Trying to imagine E. M. Forster, who found Ulysses indecorous, at a London performance of Lenny Bruce—to which in fact he was once taken. Trying to imagine the same for a time-transported Nathaniel Hawthorne—who during his first visit to Europe was even shocked by the profusion of naked statues.

David Markson

Categorized in : Europe Trying Taken

In fact one frequently seemed to gather all sorts of similar information about subjects one had less than profound interest in.

information profound facts

Doubtless these are inconsequential perplexities. Still, inconsequential perplexities have now and again been known to become the fundamental mood of existence, one suspects.

existence mood fundamentals

Was it really some other person I was so anxious to discover...or was it only my own solitude that I could not abide?

anxious solitude persons

You can learn more by going to the opera than you ever can by reading Emerson. Like that there are two sexes.

reading two sex

What do any of us ever truly know? by David Markson

What do any of us ever truly know?

knows

I also believe I met William Gaddis once. He did not look Italian... by David Markson

I also believe I met William Gaddis once. He did not look Italian.

italian believe looks

Can Protagonist think of a single film that interests him as much as the three-hundredth best book he ever read?

three book thinking

Is T.S. Eliot the only poet one can think of who could have spent a year on his own in Paris at twenty-three—and managed to have no sexual encounter whatsoever?

paris years thinking

Once, somebody asked Robert Schumann to explain the meaning of a certain piece of music he had just played on the piano.

piano pieces play

Once, I had a dream of fame. Generally, even then, I was lonely. by David Markson

Once, I had a dream of fame. Generally, even then, I was lonely.

lonely dream fame

The morning’s recollection of the emptiness of the day before. Its anticipation of the emptiness of the day to come.

emptiness anticipation morning

Once, Turner had himself lashed to the mast of a ship for several hours, during a furious storm, so that he could later paint the storm. Obviously, it was not the storm itself that Turner intended to paint. What he intended to paint was a representation of the storm. One's language is frequently imprecise in that manner, I have discovered.

ships storm language

You will say that I am old and mad, was what Michaelangelo wrote, but I answer that there is no better way of being sane and free from anxiety than by being mad.

anxiety mad life