| diving at mitbbs, no. 11 |
[Nov. 24th, 2009|08:10 pm] |
- 吓得我不小心打了个喷嚏，又从书架顶端震落一本形散神不散的外斯科夫《二十世纪物理学》，
- 钱江被问得愣了一下，茫然地看了我一会，终于很不解地说，你难道不知道鸟是分作鸣禽、猛禽、攀禽、游禽、涉禽的么？
- 好像一个无家可归的流浪汉，恭恭敬敬地举着一个分文不值的瓦罐，一本正经地逢人便讲这是他从某个孤坟荒冢里挖出的商朝军用水壶
- 看到这句话，我献给这位理想主义者的，刨却同情，就真的不剩什么了。
- 比如数学物理方法，一学期下来，只会解方块、圆柱和球，碰到复杂一点的情况，就只好做以上三种的近似。
- 有时候甚至显得繁琐，比如“池塘”，方为池，圆为塘， {My first encounter with Chinese address bar?}
说不太清，究竟要用什么武装自己，才能更坦然一些，才能更安心一些，对得起身外的世界，不辜负心中的日月，配得上这一季零落的心事，些许宽慰对面的你？
世界上有这样多东西为我默默存在。
爹亲娘亲，比不上桌角亲：）——米亚语录 （龚墨丝）
在每一个成熟的人身上，我除了发现那种淹没在尘世中的淡然眼神，甚至看不出是犹豫生活还是习惯生活。
还好，我已过了那个需要深刻的年龄，所以不去见微知著的挖掘其中的刻骨悲凉。
这是母亲从来的一个特点，不好的事就不愿意跟我说，就好像她能为我挡住一样，她总是愿意这个世界对我像天堂一样，但这个世界却好像并不跟她争气。
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| "Out of Africa" |
[Nov. 22nd, 2009|07:58 pm] |
Old Knudsen:- The scheme (of lifting the hundread thousand tons of guano dropped at the bottom of Lake Naivasha) had in it all the elements dear to his heart: deep water, birds, hidden treasures; it had even a flavour of the things that one ought not to talk...
- The mise-en-scene of the art of charcoal-burning is in itself as lovely as possible... in this stillness and shade of the African forest, the cut wood smelt like gooseberries; and the piercing, fresh, rank, sour smell of the burning kiln was as bracing as a sea breeze... The thin blue whirls of smoke from the kilns arose at regular distances, and the dark kilns themselves looked like tents on the stage; the place was a smugglers' or soldiers' camp in a romantic Opera... Where the underwoods have been cleared away in an African forest you will always get a great number of butterflies, which seem to like to cluster on the stubs. It was all mysterious and innocent. In the surroundings, the small crooked form of Old Knudsen fitted in wonderfully well, flickering about, red-topped, agile, now that he had got a favourite job to attend to, sneering and encouraging, like a Puck grown old and blind and very malicious.
- He liked to talk of kings and royal families, jugglers, dwarfs and lunatics, for them he took to be outside the law, — and also of any crime...
- As we carried Knudsen out to the car the thunder rolled over our heads like cannons, and the flashes of lightning stood on all sides thick as ears in a cornfield.
Berkeley: - a glow, grandezza, the wild hope.
- He had no principles, but a surprising stock of prejudices, as you would expect it in a cat.
- To please him I conceived the plan of bringing out two ships' lanterns, starboard and port, to hang by the entrance door of my house, and told him of it.
- (Berkeley handing the Maisai medals:) The ceremony could only have been carried through so well by two parties of noble blood and great family traditions; may democracy take no offence. <> A medal is an inconvenient thing to give to a naked man, because he has got no place to fix it on to.
- 'His Darkness and his Brightness / exchanged a greeting of extreme politeness."
__ You read it as an author would like his book to be read, praying to God that he may have it in him to go on as beautifully as he has begun. Your mind runs, transported, upon a fresh deep green track.
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| 《文化苦旅》 |
[Nov. 21st, 2009|09:46 pm] |
江南小镇: {我当然是来晚了。朱家角的清净处寻着一些，但没过瘾。} - 那就是躲开了一种再亲见不过的人文文化，躲开了一种把自然与人情搭建得无比巧妙的生态环境，
- 堂皇转眼凋零，喧腾是短命的别名。想来想去，没有比江南小镇更足以成为一种淡泊而安定的生活表征的了。
- 让生命熨帖在既清静又方便的角落，
- 我们身边擦过一条船，船头坐了两位服饰齐整的老太，看来是走亲戚去的，我们的船驶得太快，把水沫溅到老太的新衣服上了，老太撩了撩衣服下摆，嗔色地指了指我们，我们连忙拱手道歉，老太立即和善地笑了。
- 这里街市很安静，而河道却很热闹，很多很多的船来往交错，也有不少船驳在岸边装卸货物，更有一些人从这条船跳到那条船，连跳几条到一个地方去，就像市井间借别人家的过道穿行。我们的船挤人这种热闹中，舒舒缓缓地在前走。
- 小镇的居民和船民非常帮衬，一人拿了套戏装往身上一披，照样干活，你们拍去吧。我去那天，不知哪家电影厂正在桥头拍一部清朝末年的电影，桥边的镇民、桥下的船民很多都穿上了清朝农民的服装在干自己的事，没有任何不自然的感觉，倒是我们这条船靠近前去，成了擅闯大清村邑的番邦夷人。
- 中国古典园林不管依傍何种建筑流派，都要以静作为自己的韵律。
寂寞天柱山:- 老人一生最后一个官职竟十分巧合地是“舒州团练副使”
- 山外的一切平泛景象突然不见，一时涌动出无数奇丽的山石，山石间掩映着丛丛簇簇的各色林木，一下子就把人的全部感觉收服了。我在想，这种著名的山川实在是造物主使着性子雕镂出来的千古奇迹。为什么到了这里，一切都变得那么可心了呢？在这里随便选一块石头搬到山外去都会被人当作奇物供奉起来，但它就是不肯匀出去一点，让外面的开阔地长久地枯燥着，硬是把精华都集中在一处，自享自美。水也来凑热闹，不知从哪儿跑出来的，这儿一个溪涧，那儿一道瀑布，贴着山石幽幽地流，欢欢地溅。此时外面正是炎暑炙人的盛夏，进山前见过一条大沙河，浑浊的水，白亮的反光，一见之下就平添了几分烦热；而在这里，几乎每一滴水都是清彻甜凉的了，给整个山谷带来一种不见风的凉爽。有了水声，便引来虫叫，引来鸟鸣，各种声腔调门细细地搭配着，有一声，没一声，搭配出一种比寂然无声更静的静。你就被这种静控制着，脚步、心情、脸色也都变静。想起了高明的诗人、画家老是要表现的一种对象：静女。这种女子，也是美的大集中，五官身材一一看去，没有一处不妥贴的，于是妥贴成一种难于言传的宁静。
- 站在天柱山的谷岙里实在很难产生任何分割性的思维，只觉得山谷抱着你，你又抱着山谷，都抱得那样紧密，途不到一丝造字造句的空间。 {好地方的好处自然都是相通的，站在Dubrovnik的古城墙上，就是和这座桔红屋顶的小城的相拥。}
- 娃娃鱼 {记忆真有趣，就这一个词，就让我想起久违的《少年文艺》。}
西湖梦:- 西湖排场太大，妆饰太精，难以叫人长久安驻。大凡风景绝佳处都不宜安家，人与美的关系，竟是如此之蹊跷。
- 他们是那个时代的峰巅和精英...，但却仅仅因辞章而入选为一架僵硬机体中的零件，被随处装上拆下，东奔西颠，
