[ { "style": "obama", "text": "Thank you. Muchas gracias. Thank you so much. Thank you very much.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "We've played very different roles in the world. But no one should deny the service that thousands of Cuban doctors have delivered for the poor and suffering. Last year, American health care workers -- and the U. S. military -- worked side-by-side with Cubans to save lives and stamp out Ebola in West Africa. I believe that we should continue that kind of cooperation in other countries.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Havana is only 90 miles from Florida, but to get here we had to travel a great distance -- over barriers of history and ideology; barriers of pain and separation. The blue waters beneath Air Force One once carried American battleships to this island -- to liberate, but also to exert control over Cuba. Those waters also carried generations of Cuban revolutionaries to the United States, where they built support for their cause. And that short distance has been crossed by hundreds of thousands of Cuban exiles -- on planes and makeshift rafts -- who came to America in pursuit of freedom and opportunity, sometimes leaving behind everything they owned and every person that they loved.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "We both live in a new world, colonized by Europeans. Cuba, like the United States, was built in part by slaves brought here from Africa. Like the United States, the Cuban people can trace their heritage to both slaves and slave-owners. We've welcomed both immigrants who came a great distance to start new lives in the Americas.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "And these changes have been welcomed, even though there are still opponents to these policies. But still, many people on both sides of this debate have asked: Why now? Why now?", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "We, the people, still believe that our obligations as Americans are not just to ourselves, but to all posterity. We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations. Some may still deny the overwhelming judgment of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires and crippling drought and more powerful storms.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Through it all, we have never relinquished our skepticism of central authority, nor have we succumbed to the fiction that all society's ills can be cured through government alone. Our celebration of initiative and enterprise, our insistence on hard work and personal responsibility, these are constants in our character.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "This generation of Americans has been tested by crises that steeled our resolve and proved our resilience. A decade of war is now ending. An economic recovery has begun. America's possibilities are limitless, for we possess all the qualities that this world without boundaries demands: youth and drive; diversity and openness; an endless capacity for risk and a gift for reinvention. My fellow Americans, we are made for this moment, and we will seize it -- so long as we seize it together.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "So I first came to Chicago when I was in my early twenties. And I was still trying to figure out who I was, still searching for a purpose in my life. And it was a neighborhood not far from here where I began working with church groups in the shadows of closed steel mills. It was on these streets where I witnessed the power of faith and the quiet dignity of working people in the face of struggle and loss.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "So that faith that I placed all those years ago, not far from here, in the power of ordinary Americans to bring about change--that faith has been rewarded in ways I could not have possibly imagined. And I hope your faith has, too. Some of you here tonight or watching at home, you were there with us in 2004, in 2008, 2012; maybe you still can't believe we pulled this whole thing off. Let me tell you, you're not the only ones.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "To my remarkable staff: For 8 years--and for some of you, a whole lot more--I have drawn from your energy, and every day I tried to reflect back what you displayed: heart and character and idealism. I've watched you grow up, get married, have kids, start incredible new journeys of your own. Even when times got tough and frustrating, you never let Washington get the better of you. You guarded against cynicism. And the only thing that makes me prouder than all the good that we've done is the thought of all the amazing things that you are going to achieve from here.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Now, we can and should argue about the best approach to solve the problem. But to simply deny the problem not only betrays future generations, it betrays the essential spirit of this country, the essential spirit of innovation and practical problem-solving that guided our Founders.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "And that's why I leave this stage tonight even more optimistic about this country than when we started. Because I know our work has not only helped so many Americans, it has inspired so many Americans, especially so many young people out there, to believe that you can make a difference, to hitch your wagon to something bigger than yourselves.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Now, you can call this class warfare all you want. But asking a billionaire to pay at least as much as his secretary in taxes? Most Americans would call that common sense.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "I believe as strongly as ever that we should take on illegal immigration. That's why my administration has put more boots on the border than ever before. That's why there are fewer illegal crossings than when I took office. The opponents of action are out of excuses. We should be working on comprehensive immigration reform right now.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Those are the facts. But so are these: In the last 22 months, businesses have created more than 3 million jobs.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Finally, none of this can happen unless we also lower the temperature in this town. We need to end the notion that the two parties must be locked in a perpetual campaign of mutual destruction; that politics is about clinging to rigid ideologies instead of building consensus around common-sense ideas.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Let's also remember that hundreds of thousands of talented, hardworking students in this country face another challenge: the fact that they aren't yet American citizens. Many were brought here as small children, are American through and through, yet they live every day with the threat of deportation. Others came more recently, to study business and science and engineering, but as soon as they get their degree, we send them home to invent new products and create new jobs somewhere else.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "In the next few weeks, I will sign an executive order clearing away the red tape that slows down too many construction projects. But you need to fund these projects. Take the money we're no longer spending at war, use half of it to pay down our debt, and use the rest to do some nation-building right here at home.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Now, I'm confident a farmer can contain a milk spill without a federal agency looking over his shoulder. Absolutely. But I will not back down from making sure an oil company can contain the kind of oil spill we saw in the Gulf two years ago. I will not back down from protecting our kids from mercury poisoning, or making sure that our food is safe and our water is clean. I will not go back to the days when health insurance companies had unchecked power to cancel your policy, deny your coverage, or charge women differently than men.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "So if you are a big bank or financial institution, you're no longer allowed to make risky bets with your customers' deposits. You're required to write out a \"living will\" that details exactly how you'll pay the bills if you fail -- because the rest of us are not bailing you out ever again. And if you're a mortgage lender or a payday lender or a credit card company, the days of signing people up for products they can't afford with confusing forms and deceptive practices -- those days are over. Today, American consumers finally have a watchdog in Richard Cordray with one job: To look out for them.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "That's why, working with our military leaders, I've proposed a new defense strategy that ensures we maintain the finest military in the world, while saving nearly half a trillion dollars in our budget. To stay one step ahead of our adversaries, I've already sent this Congress legislation that will secure our country from the growing dangers of cyber-threats.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "And I want to cut through the maze of confusing training programs, so that from now on, people like Jackie have one program, one website, and one place to go for all the information and help that they need. It is time to turn our unemployment system into a reemployment system that puts people to work.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Last month, I went to Andrews Air Force Base and welcomed home some of our last troops to serve in Iraq. Together, we offered a final, proud salute to the colors under which more than a million of our fellow citizens fought -- and several thousand gave their lives.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "During the Great Depression, America built the Hoover Dam and the Golden Gate Bridge. After World War II, we connected our states with a system of highways. Democratic and Republican administrations invested in great projects that benefited everybody, from the workers who built them to the businesses that still use them today.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath. The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms. At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because We the People have remained faithful to the ideals of our forbearers, and true to our founding documents.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of short-cuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted--for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things--some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "The cause of securing our country is not complete. But tonight, we are once again reminded that America can do whatever we set our mind to. That is the story of our history, whether it's the pursuit of prosperity for our people, or the struggle for equality for all our citizens; our commitment to stand up for our values abroad, and our sacrifices to make the world a safer place.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "And yet we know that the worst images are those that were unseen to the world. The empty seat at the dinner table. Children who were forced to grow up without their mother or their father. Parents who would never know the feeling of their child's embrace. Nearly 3,000 citizens taken from us, leaving a gaping hole in our hearts.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "As we do, we must also reaffirm that the United States is not -- and never will be -- at war with Islam. I've made clear, just as President Bush did shortly after 9/11, that our war is not against Islam. Bin Laden was not a Muslim leader; he was a mass murderer of Muslims. Indeed, al Qaeda has slaughtered scores of Muslims in many countries, including our own. So his demise should be welcomed by all who believe in peace and human dignity.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "We gather here to celebrate them. We gather here to honor the courage of ordinary Americans willing to endure billy clubs and the chastening rod; tear gas and the trampling hoof; men and women who despite the gush of blood and splintered bone would stay true to their North Star and keep marching towards justice.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Of course, a more common mistake is to suggest that Ferguson is an isolated incident; that racism is banished; that the work that drew men and women to Selma is now complete, and that whatever racial tensions remain are a consequence of those seeking to play the \"race card\" for their own purposes. We don't need the Ferguson report to know that's not true. We just need to open our eyes, and our ears, and our hearts to know that this nation's racial history still casts its long shadow upon us.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Fellow marchers, so much has changed in 50 years. We have endured war and we've fashioned peace. We've seen technological wonders that touch every aspect of our lives. We take for granted conveniences that our parents could have scarcely imagined. But what has not changed is the imperative of citizenship; that willingness of a 26-year-old deacon, or a Unitarian minister, or a young mother of five to decide they loved this country so much that they'd risk everything to realize its promise.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "What's our excuse today for not voting? How do we so casually discard the right for which so many fought? How do we so fully give away our power, our voice, in shaping America's future? Why are we pointing to somebody else when we could take the time just to go to the polling places? We give away our power.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "What they did here will reverberate through the ages. Not because the change they won was preordained; not because their victory was complete; but because they proved that nonviolent change is possible, that love and hope can conquer hate.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "For we were born of change. We broke the old aristocracies, declaring ourselves entitled not by bloodline, but endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights. We secure our rights and responsibilities through a system of self-government, of and by and for the people. That's why we argue and fight with so much passion and conviction -- because we know our efforts matter. We know America is what we make of it.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "All right? I'm going to make this the last question. And I'll take somebody from the back -- yes.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "And this gives an opportunity not just for Democrats to say here's what we think we should do, but it also gives Republicans a showcase before the entire country to say here's our plan; here's why we think this will work. And one of the things that John Boehner and Mitch McConnell both said is they didn't think that the status quo was acceptable, and that's, right there, promising. That indicates that if all sides agree that we can't just continue with business as usual then maybe we can actually get something done.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Well, it's moving along fairly quickly. I think that we have bent over backwards to say to the Islamic Republic of Iran that we are willing to have a constructive conversation about how they can align themselves with international norms and rules and reenter as full members of the international community.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "I think there are some things that a lot of people agree on. Just to give you an example, the idea of eliminating capital gains for small businesses -- something we can all agree on. I talked about it at the State of the Union address. My hope would be that we would all agree on a mechanism to get community banks who are lending to small businesses more capital, because that is something that I keep on hearing is one of the biggest problems that small businesses have out there.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "My hope is that this will be the first of a series of meetings that I have with leadership of both parties in Congress. We've got to get past the tired debates that have plagued our politics and left behind nothing but soaring debt and mounting challenges, greater hardships among the American people, and extraordinary frustrations among the American people. Those frustrations are what led me to run for President, and as long as I'm here in Washington, I intend to try to make this government work on their behalf.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "I don't know if people noted, because during the health care debate everybody was saying the President is trying to take over -- a government takeover of health care. I don't know if anybody noticed that for the first time this year you saw more people getting health care from government than you did from the private sector -- not because of anything we did, but because more and more people are losing their health care from their employers. It's becoming unaffordable. That's what we're trying to prevent.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "The common thread of progress is the principle that government is accountable to its citizens. And the diversity in this room makes clear -- no one country has all the answers, but all of us must answer to our own people.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "But even as we confront immediate challenges, we must also summon the foresight to look beyond them, and consider what we are trying to build over the long term? What is the world that awaits us when today's battles are brought to an end? And that is what I would like to talk about with the remainder of my time today.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "The idea is a simple one -- that freedom, justice and peace for the world must begin with freedom, justice, and peace in the lives of individual human beings. And for the United States, this is a matter of moral and pragmatic necessity. As Robert Kennedy said, \"the individual man, the child of God, is the touchstone of value, and all society, groups, the state, exist for his benefit.\" So we stand up for universal values because it's the right thing to do. But we also know from experience that those who defend these values for their people have been our closest friends and allies, while those who have denied those rights -- whether terrorist groups or tyrannical governments -- have chosen to be our adversaries.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Now let me be clear once more: The United States and the international community seek a resolution to our differences with Iran, and the door remains open to diplomacy should Iran choose to walk through it. But the Iranian government must demonstrate a clear and credible commitment and confirm to the world the peaceful intent of its nuclear program.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Let me begin with what we have done. I have had no greater focus as President than rescuing our economy from potential catastrophe. And in an age when prosperity is shared, we could not do this alone. So America has joined with nations around the world to spur growth, and the renewed demand that could restart job creation.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "One of the first actions of this General Assembly was to adopt a Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. That Declaration begins by stating that, \"recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice, and peace in the world.