If now and then we encounter pages that explode, pages that wound and sear, that wring groans and tears and curses, know that they come from a man with his back up, a man whose only defenses left are his words and his words are always stronger than the lying, crushing weight of the world, stronger than all the racks and wheels which the cowardly ( Read more... )

I read Gogol's "Diary of a Madman" last night. It is simply brilliant. Brilliant!

Wow.

Give it a read if you have 20 minutes.

His heart danced upon her movements like a cork upon a tide. He heard what her eyes said to him from beneath their cowl and knew that in some dim past, whether in life or revery, he had heard their tale before. He saw her urge her vanities, her fine dress and sash and lock black stockings, and knew that he had yielded to them a thousand times ( Read more... )

Au milieu de l'hiver, j'ai découvert en moi un invincible été.

-Albert Camus

This summer, I will be in Guyana, teaching for the Guyana Red Cross, making friends with Georgetown locals, visiting Kaieteur Fall, and trekking through Iwokrama Forest with a pack of orphans (as jaguar bait). In my downtime, I will probably be reading. Here is my list.

Fiction
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand (though I do have a soul)
Tender Is the ( Read more... )

It was a restless night. Vague in the beginning, and imprecise, the dreams went from sleeper to sleeper, they lingered here, they lingered there, they brought with them new memories, new secrets, new desires, that is why the sleepers sighed and murmured, This dream is not mine, they said, but the dream replied, You do not know your dreams

- from ( Read more... )