- 他们消除了志向，渐渐又把这种消除当作了志向。安贫乐道的达观修养，成了中国文化人格结构中一个宽大的地窖，尽管有浓重的霉味，却是安全而宁静。
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| "Emma", "Cranford" |
[Nov. 19th, 2009|09:32 pm] |
"Emma" is the first novel I read in college and loved. (There was also "Fountainhead", but we won't get into that.) Too bad that I no longer remember what were my favorite scenes, but the end chapter of volume II, where Mr. Weston as a proud father and the vain Mrs. Elton keep talking over each other, is definitely one of my new favorites. Kowtows to the immortal Miss Austin, and side bows to Michael Page.- "Mermaids and sharks! Nonsense! My dear Harriet, what are you thinking of? Where would be the use of his bringing us a charade made by a friend upon a mermaid or a shark?" {Now that's a SIP for you.}
- It is such a happiness when good people get together--and they always do.
- Human nature is so well disposed towards those who are in interesting situations, that a young person, who either marries or dies, is sure of being kindly spoken of.
- Poor Mr. Woodhouse little suspected what was plotting against him in the breast of that man whom he was so cordially welcoming, and so anxiously hoping might not have taken cold from his ride.-- Could he have seen the heart, he would have cared very little for the lungs;
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After watching "North and South", it's hard to convince myself that it is also written by Elizabeth Gaskell. (I'm fairly sure the tape version I listened to years ago is also by Nadia May.)- "It is very pleasant dining with a bachelor," said Miss Matty softly, as we settled ourselves in the counting-house. "I only hope it is not improper; so many pleasant things are!"
- I have often noticed that almost every one has his own individual small economies - careful habits of saving fractions of pennies in some one peculiar direction - any disturbance of which annoys him more than spending shillings or pounds on some real extravagance... To me an india-rubber ring is a precious treasure. I have one which is not new - one that I picked up off the floor nearly six years ago. I have really tried to use it, but my heart failed me, and I could not commit the extravagance.
- ... but I myself have a very good receipt for washing it in milk, which stiffens it enough, and gives it a very good creamy colour. Well, ma'am, I had tacked it together (and the beauty of this fine lace is that, when it is wet, it goes into a very little space), and put it to soak in milk, when, unfortunately, I left the room; on my return, I found pussy on the table, looking very like a thief, but gulping very uncomfortably, as if she was half-chocked with something she wanted to swallow and could not. And, would you believe it? At first I pitied her, and said 'Poor pussy! poor pussy!' till, all at once, I looked and saw the cup of milk empty - cleaned out! 'You naughty cat!' said I, and I believe I was provoked enough to give her a slap, which did no good, but only helped the lace down - just as one slaps a choking child on the back. I could have cried, I was so vexed;
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| The New Yorker, 2007-04-02 + |
[Nov. 17th, 2009|08:58 pm] |
"Up in the Sky Dept.: Rare Bird" / Andrew Blum
"The Taming of the Chef" / Bill Buford
__ This was the modern privilege of the restaurant experience: to be served and made happy without ever quite knowing how it was happening.
"The Pope and Islam" / Jane Kramer
__ "Theological dialogue between religions is no sooner born than it dies. Theological language is not Socratic. It becomes militant, it is the arm with which you defend your religion. You do not come to a friend to talk bearing arms. You leave theology at the door and come with flowers—which can be ‘culture.’"
"The Valiant Swabian" / John Updike
__ The apparition of a superior intelligence behind the impassive arrangements of nature was more than a playful metaphor for Einstein, and the escape from selfishness through scientific thought was a principle he lived.
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"Blowing Up" / Malcolm Gladwell (April 22 & 29, 2002)- The men at the table were in a business that was formally about mathematics but was really about epistemology, because to sell or to buy an option requires each party to confront the question of what it is he truly knows.
- Nassim would pick up the phone and say, "Tim, sell some." And Tim would say, "How many?" And he would say, "Oh, a social amount."