\"", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "I mean, Jessica, I am not a dictator. I'm the President. So, ultimately, if Mitch McConnell or John Boehner say, we need to go to catch a plane, I can't have Secret Service block the doorway, right? So --", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "With respect to the budget, what I've done is to make a case to the American people that we have to make sure that we have a balanced approach to deficit reduction, but that deficit reduction alone is not an economic policy. And part of the challenge that we've had here is that not only Congress, but I think Washington generally spends all its time together about deficits and doesn't spend a lot of time talking about how do we create jobs. So I want to make sure that we're talking about both.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "What I can do is I can make the best possible argument. And I can offer concessions, and I can offer compromise. I can negotiate. I can make sure that my party is willing to compromise and is not being ideological or thinking about these just in terms of political terms. And I think I've done that and I will continue to do that.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "But what is true right now is that the Republicans have made a choice that maintaining an ironclad rule that we will not accept an extra dime's worth of revenue makes it very difficult for us to get any larger comprehensive deal. And that's a choice they're making. They're saying that it's more important to preserve these tax loopholes than it is to prevent these arbitrary cuts.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "This is the agenda that the American people voted for. These are America's priorities. They are too important to go unaddressed. And I'm going to keep pushing to make sure that we see them through.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "That is real. That's not -- we're not making that up. That's not a scare tactic, that's a fact.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "We need to get behind this innovation. And to help pay for it, I'm asking Congress to eliminate the billions in taxpayer dollars we currently give to oil companies. I don't know if -- I don't know if you've noticed, but they're doing just fine on their own. So instead of subsidizing yesterday's energy, let's invest in tomorrow's.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "What's more, we are the first nation to be founded for the sake of an idea -- the idea that each of us deserves the chance to shape our own destiny. That's why centuries of pioneers and immigrants have risked everything to come here. It's why our students don't just memorize equations, but answer questions like \"What do you think of that idea? What would you change about the world? What do you want to be when you grow up?\"", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "And so we must defeat determined enemies, wherever they are, and build coalitions that cut across lines of region and race and religion. And America's moral example must always shine for all who yearn for freedom and justice and dignity. And because we've begun this work, tonight we can say that American leadership has been renewed and America's standing has been restored.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Within the next five years, we'll make it possible for businesses to deploy the next generation of high-speed wireless coverage to 98 percent of all Americans. This isn't just about this isn't about faster Internet or fewer dropped calls. It's about connecting every part of America to the digital age. It's about a rural community in Iowa or Alabama where farmers and small business owners will be able to sell their products all over the world. It's about a firefighter who can download the design of a burning building onto a handheld device; a student who can take classes with a digital textbook; or a patient who can have face-to-face video chats with her doctor.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "And if we truly care about our deficit, we simply can't afford a permanent extension of the tax cuts for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans. Before we take money away from our schools or scholarships away from our students, we should ask millionaires to give up their tax break. It's not a matter of punishing their success. It's about promoting America's success.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Now, most of the cuts and savings I've proposed only address annual domestic spending, which represents a little more than 12 percent of our budget. To make further progress, we have to stop pretending that cutting this kind of spending alone will be enough. It won't.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "In the coming year, we'll also work to rebuild people's faith in the institution of government. Because you deserve to know exactly how and where your tax dollars are being spent, you'll be able to go to a website and get that information for the very first time in history. Because you deserve to know when your elected officials are meeting with lobbyists, I ask Congress to do what the White House has already done -- put that information online. And because the American people deserve to know that special interests aren't larding up legislation with pet projects, both parties in Congress should know this: If a bill comes to my desk with earmarks inside, I will veto it. I will veto it.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Thanks to our heroic troops and civilians, fewer Afghans are under the control of the insurgency. There will be tough fighting ahead, and the Afghan government will need to deliver better governance. But we are strengthening the capacity of the Afghan people and building an enduring partnership with them. This year, we will work with nearly 50 countries to begin a transition to an Afghan lead. And this July, we will begin to bring our troops home.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "At the California Institute of Technology, they're developing a way to turn sunlight and water into fuel for our cars. At Oak Ridge National Laboratory, they're using supercomputers to get a lot more power out of our nuclear facilities. With more research and incentives, we can break our dependence on oil with biofuels, and become the first country to have a million electric vehicles on the road by 2015.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "But there's a reason the tragedy in Tucson gave us pause. Amid all the noise and passion and rancor of our public debate, Tucson reminded us that no matter who we are or where we come from, each of us is a part of something greater -- something more consequential than party or political preference.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "That's what Americans have done for over 200 years: reinvented ourselves. And to spur on more success stories like the Allen Brothers, we've begun to reinvent our energy policy. We're not just handing out money. We're issuing a challenge. We're telling America's scientists and engineers that if they assemble teams of the best minds in their fields, and focus on the hardest problems in clean energy, we'll fund the Apollo projects of our time.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Just as jobs and businesses can now race across borders, so can new threats and new challenges. No single wall separates East and West. No one rival superpower is aligned against us.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Now, yes, pursuing this new strategy will require that we revise the old strategy. In part, this is because the old strategy -- including the Constellation program -- was not fulfilling its promise in many ways. That's not just my assessment; that's also the assessment of a panel of respected non-partisan experts charged with looking at these issues closely. Now, despite this, some have had harsh words for the decisions we've made, including some individuals who I've got enormous respect and admiration for.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "I also want to thank everybody for participating in today's conference. And gathered here are scientists, engineers, business leaders, public servants, and a few more astronauts as well. Last but not least, I want to thank the men and women of NASA for welcoming me to the Kennedy Space Center, and for your contributions not only to America, but to the world.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "All that has to change. And with the strategy I'm outlining today, it will. We start by increasing NASA's budget by $6 billion over the next five years, even I want people to understand the context of this. This is happening even as we have instituted a freeze on discretionary spending and sought to make cuts elsewhere in the budget.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "But I also know that underlying these concerns is a deeper worry, one that precedes not only this plan but this administration. It stems from the sense that people in Washington -- driven sometimes less by vision than by politics -- have for years neglected NASA's mission and undermined the work of the professionals who fulfill it. We've seen that in the NASA budget, which has risen and fallen with the political winds.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "And I was encouraged to see a Republican senator join with Democrats this week in moving forward on this issue. That's a good sign. That's a good sign. For without action, we'll continue to see what amounts to highly-leveraged, loosely-monitored gambling in our financial system, putting taxpayers and the economy in jeopardy. And the only people who ought to fear the kind of oversight and transparency that we're proposing are those whose conduct will fail this scrutiny.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "In an ordinary local bank when it approaches insolvency, we've got a process, an orderly process through the FDIC, that ensures that depositors are protected, maintains confidence in the banking system, and it works. Customers and taxpayers are protected and owners and management lose their equity. But we don't have that kind of process designed to contain the failure of a Lehman Brothers or any of the largest and most interconnected financial firms in our country.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Now, Americans don't begrudge anybody for success when that success is earned. But when we read in the past, and sometimes in the present, about enormous executive bonuses at firms -- even as they're relying on assistance from taxpayers or they're taking huge risks that threaten the system as a whole or their company is doing badly -- it offends our fundamental values.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "To hit the rest of our deficit reduction target, we should do what leaders in both parties have already suggested, and save hundreds of billions of dollars by getting rid of tax loopholes and deductions for the well-off and the well-connected. After all, why would we choose to make deeper cuts to education and Medicare just to protect special interest tax breaks? How is that fair? Why is it that deficit reduction is a big emergency justifying making cuts in Social Security benefits but not closing some loopholes? How does that promote growth?", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "These initiatives in manufacturing, energy, infrastructure, housing -- all these things will help entrepreneurs and small business owners expand and create new jobs. But none of it will matter unless we also equip our citizens with the skills and training to fill those jobs.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "We know our economy is stronger when we reward an honest day's work with honest wages. But today, a full-time worker making the minimum wage earns $14,500 a year. Even with the tax relief we put in place, a family with two kids that earns the minimum wage still lives below the poverty line. That's wrong. That's why, since the last time this Congress raised the minimum wage, 19 states have chosen to bump theirs even higher.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Over the last few years, both parties have worked together to reduce the deficit by more than $2.5 trillion -- mostly through spending cuts, but also by raising tax rates on the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans. As a result, we are more than halfway towards the goal of $4 trillion in deficit reduction that economists say we need to stabilize our finances.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "The American people don't expect government to solve every problem. They don't expect those of us in this chamber to agree on every issue. But they do expect us to put the nation's interests before party. They do expect us to forge reasonable compromise where we can. For they know that America moves forward only when we do so together, and that the responsibility of improving this union remains the task of us all.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "We'll invest in new capabilities, even as we reduce waste and wartime spending. We will ensure equal treatment for all servicemembers, and equal benefits for their families -- gay and straight. We will draw upon the courage and skills of our sisters and daughters and moms, because women have proven under fire that they are ready for combat.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "These are the messages I'll deliver when I travel to the Middle East next month. And all this work depends on the courage and sacrifice of those who serve in dangerous places at great personal risk -- our diplomats, our intelligence officers, and the men and women of the United States Armed Forces. As long as I'm Commander-in-Chief, we will do whatever we must to protect those who serve their country abroad, and we will maintain the best military the world has ever known.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Now, in the meantime, the natural gas boom has led to cleaner power and greater energy independence. We need to encourage that. And that's why my administration will keep cutting red tape and speeding up new oil and gas permits. That's got to be part of an all-of-the-above plan. But I also want to work with this Congress to encourage the research and technology that helps natural gas burn even cleaner and protects our air and our water.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Now, as we do, we must enlist our values in the fight. That's why my administration has worked tirelessly to forge a durable legal and policy framework to guide our counterterrorism efforts. Throughout, we have kept Congress fully informed of our efforts. I recognize that in our democracy, no one should just take my word for it that we're doing things the right way. So in the months ahead, I will continue to engage Congress to ensure not only that our targeting, detention and prosecution of terrorists remains consistent with our laws and system of checks and balances, but that our efforts are even more transparent to the American people and to the world.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "I appreciate that. Here's what we've got to do. We have to tell Congress it's time to require a background check for anyone who wants to buy a gun so that people who are dangerous to themselves and others cannot get their hands on a gun. Let's make that happen.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "One of your recent alumni, Rachel D'Avino, was a behavioral therapist at Sandy Hook. Two alumni of your performing arts school, Jimmy Greene and Nelba Marquez-Greene, lost their daughter, Ana -- an incredible, vibrant young girl who looked up to them, and learned from them, and inherited their talents by singing before she could talk.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "And yet, there is only one thing that can stand in the way of change that just about everybody agrees on, and that's politics in Washington. You would think that with those numbers Congress would rush to make this happen. That's what you would think. If our democracy is working the way it's supposed to, and 90 percent of the American people agree on something, in the wake of a tragedy you'd think this would not be a heavy lift.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "But if our history teaches us anything, then it's up to us -- the people -- to stand up to those who say we can't, or we won't; stand up for the change that we need. And I believe that that's what the American people are looking for.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "If you're a law-abiding gun seller, wouldn't you want to know you're not selling your gun to someone who's likely to commit a crime? Shouldn't we make it harder, not easier for somebody who is convicted of domestic abuse to get his hands on a gun?", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "We have to seek new markets aggressively, just as our competitors are. If America sits on the sidelines while other nations sign trade deals, we will lose the chance to create jobs on our shores. But realizing those benefits also means enforcing those agreements so our trading partners play by the rules. And that's why we'll continue to shape a Doha trade agreement that opens global markets and why we will strengthen our trade relations in Asia and with key partners like South Korea and Panama and Colombia.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "This week, I'll be addressing a meeting of the House Republicans. I'd like to begin monthly meetings with both Democratic and Republican leadership. I know you can't wait.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "There are stories like this all across America. And after 2 years of recession, the economy is growing again. Retirement funds have started to gain back some of their value. Businesses are beginning to invest again, and slowly some are starting to hire again.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "But remember this: I never suggested that change would be easy or that I could do it alone. Democracy in a nation of 300 million people can be noisy and messy and complicated. And when you try to do big things and make big changes, it stirs passions and controversy. That's just how it is.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Now, these diplomatic efforts have also strengthened our hand in dealing with those nations that insist on violating international agreements in pursuit of nuclear weapons. That's why North Korea now faces increased isolation and stronger sanctions, sanctions that are being vigorously enforced. That's why the international community is more united and the Islamic Republic of Iran is more isolated. And as Iran's leaders continue to ignore their obligations, there should be no doubt: They too will face growing consequences. That is a promise.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "I campaigned on the promise of change. Change we can believe in, the slogan went. And right now I know there are many Americans who aren't sure if they still believe we can change or that I can deliver it.