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Grex > Writing > #46: Yet Another Mysterious Quote Item | |
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remmers
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Yet Another Mysterious Quote Item
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Nov 16 15:03 UTC 1992 |
Well, I ran across a quote today that I found quite interesting,
so I thought I'd enter it and see if anybody can identify the author
and work. So as not to upstage keats' "mysterious quote" item, I'm
entering it in Writing rather than Agora.
Yet, what the memory repudiates controls the human being. What
one does not remember dictates who one loves or fails to love.
What one does not remember dictates, actually, whether one plays
poker, pool, or chess. What one does not remember contains the
key to one's tantrums or one's poise. What one does not remember
is the serpent in the garden of one's dreams. What one does not
remember is the key to one's performance in the toilet or in bed.
What one does not remember contains the only hope, danger, trap,
inexorability, of love -- only love can help you recognize what
you do not remember. And memory makes its only real appearance
in this life as this life is ending -- appearing, at last, as a
kind of guide into a condition which is as far beyond memory as
it is beyond imagination.
As hints, I'll state that the author is American and deceased.
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| 85 responses total. |
davel
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response 1 of 85:
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Nov 16 17:56 UTC 1992 |
I have (almost) no idea. mumble mumble.
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remmers
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response 2 of 85:
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Dec 7 00:56 UTC 1992 |
(Now, let's not all speak up at once...)
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md
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response 3 of 85:
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Dec 7 13:57 UTC 1992 |
(I'd speak up if I had a clue.)
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keats
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response 4 of 85:
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Dec 7 16:59 UTC 1992 |
john, you're welcome to guest host on agora if you'd like...i ask katie
occasionally if she'd like to do it, but she's always the retiring one.
regarding the quote: i'll take the first guess, but i doubt it will be
correct: d.h. lawrence.
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remmers
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response 5 of 85:
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Dec 8 04:13 UTC 1992 |
(Nah, you are the master of the mysterious quotes, I'll confine my
efforts to backwater conferences like this one.)
Lawrence isn't that bad a guess, though you must've forgotten my
hint that the author was American.
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keats
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response 6 of 85:
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Dec 8 16:05 UTC 1992 |
oops, and so i did...well, it's a good thing i didn't think i'd be correct...
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keats
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response 7 of 85:
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Dec 8 16:08 UTC 1992 |
ah ha! _now_ who's backwater? writing 46 is now also agora 94, which should
give the quote-hungry something to do for the next two weeks (at least)
while giving john some of the respect he more than deserves.
john, these guys are good--i haven't stumped anybody since the first quote
by lodge, who wasn't a well-known. i don't think you'll be able to keep
your secret until the new year.
i hope nobody minds the link, and i know that's uncharacteristic of me.
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remmers
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response 8 of 85:
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Dec 8 16:35 UTC 1992 |
S'Okay by me.
The author of this quote is quite well known, though the place where he
said it might not be.
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davel
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response 9 of 85:
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Dec 8 19:27 UTC 1992 |
keats, I thought that no one got that Orwell thing last summer - the first
one I saw, & only after it was all over I believe.
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aa8ij
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response 10 of 85:
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Dec 8 21:49 UTC 1992 |
Leo Buscaglia (sp?)
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czar
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response 11 of 85:
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Dec 8 23:05 UTC 1992 |
But Buscaglia is not dead, is he?
A beautiful quote and quite to the point. No guess yet.
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remmers
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response 12 of 85:
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Dec 8 23:16 UTC 1992 |
Nope, not Buscaglia.
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aa8ij
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response 13 of 85:
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Dec 9 05:59 UTC 1992 |
so what do I know from this??? It was a guess.
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rcurl
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response 14 of 85:
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Dec 9 06:08 UTC 1992 |
William James? (Though I'd have to throw in Henry too, as someone said
that Henry was the better psychologist, and James the better writer.)
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remmers
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response 15 of 85:
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Dec 9 07:15 UTC 1992 |
Nope, nobody from the James Gang...
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davel
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response 16 of 85:
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Dec 9 11:21 UTC 1992 |
Er, Rane, they're *both* James. Or is that the point of that comment?
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rcurl
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response 17 of 85:
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Dec 10 06:06 UTC 1992 |
Er, I was using newspaperese, referring to the person cited by family name.
I finally decided that the quote has to be more recent than the James
gang. There is the reference in it to "performance....in bed". I think
this is a euphemism that arose in the egocentric sixties. This would also
appear to make it a male, since it is a rather male idiom.
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remmers
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response 18 of 85:
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Dec 10 11:03 UTC 1992 |
Good deductions. You're right on both counts.
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cwb
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response 19 of 85:
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Dec 11 00:19 UTC 1992 |
I'd say it has some of the same ring as Tom Wolfe, but I
don't know if he's dead or not. The thing that troubles me about
this guess (other than the state of life of Wolfe) is that this writer
seems to have a consciousness of
rhetorical style, note the repetitions, almost
as though this were a speech rather than writing. This
quote would definitely sound good read aloud; it's got rhythm, but
it's not poetic. That doesn't strike me as Wolfian
now that I think of it. Hmmm. I'll have to think more.
Chris
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keats
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response 20 of 85:
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Dec 11 00:48 UTC 1992 |
well, the most prominent 60s personality of whom i can think who is dead is
abbie hoffman. it sounds a bit more articulate than i'd expect of hoffman,
but that's cynical. i'll guess abbie hoffman.
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remmers
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response 21 of 85:
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Dec 11 05:16 UTC 1992 |
Nope, not Hoffman. (Although the author of the quote was active
in the 60's, it doesn't follow that he was a "60's personality"
per se.)
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rcurl
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response 22 of 85:
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Dec 11 05:44 UTC 1992 |
With considerable doubt, I guess John Updike. What I've read of Updike
is not as rhetorical as this quote, but he wrote a lot more than I've
read. Right era, gender, nationality (but he *shouldn't* be deceased,
since he would be younger than I am 8>.)
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remmers
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response 23 of 85:
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Dec 11 12:07 UTC 1992 |
(Well, to paraphrase Tom Lehrer, when Mozart was my age, he'd
been dead for 14 years.)
No, not Updike. I do think he's alive.
I'll give a hint of sorts. The quote appears in the introduction
to one of the author's books. And the quote gives no clue
whatsoever as to the subject matter of the book.
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danr
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response 24 of 85:
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Dec 11 12:33 UTC 1992 |
Norman Mailer
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