Thread to write down quotes or words from books

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > Thread to write down quotes or words from books

Cheese Thief: Oct 30, 2020

I'm reading Neuromancer so every random thing I write is from that.

# ? Jan 19, 2021 01:13

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# ? Apr 25, 2024 18:31

Cheese Thief: Oct 30, 2020

"For Case, who'd lived for the bodiless exultation of cyberspace, it was the Fall."

Thinking about being online in 2021 as a bodiless exultation of cyberspace is funny to me.

# ? Jan 19, 2021 01:15

Cheese Thief: Oct 30, 2020

So far a lot of reoccurring themes of television.
First line:
"The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel"
"Couldn't see the lights of Tokyo for the glare of the televisions sky"
-- That means that people there cannot see the stars at night. But when the sun comes up, the neon dies and shutters up.
I suppose this is related to natural law being unavoidable.

..."his hands clawed into the bedslab, temperfoam bunched between his fingers, trying to reach the console that wasn't there."
-- that's funny to me that he loves getting online so much that he's so dramatic in withdrawals from getting his internet fix.

So he was basically a 'thief,' a computer hacker in the Fox News sense, then tried to keep some of the bitcoin he stole but got his internet connection permanently removed from his brain, and as a consequence can't get online anymore. He thinks just being offline means being stuck in a 'prison of flesh.'

He already killed 3 people over small sums of money, so must be quite the lawless civilization if he isn't in jail.

'a final solitaire.'

I'm stopping for the night on page 8

# ? Jan 19, 2021 02:14

artism: Nov 22, 2011

It�s a good book, op. I feel exulted online so :shrug:

# ? Jan 20, 2021 00:47

Idaholy Roller: May 19, 2009

Lazy to do the first line bbbbbut

I was the shadow of the waxwing slain
By the false azure in the windowpane;
I was the smudge of ashen fluff � and I
Lived on, flew on, in the reflected sky.

This my fave though

White butterflies turn lavender as they
Pass through its shade where gently seems to sway
The phantom of my little daughter�s swing.

# ? Jan 22, 2021 20:08

Cheese Thief: Oct 30, 2020

^^ Nice thanks for sharing, I always feel like i Have to read poems over and over to take it all in.

Gibson's writing goes a little overboard sometimes
--
Features reduced to a code
her cheekbones flaring scarlet as Wizards' Castle burned
Forehead drenched with azure when Munich fell
to the Tank War, mouth touched with hot gold as a gliding cursor struck sparks

lol that's like way over the top

# ? Jan 25, 2021 05:44

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# ? Apr 25, 2024 18:31

gfarrell80: Aug 31, 2006

I have a word doc with some of my favorite excerpts... here ya go!

Herman Melville posted:

"It was mentioned that upon first breaking ground in the whale�s back, the blubber-hook was inserted into the original hole there cut by the spades of the mates. But how did so clumsy and weighty a mass as that same hook get fixed in that hole? It was inserted there by my particular friend Queequeg, whose duty it was, as harpooneer, to descend upon the monster�s back for the special purpose referred to."

"it was my cheerful duty to attend upon him while taking that hard-scrabble scramble upon the dead whale�s back. You have seen Italian organ-boys holding a dancing-ape by a long cord. Just so, from the ship�s steep side, did I hold Queequeg down there in the sea, by what is technically called in the fishery a monkey-rope, attached to a strong strip of canvas belted round his waist."

�It was a humorously perilous business for both of us. For, before we proceed further, it must be said that the monkey-rope was fast at both ends; fast to Queequeg�s broad canvas belt, and fast to my narrow leather one. So that for better or for worse, we two, for the time, were wedded; and should poor Queequeg sink to rise no more, then both usage and honor demanded, that instead of cutting the cord, it should drag me down in his wake. So, then, an elongated Siamese ligature united us. Queequeg was my own inseparable twin brother; nor could I any way get rid of the dangerous liabilities which the hempen bond entailed.

So strongly and metaphysically did I conceive of my situation then, that while earnestly watching his motions, I seemed distinctly to perceive that my own individuality was now merged in a joint stock company of two; that my free will had received a mortal wound; and that another�s mistake or misfortune might plunge innocent me into unmerited disaster and death. Therefore, I saw that here was a sort of interregnum in Providence; for its even-handed equity never could have so gross an injustice. And yet still further pondering- while I jerked him now and then from between the whale and ship, which would threaten to jam him- still further pondering, I say, I saw that this situation of mine was the precise situation of every mortal that breathes; only, in most cases, he, one way or other, has this Siamese connexion with a plurality of other mortals. If your banker breaks, you snap; if your apothecary by mistake sends you poison in your pills, you die. True, you may say that, by exceeding caution, you may possibly escape these and the multitudinous other evil chances of life. But handle Queequeg�s monkey-rope heedfully as I would, sometimes he jerked it so, that I came very near sliding overboard. Nor could I possibly forget that, do what I would, I only had the management of one end of it.�

Melville, Moby Dick

Dostoyevsky posted:

�what harmony can there be when there is hell: I want to forgive and I want to embrace � I don�t want anyone to suffer any more. And if the sufferings of children have gone to replenish the sum of suffering that was needed in order to purchase the truth, then I declare in advance that no truth, not even the whole truth, is worth such a price� Imagine that you yourself are erecting the edifice of human fortune with the goal of, at the finale, making people happy, of at last giving them peace and quiet, but that in order to do it it would be necessary and unavoidable to torture to death only one tiny little creature, that same little child that beat its breast with its little fist, and on its unavenged tears to found that edifice, would you agree to be the architect on those conditions, tell me and tell me truly?�

�No, I would not agree,� Alyosha said quietly.

Dostoyevsky, Brothers Karamazov

Dostoyevsky posted:

Until you really make yourself the brother to all, brotherhood will not arrive. Never, prompted by science or self-interest alone, will human beings be able to share their property and their privileges in harmless fashion. None will consider that he has enough, and all will grumble, envying and destroying one another. You ask when what I describe will come true. It will come true, but first there must be a period of human solitariness.�

What kind of solitariness do you mean? I asked him.

�The kind that reigns everywhere now, particularly in our own time, though it has not yet established itself universally, and its hour has not yet come. For each now strives to isolate his person as much as possible from the others, wishing to experience within himself life�s completeness, yet from all his efforts there results not life�s completeness but a complete suicide, for instead of discovering the true nature of their being they lapse into total solitariness. For in our era all are isolated into individuals, each retires solitary within his burrow, each withdraws from the other, conceals himself and that which he possesses, and ends by being rejected of men and by rejecting them. He amasses wealth in solitariness, thinking: how strong I am now and how secure, yet he does not know, the witless one, that the more he amasses, the further he will sink into suicidal impotence. For he has become accustomed to relying upon himself alone and has isolated himself from the whole as an individual, has trained his soul not to trust in help from others, in human beings and mankind, and is fearful only of losing his money and the privileges he has acquired. In every place today the human mind is mockingly starting to lose its awareness of the fact that a person�s true security consists not in his own personal, solitary effort, but in the common integrity of human kind.

Dostoyevsky, Brothers Karamazov

Dostoyevsky posted:

The world has proclaimed freedom, particularly of late, but what do we see in this freedom of theirs: nothing but servitude and suicide! For the world says: �You have needs, so satisfy them, for you have the same rights as the wealthiest and most highly placed of men. Do not be afraid to satisfy them, but even multiply them.� � that is the present day teaching of the world. In that, too, they see freedom. And what is this result of this right to the multiplication of needs? Among the rich solitariness and among the poor � envy and murder, for while they have been given rights, they have not yet been afforded the means with which to satisfy their needs. Assurance has been offered that as time goes by the world will become more united, and that it will form itself into brotherly communion by shortening distance and transmitting thoughts through the air. Alas, do not believe in such a unification of men. In construing freedom as the multiplication and speedy satisfaction of needs, they distort their own nature, for they engender within themselves many senseless and stupid desires, habits, and most absurd inventions. They live solely for envy, for the love of flesh and self-conceit. To have dinners, horses and carriages, rank, and attendants who are slaves is already considered such a necessity that they will even sacrifice their lives, honor, and philanthropy in order to satisfy that necessity� Among those who are not rich we see the same thing, and among the poor envy and frustration of needs are at present dulled by drunkenness. But soon in place of alcohol it will be blood upon which they grow intoxicated � to that they are being led. I ask you: is such a man free?� �And it is small wonder that in place of freedom they have found slavery, and in place of service to brotherly love and the unity of mankind they have found isolation and solitariness� And so it is that in the world the idea of service to mankind, the brotherhood and inclusiveness of men, is fading more and more, and in truth this thought is now encountered with mockery, for how can he desist from his habits, this slave, where can he go, if he is so accustomed to satisfying his countless needs, which he himself has invented? Solitary is he, and what concern can he have for the whole? And they have reached a point where the quantity of objects they amass is ever greater, and their joy is ever smaller.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

Dostoyevsky posted:

�I, for example, would not be the least bit surprised, if suddenly, out of the blue, amid the universal future reasonableness, some gentlemen of ignoble, or, better, retrograde and jeering physiognomy should emerge, set his arms akimbo and say to us all: �Well, gentlemen, why don�t we reduce all this reasonableness to dust with one good kick, for the sole purpose of sending all these logarithms to the devil and living once more according to our own stupid will!� That would still be nothing, but what is offensive is that he�d be sure to find followers: that�s how man is arranged.�

Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Notes From Underground

# ? Jan 26, 2021 03:58

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > Thread to write down quotes or words from books