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Next, we need to encourage American innovation. Last year, we made the largest investment in basic research funding in history, an investment that could lead to the world's cheapest solar cells or treatment that kills cancer cells but leaves healthy ones untouched. And no area is more ripe for such innovation than energy. You can see the results of last year's investments in clean energy in the North Carolina company that will create 1,200 jobs nationwide helping to make advanced batteries or in the California business that will put a thousand people to work making solar panels.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "We need to make sure consumers and middle class families have the information they need to make financial decisions. We can't allow financial institutions, including those that take your deposits, to take risks that threaten the whole economy.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Now, our administration has had some political setbacks this year, and some of them were deserved. But I wake up every day knowing that they are nothing compared to the setbacks that families all across this country have faced this year. And what keeps me going, what keeps me fighting, is that despite all these setbacks, that spirit of determination and optimism, that fundamental decency that has always been at the core of the American people, that lives on.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "And by that measure, can we truly say, as a nation, that we are meeting our obligations? Can we honestly say that we're doing enough to keep our children -- all of them -- safe from harm? Can we claim, as a nation, that we're all together there, letting them know that they are loved, and teaching them to love in return? Can we say that we're truly doing enough to give all the children of this country the chance they deserve to live out their lives in happiness and with purpose?", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "God has called them all home. For those of us who remain, let us find the strength to carry on, and make our country worthy of their memory.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "In fact, I want to speak directly to seniors for a moment, because Medicare is another issue that's been subjected to demagoguery and distortion during the course of this debate. More than four decades ago, this Nation stood up for the principle that after a lifetime of hard work, our seniors should not be left to struggle with a pile of medical bills in their later years. That's how Medicare was born, and it remains a sacred trust that must be passed down from one generation to the next. And that is why not a dollar of the Medicare trust fund will be used to pay for this plan.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "You see, our predecessors understood that government could not, and should not, solve every problem. They understood that there are instances when the gains in security from government action are not worth the added constraints on our freedom. But they also understood that the danger of too much government is matched by the perils of too little, that without the leavening hand of wise policy, markets can crash, monopolies can stifle competition, the vulnerable can be exploited. And they knew that when any government measure, no matter how carefully crafted or beneficial, is subject to scorn; when any efforts to help people in need are attacked as un-American, when facts and reason are thrown overboard and only timidity passes for wisdom, and we can no longer even engage in a civil conversation with each other over the things that truly matter, that at that point we don't merely lose our capacity to solve big challenges, we lose something essential about ourselves.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Insurance executives don't do this because they're bad people; they do it because it's profitable. As one former insurance executive testified before Congress, insurance companies are not only encouraged to find reasons to drop the seriously ill, they are rewarded for it. All of this is in service of meeting what this former executive called \"Wall Street's relentless profit expectations.\"", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "That was true then; it remains true today. I understand how difficult this health care debate has been. I know that many in this country are deeply skeptical that government is looking out for them. I understand that the politically safe move would be to kick the can further down the road, to defer reform one more year or one more election or one more term.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "That is why we cannot fail, because there are too many Americans counting on us to succeed, the ones who suffer silently and the ones who share their stories with us at town halls, in e-mails, and in letters. I received one of those letters a few days ago. It was from our beloved friend and colleague Ted Kennedy. He had written it back in May, shortly after he was told that his illness was terminal. He asked that it be delivered upon his death.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "We can't afford to go down that path. It won't deliver the economy we want. It will not produce the security we want. But most of all, it contradicts everything that makes us the envy of the world.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "The future we want -- all of us want -- opportunity and security for our families, a rising standard of living, a sustainable, peaceful planet for our kids -- all that is within our reach. But it will only happen if we work together. It will only happen if we can have rational, constructive debates. It will only happen if we fix our politics.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "But I can't do these things on my own. Changes in our political process -- in not just who gets elected, but how they get elected -- that will only happen when the American people demand it. It depends on you. That's what's meant by a government of, by, and for the people.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "And they're out there, those voices. They don't get a lot of attention; they don't seek a lot of fanfare; but they're busy doing the work this country needs doing. I see them everywhere I travel in this incredible country of ours. I see you, the American people. And in your daily acts of citizenship, I see our future unfolding.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "And I understand that because it's an election season, expectations for what we will achieve this year are low. But, Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the constructive approach that you and the other leaderstook at the end of last year to pass a budget and make tax cuts permanent for working families. So I hope we can work together this year on some bipartisan priorities like criminal justice reform and helping people who are battling prescription drug abuse and heroin abuse. So, who knows, we might surprise the cynics again.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "We also can't try to take over and rebuild every country that falls into crisis, even if it's done with the best of intentions. That's not leadership; that's a recipe for quagmire, spilling American blood and treasure that ultimately will weaken us. It's the lesson of Vietnam; it's the lesson of Iraq -- and we should have learned it by now.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "But, my fellow Americans, this cannot be my task -- or any President's -- alone. There are a whole lot of folks in this chamber, good people who would like to see more cooperation, would like to see a more elevated debate in Washington, but feel trapped by the imperatives of getting elected, by the noise coming out of your base. I know; you've told me. It's the worst-kept secret in Washington. And a lot of you aren't enjoying being trapped in that kind of rancor.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "And the third principle is we've got to bring our legal immigration system into the 21st century because it no longer reflects the realities of our time. For example, if you are a citizen, you shouldn't have to wait years before your family is able to join you in America. You shouldn't have to wait years.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "When we talk about that in the abstract, it's easy sometimes for the discussion to take on a feeling of \"us\" versus \"them.\" And when that happens, a lot of folks forget that most of \"us\" used to be \"them.\" We forget that.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "So today, Alan is in his second year at the College of Southern Nevada. Alan is studying to become a doctor. He hopes to join the Air Force. He's working hard every single day to build a better life for himself and his family. And all he wants is the opportunity to do his part to build a better America.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "They were the Einsteins and the Carnegies. But they were also the millions of women and men whose names history may not remember, but whose actions helped make us who we are; who built this country hand by hand, brick by brick. They all came here knowing that what makes somebody an American is not just blood or birth, but allegiance to our founding principles and the faith in the idea that anyone from anywhere can write the next great chapter of our story.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "We have to make sure that every business and every worker in America is playing by the same set of rules. We have to bring this shadow economy into the light so that everybody is held accountable -- businesses for who they hire, and immigrants for getting on the right side of the law. That's common sense. And that's why we need comprehensive immigration reform.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "To all the other elected officials and outstanding leaders who are here. And to the whole Namaste family and Mr. Jones for outstanding work, congratulations. Give them a big round of applause. And to the best Vice President that we've had in a long time -- Joe Biden.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Now, as important as the step we take today is, this legislation represents only the first part of the broad strategy we need to address our economic crisis. In the coming days and weeks, I'll be launching other aspects of the plan. We will need to stabilize, repair, and reform our banking system, and get credit flowing again to families and businesses. We will need to end the culture where we ignore problems until they become full-blown crises instead of recognizing that the only way to build a thriving economy is to set and enforce firm rules of the road.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Now, what makes this recovery plan so important is not just that it will create or save 3.5 million jobs over the next two years, including 60,000-plus here in Colorado. It's that we're putting Americans to work doing the work that America needs done in critical areas that have been neglected for too long; work that will bring real and lasting change for generations to come.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "I've met workers in Detroit and Toledo who feared they'd never build another American car. And today, they can't build them fast enough, because we reinvented a dying auto industry that's back on the top of the world.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "We know that churches and charities can often make more of a difference than a poverty program alone. We don't want handouts for people who refuse to help themselves and we certainly don't want bailouts for banks that break the rules. We don't think that government can solve all of our problems, but we don't think that government is the source of all of our problems -- any more than are welfare recipients, or corporations, or unions, or immigrants, or gays, or any other group we're told to blame for our troubles.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Now, I won't pretend the path I'm offering is quick or easy. I never have. You didn't elect me to tell you what you wanted to hear. You elected me to tell you the truth.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "And now you have a choice -- we can gut education, or we can decide that in the United States of America, no child should have her dreams deferred because of a crowded classroom or a crumbling school. No family should have to set aside a college acceptance letter because they don't have the money. No company should have to look for workers overseas because they couldn't find any with the right skills here at home. That's not our future. That is not our future.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "If the critics are right that I've made all my decisions based on polls, then I must not be very good at reading them. And while I'm very proud of what we've achieved together, I'm far more mindful of my own failings, knowing exactly what Lincoln meant when he said, \"I have been driven to my knees many times by the overwhelming conviction that I had no place else to go.\"", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Thank you. God bless you. And God bless these United States.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "As citizens, we understand that America is not about what can be done for us; it's about what can be done by us, together, through the hard and frustrating, but necessary work of self-government. That's what we believe.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "And government has a role in this. But teachers must inspire; principals must lead; parents must instill a thirst for learning. And, students, you've got to do the work. And together, I promise you, we can out-educate and out-compete any nation on Earth.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Now, for some of you, this may sound like your college career. It sounds like mine, anyway. Which makes sense, because measured against the whole of human history, America remains a very young nation -- younger, even, than this university.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "If we want to close loopholes that allow large corporations and wealthy individuals to avoid paying their fair share of taxes, we've got to have the cooperation of other countries in a global financial system to help enforce financial laws. The point is, to help ourselves we've got to help others not pull up the drawbridge and try to keep the world out.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "To the Board of Governors; to Chairman Brown; to Lieutenant Governor Guadagno; Mayor Cahill; Mayor Wahler, members of Congress, Rutgers administrators, faculty, staff, friends, and family -- thank you for the honor of joining you for the 250th anniversary of this remarkable institution. But most of all, congratulations to the Class of 2016!", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Good luck. God bless you. God bless this country we love. Thank you.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "And secondly, just to follow up on what you said about changing the way Washington works, do you think that -- you said you didn't do enough to change the way things were handled in this city. Some of -- in order to get your health care bill passed you needed to make some of those deals. Do you wish, in retrospect, you had not made those deals even if it meant the collapse of the program?", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Over the last few months I've had the opportunity to travel around the country and meet people where they live and where they work, from backyards to factory floors. I did some talking, but mostly I did a lot of listening. And yesterday's vote confirmed what I've heard from folks all across America: People are frustrated -- they're deeply frustrated -- with the pace of our economic recovery and the opportunities that they hope for their children and their grandchildren. They want jobs to come back faster, they want paychecks to go further, and they want the ability to give their children the same chances and opportunities as they've had in life.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Well, I know that there's some Republican candidates who won last night who feel very strongly about it. I'm sure that this will be an issue that comes up in discussions with the Republican leadership. As I said before, though, I think we'd be misreading the election if we thought that the American people want to see us for the next two years relitigate arguments that we had over the last two years.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Now, moving forward, I think the question is going to be can Democrats and Republicans sit down together and come up with a set of ideas that address those core concerns. I'm confident that we can.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "The men and women who sent us here don't expect Washington to solve all their problems. But they do expect Washington to work for them, not against them. They want to know that their tax dollars are being spent wisely, not wasted, and that we're not going to leave our children a legacy of debt. They want to know that their voices aren't being drowned out by a sea of lobbyists and special interests and partisan bickering. They want business to be done here openly and honestly.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "You know, a little over a month ago, we held a town hall meeting in Richmond, Virginia. And one of the most telling questions came from a small business owner who runs a tree care firm. He told me how hard he works and how busy he was; how he doesn't have time to pay attention to all the back-and-forth in Washington. And he asked, is there hope for us returning to civility in our discourse, to a healthy legislative process, so as I strap on the boots again tomorrow, I know that you guys got it under control? It's hard to have a faith in that right now, he said.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "I'm not suggesting this will be easy. I won't pretend that we will be able to bridge every difference or solve every disagreement. There's a reason we have two parties in this country, and both Democrats and Republicans have certain beliefs and certain principles that each feels cannot be compromised. But what I think the American people are expecting, and what we owe them, is to focus on those issues that affect their jobs, their security, and their future: reducing our deficit, promoting a clean energy economy, making sure that our children are the best educated in the world, making sure that we're making the investments in technology that will allow us to keep our competitive edge in the global economy.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "And that's something that we all need to remember right now and in the coming months. And if we do, I have no doubt that we will continue this nation's long journey towards a better future.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "So on a whole range of issues, there are going to be areas where we disagree. I think the overwhelming message that I hear from the voters is that we want everybody to act responsibly in Washington. We want you to work harder to arrive at consensus. We want you to focus completely on jobs and the economy and growing it, so that we're ensuring a better future for our children and our grandchildren.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Now, I ran for this office to tackle these challenges and give voice to the concerns of everyday people. Over the last two years, we've made progress. But, clearly, too many Americans haven't felt that progress yet, and they told us that yesterday. And as President, I take responsibility for that.