So I just won the latest round of Mystery Quote at Readerville. How could I not--someone posted the first paragraph to True Grit.
CS wanted me to post this next bit. It's from a book I gave her for Christmas. Anyone recognize it?
'Night fell again. There was war to the south, but our sector was quiet. The battle was over. Our casualties were some thirteen thousand killed. Thirteen thousand minds, memories, loves, sensations, worlds, universes--because the human mind is more a universe than the universe itself--and all for a few hundred yards of useless mud.'
And on the following page:
'You are not ashamed to be the guest of a traitor to his country?'
'I don't think you were a traitor to the human race.'
We moved towards his bedroom windows.
'The human race is unimportant. It is the self that must not be betrayed.'
I suppose one could say that Hitler didn't betray his self.'
He turned.
'You are right. He did not. But millions of Germans did betray their selves. That was the tragedy. Not that one man had the courage to be evil. But that millions had not the courage to be good.'
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
A bang, not a whimper
Two months into L.'s retirement, and I'm finished with the stockpiling of books. No more book purchases! Or at least, no purcha...
-
(See also Musee des Beaux Arts ) As far as mental anguish goes, the old painters were no fools. They understood how the mind, the freakiest ...
-
When I finished Kevin Brockmeier's A Brief History of the Dead last spring I immediately did a search to see if the Coca-Cola Corp. had...
No comments:
Post a Comment