- At Empirica, by contrast, every day brings a small but real possibility that they'll make a huge amount of money in a day; no chance that they'll blow up; and a very large possibility that they'll lose a small amount of money.
- What the normal trader gets from his daily winnings is feedback, the pleasing illusion of progress.
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| "So You Want to be a Wizard" + |
[Nov. 15th, 2009|05:01 pm] |
I don't remember why I gave up on the audiobook the first time around. It could be because it was too frustrating to listen to Nita's problem with bullies at the beginning. At least now I won't confuse Diane Duane with Diana Wynne Jones any more.
Plot summary: Nita and Kit have to confront the Star Snuffer/ Engender of Rust on their very first wizardry project, even though their original intention is only to retrieve Nita's favorite pen (which is put to good use later on) from Fred. (Fred, a white hole who moved away from his previous 'sitting there, emitting X-rays for billions of years' peaceful lifestyle, has a very cute 'gentle giant' voice in the audiobook, and is my favorite character in the book.)
Other nice bits: the baby helicopter creatures; a fire hydrant that doubles as an evil toad; blank check spells.
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"Have You Heard the Cricket Song" is this very slim volume with words by Winston O. Abbott and delicate nature drawings by Bette Eaton Bossen.
__ If each of us could have a brook
__ Only because these trees have / shared their growth with me - do I / appreciate and understand - / that my life too has been gently touched /- and often - by the shadow of the - taller - |
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| 《红尘》 |
[Nov. 14th, 2009|06:25 pm] |
亦舒的文总还是有可圈可点处的，不管情节。这篇的女主大概是师太笔下最不食烟火的了，然后借托她讲一个善终的金丝鸟的故事。
- 因为工作性质清高，毋需参予人事纷争倾轧，周如心气质有异一般年轻女子。 她脸上有一股秀丽的书卷气，举止飘逸潇洒，已有不少男士们问过：“那白皙皮肤又爱穿白裙的女孩是谁？”
- 把瓷瓶大致拼好，如心轻轻说：“破碎的心不知可否如此修补。” 那夜她看了看天空，又说：“女娲氏不知如何补青天。”
- 他看到的如心穿着件米色真丝宽袍，笑容可掬，冰肌无汗，他对她有强烈好感。
- 整个秋天，每日上午她都在后堂练画流云八蝙等图案，以便修补花纹时得心应手，在瓷器上鸳鸯代表爱情、蝙蝠代表神祉、蕉果与童子是招子、鹰与猴是英雄有后、帆船是成功、竹是君子、八仙是长寿，还有，除出长寿、平安、多子，功名也是传统社会重视的一环，鸡与鸡冠花便隐喻官上加官。
- 正值春季，那岛上花木种类繁多，古木参天，灌木丛中，露出繁花似锦的消息来，一条红砖路沿山坡上去，走十五分钟即看到一幢平房，外型朴素，两名仆人正站在门前侍候。 如心只见到累累的紫藤一串串自大门旁边的架子上悬垂下来，香气扑鼻，蜂鸟忙着吸食花蜜，沿窗种着白玫瑰，花苞把枝叶坠得低头。
- 闪电已经来了，雷光霍霍，四周亮起来，好像一盏探照灯在搜索什么似的。 如心在都市长大，并没有见过这样奇景，怪不得华人传说行雷闪电是天兵天将来揪罪人出去惩罚，果真有这个味道。
- 八点多了，天空尚未黑透，银紫色晚霞布满整个天际，那颜色艳丽得不似真的。 不知是谁说的，人若经过田野，而对紫色视若无睹，上帝会动怒。
- 如心微笑，“我有什么资格做一个多情人。” 小许不语，由此可见她是一个十分理智谨慎的女子。
- 如心说：“我是很反对任何人对异性那样神魂颠倒的，人生在世，除出男女私情，还有许多重要的事要做，他的条件优越，不表示没有职责需要履行，他的一生，除了恋爱，堪称一事无成。”
- “我不等钱用。” 如果每个人都这样说，天下就太平了。
- 黎旭芝装一个鬼脸，“还有个文艺腔十足的名字叫衣露申呢，我一向对此名莫名其妙，我觉得人生十分充实，种瓜得瓜，种豆得豆，种苦瓜得苦瓜。”
- 选择灯饰时她会脱口而出，“徕丽的水晶灯最好，没有棱角，又不闪烁，十分低调。”
- “新铺都是在豪华商场里，一旦洗湿了头，有得好烦，灯油、火蜡、伙计、人工加在一起非常可观”
- 苗红若无其事说：“未尝心愿甚多，要待来世方能逐一完成，一生像似太长，却又太短，待搞清楚有何心愿，二十一年已经过去，那么四十岁之前若不匆匆把所有该做或不该做之事做妥，之后也无甚作为，所以人人不够时间，既然如此，有未了心愿也稀松平常。”
- 理智是应该的。 动辄放弃一切，将来那庞大的牺牲必定带给对方无限压力。
。 “你放心，我经济情况良好。”
许仲智也不再避嫌，问道：“怎么会？”
“我刚继承了姑婆一笔遗产。”
“啊，你堪称继承专家。”
“是，我自己亦啧啧称奇。”
。 “一点不错，他同我说及祖父母是何等爱惜他，订做了皮鞋专给他雨天穿着上学等等，现在他也是别人的祖父，长孙在史丹福读化工。”
“他们那一代的故事多半动人。”
“有大时代做背景，自然荡气回肠。”
“黎子中那代也还好，至少可以任性地谈恋爱。”
许仲智搔搔头皮，“我们最惨，不得越雷池半步，人人要在学业或事业上做出成绩来，竞争太强，闲余时间太少，非人生活。”
如心笑得弯下了腰。
。 如心问：“什么叫庙会？”
“嗯，是乡下一种庆祝晚会，多数于节日选在祠堂或庙前空地举行，请来戏班表演，供村民欣赏。”
如心点头，“啊。”
那种温馨的记忆迄今犹新，依偎在大人怀中，吃炒青豆、豆酥糖，耳畔是歌声乐声，虽然不十分懂，也觉得如泣如诉，抬起头，看到满天星星，远处有流萤飞舞，大人用扇子替我赶蚊子，很快，头便枕在母亲膝上熟睡…… |
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| quotes at random, no. 35 - from Ekrem's trivia calenda |
[Nov. 12th, 2009|08:39 pm] |
- The correct response to the Irish greeting "Top of the morning to you" is "And the rest of the day to yourself."