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "It's hard. And I take responsibility for it in a lot of ways.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "And the second one is, President Bush when he went through a similar thing came out and he said this was a \"thumpin'.\" You talked about how it was humbling, or you alluded to it perhaps being humbling. And I'm wondering, when you call your friends, like Congressman Perriello or Governor Strickland, and you see 19 state legislatures go to the other side, governorships in swing states, the Democratic Party set back, what does it feel like?", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "The story of this revolution, and the ones that followed, should not have come as a surprise. The nations of the Middle East and North Africa won their independence long ago, but in too many places their people did not. In too many countries, power has been concentrated in the hands of a few. In too many countries, a citizen like that young vendor had nowhere to turn -- no honest judiciary to hear his case; no independent media to give him voice; no credible political party to represent his views; no free and fair election where he could choose his leader.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "In Benghazi, we heard the engineer who said, \"Our words are free now. It's a feeling you can't explain.\"", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Now, our opposition to Iran's intolerance and Iran's repressive measures, as well as its illicit nuclear program and its support of terror, is well known. But if America is to be credible, we must acknowledge that at times our friends in the region have not all reacted to the demands for consistent change -- with change that's consistent with the principles that I've outlined today. That's true in Yemen, where President Saleh needs to follow through on his commitment to transfer power. And that's true today in Bahrain.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "We must also build on our efforts to broaden our engagement beyond elites, so that we reach the people who will shape the future -- particularly young people. We will continue to make good on the commitments that I made in Cairo -- to build networks of entrepreneurs and expand exchanges in education, to foster cooperation in science and technology, and combat disease. Across the region, we intend to provide assistance to civil society, including those that may not be officially sanctioned, and who speak uncomfortable truths. And we will use the technology to connect with -- and listen to -- the voices of the people.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "In the face of these challenges, too many leaders in the region tried to direct their people's grievances elsewhere. The West was blamed as the source of all ills, a half-century after the end of colonialism. Antagonism toward Israel became the only acceptable outlet for political expression. Divisions of tribe, ethnicity and religious sect were manipulated as a means of holding on to power, or taking it away from somebody else.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Unfortunately, in too many countries, calls for change have thus far been answered by violence. The most extreme example is Libya, where Muammar Qaddafi launched a war against his own people, promising to hunt them down like rats. As I said when the United States joined an international coalition to intervene, we cannot prevent every injustice perpetrated by a regime against its people, and we have learned from our experience in Iraq just how costly and difficult it is to try to impose regime change by force -- no matter how well-intentioned it may be.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "So while the core issues of the conflict must be negotiated, the basis of those negotiations is clear: a viable Palestine, a secure Israel. The United States believes that negotiations should result in two states, with permanent Palestinian borders with Israel, Jordan, and Egypt, and permanent Israeli borders with Palestine. We believe the borders of Israel and Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps, so that secure and recognized borders are established for both states. The Palestinian people must have the right to govern themselves, and reach their full potential, in a sovereign and contiguous state.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Nevertheless, we have insisted both publicly and privately that mass arrests and brute force are at odds with the universal rights of Bahrain's citizens, and we will -- and such steps will not make legitimate calls for reform go away. The only way forward is for the government and opposition to engage in a dialogue, and you can't have a real dialogue when parts of the peaceful opposition are in jail. The government must create the conditions for dialogue, and the opposition must participate to forge a just future for all Bahrainis.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "So that's step one towards restoring mobility: making sure our economy is growing faster. Step two is making sure we empower more Americans with the skills and education they need to compete in a highly competitive global economy.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "But while higher education may be the surest path to the middle class, it's not the only one. So we should offer our people the best technical education in the world. That's why we've worked to connect local businesses with community colleges, so that workers young and old can earn the new skills that earn them more money.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Number four, as I alluded to earlier, we still need targeted programs for the communities and workers that have been hit hardest by economic change and the Great Recession. These communities are no longer limited to the inner city. They're found in neighborhoods hammered by the housing crisis, manufacturing towns hit hard by years of plants packing up, landlocked rural areas where young folks oftentimes feel like they've got to leave just to find a job. There are communities that just aren't generating enough jobs anymore.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "And that means simplifying our corporate tax code in a way that closes wasteful loopholes and ends incentives to ship jobs overseas. And by broadening the base, we can actually lower rates to encourage more companies to hire here and use some of the money we save to create good jobs rebuilding our roads and our bridges and our airports, and all the infrastructure our businesses need.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "But here's an important point. The decades-long shifts in the economy have hurt all groups: poor and middle class; inner city and rural folks; men and women; and Americans of all races. And as a consequence, some of the social patterns that contribute to declining mobility that were once attributed to the urban poor -- that's a particular problem for the inner city: single-parent households or drug abuse -- it turns out now we're seeing that pop up everywhere.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "So what drives me as a grandson, a son, a father -- as an American -- is to make sure that every striving, hardworking, optimistic kid in America has the same incredible chance that this country gave me. It has been the driving force between everything we've done these past five years. And over the course of the next year, and for the rest of my presidency, that's where you should expect my administration to focus all our efforts.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "SAS in North Carolina offers childcare and sick leave. REI, a company my Secretary of the Interior used to run, offers retirement plans and strives to cultivate a good work balance. There are companies out there that do right by their workers. They recognize that paying a decent wage actually helps their bottom line, reduces turnover. It means workers have more money to spend, to save, maybe eventually start a business of their own.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Third, we need to set aside the belief that government cannot do anything about reducing inequality. It's true that government cannot prevent all the downsides of the technological change and global competition that are out there right now, and some of those forces are also some of the things that are helping us grow. And it's also true that some programs in the past, like welfare before it was reformed, were sometimes poorly designed, created disincentives to work.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "I know some worry immigration will change the very fabric of who we are, or take our jobs, or stick it to middle-class families at a time when they already feel like they've gotten the raw deal for over a decade. I hear these concerns. But that's not what these steps would do. Our history and the facts show that immigrants are a net plus for our economy and our society. And I believe it's important that all of us have this debate without impugning each other's character.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Over the past few years, I have seen the determination of immigrant fathers who worked two or three jobs without taking a dime from the government, and at risk any moment of losing it all, just to build a better life for their kids. I've seen the heartbreak and anxiety of children whose mothers might be taken away from them just because they didn't have the right papers. I've seen the courage of students who, except for the circumstances of their birth, are as American as Malia or Sasha; students who bravely come out as undocumented in hopes they could make a difference in the country they love.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Are we a nation that accepts the cruelty of ripping children from their parents' arms? Or are we a nation that values families, and works together to keep them together?", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Good evening. As we speak, our nation faces a multitude of challenges. At home, our top priority is to recover and rebuild from a recession that has touched the lives of nearly every American. Abroad, our brave men and women in uniform are taking the fight to al Qaeda wherever it exists. And tonight, I've returned from a trip to the Gulf Coast to speak with you about the battle we're waging against an oil spill that is assaulting our shores and our citizens.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "When Ken Salazar became my Secretary of the Interior, one of his very first acts was to clean up the worst of the corruption at this agency. But it's now clear that the problem there ran much deeper, and the pace of reform was just too slow. And so Secretary Salazar and I are bringing in new leadership at the agency -- Michael Bromwich, who was a tough federal prosecutor and Inspector General. And his charge over the next few months is to build an organization that acts as the oil industry's watchdog -- not its partner.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "I make that commitment tonight. Earlier, I asked Ray Mabus, the Secretary of the Navy, who is also a former governor of Mississippi and a son of the Gulf Coast, to develop a long-term Gulf Coast Restoration Plan as soon as possible. The plan will be designed by states, local communities, tribes, fishermen, businesses, conservationists and other Gulf residents. And BP will pay for the impact this spill has had on the region.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "On April 20th, an explosion ripped through BP Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, about 40 miles off the coast of Louisiana. Eleven workers lost their lives. Seventeen others were injured. And soon, nearly a mile beneath the surface of the ocean, oil began spewing into the water.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "It is our responsibility as lawmakers and as educators to make this system work. But it is the responsibility of every citizen to participate in it. So tonight I ask every American to commit to at least 1 year or more of higher education or career training. This can be community college or a 4-year school, vocational training or an apprenticeship. But whatever the training may be, every American will need to get more than a high school diploma.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Over the next 2 years, this plan will save or create 3.5 million jobs. More than 90 percent of these jobs will be in the private sector: jobs rebuilding our roads and bridges, constructing wind turbines and solar panels, laying broadband and expanding mass transit.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Now, if we're honest with ourselves, we'll admit that for too long, we have not always met these responsibilities as a Government or as a people. I say this not to lay blame or to look backwards, but because it is only by understanding how we arrived at this moment that we'll be able to lift ourselves out of this predicament.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "The recovery plan and the financial stability plan are the immediate steps we're taking to revive our economy in the short term. But the only way to fully restore America's economic strength is to make the long-term investments that will lead to new jobs, new industries, and a renewed ability to compete with the rest of the world. The only way this century will be another American century is if we confront at last the price of our dependence on oil and the high cost of health care, the schools that aren't preparing our children and the mountain of debt they stand to inherit. That is our responsibility.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Now, none of this will come without cost, nor will it be easy. But this is America. We don't do what's easy. We do what's necessary to move this country forward.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Already, we've done more to advance the cause of health care reform in the last 30 days than we've done in the last decade. When it was days old, this Congress passed a law to provide and protect health insurance for 11 million American children whose parents work full time. Our recovery plan will invest in electronic health records, a new technology that will reduce errors, bring down costs, ensure privacy, and save lives. It will launch a new effort to conquer a disease that has touched the life of nearly every American, including me, by seeking a cure for cancer in our time. And it makes the largest investment ever in preventive care, because that's one of the best ways to keep our people healthy and our costs under control.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "But to truly transform our economy, to protect our security, and save our planet from the ravages of climate change, we need to ultimately make clean, renewable energy the profitable kind of energy. So I ask this Congress to send me legislation that places a market-based cap on carbon pollution and drives the production of more renewable energy in America. That's what we need. And to support that innovation, we will invest $15 billion a year to develop technologies like wind power and solar power, advanced biofuels, clean coal, and more efficient cars and trucks built right here in America.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "The fact is, our economy did not fall into decline overnight, nor did all of our problems begin when the housing market collapsed or the stock market sank. We have known for decades that our survival depends on finding new sources of energy, yet we import more oil today than ever before. The cost of health care eats up more and more of our savings each year, yet we keep delaying reform. Our children will compete for jobs in a global economy that too many of our schools do not prepare them for. And though all these challenges went unsolved, we still managed to spend more money and pile up more debt, both as individuals and through our Government, than ever before.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "In light of the Cultural Revolution's horrors, Nixon's meeting with Mao appeared inexcusable -- and yet it surely helped set China on a path where millions of its citizens have been lifted from poverty and connected to open societies. Pope John Paul's engagement with Poland created space not just for the Catholic Church, but for labor leaders like Lech Walesa. Ronald Reagan's efforts on arms control and embrace of perestroika not only improved relations with the Soviet Union, but empowered dissidents throughout Eastern Europe. There's no simple formula here. But we must try as best we can to balance isolation and engagement, pressure and incentives, so that human rights and dignity are advanced over time.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Still, we are at war, and I'm responsible for the deployment of thousands of young Americans to battle in a distant land. Some will kill, and some will be killed. And so I come here with an acute sense of the costs of armed conflict -- filled with difficult questions about the relationship between war and peace, and our effort to replace one with the other.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "I receive this honor with deep gratitude and great humility. It is an award that speaks to our highest aspirations -- that for all the cruelty and hardship of our world, we are not mere prisoners of fate. Our actions matter, and can bend history in the direction of justice.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Let me make one final point about the use of force. Even as we make difficult decisions about going to war, we must also think clearly about how we fight it. The Nobel Committee recognized this truth in awarding its first prize for peace to Henry Dunant -- the founder of the Red Cross, and a driving force behind the Geneva Conventions.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "But the world must remember that it was not simply international institutions -- not just treaties and declarations -- that brought stability to a post-World War II world. Whatever mistakes we have made, the plain fact is this: The United States of America has helped underwrite global security for more than six decades with the blood of our citizens and the strength of our arms. The service and sacrifice of our men and women in uniform has promoted peace and prosperity from Germany to Korea, and enabled democracy to take hold in places like the Balkans. We have borne this burden not because we seek to impose our will. We have done so out of enlightened self-interest -- because we seek a better future for our children and grandchildren, and we believe that their lives will be better if others' children and grandchildren can live in freedom and prosperity.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Moreover, wars between nations have increasingly given way to wars within nations. The resurgence of ethnic or sectarian conflicts; the growth of secessionist movements, insurgencies, and failed states -- all these things have increasingly trapped civilians in unending chaos. In today's wars, many more civilians are killed than soldiers; the seeds of future conflict are sown, economies are wrecked, civil societies torn asunder, refugees amassed, children scarred.