The previous quote was from Intuition by Allegra Goodman.
And here's a new one: A few months after my twenty-first birthday, a stranger called to give me the news. I was living in New York at the time, on Ninety-fourth between Second and First, part of that unnamed, shifting border between East Harlem and the rest of Manhattan. It was an uninviting block, treeless and barren, lined with soot-colored walk-ups that cast heavy shadows for most of the day. The apartment was small, with slanting floors and irregular heat and a buzzer downstairs that didn't work, so that visitors had to call ahead from a pay phone at the corner gas station, where a black Doberman the size of a wolf paced through the night in vigilant patrol, its jaws clamped around an empty beer bottle.
While browsing in the local bookstore today, I picked up this book and sat down in the cafe to look at it. I ultimately spent an hour and a half(!) in the cafe, reading almost half the book. Needless to say, I really liked it.
_______________________ I'm on my way on the road to somewhere...
Posts: 276 | Location: Virginia | Registered: 14 August 2006
That can only be Roald Dahl. I don't know which book, but I'm going to guess it's the one with the giant. Was it called The BFG?
--------------- My basic objection to religion is not that it isn't true; I like plenty of things that aren't true. It's that religion grants its adherents malign, intoxicating and morally corrosive sensations. -Philip Pullman
Posts: 1468 | Location: State of Disarray | Registered: 10 January 2007
Well, it's not either of the Charlie books, or Matilda. He has so many children's books, though.
Did you ever read his short stories meant for adults? They were fantastic. Same, gruesome and evil sense of humor.
Also, did you know he was a notorious and despicable anti-semite? What a strange and interesting character.
--------------- My basic objection to religion is not that it isn't true; I like plenty of things that aren't true. It's that religion grants its adherents malign, intoxicating and morally corrosive sensations. -Philip Pullman
Posts: 1468 | Location: State of Disarray | Registered: 10 January 2007
I haven’t read the adult stories but I did know about his anti-semitism. I will check those out the next time I am at the book store.
The quote in question was from my favorite book of his, Fantastic Mr. Fox. I think they are going to make that into a film; that should be interesting. Here is a new quote:
“He would have needed hands and arms to lift himself up, but instead of that he had only his numerous little legs, which were in very different kind of perpetual motion and which, besides, he could not control.”
Originally posted by FragileKidA: I haven’t read the adult stories but I did know about his anti-semitism. I will check those out the next time I am at the book store.
If you find it, grab the Roald Dahl Omnibus. You can prolly find it cheap on the bargain shelf, or, I'm guessing, at Amazon. It collects all of the short story collections. If you can't find that, I'd recommend "Kiss Kiss," "Switch Bitch," "Someone Like You," and/or "Tales of the Unexpected." You might recognize some of the stories if you ever watched the old UK series "Tales from the Darkside." One or two of the old "Alfred Hitchcock Presents..." were also taken from Dahl stories.
--------------- My basic objection to religion is not that it isn't true; I like plenty of things that aren't true. It's that religion grants its adherents malign, intoxicating and morally corrosive sensations. -Philip Pullman
Posts: 1468 | Location: State of Disarray | Registered: 10 January 2007
Posted by kendocubano , did you know he was a notorious and despicable anti-semite? What a strange and interesting character.
Re: Roald Dahl; he was anti-Israeli policies and against rabid Zionism, but he didn't hate the Jews as a race or a religion. He has got a lot of unfair press over this contention.
To Paddy's quote: no idea, except perhaps someone sassy like John Cheever??
Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta.
Posts: 2803 | Location: The ever silent spaces of the East | Registered: 12 February 2007
Originally posted by PaddyG: Ok, here's a good one.
"A bore is a person who deprives you of solitude without providing you with company."
I supose it's John MacDonald in 'The Turquoise Lament'.
Ok, an easy one:
"Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is.I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the drug store, but that's just peanuts to space."
Posts: 2 | Location: At the shrink | Registered: 29 February 2008
Well, it's Douglas Adams, but since it has been literally light-years since I read him, I'll guess the first; Hitchiker's Guide?
Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta.
Posts: 2803 | Location: The ever silent spaces of the East | Registered: 12 February 2007
Originally posted by Ish: Well, it's Douglas Adams, but since it has been literally light-years since I read him, I'll guess the first; Hitchiker's Guide?
You are correct, sir. Batter up! Or, Batsman, if you prefer cricket.
Il n'y a pas de hors-texte.
Posts: 3149 | Location: FoCo | Registered: 07 January 2005
"On my right hand there were lines of fishing stakes resembling a mysterious system of half submerged bamboo fences, incomprehensible in it's division of the domain of tropical fishes, and crazy of aspect as if abandoned forever by some nomad tribe of fishermen now gone to the other end of the ocean; for there was no sign of human habitation as far as the eye could reach."
Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta.
Posts: 2803 | Location: The ever silent spaces of the East | Registered: 12 February 2007
