Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Daily Consumption 3-31-10

Song of the day - Dice, Finley Quaye & William Orbit

Passage of the day - ... I favor the judgment that Elizabeth and Darcy scarcely change, and learn rather that they complement each other's not wholly illegitimate pride. - Novels and Novelists, Bloom's Literary Criticism 20th Anniversary Collection, Harold Bloom on Jane Austen

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Daily Consumption 3-30-10

Song of the day - Lucky Man, The Verve

Passage of the day - "In vain I have struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. you must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you." - Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen

Monday, March 29, 2010

Heroes of Children's Literature

The Guardian names ten of the best heroes of children's literature. I miss Harry Potter, Scout and Jem of To Kill a Mockingbird, Fern and Charlotte of Charlotte's Web, and the many children in the Chronicles of Narnia. Do you agree with this list? Who are your favorites?

Daily Consumption 3-29-10

Song of the day - Walking With a Ghost, Tegan & Sara

Passage of the day - The novel's long suit has always been emotional identification. ... Long suit, but not only suit. The novel has always proved itself capable of multiple uses, one of which is analysis or intellection. It can be a vehicle for sympathy or dread, but also for rational understanding. - How to Read Novels Like a Professor, Thomas C. Foster

Friday, March 26, 2010

Daily Consumption 3-26-10

Song of the day - Swim Until You Can't See Land, Frightened Rabbit

Passage of the day - "...no one can be really esteemed accomplished who does not greatly surpass what is usually met with. A woman must have a thorough knowledge of music, singing, drawing, dancing, and the modern languages, to deserve the word; and besides all this, she must posses a certain something in her air and manner of walking, the tone of her voice, her address and expressions, or the word will be but half-deserved."

"All this she must possess,"added Darcy, "and to all this she must yet add something moresubstantial, in the improvement of her mind by extensive reading."

"I am no longer surprised at your knowing ONLY six accomplished women. I rather wonder now at your knowing ANY." - Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Daily Consumption 3-25-10

Song of the day - Mykonos, Fleet Foxes

Passage of the day - "When I am in the country," he replied, "I never wish to leave it; and when I am in town it is pretty much the same. They have each their advantages, and I can be equally happy in either." - Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Daily Consumption 3-24-10

Song of the day - Sweet Disposition, The Temper Trap

Passage of the day - Austen's ultimate irony is that Elizabeth Bennet is inwardly so free that convention performs for her the ideal function it cannot perform for us: it liberates her will without tending to stifle her high individuality. - Novels and Novelists, Bloom's Literary Criticism 20th Anniversary Collection,
Harold Bloom on Jane Austen

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Daily Consumption 3-23-10

Song of the day - Hounds of Love, The Futureheads

Passage of the day - Gatsby is great, not just in Carraway's vision, but in ours, because Fitzgerald brilliantly represents in Gatsby both the failure of the American Dream and its perpetual refusal to die. - Novels and Novelists, Bloom's Literary Criticism 20th Anniversary Collection,
Harold Bloom on F. Scott Fitzgerald

Monday, March 22, 2010

Daily Consumption 3-22-10

Song of the day - Samson, Regina Spektor

Passage of the day - ... if you want to deal with the slippery business of reality, truth, perception, and delusion, let a character tell your story. That would seem to describe every novel in the world, wouldn't it? But I think not. They are enough, however, to give you the general idea about character-narrators and the mischief they can create. And what do all these have in common? In every case, the innate drama of the situation would be compromised by an objective view. - How to Read Novels Like a Professor, Thomas C. Foster

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Daily Consumption 3-18-10

Song of the day - Alex Chilton, The Replacements

Passage of the day - ... Perhaps it was the very weight of being home again. He'd been gone so long. Years, it seemed. And now he was back, and he was different. Would his mother recognize him? Would Claire? In some ways he felt too big for this house. But he also felt newly able to fit within it. - The Wild Things, Dave Eggers

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Daily Consumption 3-17-10

Song of the day - First Day of My Life, Bright Eyes

Passage of the day - "Hey Max! You were wrong about the sun dying. Look, it's right here."

Max didn't know how to explain.

"Don't scare me like that again, okay buddy?" Carol said. He spoke cheerfully, as if the distant, rigid Carol of moments before had been illusory, that here was the real Carol, the one who loved Max's brain and who knew how things were supposed to feel, who wanted only the right things to happen. - The Wild Things, Dave Eggers

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Daily Consumption 3-16-10

Song of the day - Elenore, Ebenezer and the Hymnasters

Passage of the day - Look, everything overlaps doesn't it?