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "In other words, we live in a global economy that is largely of our own making. And today, the competition for the best jobs and industries favors countries that are free-thinking and forward-looking; countries with the most creative and innovative and entrepreneurial citizens.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Together, we have met great challenges. But as we enter this new chapter in our shared history, profound challenges stretch before us. In a world where the prosperity of all nations is now inextricably linked, a new era of cooperation is required to ensure the growth and stability of the global economy. As new threats spread across borders and oceans, we must dismantle terrorist networks and stop the spread of nuclear weapons, confront climate change and combat famine and disease. And as a revolution races through the streets of the Middle East and North Africa, the entire world has a stake in the aspirations of a generation that longs to determine its own destiny.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "The reason for this close friendship doesn't just have to do with our shared history, our shared heritage; our ties of language and culture; or even the strong partnership between our governments. Our relationship is special because of the values and beliefs that have united our people through the ages.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "That is what defines us. That is why the young men and women in the streets of Damascus and Cairo still reach for the rights our citizens enjoy, even if they sometimes differ with our policies. As two of the most powerful nations in the history of the world, we must always remember that the true source of our influence hasn't just been the size of our economies, or the reach of our militaries, or the land that we've claimed. It has been the values that we must never waver in defending around the world -- the idea that all beings are endowed by our Creator with certain rights that cannot be denied.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "That is what forged our bond in the fire of war -- a bond made manifest by the friendship between two of our greatest leaders. Churchill and Roosevelt had their differences. They were keen observers of each other's blind spots and shortcomings, if not always their own, and they were hard-headed about their ability to remake the world. But what joined the fates of these two men at that particular moment in history was not simply a shared interest in victory on the battlefield. It was a shared belief in the ultimate triumph of human freedom and human dignity -- a conviction that we have a say in how this story ends.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "We do this knowing that the West must overcome suspicion and mistrust among many in the Middle East and North Africa -- a mistrust that is rooted in a difficult past. For years, we've faced charges of hypocrisy from those who do not enjoy the freedoms that they hear us espouse. And so to them, we must squarely acknowledge that, yes, we have enduring interests in the region -- to fight terror, sometimes with partners who may not be perfect; to protect against disruptions of the world's energy supply. But we must also insist that we reject as false the choice between our interests and our ideals; between stability and democracy. For our idealism is rooted in the realities of history -- that repression offers only the false promise of stability, that societies are more successful when their citizens are free, and that democracies are the closest allies we have.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even one term, but America - I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you - we as a people will get there.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "When the bombs fell on our harbor and tyranny threatened the world, she was there to witness a generation rise to greatness and a democracy was saved. Yes we can.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "I was never the likeliest candidate for this office. We didn't start with much money or many endorsements. Our campaign was not hatched in the halls of Washington - it began in the backyards of Des Moines and the living rooms of Concord and the front porches of Charleston.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "But even as we mark this important milestone, we're also moving into a new phase in the relationship between the United States and Iraq. As of January 1st, and in keeping with our Strategic Framework Agreement with Iraq, it will be a normal relationship between sovereign nations, an equal partnership based on mutual interests and mutual respect.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "A New Jersey native, Phyllis Schneck retired to Tucson to beat the snow. But in the summer, she would return East, where her world revolved around her three children, her seven grandchildren and 2-year-old great-granddaughter. A gifted quilter, she'd often work under a favorite tree, or sometimes she'd sew aprons with the logos of the Jets and the Giants to give out at the church where she volunteered. A Republican, she took a liking to Gabby, and wanted to get to know her better.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "The loss of these wonderful people should make every one of us strive to be better. To be better in our private lives, to be better friends and neighbors and coworkers and parents. And if, as has been discussed in recent days, their death helps usher in more civility in our public discourse, let us remember it is not because a simple lack of civility caused this tragedy -- it did not -- but rather because only a more civil and honest public discourse can help us face up to the challenges of our nation in a way that would make them proud.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "I want to live up to her expectations. I want our democracy to be as good as Christina imagined it. I want America to be as good as she imagined it. All of us -- we should do everything we can to make sure this country lives up to our children's expectations.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "And then there is nine-year-old Christina Taylor Green. Christina was an A student; she was a dancer; she was a gymnast; she was a swimmer. She decided that she wanted to be the first woman to play in the Major Leagues, and as the only girl on her Little League team, no one put it past her.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "I do not make this decision lightly. I opposed the war in Iraq precisely because I believe that we must exercise restraint in the use of military force, and always consider the long-term consequences of our actions. We have been at war now for eight years, at enormous cost in lives and resources. Years of debate over Iraq and terrorism have left our unity on national security issues in tatters, and created a highly polarized and partisan backdrop for this effort. And having just experienced the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, the American people are understandably focused on rebuilding our economy and putting people to work here at home.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "And finally, we must draw on the strength of our values -- for the challenges that we face may have changed, but the things that we believe in must not. That's why we must promote our values by living them at home -- which is why I have prohibited torture and will close the prison at Guantanamo Bay. And we must make it clear to every man, woman and child around the world who lives under the dark cloud of tyranny that America will speak out on behalf of their human rights, and tend to the light of freedom and justice and opportunity and respect for the dignity of all peoples. That is who we are. That is the source, the moral source, of America's authority.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Now, let me be clear: None of this will be easy. The struggle against violent extremism will not be finished quickly, and it extends well beyond Afghanistan and Pakistan. It will be an enduring test of our free society, and our leadership in the world. And unlike the great power conflicts and clear lines of division that defined the 20th century, our effort will involve disorderly regions, failed states, diffuse enemies.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Then, in early 2003, the decision was made to wage a second war, in Iraq. The wrenching debate over the Iraq war is well-known and need not be repeated here. It's enough to say that for the next six years, the Iraq war drew the dominant share of our troops, our resources, our diplomacy, and our national attention -- and that the decision to go into Iraq caused substantial rifts between America and much of the world.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "This review is now complete. And as Commander-in-Chief, I have determined that it is in our vital national interest to send an additional 30,000 U. S. troops to Afghanistan. After 18 months, our troops will begin to come home. These are the resources that we need to seize the initiative, while building the Afghan capacity that can allow for a responsible transition of our forces out of Afghanistan.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "In this effort, we draw inspiration from our fellow Americans who have sacrificed so much on our behalf. To our troops, our veterans and their families, I speak for all Americans when I say that we will keep our sacred trust with you, and provide you with the care and benefits and opportunity that you deserve.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "We do know that peace cannot come to a land that has known so much war without a political settlement. So as we strengthen the Afghan government and security forces, America will join initiatives that reconcile the Afghan people, including the Taliban. Our position on these talks is clear: They must be led by the Afghan government, and those who want to be a part of a peaceful Afghanistan must break from al Qaeda, abandon violence, and abide by the Afghan constitution. But, in part because of our military effort, we have reason to believe that progress can be made.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Today, old adversaries are at peace, and emerging democracies are potential partners. New markets for our goods stretch from Asia to the Americas. A new push for peace in the Middle East will begin here tomorrow. Billions of young people want to move beyond the shackles of poverty and conflict. As the leader of the free world, America will do more than just defeat on the battlefield those who offer hatred and destruction -- we will also lead among those who are willing to work together to expand freedom and opportunity for all people.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "This year also saw Iraq hold credible elections that drew a strong turnout. A caretaker administration is in place as Iraqis form a government based on the results of that election. Tonight, I encourage Iraq's leaders to move forward with a sense of urgency to form an inclusive government that is just, representative, and accountable to the Iraqi people. And when that government is in place, there should be no doubt: The Iraqi people will have a strong partner in the United States. Our combat mission is ending, but our commitment to Iraq's future is not.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "The Americans who have served in Iraq completed every mission they were given. They defeated a regime that had terrorized its people. Together with Iraqis and coalition partners who made huge sacrifices of their own, our troops fought block by block to help Iraq seize the chance for a better future. They shifted tactics to protect the Iraqi people, trained Iraqi Security Forces, and took out terrorist leaders. Because of our troops and civilians -- and because of the resilience of the Iraqi people -- Iraq has the opportunity to embrace a new destiny, even though many challenges remain.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "The fact that Hizbollah's ally -- the Assad regime -- has stockpiles of chemical weapons only heightens the urgency. We will continue to cooperate closely to guard against that danger. I've made it clear to Bashar al-Assad and all who follow his orders: We will not tolerate the use of chemical weapons against the Syrian people, or the transfer of those weapons to terrorists. The world is watching; we will hold you accountable.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "It's a part of the three great religions -- Judaism, Christianity, and Islam -- that trace their origins to Abraham, and see Jerusalem as sacred. And it's a story that's inspired communities across the globe, including me and my fellow Americans.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "But Iran must know this time is not unlimited. And I've made the position of the United States of America clear: Iran must not get a nuclear weapon. This is not a danger that can be contained, and as President, I've said all options are on the table for achieving our objectives. America will do what we must to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "We bear all that history on our shoulders. We carry all that history in our hearts. Today, as we face the twilight of Israel's founding generation, you -- the young people of Israel", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "But today, Israel is at a crossroads. It can be tempting to put aside the frustrations and sacrifices that come with the pursuit of peace, particularly when Iron Dome repels rockets, barriers keep out suicide bombers. There's so many other pressing issues that demand your attention. And I know that only Israelis can make the fundamental decisions about your country's future. I recognize that.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "I know this is possible. Look to the bridges being built in business and civil society by some of you here today. Look at the young people who've not yet learned a reason to mistrust, or those young people who've learned to overcome a legacy of mistrust that they inherited from their parents, because they simply recognize that we hold more hopes in common than fears that drive us apart. Your voices must be louder than those who would drown out hope. Your hopes must light the way forward.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "And this truth is more pronounced given the changes sweeping the Arab world. I understand that with the uncertainty in the region -- people in the streets, changes in leadership, the rise of non-secular parties in politics -- it's tempting to turn inward, because the situation outside of Israel seems so chaotic. But this is precisely the time to respond to the wave of revolution with a resolve and commitment for peace. Because as more governments respond to popular will, the days when Israel could seek peace simply with a handful of autocratic leaders, those days are over. Peace will have to be made among peoples, not just governments.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Ben Gurion once said, \"In Israel, in order to be a realist you must believe in miracles.\" Sometimes, the greatest miracle is recognizing that the world can change. That's a lesson that the world has learned from the Jewish people.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "There will be many who say this change is not possible, but remember this -- Israel is the most powerful country in this region. Israel has the unshakeable support of the most powerful country in the world. Israel is not going anywhere. Israel has the wisdom to see the world as it is, but -- this is in your nature -- Israel also has the courage to see the world as it should be.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "And that's why I came here to Warrensburg today. I need you involved in this debate to remind Washington what's at stake. And over the next several weeks, in towns just like this one, I'm going to lay out my ideas for how we build on the cornerstones of what it means to be middle class, what it takes to work your way into the middle class -- a good job with good wages in durable, growing industries; a good education for our kids and our workers; a home to call your own; affordable health care that's there for you when you or your family members get sick a secure retirement even if you're not rich more ladders of opportunity for people who want to earn their way into the middle class as long as they're willing to work for it.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "So these are all good steps, but here's the problem -- and this is where what's happening at University of Central Missouri is so important. We can put more and more money into student loans, we can put more and more money into grants, but if college costs keep on going up, then there's never going to be enough money. I can keep student loan rates low, but if you're borrowing $80,000 for college, or $100,000 and you get out, it doesn't matter whether interest rate is 3.5 or 8.5, you're still going to have trouble repaying it. It'll take you longer to buy a house. If you've got an idea for a business, it's going to take you longer to invest in starting your business.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "So we can either throw up our hands and resign ourselves to lower living standards, or we can do what America has always done -- we can adapt, we can pull together, we can fight back, we can win. And if we don't invest in American education, then we're going to put our kids, our workers, our countries, our businesses at a competitive disadvantage. Because if you think it's -- if you think education is expensive, you should see how much ignorance is going to cost in the 21st century. It's going to be expensive.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "So we've got Mules in the house. We've got Jennies in the house. We've got governors, we've got senators, and now we've probably got some very confused people watching at home, because who is Jennie?", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "The bottom line is, Michelle and I want every child to have the same chance this country gave us. But we know our opportunity agenda won't be complete - and too many young people entering the workforce today will see the American Dream as an empty promise - unless we do more to make sure our economy honors the dignity of work, and hard work pays off for every single American.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "I'm also convinced we can help Americans return to the workforce faster by reforming unemployment insurance so that it's more effective in today's economy. But first, this Congress needs to restore the unemployment insurance you just let expire for 1.6 million people.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "The question for everyone in this chamber, running through every decision we make this year, is whether we are going to help or hinder this progress. For several years now, this town has been consumed by a rancorous argument over the proper size of the federal government. It's an important debate - one that dates back to our very founding. But when that debate prevents us from carrying out even the most basic functions of our democracy - when our differences shut down government or threaten the full faith and credit of the United States - then we are not doing right by the American people.