- A baby caribou can outrun its mother by the time it is three days old.
- There are more Barbie dolls in Italy than there are Canadians in Canada.
- Pirates thought wearing earrings would improve their eyesight.
- Lincoln's mother died of drinking milk from a cow that ate poisonous mushrooms.
- The tingling feeling from drinking carbonated water comes from a special enzyme, not because bubbles popping on your tongue cause a physical sensation.
- The letter J doesn't not appear anywhere on the periodic table of elements.
- Babe Ruth wore a cabbage leaf under his hat to keep his head cool. He changed it every two innings.
- In ancient Greece, women counted their age from the date they were married.
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| "Out of Africa" |
[Nov. 10th, 2009|09:26 pm] |
Night, rain, etc:- To Arabia and Africa, where the sun of the midday kills you, night is the time for travelling and enterprise. ... You start Safaris by the new moon, to have the benefit of the whole row of moonlight nights.
- People who dream when they sleep at night know of a special kind of happiness which the world of the day holds not, a placid ecstasy, and ease of heart, that are like honey on the tongue. They also know that the real glory of dreams lies in their atmosphere of unlimited freedom.. the freedom of the artist, who has no will, who is free of will... The thing which in the waking world comes nearest to a dream is night in a big town, where nobody knows one, or the African night.
- Many times in the middle of the night, he and I, called by the howls of the dogs, have by the light of a hurricane lamp, picked off them, one by one, the murderous big ants, the Siafu.
- (Before the long rain.) A light distant shower of rain painted a blue slanting streak across the horizon. All the world had only one thought.
- The stars had gone, and you felt the night-air soft and deep and pregnant with benefaction.
- When the earth answered like a sounding-board in a deep fertile roar, and the world sang round you in all dimensions, all above and below, — that was the rain.
- In the heat of the midday the air oscillates and vibrates like the string of a violin, lifts up long layers of grass-land with thorn-trees and hills on it, and creates vast silvery expanses of water in the dry grass.
More animals:- The duck concluded their orbit over the glass-clear sky, to swoop noiselessly into the dark water like so many arrow-heads let off backwards by a heavenly archer.
- (The Iguana) swish away, there is a flash of azure, green and purple over the stones, the colour seems to be standing behind them in the air, like a comet's luminous tail.
- All the Hornbills were talking together in the merriest mood, but with choice deportment, like a party of inheritors after a funeral.
- The Flamingos .. have incredibly long legs and bizarre and recherche curves of their necks and bodies, as if from some exquisite traditional prudery they were making all attitudes and movements in life as difficult as possible.
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| 《文化苦旅》 |
[Nov. 8th, 2009|01:33 pm] |
都江堰:
__ 脸面渐觉滋润，眼前愈显清朗，也没有谁指路，只向更滋润、更清朗的去处走。忽然，天地间开始有些异常，一种隐隐然的骚动，一种还不太响却一定是非常响的声音，充斥周际。如地震前兆，如海啸将临，如山崩即至，浑身起一种莫名的紧张，又紧张得急于趋附。不知是自己走去的还是被它吸去的，终于陡然一惊，我已站在伏龙馆前，眼前，急流浩荡，大地震颤。
三峡:
余光中《寻李白》诗云：
酒入豪肠，七分酿成了月光
剩下的三分啸成剑气
绣口一吐就半个盛唐
__ 郦道元...还用最省俭的字句刻划过三峡春冬之时的“清荣峻茂”，晴初霜旦的“林寒涧肃”，
__ 一个人口亿众的民族，长久享用着几个残缺的神话。
洞庭一角:
__ 许多文化遗迹也就是贬官行迹。... 只好与山水亲热。
__ 于是，优耶乐耶，也是丹墀金銮的有限度延伸，大不到哪里去。在这里，儒家的天下意识，比之于中国文化本来具有的宇宙意识，逼仄得多了。
__ “文章憎命达”
贵池傩: - 对神，人们既有点谦恭畏惧，又不想失去自尊，表情颇为难做，干脆戴上面具，把人、神、巫、鬼搅成一气，在浑浑沌沌中歌舞呼号，
- 这是一位瘦小的老者，竟毫不化妆，也无面具，只穿今日农民的寻常衣衫，在浑身披挂的演员们中间安稳坐下，戴上老花眼镜，一手拿一只新式保暖杯，一手翻开一个绵纸唱本，咿咿呀呀唱将起来。全台演员依据他的唱词而动作，极似木偶。这种演法，粗陋之极，也自由之极。
- 或许，我们过去摆脱得过于鲁莽，
青云谱随想:- 在中国古代，凡是像样的画家都会有笔墨趣味的。.. 但毕竟还缺少一种更强烈、更坦诚的东西，例如像文学中的《离骚》。有没有可能，让艺术家全身心的苦恼、焦灼、挣扎，痴狂在画幅中燃烧，人们可以立即从笔墨、气韵，章法中发现艺术家本人，并且从根本上认识他们，就像欧洲人认识拉斐尔、罗丹和梵高?
