|
Grex > Books > #79: The Mysterious Quote - Winter 1999 Edition | |
|
| Author |
Message |
| 25 new of 195 responses total. |
md
|
|
response 125 of 195:
| 
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.
|
remmers
|
|
response 126 of 195:
|
Feb 19 13:10 UTC 1999 |
Not any of those.
|
atticus
|
|
response 127 of 195:
|
Feb 20 13:41 UTC 1999 |
e e cummings?
|
remmers
|
|
response 128 of 195:
|
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.
|
gjharb
|
|
response 129 of 195:
|
Feb 23 14:03 UTC 1999 |
Another shot-in-the-dark guess -- Jack Kerouc (sp.?)?
|
mooncat
|
|
response 130 of 195:
|
Feb 23 14:13 UTC 1999 |
(kerouac)
|
sekari
|
|
response 131 of 195:
|
Feb 23 17:13 UTC 1999 |
neal cassady
|
remmers
|
|
response 132 of 195:
|
Feb 24 11:54 UTC 1999 |
Not Kerouac or Cassady.
|
sjones
|
|
response 133 of 195:
|
Feb 24 18:40 UTC 1999 |
hunter s thompson?
|
remmers
|
|
response 134 of 195:
|
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.
|
aruba
|
|
response 135 of 195:
|
Feb 26 06:54 UTC 1999 |
I'll guess Brutkowski, then, in which case the movie is "Barfly".
|
sekari
|
|
response 136 of 195:
|
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.
|
remmers
|
|
response 137 of 195:
|
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.
|
aruba
|
|
response 138 of 195:
|
Feb 26 14:49 UTC 1999 |
Oops, sorry for the misspelling. I will yield to sekari if he'd like to be
"it".
|
md
|
|
response 139 of 195:
|
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."
|
aruba
|
|
response 140 of 195:
|
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.)
|
sekari
|
|
response 141 of 195:
|
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.
|
aruba
|
|
response 142 of 195:
|
Feb 27 19:31 UTC 1999 |
OK, I'll try to come up with something.
|
aruba
|
|
response 143 of 195:
|
Mar 1 16:25 UTC 1999 |
OK, here's my quote. All spelling is as in the original.
"My beloved Laura (said she to me a few Hours before she died) take
warning from my unhappy End & avoid the imprudent conduct which has
occasioned it . . beware of fainting fits . . Though at the the time they
may be refreshing & Agreable yet beleive me they will in the end, if too
often repeated & at improper seasons, prove destructive to your
Constitution . . . . . My fate will teach you this . . I die a Martyr to
my greif for the loss of Augustus . . . . One fatal swoon has cost me my
Life . . . . Beware of swoons Dear Laura . . . A frenzy fit is not one
quarter so pernicious; it is an exercise to the Body & if not too violent,
is I dare say conducive to Health in its consequences -- Run mad as often
as you chuse, but do not faint--".
these were the last words she ever adressed to me . . . It was her
dieing Advice to her afflicted Laura, who has ever most faithfully adhered
to it.
|
davel
|
|
response 144 of 195:
|
Mar 2 02:40 UTC 1999 |
It's beautiful, & I definitely think I've read it sometime in my life, but
I can't place it. <sigh>
|
remmers
|
|
response 145 of 195:
|
Mar 3 22:01 UTC 1999 |
(Re resp:141 - The quotes were taken from Bukowski's _Septuagenarian
Stew_, published in 1990, when he was 70 years old.)
|
sekari
|
|
response 146 of 195:
|
Mar 4 07:53 UTC 1999 |
(ah, thanks, I'm more familiar with his older stuff)
|
davel
|
|
response 147 of 195:
|
Mar 4 11:41 UTC 1999 |
(Re the last time *I* gave a quote, quite a while back now: I heard on All
Things Considered that Willard Espy died last week.)
|
aruba
|
|
response 148 of 195:
|
Mar 6 00:19 UTC 1999 |
No guesses so far. I'll try to enter another quote soon.
|
aruba
|
|
response 149 of 195:
|
Mar 8 20:38 UTC 1999 |
OK, here's another quote:
Who can be in doubt of what followed? -- When any two Young People take it
into their heads to marry, they are pretty sure by perseverance to carry their
point -- be they ever so poor, or ever so imprudent, or ever so little likely
to be necessary to each other's ultimate comfort. This may be bad Morality
to conclude with, but I believe it to be Truth -- and if such parties succeed,
how should a Capt. W -- & an Anne E -- with the advantage of maturity of Mind,
consciousness of Right, & one Independent Fortune between them, fail of
bearing down every opposition? They might in fact, have born down a great
deal more than they met with, for there was little to distress them beyond
the want of Graciousness and Warmth. Sir W. made no objection, & Elizth did
nothing worse than look cold & unconcerned.
|