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "The point is, there are millions of Americans outside Washington who are tired of stale political arguments, and are moving this country forward. They believe, and I believe, that here in America, our success should depend not on accident of birth, but the strength of our work ethic and the scope of our dreams. That's what drew our forebears here. It's how the daughter of a factory worker is CEO of America's largest automaker; how the son of a barkeeper is Speaker of the House; how the son of a single mom can be President of the greatest nation on Earth.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "So let's make that decision easier for more companies. Both Democrats and Republicans have argued that our tax code is riddled with wasteful, complicated loopholes that punish businesses investing here, and reward companies that keep profits abroad. Let's flip that equation. Let's work together to close those loopholes, end those incentives to ship jobs overseas, and lower tax rates for businesses that create jobs here at home.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Finally, let's remember that our leadership is defined not just by our defense against threats, but by the enormous opportunities to do good and promote understanding around the globe - to forge greater cooperation, to expand new markets, to free people from fear and want. And no one is better positioned to take advantage of those opportunities than America.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "A few months later, on his tenth deployment, Cory was nearly killed by a massive roadside bomb in Afghanistan. His comrades found him in a canal, face down, underwater, shrapnel in his brain.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "As usual, our First Lady sets a good example. Michelle's Let's Move partnership with schools, businesses, and local leaders has helped bring down childhood obesity rates for the first time in thirty years - an achievement that will improve lives and reduce health care costs for decades to come. The Joining Forces alliance that Michelle and Jill Biden launched has already encouraged employers to hire or train nearly 400,000 veterans and military spouses. Taking a page from that playbook, the White House just organized a College Opportunity Summit where already, 150 universities, businesses, and nonprofits have made concrete commitments to reduce inequality in access to higher education - and help every hardworking kid go to college and succeed when they get to campus. Across the country, we're partnering with mayors, governors, and state legislatures on issues from homelessness to marriage equality.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Now, I don't believe we should give the government or insurance companies more control over health care in America. I believe it's time to give you, the American people, more control over your own health insurance.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "She paid more than $4,000 in out-of-pocket medical costs, for co-pays and medical care and prescriptions. So all together, this woman paid $10,000 -- one year. But because she never hit her deductible, her insurance company only spent $900 on her care. So the insurance company is making -- getting $10,000; paying out $900. Now, what comes in the mail at the end of last year?", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Now, it is true that providing these tax credits to middle class families and small businesses, that's going to cost some money. It's going to cost about $100 billion per year. But most of this comes from the nearly $2.5 trillion a year that Americans already spend on health care. It's just right now, a lot of that money is being spent badly.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "You know, if you think about the debate around health care reform, there were some who wanted to scrap the system of private insurance and replace it with government-run care. And, look, that works in a number of places, but I did not see that being practical to help right away for people who really need it.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "We need courage. Did you hear what somebody just said? That's what we need. That's why I came here today. We need courage.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Tonight, I say to the American people, to Democrats and Republicans and Independents across this great land - enough! This moment - this election - is our chance to keep, in the 21st century, the American promise alive. Because next week, in Minnesota, the same party that brought you two terms of George Bush and Dick Cheney will ask this country for a third. And we are here because we love this country too much to let the next four years look like the last eight. On November 4th, we must stand up and say: \"Eight is enough.\"", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "I get it. I realize that I am not the likeliest candidate for this office. I don't fit the typical pedigree, and I haven't spent my career in the halls of Washington.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "I don't know what kind of lives John McCain thinks that celebrities lead, but this has been mine. These are my heroes. Theirs are the stories that shaped me. And it is on their behalf that I intend to win this election and keep our promise alive as President of the United States.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "That's the promise we need to keep. That's the change we need right now. So let me spell out exactly what that change would mean if I am President.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Let me express my thanks to the historic slate of candidates who accompanied me on this journey, and especially the one who traveled the farthest - a champion for working Americans and an inspiration to my daughters and to yours - Hillary Rodham Clinton. To President Clinton, who last night made the case for change as only he can make it; to Ted Kennedy, who embodies the spirit of service; and to the next Vice President of the United States, Joe Biden, I thank you. I am grateful to finish this journey with one of the finest statesmen of our time, a man at ease with everyone from world leaders to the conductors on the Amtrak train he still takes home every night.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "And you know what - it's worked before. Because it feeds into the cynicism we all have about government. When Washington doesn't work, all its promises seem empty. If your hopes have been dashed again and again, then it's best to stop hoping, and settle for what you already know.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "We may not agree on abortion, but surely we can agree on reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies in this country. The reality of gun ownership may be different for hunters in rural Ohio than for those plagued by gang-violence in Cleveland, but don't tell me we can't uphold the Second Amendment while keeping AK-47s out of the hands of criminals. I know there are differences on same-sex marriage, but surely we can agree that our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters deserve to visit the person they love in the hospital and to live lives free of discrimination. Passions fly on immigration, but I don't know anyone who benefits when a mother is separated from her infant child or an employer undercuts American wages by hiring illegal workers. This too is part of America's promise - the promise of a democracy where we can find the strength and grace to bridge divides and unite in common effort.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "And so, to my friends on the right, I ask you to reconcile your commitment to America's military might with a failure to act when a cause is so plainly just. To my friends on the left, I ask you to reconcile your belief in freedom and dignity for all people with those images of children writhing in pain, and going still on a cold hospital floor. For sometimes resolutions and statements of condemnation are simply not enough.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Over the past two years, what began as a series of peaceful protests against the repressive regime of Bashar al-Assad has turned into a brutal civil war. Over 100,000 people have been killed. Millions have fled the country. In that time, America has worked with allies to provide humanitarian support, to help the moderate opposition, and to shape a political settlement. But I have resisted calls for military action, because we cannot resolve someone else's civil war through force, particularly after a decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "This is not a world we should accept. This is what's at stake. And that is why, after careful deliberation, I determined that it is in the national security interests of the United States to respond to the Assad regime's use of chemical weapons through a targeted military strike. The purpose of this strike would be to deter Assad from using chemical weapons, to degrade his regime's ability to use them, and to make clear to the world that we will not tolerate their use.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "It's true that some of Assad's opponents are extremists. But al Qaeda will only draw strength in a more chaotic Syria if people there see the world doing nothing to prevent innocent civilians from being gassed to death. The majority of the Syrian people -- and the Syrian opposition we work with -- just want to live in peace, with dignity and freedom. And the day after any military action, we would redouble our efforts to achieve a political solution that strengthens those who reject the forces of tyranny and extremism.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "I just spoke with Governor Romney, and I congratulated him and Paul Ryan on a hard-fought campaign. We may have battled fiercely, but it's only because we love this country deeply, and we care so strongly about its future. From George to Lenore to their son Mitt, the Romney family has chosen to give back to America through public service, and that is a legacy that we honor and applaud tonight.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "That's why we do this. That's what politics can be. That's why elections matter. It's not small; it's big. It's important.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "You know, just over a decade ago, I gave a speech in Boston where I said there wasn't a liberal America or a conservative America; a black America or a white America -- but a United States of America. I said this because I had seen it in my own life, in a nation that gave someone like me a chance; because I grew up in Hawaii, a melting pot of races and customs; because I made Illinois my home -- a state of small towns, rich farmland, one of the world's great cities; a microcosm of the country where Democrats and Republicans and Independents, good people of every ethnicity and every faith, share certain bedrock values.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "So I know the good, and optimistic, and big-hearted generosity of the American people who every day live the idea that we are our brother's keeper and our sister's keeper. And I know they expect those of us who serve here to set a better example.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "And in fact, at every moment of economic change throughout our history, this country has taken bold action to adapt to new circumstances and to make sure everyone gets a fair shot. We set up worker protections, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid to protect ourselves from the harshest adversity. We gave our citizens schools and colleges, infrastructure and the Internet -- tools they needed to go as far as their effort and their dreams will take them.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "So no one knows for certain which industries will generate the jobs of the future. But we do know we want them here in America. We know that. And that's why the third part of middle-class economics is all about building the most competitive economy anywhere, the place where businesses want to locate and hire.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "In the Asia Pacific, we are modernizing alliances while making sure that other nations play by the rules -- in how they trade, how they resolve maritime disputes, how they participate in meeting common international challenges like nonproliferation and disaster relief. And no challenge -- no challenge -- poses a greater threat to future generations than climate change.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "In Beijing, we made a historic announcement: The United States will double the pace at which we cut carbon pollution. And China committed, for the first time, to limiting their emissions. And because the world's two largest economies came together, other nations are now stepping up, and offering hope that this year the world will finally reach an agreement to protect the one planet we've got.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "As His Holiness, Pope Francis, has said, diplomacy is the work of \"small steps.\" These small steps have added up to new hope for the future in Cuba. And after years in prison, we are overjoyed that Alan Gross is back where he belongs. Welcome home, Alan. We're glad you're here.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "At the same time, we've learned some costly lessons over the last 13 years. Instead of Americans patrolling the valleys of Afghanistan, we've trained their security forces, who have now taken the lead, and we've honored our troops' sacrifice by supporting that country's first democratic transition. Instead of sending large ground forces overseas, we're partnering with nations from South Asia to North Africa to deny safe haven to terrorists who threaten America.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Second, we're demonstrating the power of American strength and diplomacy. We're upholding the principle that bigger nations can't bully the small -- by opposing Russian aggression, and supporting Ukraine's democracy, and reassuring our NATO allies.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Over the course of centuries, black churches served as \"hush harbors\" where slaves could worship in safety; praise houses where their free descendants could gather and shout hallelujah rest stops for the weary along the Underground Railroad; bunkers for the foot soldiers of the Civil Rights Movement. They have been, and continue to be, community centers where we organize for jobs and justice; places of scholarship and network; places where children are loved and fed and kept out of harm's way, and told that they are beautiful and smart and taught that they matter. That's what happens in church.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "I cannot claim to have the good fortune to know Reverend Pinckney well. But I did have the pleasure of knowing him and meeting him here in South Carolina, back when we were both a little bit younger. Back when I didn't have visible grey hair. The first thing I noticed was his graciousness, his smile, his reassuring baritone, his deceptive sense of humor -- all qualities that helped him wear so effortlessly a heavy burden of expectation.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "According to the Christian tradition, grace is not earned. Grace is not merited. It's not something we deserve. Rather, grace is the free and benevolent favor of God as manifested in the salvation of sinners and the bestowal of blessings. Grace.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "For too long, we were blind to the pain that the Confederate flag stirred in too many of our citizens. It's true, a flag did not cause these murders. But as people from all walks of life, Republicans and Democrats, now acknowledge -- including Governor Haley, whose recent eloquence on the subject is worthy of praise as we all have to acknowledge, the flag has always represented more than just ancestral pride. For many, black and white, that flag was a reminder of systemic oppression and racial subjugation. We see that now.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Violent extremists have exploited these tensions in a small, but potent minority of Muslims. The attacks of September 11, 2001, and the continued efforts of these extremists to engage in violence against civilians has led some in my country to view Islam as inevitably hostile not only to America and Western countries, but also to human rights. All this has bred more fear and more mistrust.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "The second major source of tension that we need to discuss is the situation between Israelis, Palestinians, and the Arab world. America's strong bonds with Israel are well known. This bond is unbreakable. It is based upon cultural and historical ties and the recognition that the aspiration for a Jewish homeland is rooted in a tragic history that cannot be denied.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Let me also address the issue of Iraq. Unlike Afghanistan, Iraq was a war of choice that provoked strong differences in my country and around the world. Although I believe that the Iraqi people are ultimately better off without the tyranny of Saddam Hussein, I also believe that events in Iraq have reminded America of the need to use diplomacy and build international consensus to resolve our problems whenever possible. Indeed, we can recall the words of Thomas Jefferson, who said: \"I hope that our wisdom will grow with our power and teach us that the less we use our power, the greater it will be.\"", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Now, there is no straight line to realize this promise, but this much is clear: Governments that protect these rights are ultimately more stable, successful, and secure. Suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away. America respects the right of all peaceful and law-abiding voices to be heard around the world, even if we disagree with them. And we will welcome all elected, peaceful governments, provided they govern with respect for all their people.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "On education, we will expand exchange programs and increase scholarships like the one that brought my father to America. At the same time, we will encourage more Americans to study in Muslim communities. And we will match promising Muslim students with internships in America, invest in online learning for teachers and children around the world, and create a new online network so a young person in Kansas can communicate instantly with a young person in Cairo.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "The first issue that we have to confront is violent extremism in all of its forms. In Ankara, I made clear that America is not, and never will be, at war with Islam. We will, however, relentlessly confront violent extremists who pose a grave threat to our security, because we reject the same thing that people of all faiths reject: the killing of innocent men, women, and children. And it is my first duty as President to protect the American people.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "All these things must be done in partnership. Americans are ready to join with citizens and governments, community organizations, religious leaders, and businesses in Muslim communities around the world to help our people pursue a better life.