Is connected some kind of way.
Once you put it all together, it's just obvious.
I mean, tie a string to something, and
see where it takes you.
The biggest thing is
don't worry about it.
You're always gonna be moving somewhere so
don't worry about it.
See?
Start working when it's almost too late at night,
when your sense of efficiency is exhausted
and then just,
let it come on...

- bobrauschenbergamerica, Charles Mee

Daily Consumption 3-15-10

Song of the day - The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades is Out to Get Us!, Sufjan Stevens

Passage of the day - ... the relationship between book, readers, and author should always be clear, and always be pure: For me, such has been the case from the start. - The Alienist, Caleb Carr

Friday, March 12, 2010

Daily Consumption 3-12-10

Song of the day - Worn Me Down, Rachael Yamagata

Passage of the day - At some point in the evening, one of the other fathers made an offhand comment that my father took exception to; a heated discussion ensued, and my father ended up stabbing the guy with a dessert fork, breaking the skin. What the guy said was unimportant; actually, what he said was, he was reminiscing about where he had grown up as a kid and he remarked that "It used to be a good neighborhood, you know, white, now, forget it. I went back there last month, it's half white, the rest: blacks and Italians." My mom's Italian. EMS was called, and the dance? Well, let's just say the stabbing concluded the dancing portion of the evening ... My father's justification for the assault, after explaining how he didn't immediately attack him, and how he had given the "rich jerk" ample opportunity to apologize, and how he won't tolerate a bigot no matter where he is, and "What if your mom or 'Rasheed from the deli' had been there, and how he still doesn't understand why I need to go to that stuck-up school anyway. In the end, what he finally said was "It was just a fork." - Jesus Hopped the A Train, Stephen Adly Guirgis

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Daily Consumption 3-11-10

Song of the day - Bohemian Rhapsody, Queen (as interpreted by the Muppets!)

Passage of the day - "If all cold things were wet and all wet things cold, if all hard things pricked our
skin, and no other things did so; is it likely that we should discriminate between coldness and wetness and hardness and pungency respectively?" - The Alienist, Caleb Carr

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Daily Consumption 3-10-10

Song of the day - Death, White Lies

Passage of the day - " '... even if ... those habits become counterproductive in adulthood ... Habit dooms us all to fight out the battle of life upon the lines of our nurture or our early choice, and to make the best of a pursuit that disagrees, because there is no other for which we are fitted, and it is too late to begin again.' " - The Alienist, Caleb Carr

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Daily Consumption 3-9-10

Song of the day - Audience, Cold War Kids

Passage of the day - Looking to the west, I saw that the reflective expanse of the Hudson River was quickly turning from bright red to black. I turned fully around twice in the near-darkness, seeing the entire area in a new way. "Control," I mumbled. Marcus stayed right with me:"Yes," he said. "This is his world, up here. Whatever mental turmoil Dr. Kreizler sees in the bodies, this is very different. On these rooftops he's acting with complete confidence." - The Alienist, Caleb Carr

Monday, March 8, 2010

Daily Consumption 3-8-10

Song of the day - Home, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros

Passage of the day - ... "I have made it my business since taking this job to acquaint myself with the underworld of this city, and I have seen many things. No one needs to tell me that depravity and inhumanity have taken on dimensions in New York unheard of anywhere in the world. But what unnameable nightmare, even here, could drive a man to this?"
"Do not, "Kreizler answered slowly, trying very hard to be clear,"look for causes in this city. Nor in recent circumstances, nor in recent events. The creature you seek was created long ago. Perhaps in his infancy--certainly in childhood. And not necessarily here." - The Alienist, Caleb Carr

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Daily Consumption 3-4-10


Passage of the day - At that the train of reaction was propelled into high speed: Kreizler's name spread down the corridor from cell to cell, inmate to inmate, through the walls and iron doors of the women's ward and on into the men's. I'd seen this happen several times before, in different institutions, but it was no less remarkable on each occasion: the words were like the flow of water over coals, taking away crackling heat and leaving only a steaming whisper, a perhaps momentary but nonetheless effective remission from deep-burning fire. - The Alienist, Caleb Carr

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Daily Consumption 3-3-10


Song of the day - House of Cards, Radiohead


Passage of the day - The book fell open somewhere in the middle, and I saw that one of the sentences had been underlined faintly in pencil. Les moments de crise produisent un redoublement de vie chez les hommes. Moments of crisis produce a redoubled vitality in men. Or, more succinctly perhaps: Men don't begin to live fully until their backs are against the wall. - The Book of Illusions, Paul Auster