Since I no longer have access to a writers desk, here's some literary quotes that would have been posted above my old smith-corona on Little 3 x5 inch notecards back in the day.... sorry they look like easter skittles......
"Whatever evolution this or that popular charachter has gone through between book covers, his fate is fixed in our minds, and, similarly, we expect our friends to follow this or that logical or conventional pattern we have fixed for them. Thus X will never compose the immortal music that would clash with the second rate symphonies he has accustomed us to. Y will never commit murder. Under no circumstances will Z ever betray us. We have it all arranged in our minds, and the less we see of a particular person the more satisfying it is to check how obediently he conforms to our notion of him every time we hear of him. Any deviation in the fates we have ordained would strike us as not only anomalous but unethical."
-VLADIMIR NABOKOV, LOLITA
"JUST BECAUSE YOU KNOW ONE STATE OF AFFAIRS, WITTGENSTEIN ASSERTS, DOESN'T MEAN YOU CAN NECESSARILY INFER ANOTHER DIFFERENT STATE OF AFFIARS FROM THEM. AND YET, THIS IS WHAT WE ALL TRY DOING WHEN WE SPEAK ABOUT THE FUTURE, ISN'T IT? THE RESULT BEING THAT WE NEVER REALLY KNOW, IF, WHEN WE THROW THE APPLE INTO THE AIR THIS TIME IT WILL COME DOWN. NOT AT LEAST UNTIL WE SEE IT DROP. IF, THAT IS, WE ARE ACTUALLY SEEING IT DROP WHEN WE THINK WE ARE ACTUALLY SEEING IT DROP, AND NOT IMAGINING IT, AND NOT BELIEVING IT, AND NOT HOPING. IF, THAT IS, IT IS AN APPLE. IF IT IS AIR. IF WE ARE WE. NO, WE REALLY DON'T "KNOW" MUCH, IF ANYTHING ABOUT A PLURIVERSE ASWARM WITH LANGUAGE GAMES THAT MUST BE PLAYED OUT AS CERTAINTIES THOUGH THE NEXT SECOND MAY GIVE THEM EACH AND EVERY ONE THE LIE.....WE'RE ALL CONTINUALLY WAKING UP IN OUR BEDS, A FUNNY FEELING THAT THAT UNEASY DREAM WE JUST HAD WASN'T A DREAM."
-LANCE OLSEN, TERMITE ART, OR WALLACE'S WITTGENSTEIN, from THE REVIEW OF CONTEMPORARY FICTION, YOUNGER WRITERS ISSUE; SUMMER 1993
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