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Now, the question for me at least, and I think for a lot of folks, is where do we take this? How do we learn some lessons from this and move in a positive direction? I think it's understandable that there have been demonstrations and vigils and protests, and some of that stuff is just going to have to work its way through, as long as it remains nonviolent. If I see any violence, then I will remind folks that that dishonors what happened to Trayvon Martin and his family. But beyond protests or vigils, the question is, are there some concrete things that we might be able to do.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "I know that Eric Holder is reviewing what happened down there, but I think it's important for people to have some clear expectations here. Traditionally, these are issues of state and local government, the criminal code. And law enforcement is traditionally done at the state and local levels, not at the federal levels.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "So in signing this bill today, I intend to send a clear message: That making our economy work means making sure it works for everyone. That there are no second class citizens in our workplaces, and that it's not just unfair and illegal - but bad for business - to pay someone less because of their gender, age, race, ethnicity, religion or disability. And that justice isn't about some abstract legal theory, or footnote in a casebook - it's about how our laws affect the daily realities of people's lives: their ability to make a living and care for their families and achieve their goals.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Judge Sotomayor is a distinguished graduate of two of America's leading universities. She's been a big-city prosecutor and a corporate litigator. She spent six years as a trial judge on the U. S. District Court, and would replace Justice Souter as the only justice with experience as a trial judge, a perspective that would enrich the judgments of the Court.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Along the way she's faced down barriers, overcome the odds, lived out the American Dream that brought her parents here so long ago. And even as she has accomplished so much in her life, she has never forgotten where she began, never lost touch with the community that supported her.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "This approach is basically the one I've been advocating for months. In addition to the trillion dollars of spending cuts I've already signed into law, it's a balanced plan that would reduce the deficit by making additional spending cuts, by making modest adjustments to health care programs like Medicare and Medicaid, and by reforming our tax code in a way that asks the wealthiest Americans and biggest corporations to pay their fair share. What's more, the spending cuts wouldn't happen so abruptly that they'd be a drag on our economy, or prevent us from helping small businesses and middle-class families get back on their feet right away.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "But know this: The next election is 14 months away. And the people who sent us here -- the people who hired us to work for them -- they don't have the luxury of waiting 14 months. Some of them are living week to week, paycheck to paycheck, even day to day. They need help, and they need it now.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "No single individual built America on their own. We built it together. We have been, and always will be, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all; a nation with responsibilities to ourselves and with responsibilities to one another. And members of Congress, it is time for us to meet our responsibilities.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "For decades now, Americans have watched that compact erode. They have seen the decks too often stacked against them. And they know that Washington has not always put their interests first.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "obama", "text": "Now, I realize that some of you have a different theory on how to grow the economy. Some of you sincerely believe that the only solution to our economic challenges is to simply cut most government spending and eliminate most government regulations.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "President Thomas Jefferson once wrote, \"I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.\" As I leave the house he occupied two centuries ago, I share that optimism. America is a young country, full of vitality, constantly growing and renewing itself. And even in the toughest times, we lift our eyes to the broad horizon ahead.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "When he visited the White House in March, we talked about the AIDS pandemic. We agreed on a goal of creating a global fund to fight HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. The G-8 has been discussing the potential fund.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "It is now my honor to bring to the podium, the President of Nigeria. Mr. President.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "Our third priority is executing a comprehensive recovery effort. We're focusing on restoring power and lines of communication that have been knocked out during the storm. We'll be repairing major roads and bridges and other essential means of transportation as quickly as possible.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "I've just received an update from Secretary Chertoff and other Cabinet Secretaries involved on the latest developments in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. As we flew here today, I also asked the pilot to fly over the Gulf Coast region so I could see firsthand the scope and magnitude of the devastation.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "For the Palestinian people, the only path to independence and dignity and progress is the path of democracy. And the Palestinian leaders who block and undermine democratic reform, and feed hatred and encourage violence are not leaders at all. They're the main obstacles to peace, and to the success of the Palestinian people.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "The advance of freedom is the calling of our time; it is the calling of our country. From the Fourteen Points to the Four Freedoms, to the Speech at Westminster, America has put our power at the service of principle. We believe that liberty is the design of nature; we believe that liberty is the direction of history. We believe that human fulfillment and excellence come in the responsible exercise of liberty. And we believe that freedom -- the freedom we prize -- is not for us alone, it is the right and the capacity of all mankind.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "The Saudi government is taking first steps toward reform, including a plan for gradual introduction of elections. By giving the Saudi people a greater role in their own society, the Saudi government can demonstrate true leadership in the region.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "We've witnessed, in little over a generation, the swiftest advance of freedom in the 2,500 year story of democracy. Historians in the future will offer their own explanations for why this happened. Yet we already know some of the reasons they will cite. It is no accident that the rise of so many democracies took place in a time when the world's most influential nation was itself a democracy.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "Thank you very much, General Lennox. Mr. Secretary, Governor Pataki, members of the United States Congress, Academy staff and faculty, distinguished guests, proud family members, and graduates: I want to thank you for your welcome. Laura and I are especially honored to visit this great institution in your bicentennial year.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "We cannot defend America and our friends by hoping for the best. We cannot put our faith in the word of tyrants, who solemnly sign non-proliferation treaties, and then systemically break them. If we wait for threats to fully materialize, we will have waited too long.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "I am proud of the men and women who have fought on my orders. America is profoundly grateful for all who serve the cause of freedom, and for all who have given their lives in its defense. This nation respects and trusts our military, and we are confident in your victories to come.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "Building this just peace is America's opportunity, and America's duty. From this day forward, it is your challenge, as well, and we will meet this challenge together. You will wear the uniform of a great and unique country. America has no empire to extend or utopia to establish. We wish for others only what we wish for ourselves -- safety from violence, the rewards of liberty, and the hope for a better life.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "I recognize that 2018 and 2042 may seem like a long way off. But those dates are not so distant, as any parent will tell you. If you have a 5-year-old, you're already concerned about how you'll pay for college tuition 13 years down the road. If you've got children in their 20s, as some of us do, the idea of Social Security collapsing before they retire does not seem like a small matter. And it should not be a small matter to the United States Congress.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "America's prosperity requires restraining the spending appetite of the federal government. I welcome the bipartisan enthusiasm for spending discipline. So next week I will send you a budget that holds the growth of discretionary spending below inflation, makes tax relief permanent, and stays on track to cut the deficit in half by 2009. My budget substantially reduces or eliminates more than 150 government programs that are not getting results, or duplicate current efforts, or do not fulfill essential priorities. The principle here is clear: a taxpayer dollar must be spent wisely, or not at all.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "You and I share a responsibility. We must pass reforms that solve the financial problems of Social Security once and for all.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "As we fix Social Security, we also have the responsibility to make the system a better deal for younger workers. And the best way to reach that goal is through voluntary personal retirement accounts. Here is how the idea works. Right now, a set portion of the money you earn is taken out of your paycheck to pay for the Social Security benefits of today's retirees. If you are a younger worker, I believe you should be able to set aside part of that money in your own retirement account, so you can build a nest egg for your own future.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "All these proposals are essential to expand this economy and add new jobs--but they are just the beginning of our duty. To build the prosperity of future generations, we must update institutions that were created to meet the needs of an earlier time. Year after year, Americans are burdened by an archaic, incoherent federal tax code. I have appointed a bipartisan panel to examine the tax code from top to bottom. And when their recommendations are delivered, you and I will work together to give this nation a tax code that is pro-growth, easy to understand, and fair to all.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "One of the bills Congress has passed builds on the progress we have made over the last five years. So I signed it into law. Congress has also passed a second bill that attempts to overturn the balanced policy I set. This bill would support the taking of innocent human life in the hope of finding medical benefits for others. It crosses a moral boundary that our decent society needs to respect, so I vetoed it.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "Like all Americans, I believe our nation must vigorously pursue the tremendous possibility that science offers to cure disease and improve the lives of millions. We have opportunities to discover cures and treatments that were unthinkable generations ago. Some scientists believe that one source of these cures might be embryonic stem cell research. Embryonic stem cells have the ability to grow into specialized adult tissues, and this may give them the potential to replace damaged or defective cells or body parts and treat a variety of diseases.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "In America's ideal of freedom, the exercise of rights is ennobled by service and mercy and a heart for the weak. Liberty for all does not mean independence from one another. Our Nation relies on men and women who look after a neighbor and surround the lost with love. Americans, at our best, value the life we see in one another and must always remember that even the unwanted have worth. And our country must abandon all the habits of racism, because we cannot carry the message of freedom and the baggage of bigotry at the same time.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "We go forward with complete confidence in the eventual triumph of freedom, not because history runs on the wheels of inevitability - it is human choices that move events; not because we consider ourselves a chosen nation - God moves and chooses as He wills. We have confidence because freedom is the permanent hope of mankind, the hunger in dark places, the longing of the soul. When our Founders declared a new order of the ages, when soldiers died in wave upon wave for a union based on liberty, when citizens marched in peaceful outrage under the banner \"Freedom Now,\" they were acting on an ancient hope that is meant to be fulfilled. History has an ebb and flow of justice, but history also has a visible direction, set by liberty and the Author of Liberty.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "They want to overthrow existing governments in many Muslim countries, such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan. They want to drive Israel out of the Middle East. They want to drive Christians and Jews out of vast regions of Asia and Africa.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "Nor will we forget the citizens of 80 other nations who died with our own: dozens of Pakistanis; more than 130 Israelis; more than 250 citizens of India; men and women from El Salvador, Iran, Mexico and Japan; and hundreds of British citizens. America has no truer friend than Great Britain. Once again, we are joined together in a great cause--so honored the British Prime Minister has crossed an ocean to show his unity of purpose with America. Thank you for coming, friend.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "And tonight I also announce a distinguished American to lead this effort, to strengthen American security: a military veteran, an effective governor, a true patriot, a trusted friend--Pennsylvania's Tom Ridge. He will lead, oversee and coordinate a comprehensive national strategy to safeguard our country against terrorism, and respond to any attacks that may come.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "These demands are not open to negotiation or discussion. The Taliban must act, and act immediately. They will hand over the terrorists, or they will share in their fate.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "After all that has just passed--all the lives taken, and all the possibilities and hopes that died with them--it is natural to wonder if America's future is one of fear. Some speak of an age of terror. I know there are struggles ahead, and dangers to face. But this country will define our times, not be defined by them. As long as the United States of America is determined and strong, this will not be an age of terror; this will be an age of liberty, here and across the world.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "The course of this conflict is not known, yet its outcome is certain. Freedom and fear, justice and cruelty, have always been at war, and we know that God is not neutral between them.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "Today I announce that my administration plans to make $500 million available to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV. This new effort, which will be funded during the next 16 months, will allow us to treat one million women annually, and reduce mother-to-child transmission by 40 percent within five years or less in target countries.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "We'll help build better health care systems by pairing hospitals in America and hospitals in Africa, so that African hospitals can gain more expertise in administering effective AIDS programs. We'll also send volunteer medical professionals from the United States to assist and train their African counterparts. And we will recruit and pay African medical and graduate students to provide testing, treatment and care.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "An ethicist dismissed that as a callous attempt at rationalization. Make no mistake, he told me, that cluster of cells is the same way you and I, and all the rest of us, started our lives. One goes with a heavy heart if we use these, he said, because we are dealing with the seeds of the next generation.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "This council will keep us apprised of new developments and give our nation a forum to continue to discuss and evaluate these important issues. As we go forward, I hope we will always be guided by both intellect and heart, by both our capabilities and our conscience.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "As the discoveries of modern science create tremendous hope, they also lay vast ethical mine fields. As the genius of science extends the horizons of what we can do, we increasingly confront complex questions about what we should do. We have arrived at that brave new world that seemed so distant in 1932, when Aldous Huxley wrote about human beings created in test tubes in what he called a \"hatchery.\"", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "I will also name a President's council to monitor stem cell research, to recommend appropriate guidelines and regulations, and to consider all of the medical and ethical ramifications of biomedical innovation. This council will consist of leading scientists, doctors, ethicists, lawyers, theologians and others, and will be chaired by Dr. Leon Kass, a leading biomedical ethicist from the University of Chicago.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "This is the end of a legislative process. Signing this bill is the end of a long, long time of people sitting in rooms trying to hammer out differences. It's a great symbol of what is possible in Washington when good people come together to do what's right. But it's just the beginning of change. And now it's up to you, the local citizens of our great land, the compassionate, decent citizens of America, to stand up and demand high standards, and to demand that no child -- not one single child in America -- is left behind.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "If we've learned anything over the last generations, money alone doesn't make a good school. It certainly helps. But as John mentioned, we've spent billions of dollars with lousy results. So now it's time to spend billions of dollars and get good results.