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Grex > Books > #79: The Mysterious Quote - Winter 1999 Edition | |
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| Author |
Message |
| 25 new of 195 responses total. |
aruba
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response 117 of 195:
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Feb 11 15:19 UTC 1999 |
Carl Sandburg?
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remmers
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response 118 of 195:
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Feb 11 16:29 UTC 1999 |
Not Sandburg. But like Sandburg, this author wrote both prose and
poetry.
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remmers
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response 119 of 195:
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Feb 14 13:19 UTC 1999 |
No guesses in a few days. Time for another quote:
my father
was a truly amazing man.
he pretended to be
rich
even though we lived on beans and mush and weenies
when we sat down to eat, he said,
"not everybody can eat like this."
and because he wanted to be rich or because he actually
thought he *was* rich
he always voted Republican
and he voted for Hoover against Roosevelt
and he lost
and then he voted for Alf Landon against Roosevelt
and he lost again
saying, "I don't know what this world is coming to,
now we've got that god damned Red in there again
and the Russians will be in our backyard next!"
I think it was my father who made me decide to
become a bum.
I decided that if a man like that wants to be rich
then I want to be poor.
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remmers
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response 120 of 195:
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Feb 15 17:55 UTC 1999 |
Hm, this item it without recent guesses. I assume this means that
readers are without a clue. :)
Hint: A movie written by this author was made a few years ago. The
protagonist was the same fictional character who appears in a
number of the author's short stories.
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gjharb
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response 121 of 195:
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Feb 15 22:26 UTC 1999 |
I know nothing of peotry but everytime I read your quotes, the name "James
Thurber" pops into mind.
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remmers
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response 122 of 195:
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Feb 16 03:50 UTC 1999 |
Not Thurber.
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sekari
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response 123 of 195:
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Feb 17 20:39 UTC 1999 |
random shot in the dark:
Douglass Copeland
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remmers
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response 124 of 195:
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Feb 18 14:13 UTC 1999 |
Not Douglass Copeland (whom I know nothing about).
I'll try to post another quote soon.
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md
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response 125 of 195:
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Feb 18 23:28 UTC 1999 |
It looks like Koch or Creely on the page, but I'm not
familiar enough with either of them to hazard a guess.
It also sounds a bit like Erica Jong, and the description
fits except for the dead white male part.
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remmers
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response 126 of 195:
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Feb 19 13:10 UTC 1999 |
Not any of those.
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atticus
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response 127 of 195:
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Feb 20 13:41 UTC 1999 |
e e cummings?
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remmers
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response 128 of 195:
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Feb 21 01:17 UTC 1999 |
Not e e cummings.
Here's something from one of the author's short stories. The milieu is
typical.
Tom and Max walked in front of the gang of them. They
were walking down Broadway in Los Angeles. There were more
than 50 bums walking along behind Tom and Max. 50 or more
bums--blinking, staggering, not exactly sure of what was
happening. The ordinary citizens on the street were aston-
ished. They stopped, they stepped aside and watched. Some
were frightened, some laughed. To others it appeard to be
a joke, or some movie in the making. The makeup was perfect:
the actors looked like bums. But where were the cameras.
Tom and Max led the march.
"Listen, Max, I only told 8. How many did you tell?"
"Maybe 9."
"I wonder what the hell happened?"
"They must have told each other . . ."
They walked along. It was like a mad dream that couldn't be
stopped. At the corner of 7th, the light changed to red. Tom
and Max stopped and the bums bunched up behind them waiting.
The smell of unwashed socks and underwear, booze and bad
breath, wafted through the air. The Goodyear blimp circled
aimlessly overhead. The smog settled bluegrey in the street.
Then the signal changed to green. Tom and Max stepped
forward. The bums followed.
"Even though I visualized this," said Tom, "I can't
believe it's really happening."
"It's happening," said Max.
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gjharb
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response 129 of 195:
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Feb 23 14:03 UTC 1999 |
Another shot-in-the-dark guess -- Jack Kerouc (sp.?)?
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mooncat
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response 130 of 195:
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Feb 23 14:13 UTC 1999 |
(kerouac)
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sekari
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response 131 of 195:
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Feb 23 17:13 UTC 1999 |
neal cassady
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remmers
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response 132 of 195:
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Feb 24 11:54 UTC 1999 |
Not Kerouac or Cassady.
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sjones
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response 133 of 195:
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Feb 24 18:40 UTC 1999 |
hunter s thompson?
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remmers
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response 134 of 195:
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Feb 26 02:28 UTC 1999 |
Not Thompson.
Hint: There was a 1987 movie based on the author's autobiographical
writings. Like my last quote, it's about the seamier side of life
in LA.
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aruba
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response 135 of 195:
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Feb 26 06:54 UTC 1999 |
I'll guess Brutkowski, then, in which case the movie is "Barfly".
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sekari
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response 136 of 195:
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Feb 26 07:00 UTC 1999 |
bukowski, and that was what I thought earlier when john said that there was a
movie based on a character. When john said that the movie was made "a few years
ago" I took that as within the last five and ruled bukowski out.
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remmers
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response 137 of 195:
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Feb 26 14:39 UTC 1999 |
As one get older, one's concept of "a few years" tends to lengthen. I
still think of the 1970's as fairly recent.
Yes, it's Charles Bukowski and the movie was "Barfly", with Mickey
Rourke and Faye Dunaway (and Bukowski himself in a cameo). It was
released in 1987. Good movie.
Despite Mark's misspelling of the author's name, I think we should
consider that he got it.
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aruba
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response 138 of 195:
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Feb 26 14:49 UTC 1999 |
Oops, sorry for the misspelling. I will yield to sekari if he'd like to be
"it".
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md
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response 139 of 195:
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Feb 26 23:27 UTC 1999 |
Re #137, the phenomenon you describe never ceases to amaze me.
I have 30-year-old books I still think of as "the new book."
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aruba
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response 140 of 195:
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Feb 26 23:35 UTC 1999 |
(BTW the Jeopardy rule on misspellings is that they're OK unless you leave
out a whole syllable, as I learned the other day when a guy in the teen
tournament misspelled "Mediterranean" as "Mediterrean", and lost the game as
a result. In my case I misspelled "Bu" as "Brut"; dunno if Alex would give
me that one or not.)
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sekari
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response 141 of 195:
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Feb 27 10:25 UTC 1999 |
you can have it mark. Which collection were those poems from? I used to read a
lot of bukowski, I didn't recognise those at all though. You'd think the style
would give it away. hmm.
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