- 这些鸟鱼... 是秃陋的，畏缩的，不想惹人，也不想发出任何音响的，但它们却都有一副让整个天地都为之一寒的白眼，冷冷地看着，而且把这冷冷地看当作了自身存在的目的。它们似乎又是木讷的，老态的，但从整个姿势看又隐含着一种极度的敏感，它们会飞动，会游弋，会不声不响地突然消失。毫无疑问，这样的物像也都走向了一种整体性的象征。
- 郑燮（板桥）就刻过一个自用印章，其文为： 青藤门下走狗
风雨天一阁:
__ 鉴于这种种情况，历史只能把藏书的事业托付给一些非常特殊的人物了。这种人必得长期为官，...
__ 在当时，一切有历史跨度的文化事业只能交付给家族传代系列，但家族传代本身却是一种不断分裂、异化、自立的生命过程。让后代的后代接受一个需要终生投入的强硬指令，是十分违背生命的自在状态的； {Meanwhile Cambridge is celebrating its 800th anniversary this year.}
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| "Rogue's Reward" |
[Nov. 7th, 2009|04:35 pm] |
Boy: book collector/war hero who successfully masquerades as a notorious profligate rake/high flyer; oh, he's also an illegitimate son of an Earl.
Girl: barely out of school-room headstrong brown-hen.
Spoiler line: "Even if you don't want to be earl, think of the money! You'd have enough to waste as you choose."And you wouldn't need to blackmail my mother, she thought.
Highlight: the cameo of a washing pole ('the long forked stick that the cottagers used to prop up their laundry lines') during a spirited episode in which the guy raced on rooftops to chase after the girl's escaped parasol.
Jean R. Ewing is a veteran Regency author that I always like to like, but her characters tend to have major problems that I can't overlook. The first half of the book is marred by the girl's utter readiness to believe the worst of the guy; the second half is marred by the guy's martyr complex. (This could be a plot devise to stretch the blackmail plot, but unfortunately that meant that the villain got away with it for far too long.)
Another common failing: communication between the couple are spotty at best. They start out being ignorant of each other despise each being dear friends/comrades with the other's sibling, and on the second to last page, we find this exchange:
"Because you have barely hidden your condescension and intolerance from the beginning."
"Oh, Lord!" said Lee. "What I have barely hidden, my dear is that I conceived an equally unsuitable passion for you."
Surprisingly, it's the mother of the girl, a social butterfly and one of the blackmail victims, who gets some of the best lines. (She makes me think of Lily from "Gossip girl."):
"It's all right, " said Lady Acton at last. "His name is not there. Our difficult new earl has survived."
I always forget how impressive the end of that soliloquy is:
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action."
__ Lee was correct: the right to demand trial by combat had never been repealed.
__ "Leander. He swam the Hellespont nightly to reach his beloved Hero at Sestos. She was a priestess of Venus."
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| "Before Lunch" |
[Nov. 5th, 2009|07:37 pm] |
Angela Thirkell is one of the authors I count on for a comforting read, and for the most part this novel holds up its end of the bargain.
- Her son mourned her sincerely with the largest wreath of expensive flowers Skeynes had ever seen, .. and then forgot about her, except when sentiment got the better of him.
- "I am glad you can tolerate me as I am," said Mr. Middleton, still suspicious, "for at my age it is very improbable that I shall change.Had I been a younger man when you married me, Catherine, a man more suited to you in age, you might have re-moulded my life, shaped me again to your liking. But you took pity on an ageing wreck, your young life twined itself round the rugged roots of astormed-shattered tree, and I cannot alter my way of living, I cannot change my spots." <> "I do love the way you say everything twice over," said Mrs. Middleton.
- "Yes indeed, madam," said Mrs. Pucken pityingly, for as she afterwards said to Lou no one didn't write music.
- "I mean I'd got Socrates for 5 across, because it says 'This call for help contains a large parcel,' which was pretty good work, but now it will have to be Socratee."
- Mr. Cameron felt unequal to this religious argument and contened himself with saying that if his spectacle were double million gas microscopes of extra power he might be able to read double-columned Brilliant. Daphne looked at him tolerantly, said that was out of Scott or someone wasn't it, and let the subject drop. Mr. Cameron felt that he was somehow hopelessly in the wrong: first as a shirker, then as a highbrow and pretnentious quoter.
- Though he was a dutiful son, he saw amusement in things that his parents did not find at all funny and had shown no wish to marry.
- "All right, go to the meeting, only stop that noise. Nobody said you wasn't going," said Mrs. Pucken, who like a true mother had forgotten her threat as soon as she had uttered it.
- "He'll be all right for you, father," said young Mr. Bond, with the happy assurance of the young that their elders are so dull as to be immune from accident.
- He had been so well brought up, first by an autocratic mother and then by an autocratic wife, not to speak of a black period during which he had been brought up by both ladies.
- .. said Lady Bond with a stately archness that froze her hearers.
- His herdsman, Mallow, who thought but poorly of animals with less than four stomachs,
- "You have such a wonderful constitution that you don't understand suffering as I do," said Miss Starter, which was most provoking of her, for however well people may be themselves they like to think that they are more sensitive than their neighbours.
- Everyone she cared for was in danger. Not ferocious danger, but danger of a little pain, a little disillusionment, a little spiritual hardening.
- It did not help her at all when Denis said in a carefully ordinary voice, "If you look so tired I don't know how to bear it."
- Mrs. Middleton.. did once go so far as to say that life was very tiring, and Mrs. Stonor.. added as a kind of rider that she hoped transmigration wasn't true, because one life was quite enough. Otherwise, being philosophers in their own way, they left philosophy alone.
- Daphne toyed for a moment with the idea fo suicide .. but it all seemed too difficult, so she did the next best thing, planted herself firmly by Betty Deane and said how awfully glad she was about the engagement.
