Bryant, Robert L., Jr. The Thin Black Line: Perspectives on Vince Colletta, Comics' Most Controversial Inker (2010 ( Read more... )

He was one of those that had too much Wit to know how to live in the World; he was a Man of no Justice, but great Good-Manners; he ruined every Body that had anything to do with him, but never said a rude thing in his Life; the most indolent Person in the World, he would sign a Deed that passed away half his Estate with his Gloves on, but would not ( Read more... )

Today the Victorian viewpoint seems ludicrously inadequate, yet we cannot claim to have replaced it with anything more substantial...

Michael Goss, The Halifax Slasher: An Urban Terror in the North of England (1987).

The superman is not liable for anything he may do except for the one crime it is possible for him to commit -- to make a mistake.

Nathan F. Leopold, letter to Richard Loeb, ca. 1924.

...when Marty had found him installing a new knob labeled "SYM" on the panel, Hammerkein had explained that it didn’t do anything, it was just a fifth knob to go on the left side because there were five on the right; the abbreviation stood for "Symmetry."

James Blish, Vor (1958).

I start to paint a woman, but it always ends up as a lion.

Théodore Géricault (1791-1824), quoted in Huxley, Heaven and Hell (1956).

The verse can only communicate as a secret everybody already knows, or as an allusion to a body of knowledge the singer knows can never be recovered, and [Clarence] Ashley only makes things worse by singing as if whatever he's singing about is the most obvious thing in the world.

Greil Marcus, "The Old, Weird America."

GP: Is there an essential meaning behind POEE?
M2: There is a Zen Story about a student who asked a Master to explain the meaning of Buddhism. The master's reply was "Three pounds of flax."
GP: Is that your answer to my question?
M2: No, of course not. That is just illustrative. The answer to your question is FIVE TONS OF FLAX!

Malaclypse the ( Read more... )

Like the scum on the well
from which the townsfolk drink,
my paleness goes away
whenever my lover touches me,
and whenever he leaves
it spreads over me again.

Paranar, Kuruntokai, Ettuthokai (C1-3).

Quintus loves Thais. Which Thais? One-eyed Thais. She lacks one eye, he lacks two.

Martial, Epigrams III (A.D. 87).