate to the harsh, sometimes demanding, testily humorous, irreverent, impatient, opinionated, forward-driving , silence-loving older masculine body. Both male and female cells carry marvellous music, but the son needs to resonate to the masculine frequency as well as to the female frequency.
Iron John - Robert Bly - pg 121
The father gives with his sperm a black overcoat around the soul, invisible in our black nights. He gave, and gives, a sheathing, or envelope, or coating round the soul made of intensity, shrewdness, desire to penetrate, liveliness, impulse, daring. The father's birth gift cannot be quantified. His gift contributes to the gift of knowledge, love of action, and ways to honour the world of things. It seems particularly important these days to names some of the father's gifts.
[10th Feb, 2005]
The First Circle - Alexander Solzhenitzyn - chapter 73
Sologdin's blue eyes were just as steady, unyielding and inflexible as before. In their black pupils Yakonov saw his own large head.
How odd it is, this small blue circle with the black spot in the middle, and beyond it the whole unfathomable universe of one man.
Trial Run - Dick Francis - chapter 13
Her eyes went back to the list, but the no's had it.
[A neat and easily missed pun.]
Framley Parsonage - Anthony Trollope - chapter XLVI
It may be said that no good man who has broken down in his goodness can carry the disgrace of his fall without some look of shame. When a man is able to that, he ceases to be in any way good.
Emma - Jane Austin - chapter 17
It was rather too late in the day to set about being simpleminded and ignorant, but she left her with every previous resolution confirmed of being humble and discreet, and repressing imagination all the rest of her life.
Finding our Fathers - Samuel Osherson - page 11
Both sexes today seem to share a stereotype; that men are distant and unconnected, while relationships are the female specialty. Many people believe that women care more than men about love. Yet the division of the sexes into men as rational and women as feelers is simply untrue, a harmful and dangerous myth. For all that feminism has contributed to our culture, it has also brought with it a subtle idealisation of women and a less subtle denigration or misunderstanding or men.
[10th Feb, 2005]
The Age of Innocence - Edith Wharton - chapter 1
She sang, of course, "M'ama!" and not "he loves me," since an unalterable and unquestioned law of the musical world required that the German text of French operas sung by Swedish artists should be translated into Italian for the clearer understanding of English-speaking audiences.
[2nd Feb, 2004]
Mike Moore - on the Paul Holmes Show
I don't make promises, and the promises I make I keep.
Mike Moore - quoted in Tough at the Top, The Listener, 15th Oct, 1990
You've got to trust people. It's not personal. People are always right. Even when they're wrong, they're right.
A Brief History of Time - Stephen Hawking - chapter 9
What should you do when you find you have made a mistake like that? Some people never admit that they are wrong and continue to find new, and often mutually inconsistent arguments, to support their case - as Eddington did in opposing black hole theory. Others claim to have never really supported the incorrect view in the first place, or, if they did, it was only to show that it was inconsistent. It seems to me much better and less confusing if you admit in print that you were wrong. A good example of this was Einstein, who called the cosmological constant, which he introduced when he was trying to make a static model of the Universe, the biggest mistake of his life.
Charlie Chaplin - quoted in the Readers' Digest July 1990. [Points to Ponder]
I have not much patience with a thing of beauty that must be explained to be understood. If it does need added interpretation by someone other than the creator, then I question whether it has fulfilled its purpose.
The Bone People - Keri Hulme - chapter 4
That curious impersonal property sense parents display over their young children's bodies…check this, examine that, peer here, clean there, all as though it's an extension of their own body they're handling, not another person.
The First Circle - Solzhenitsyn - chapter 11
One can build the Empire State Building, discipline the Prussian army, make a state hierarchy mightier than God, yet fail to overcome the unaccountable spiritual superiority of certain human beings. There are soldiers of whom their company commanders are afraid, labourers who intimidate their foremen, prisoners who make their prosecutors tremble.
Bobynin knew this, and, in dealing with authorities, made use of his power.
The First Circle - Solzhenitsyn - chapter 14
Scepticism by its very nature dooms us to futility. It's not a guide to action, and people can't just stand off, so they must have a set of positive beliefs to show them the way. Scepticism is very important - it's a way of getting at people with one-track minds, but it can never give a man the feeling that he's got firm ground under his feet.
The First Circle - Solzhenitsyn - chapter 42
Generosity is a two-edged virtue for an artist - it nourishes his imagination but has a fatal effect on his routine.
[1st Feb, 2005]
The Kalahari Typing School for Men - Alexander McCall Smith - chapter 1
Mma Ramotswe's old friend Hector Mapondise had regularly asked her to marry him and although she had just as regularly declined, he had always taken her refusals in good spirit, as befitted a man of his status (he was a cousin of a prominent chief). He would have made a perfectly good husband, but the problem was that he was rather dull, and, try as she might Mma Ramotswe could scarcely prevent herself from nodding off in his company. It would be very difficult being married to him; a somnolent experience, in fact, and Mma Ramotswe enjoyed life too much to want to sleep through it. Whenever she saw Hector Mapondise driving past in his large green car, or walking to the post office to collect his mail, she remembered the occasion on which he had taken her to lunch at the President Hotel and she had fallen asleep at the table, halfway through the meal. It had given a new meaning, she reflected, to the expression sleeping with a man. She had woken, slumped back in her chair, to see him staring at her with his slightly rheumy eyes, still talking in his low voice about some difficulty he was having with one of the machines at his factory.
No, Hector Mapondise was a worthy man, but far too dull. He should seek out a dull woman, of whom there were legions throughout the country, women who were slow-moving and not very exciting, and he should marry one of these bovine ladies. But the problem was that dull men often had no interest in such women and fell for people like Mma Ramotswe. That was the trouble with people in general; they were surprisingly unrealistic in their expectations. Mma Ramotswe smiled at the thought, remembering how, as a young woman, she had had a very tall friend who had been loved by an extremely short man. The short man looked up at the face of his beloved, from almost below her waist, and she looked down at him, almost squinting over the distance that separated them. That distance could have been one thousand miles, or more - the breadth of the Kalahari, and back; but the short man was not to realise that, and was only to desist, heartsore, when the tall girl's equally tall brother stooped down to look into his eyes and told him that he was no longer to look at his sister, even from a distance, or he would face some dire, unexpressed consequence. Mma Ramotswe felt sorry for the short man, of course, as she could never find it in her herself to dismiss the feelings of others; he should have realised how impossible were his ambitions, but people never did.
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