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| mefi quote, no. 46 |
[Nov. 3rd, 2009|10:06 pm] |
I have never before seen the OED call an attempted etymology "inept".
posted by Flunkie at 5:18 AM on May 6
More and more of my childhood is vanishing into the void. It's like losing the ground from underneath you. My father and grandfather both talked about this happening to them. How you cede your cultural relevancy and grounding to another generation and it makes you feel a little rudderless and lost. They were right.
posted by tkchrist at 3:49 PM on June 25
Baby is also a valid name if you're in an 80s movie and have an aversion to corners.
posted by Navelgazer at 11:44 AM on June 23
Imagine what that must have been like if you were a) a 13-year-old girl b) in love with Morten Harket and c) not expecting it.
posted by cirocco at 4:24 PM on October 6
It shows that in any prevailing culture, ours is not a choice of position, in or out, but rather of role, with or against. Both serve to create and center our social existence in the same culture.
posted by Sova at 5:28 PM on October 9
"The buying of more books than one can possibly ever read is the soul's way of trying to achieve infinity."
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:05 PM on October 9
One will be judged by the content of their mental processes, not by the skin of knowledge that sits on top of thought.
posted by Eideteker at 9:57 PM on September 28
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| "Ants on the Melon" [.] |
[Nov. 1st, 2009|01:01 pm] |
"Driving Westward"
Who has not known as driver
before the bright controls
this hubris of the freeway
this rapture of the horizontal
plunge into receding sanity?
"Exit Amor"
You went out with the turning tide
Throwing a few things overboard:
The bound volumes of our years,
O my dear editor, 1933 to '68
Promises long kept in sickness and health
A date with Ireland
Barrels of ripe plans
Golden garbage for the gulls
To pick from your wake.
"The Ruin"
Kneeling I touch your unresponding knees
That proved unable to outrace, outclimb
The panic of self, the world's pursuing pain.
Rising I look unseeing through palls of time
On this poor shattered tower that did contain
So long my all that mattered, my joy of being
"Midstairs"
And now I come to the creaking thread,
Not my way, Lord, but thine.
The steps of grief have bowed my head,
Though it is not a long climb
To the lonely bed.
Draw the hour /dark as a bruise
where neon shopfronts /jerk and implore ("Nocturne")
Poets still coast into day on dreams
drinking coffee with the dead / write letters they never send.
"Grasmere Journal" with lines from Dorothy Wordsworth's Journal
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| a new list of things that I'm parting with |
[Oct. 31st, 2009|11:02 pm] |
Virginia Hamilton Adair ~~ “Ants on a Melon”
Connie Willis ~~ “To Say Nothing of the Dog”
Milan Kundera ~~ ”The Unbearable Lightness of Being“
Anne Gracie ~~ ”Tallie's Knight“
Isak Dinesen ~~ "Out of Africa"
Goldman, Sheridan ~~ "She Stoops to Conquer & The School For Scandal"
Shakespeare ~~ "The Merchant of Venice"
Mary Jo Putney ~~ "The Rake and the Reformer"
Karen Brichoux ~~ "Coffee & Kung Fu"
Judy Markey ~~ "The Daddy Clock"
Jill A. Davis ~~ "Girls' Poker Night"
Joan Hess ~~ "Dear Miss Demeanor"
Nonnie St. George ~~ "The Ideal Bride"
Cheryl Reavis ~~ "The Older Woman"
Michelle Martin ~~ "The Butler Who Laughed"
Jean R. Ewing ~~ "Rogue's Reward"
Mary Balogh ~~ "The Temporary Wife"
Julia Quinn ~~ "Minx"
Diane Farr ~~ "The Nobody"
Emma Holly ~~ "Beyond Innocence"
Philip Pullman ~~ "The Golden Compass"
Michael Chabon ~~ "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay"
Abbott, Bossen ~~ ""Have You Heard the Cricket Song"
亦舒 ~~ 《红尘》
余秋雨 ~~ 《文化苦旅》
沈宏非 ~~ 《饮食男女》
(王小波 ~~ 《三十而立》)
(韩寒 ~~ 《一座城池》)
(林语堂 ~~ 《京华烟云》)
(《鲁迅小说全编》)
("Chinese Erotic Poems")
(Roger Zelazny ~~ 7 books out of The Chronicles of Amber)
(Guy Gavriel Kay ~~ "The Lions of Al-Rassan")
(T. H White ~~ "Once and the Future King")
(Mark Twain ~~ "The Innocents Abroad")
(Kiran Desai ~~ "The Inheritance of Loss")
(Stephen Jay Gould ~~ "Panda's Thumb")
实用临床药物手册
常用日汉辞典 （沈宇澄）
实用成语辞典 （许业基）
Reader's Digest Household Hints & Handy Tips
Pocket Atlas / Metro Boston
Eyewitness Guides / Provence & the Cote D'Azur
Rick Steves' Great Britain & Ireland 1998
Rick Steves' Europe Through the Backdoor 1999
The Top 500 Poems (William Harmon)
AV:
“A Room with a View”
“A Fish called Wanda”
“The Wings of a Dove”
"All I Wanner Do"
"Castle In the Sky"
"Kolya"
"Green Card"
"Cyrano de Bergerac"
"Emma" {So many titles with names!}
Joshua Redman ~~ "Quartet"
Celine Dion ~~ "Let's Talk About Love"
Bryan Kest's Power Yoga
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| 《文化苦旅》 |
[Oct. 31st, 2009|07:41 pm] |
这是本似曾相识的书。里面收的有些散文，我一定是不知作者是谁时就读过了。开首几篇也在买下手边这本书之前就看过，而且由此对余秋雨这名字印象尤深。
自序: - 我想，任何一个真实的文明人都会自觉不自觉地在心理上过着多种年龄相重叠的生活，没有这种重叠，生命就会失去弹性，很容易风于和脆折。
- 李白的轻舟、陆游的毛驴都雇不到了，我无法穿越那种似现代又非现代、由拥塞懈怠白眼敲诈所连结成的层峦叠嶂。
- 其实，所有的故乡原本不都是异乡吗？所谓故乡不过是我们祖先漂泊旅程中落脚的最后一站。 (杨明：《我以为有爱》)
莫高窟:- 别国的遗迹一般修建于一时，兴盛于一时，以后就以纯粹遗迹的方式保存着，让人瞻仰。... 中国历史太长、战乱太多、苦难太深，没有哪一种纯粹的遗迹能够长久保存，
- 人世间能有的色彩都喷射出来，但又喷得一点儿也不野，舒舒展展地纳入细密，流利的线条，... 这里的雕塑都有脉搏和呼吸，挂着千年不枯的吟笑和娇嗔。... 这里没有重复，真正的欢乐从不重复。这里不存在刻板，刻板容不下真正的人性。... 人世间最有吸引力的，莫过于一群活得很自在的人发出的生命信号。... 。我们的民族，总算拥有这么一个朝代，总算有过这么一个时刻，驾驭如此瑰丽的色流，而竟能指挥若定。
- 它粑人性神化，付诸造型，又用造型引发人性，
- 赫尔曼·黑塞，写一部《纳尔齐斯与歌尔德蒙》，把宗教艺术的产生，刻划得如此激动人心，富有现代精神。
阳关雪: - 孩子们的想象，诚恳而逼真。因此，这些城，这些楼，这些寺，早在心头自行搭建。
- 文人的魔力，竟能把偌大一个世界的生僻角落，变成人人心中的故乡。
- 从未见过这样完整的天，一点儿也没有被吞食，边沿全是挺展展的，紧扎扎地把大地罩了个严实。
- 天边渐渐飘出几缕烟迹，并不动，却在加深，疑惑半晌，才发现，那是刚刚化雪的山脊。
- 在重重美景中发闷 / 这里，不需要艺术闹出太大的局面，
沙原隐泉: - 爬。不管能抵达哪儿，只为已耗下的生命，爬。
- 日夜的凤，把山脊、山坡塑成波荡，那是极其款曼平适的波、不含一丝涟纹。于是，满眼皆是畅快，一天一地都被铺排得大大方方、明明净净。色彩单纯到了圣洁，气韵委和到了崇高。
- 刚刚登上山脊时，已发现山脚下尚有异相，舍不得一眼看全。待放眼鸟瞰一过，此时才敢仔细端详。那分明是一弯清泉，横卧山底。
- 至此，这湾泉水在我眼中又变成了独行侠，在荒漠的天地中，全靠一己之力，张罗出了一个可人的世界。
- 惟有大漠中如此一湾，风沙中如此一静，荒凉中如此一景，高坡后如此一跌，才深得天地之韵律，造化之机巧、让人神醉情驰。以此推衍、人生、世界、历史，莫不如此。给浮嚣以宁静，给躁急以清冽，给高蹈以平实，给粗犷以明丽。惟其这样，人生才见灵动，世界才显精致，历史才有风韵。然而，人们日常见惯了的，都是各色各样的单向夸张。 {It's been more than a decade since he wrote this and market economy broke out. I wonder if his aesthetic complaint has remained the same.}
柳侯祠:
__ 柳宗元凄楚南回，同路有刘禹锡。
__ 正是发配南荒的御批，点化了民族的精灵。 |
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| "Out of Africa" |
[Oct. 29th, 2009|11:31 pm] |
More people:
- The people of the farm did not have it in them to remain silent where a cow and calf were being discussed... The old men seized one another by the arm and shook out their last asthmatic breath in praise or condemnation of the cow.
- It was and is becoming, I thought, that Emmanuelson should have sought refuge with the Masai, and that they should have received him. The true aristocracy and the true proletariat of the world are both in understanding with tragedy. To them it is the fundamental principle of God, and the key, - the minor key, - to existence. They differ in this way from the bourgeoisie of all classes, who deny tragedy.
- Farah's attitude to the Natives of the country was a picturesque thing. No more than the attire and countenance of the Masai warriors, had it been made yesterday, or the day before; it was the product of many centuries. The forces which had built it up had constructed great buildings in stone as well, but they had crumbled into dust a long time ago.
- It was a curious thing to see how, as (the Somali girl) grew up, the maidens took her in hand, and scrupulously formed her into a young virgin comme il faut.
- (On maidenly prudery:) Behind the eternal principle of refutation, there was much generosity; behind the pedantry what risibility, and contempt of death. These daughters of a fighting race went through their ceremonial of primness as through a great graceful war-dance; butter would not melt in their mouth, neither would they rest till they had drunk the heart's blood of their adversary. ... Not otherwise did the Scandinavian women of the days of my Mothers, and Grandmothers, — the civilized slaves of good-natured barbarians.
- My young Somali women were gone from the face of it, not a bubble showing where they had sunk.
- When he was a tiny infant, swaddled like an acorn, with hardly any body to his dark round head, he sat up erect, and looked you straight in the face: it was like holding a small falcon on your hand
__ An open-air dance in the day suffers from lack of limitation. The stage is far too big for it, — where does it begin and where end?.. The fire made of the dancing place a stage of the first order, it collected all the colours and movements within it into a unity.
__ The ancient mango trees have a dark-green foliage and give benignant shade; they create a circular pool of black coolness underneath them. More than any other tree that I know of, they suggest a place to meet in, .. they are as sociable as the village-wells.. the ground round their trunks is covered with hen-coops, and piled up water-melons.
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| "The School For Scandal" |
[Oct. 27th, 2009|08:42 pm] |
By Richard Brinsley Sheridan. It reminds me of Oscar Wilde a bit.
-when you shall
see in a beautiful Quarto Page how a neat rivulet of Text shall
meander thro' a meadow of margin--'fore Gad, they will be the most
elegant Things of their kind--
LADY TEAZLE. Lord! Sir Peter am I to blame because Flowers are dear
in cold weather? You should find fault with the Climate, and not with me.
But I vow I bear no malice against the People I abuse, when I say
an ill-natured thing, 'tis out of pure Good Humour--
... surely that's better than the careless manner
in which the widow Ocre caulks her wrinkles.
SIR BENJAMIN. Nay now--you are severe upon the widow--come--come,
it isn't that she paints so ill--but when she has finished her Face
she joins it on so badly to her Neck, that she looks like a mended
Statue, in which the Connoisseur sees at once that the Head's modern
tho' the Trunk's antique----
Nay I vow Lady Stucco is very well with the Dessert
after Dinner for she's just like the (Spanish)/ French Fruit one cracks
for mottoes--made up of Paint and Proverb.
SIR PETER. Ah Madam true wit is more nearly allied
to good Nature than your Ladyship is aware of.
LADY SNEERWELL. True Sir Peter--I believe they are so near akin
that they can never be united.
SIR BENJAMIN. O rather Madam suppose them man and wife because
one seldom sees them together.
ROWLEY. Yes, I heard they were a-going. But I wonder you can
have such spirits under so many distresses.
CHARLES. Why, there's the point! my distresses are so many, that
I can't afford to part with my spirits;
SURFACE. An infallible one believe me--Prudence like experience must be paid for--
He appears to have as much speculative benevolence as
any private gentleman in the Kingdom --though he is
seldom so sensual as to indulge himself in the exercise of it----
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| The New Yorker, 2006-10-16 |
[Oct. 25th, 2009|03:09 pm] |
"Gizmo Dept.: Smart, Useless" / Nick Paumgarten
"The Dancing Life: Master Class" / Joan Acocella
__ His spine elongated; his shoulders moved back; even his cheekbones seemed to rise.
“Tabloid Days” / Robert Stone- He also wrote the daily horoscopes,.. which allowed him to espouse principles such as surplus value in his interpretation of the stars.
- Description allows deeper penetration.. Language is the process that lashes experience to the intellect.
- Richie did once give us a nice story about two drunk caporegimes having a live-crab-eating contest at the Fulton Fish Market... This will suffice, I think, to illustrate why invented stories are so liberating and bright with possibility, which the true shit keeps you bound to a fallen world.
"The Formula" / Malcolm Gladwell - Lord Kames... devised principles of congruity, propriety, and perspicuity: a woman was most attractive when in distress; depicted misfortunes must never occur by chance.
- Finally, the computer gave “Crazy” a Periodicity Grade—which refers to the fact that, at any given time, only twelve to fifteen hit clusters are “active,” because from month to month the particular mathematical patterns that excite music listeners will shift around.
- “That’s not to deny that it matters whether the lead character wears a hat,” he added, in a way that suggested he and Mr. Brown had actually thought long and hard about leads and hats.
- Mr. Brown couldn’t remember a single script he’d read where he thought there wasn’t room for improvement, and Mr. Pink, when asked the same question, could come up with just one: “Lethal Weapon.”
"He Knew He Was Right" / Ian Parker - Christopher Hitchens wrote in The Atlantic. “And this ability, so piercing and at times even alarming, is not mere knowingness. It is not, in other words, the product of cynicism. To be so perceptive and yet so innocent—that, in a phrase, is the achievement of Proust.”
- He told me that there was a student who, at different times, was his girlfriend and Clinton’s, before she began a lifetime of lesbianism.
- Hitchens is not hapless... but it’s unsettling to watch him rinse a single spoon for four minutes,
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| [“一座城池”] + |
[Oct. 24th, 2009|02:52 pm] |
开头还有点意思，到中间就信口开河，为颓废而颓废了。也可能韩寒和我之间代沟太宽了。- 地方不似商品，全新总是不好。
- 老板说：“年轻人，打电话就是定不下心，东看看西看看。这信号能好吗？”
- 定下脚步，环顾四周。他奶奶的，这是哪里？！我叹了一口气。周围的建筑是那样中国、那样随意，高的高，低的低，新的新，老的老，自顾自。我定在原地忽然无限悲伤。
- 健叔说：“那是谁捅的？” 我说：“我怎么知道？” 健叔说：“那只能当双剑合璧了。”
- 我感到有点害怕，速度慢了下来，瞬间被几十部自行车超过，思维一片惨白。我只感觉自己是个玉米，突然被一群蝗虫掠过，然后只剩下一根芯子。
- 失望是一种很抽象的东西，它不似开心，只要你咧开嘴笑，大家都知道你开心。但是失望到整张脸都透露出主人很失望的信息，那真的是很失望了。任何抽象的东西具体的时候都是异常强大的。健叔一路上没有说话。
- 世界上真是有很多人没有安全感，我想，而且想来人应该大抵上都是这样的。只是我不明白为什么人们都要把这些所谓的安全感托付在一些身外之物上，比如房子或者在银行的存款。
- 一碗鸡汤都能让生活充满意义，这说明生活实在是没有意义。
"Fruit Plummets from The Plum Tree"
Fruit plummets from the plum tree
but seven of ten plums remain.
You gentlemen who would court me,
come on a lucky clay.
Fruit plummets from the plum tree
but three of ten plums still remain.
You men who want to court me,
come now, today is a lucky day!
Fruit plummets from the plum tree,
You can fill up your baskets.
Gentlemen if you want to court me,
just say the world.
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