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "The third principle of this bill is that we have got to trust the local folks on how to achieve standards, to meet the standards. In Washington, there's some smart people there, but the people who care most about the children in Hamilton are the citizens of Hamilton. The people who care most about the children in this school are the teachers and parents and school board members. And therefore, schools not only have the responsibility to improve, they now have the freedom to improve.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "In the life of this nation, we have often been reminded that nature is an awesome force, and that all life is fragile. We're the heirs of men and women who lived through those first terrible winters at Jamestown and Plymouth, who rebuilt Chicago after a great fire, and San Francisco after a great earthquake, who reclaimed the prairie from the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. Every time, the people of this land have come back from fire, flood, and storm to build anew -- and to build better than what we had before. Americans have never left our destiny to the whims of nature -- and we will not start now.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "And to help lower-income citizens in the hurricane region build new and better lives, I also propose that Congress pass an Urban Homesteading Act. Under this approach, we will identify property in the region owned by the federal government, and provide building sites to low-income citizens free of charge, through a lottery. In return, they would pledge to build on the lot, with either a mortgage or help from a charitable organization like Habitat for Humanity. Home ownership is one of the great strengths of any community, and it must be a central part of our vision for the revival of this region.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "In the long run, the New Orleans area has a particular challenge, because much of the city lies below sea level. The people who call it home need to have reassurance that their lives will be safer in the years to come. Protecting a city that sits lower than the water around it is not easy, but it can, and has been done. City and parish officials in New Orleans, and state officials in Louisiana will have a large part in the engineering decisions to come. And the Army Corps of Engineers will work at their side to make the flood protection system stronger than it has ever been.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "Our first commitment is to meet the immediate needs of those who had to flee their homes and leave all their possessions behind. For these Americans, every night brings uncertainty, every day requires new courage, and in the months to come will bring more than their fair share of struggles.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "We've accomplished much in the last year -- in Afghanistan and beyond. We have much yet to do -- in Afghanistan and beyond. Many nations represented here have joined in the fight against global terror, and the people of the United States are grateful.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "If the Iraqi regime wishes peace, it will immediately end all illicit trade outside the oil-for-food program. It will accept U. N. administration of funds from that program, to ensure that the money is used fairly and promptly for the benefit of the Iraqi people.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "If we meet our responsibilities, if we overcome this danger, we can arrive at a very different future. The people of Iraq can shake off their captivity. They can one day join a democratic Afghanistan and a democratic Palestine, inspiring reforms throughout the Muslim world. These nations can show by their example that honest government, and respect for women, and the great Islamic tradition of learning can triumph in the Middle East and beyond. And we will show that the promise of the United Nations can be fulfilled in our time.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "This election will not mean the end of violence. But it is the beginning of something new: constitutional democracy at the heart of the Middle East. And this vote -- 6,000 miles away, in a vital region of the world -- means that America has an ally of growing strength in the fight against terror.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "First, our coalition will remain on the offense -- finding and clearing out the enemy, transferring control of more territory to Iraqi units, and building up the Iraqi security forces so they can increasingly lead the fight. At this time last year, there were only a handful of Iraqi army and police battalions ready for combat. Now, there are more than 125 Iraqi combat battalions fighting the enemy, more than 50 are taking the lead, and we have transferred more than a dozen military bases to Iraqi control.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "The terrorists will continue to have the coward's power to plant roadside bombs and recruit suicide bombers. And you will continue to see the grim results on the evening news. This proves that the war is difficult -- it doesn't mean that we are losing. Behind the images of chaos that terrorists create for the cameras, we are making steady gains with a clear objective in view.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "Thank you for listening. Good night, and may God bless America.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "Every day in this war will not bring the drama of liberating a country. Yet every day brings new information, a tip or arrest, another step, or two, or three in a relentless march to bring security to our nation and justice to our enemies.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "The reason to create this department is not to create the size of government, but to increase its focus and effectiveness. The staff of this new department will be largely drawn from the agencies we are combining. By ending duplication and overlap, we will spend less on overhead, and more on protecting America. This reorganization will give the good people of our government their best opportunity to succeed by organizing our resources in a way that is thorough and unified.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "A future of hope and opportunity requires a fair, impartial system of justice. The lives of our citizens across our nation are affected by the outcome of cases pending in our federal courts. We have a shared obligation to ensure that the federal courts have enough judges to hear those cases and deliver timely rulings. As President, I have a duty to nominate qualified men and women to vacancies on the federal bench, and the United States Senate has a duty as well, to give those nominees a fair hearing and a prompt up-or-down vote on the Senate floor.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "The Shi'a and Sunni extremists are different faces of the same totalitarian threat. Whatever slogans they chant when they slaughter the innocent, they have the same wicked purposes. They want to kill Americans, kill democracy in the Middle East, and gain the weapons to kill on an even more horrific scale.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "Extending hope and opportunity depends on a stable supply of energy that keeps America's economy running and America's environment clean. For too long, our nation has been dependent on foreign oil. And this dependence leaves us more vulnerable to hostile regimes and to terrorists who could cause huge disruptions of oil shipments and raise the price of oil and do great harm to our economy.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "Every success against the terrorists is a reminder of the shoreless ambitions of this enemy. The evil that inspired and rejoiced in 9/11 is still at work in the world. And so long as that's the case, America is still a nation at war.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "We're carrying out a new strategy in Iraq, a plan that demands more from Iraq's elected government and gives our forces in Iraq the reinforcements they need to complete their mission. Our goal is a democratic Iraq that upholds the rule of law, respects the rights of its people, provides them security, and is an ally in the war on terror.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "I appreciate the members of citizen groups who have joined us today. Chairman of the Hispanic Alliance for Progress, Manny Lujan. Gil Moreno, the President and CEO of the Association for the Advancement of Mexican Americans. Roberto De Posada, the President of the Latino Coalition. And Hector Flores, the President of LULAC.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "This program expects temporary workers to return permanently to their home countries after their period of work in the United States has expired. And there should be financial incentives for them to do so. I will work with foreign governments on a plan to give temporary workers credit, when they enter their own nation's retirement system, for the time they have worked in America. I also support making it easier for temporary workers to contribute a portion of their earnings to tax-preferred savings accounts, money they can collect as they return to their native countries. After all, in many of those countries, a small nest egg is what is necessary to start their own business, or buy some land for their family.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "In the process of immigration reform, we must also set high expectations for what new citizens should know. An understanding of what it means to be an American is not a formality in the naturalization process, it is essential to full participation in our democracy. My administration will examine the standard of knowledge in the current citizenship test. We must ensure that new citizens know not only the facts of our history, but the ideals that have shaped our history. Every citizen of America has an obligation to learn the values that make us one nation: liberty and civic responsibility, equality under God, and tolerance for others.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "We are now acting because the risks of inaction would be far greater. In one year, or five years, the power of Iraq to inflict harm on all free nations would be multiplied many times over. With these capabilities, Saddam Hussein and his terrorist allies could choose the moment of deadly conflict when they are strongest. We choose to meet that threat now, where it arises, before it can appear suddenly in our skies and cities.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "Our government is on heightened watch against these dangers. Just as we are preparing to ensure victory in Iraq, we are taking further actions to protect our homeland. In recent days, American authorities have expelled from the country certain individuals with ties to Iraqi intelligence services. Among other measures, I have directed additional security of our airports, and increased Coast Guard patrols of major seaports. The Department of Homeland Security is working closely with the nation's governors to increase armed security at critical facilities across America.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "As we enforce the just demands of the world, we will also honor the deepest commitments of our country. Unlike Saddam Hussein, we believe the Iraqi people are deserving and capable of human liberty. And when the dictator has departed, they can set an example to all the Middle East of a vital and peaceful and self-governing nation.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "I am pleased that members of Congress are working on earmark reform, because the federal budget has too many special interest projects. And we can tackle this problem together, if you pass the line-item veto.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "Thank you all. Mr. Speaker, Vice President Cheney, members of Congress, members of the Supreme Court and diplomatic corps, distinguished guests, and fellow citizens:", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "Keeping America competitive requires affordable health care. Our government has a responsibility to provide health care for the poor and the elderly, and we are meeting that responsibility. For all Americans, we must confront the rising cost of care, strengthen the doctor-patient relationship, and help people afford the insurance coverage they need.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "Third, we need to encourage children to take more math and science, and to make sure those courses are rigorous enough to compete with other nations. We've made a good start in the early grades with the No Child Left Behind Act, which is raising standards and lifting test scores across our country. Tonight I propose to train 70,000 high school teachers to lead advanced-placement courses in math and science, bring 30,000 math and science professionals to teach in classrooms, and give early help to students who struggle with math, so they have a better chance at good, high-wage jobs. If we ensure that America's children succeed in life, they will ensure that America succeeds in the world.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "A hopeful society has institutions of science and medicine that do not cut ethical corners and that recognize the matchless value of every life. Tonight I ask you to pass legislation to prohibit the most egregious abuses of medical research: Human cloning in all its forms; creating or implanting embryos for experiments; creating human-animal hybrids; and buying, selling, or patenting human embryos. Human life is a gift from our Creator, and that gift should never be discarded, devalued, or put up for sale.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "In New Orleans and in other places, many of our fellow citizens have felt excluded from the promise of our country. The answer is not only temporary relief but schools that teach every child and job skills that bring upward mobility and more opportunities to own a home and start a business. As we recover from a disaster, let us also work for the day when all Americans are protected by justice, equal in hope, and rich in opportunity.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "A hopeful society expects elected officials to uphold the public trust. Honorable people in both parties are working on reforms to strengthen the ethical standards of Washington. I support your efforts. Each of us has made a pledge to be worthy of public responsibility, and that is a pledge we must never forget, never dismiss, and never betray.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "And to keep America competitive, one commitment is necessary above all: We must continue to lead the world in human talent and creativity. Our greatest advantage in the world has always been our educated, hard-working, ambitious people. And we're going to keep that edge. Tonight I announce an American Competitiveness Initiative, to encourage innovation throughout our economy and to give our nation's children a firm grounding in math and science.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "This work continues. This story goes on. And an angel still rides in the whirlwind and directs this storm.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "The enemies of liberty and our country should make no mistake: America remains engaged in the world by history and by choice, shaping a balance of power that favors freedom. We will defend our allies and our interests. We will show purpose without arrogance. We will meet aggression and bad faith with resolve and strength. And to all nations, we will speak for the values that gave our nation birth.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "Americans are generous and strong and decent, not because we believe in ourselves, but because we hold beliefs beyond ourselves. When this spirit of citizenship is missing, no government program can replace it. When this spirit is present, no wrong can stand against it.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "We are not this story's author, who fills time and eternity with his purpose. Yet his purpose is achieved in our duty, and our duty is fulfilled in service to one another.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "Some might call this a good record. I call it a good start. Tonight I ask the House and the Senate to join me in the next bold steps to serve our fellow citizens.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "There are days when our fellow citizens do not hear news about the war on terror. There's never a day when I do not learn of another threat or receive reports of operations in progress or give an order in this global war against a scattered network of killers. The war goes on, and we are winning.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "In all these days of promise and days of reckoning, we can be confident. In a whirlwind of change and hope and peril, our faith is sure; our resolve is firm; and our Union is strong.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "To date, we've arrested or otherwise dealt with many key commanders of Al Qaeda. They include a man who directed logistics and funding for the September 11 attacks, the chief of Al Qaeda operations in the Persian Gulf who planned the bombings of our embassies in east Africa and the U. S. S. Cole, an Al Qaeda operations chief from Southeast Asia, a former director of Al Qaida's training camps in Afghanistan, a key Al Qaeda operative in Europe, a major Al Qaeda leader in Yemen. All told, more than 3,000 suspected terrorists have been arrested in many countries. Many others have met a different fate. Let's put it this way: They are no longer a problem to the United States and our friends and allies.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "May He guide us now. And may God continue to bless the United States of America.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "Tonight I have a message for the men and women who will keep the peace, members of the American armed forces: Many of you are assembling in or near the Middle East, and some crucial hours may lay ahead. In those hours, the success of our cause will depend on you. Your training has prepared you. Your honor will guide you. You believe in America, and America believes in you.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "Our fourth goal is to apply the compassion of America to the deepest problems of America. For so many in our country, the homeless and the fatherless, the addicted, the need is great. Yet there's power, wonder-working power, in the goodness and idealism and faith of the American people.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "Americans are a free people, who know that freedom is the right of every person and the future of every nation. The liberty we prize is not America's gift to the world, it is God's gift to humanity.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "Our war against terror is a contest of will in which perseverance is power. In the ruins of two towers, at the western wall of the Pentagon, on a field in Pennsylvania, this nation made a pledge, and we renew that pledge tonight: Whatever the duration of this struggle and whatever the difficulties, we will not permit the triumph of violence in the affairs of men; free people will set the course of history.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "In all these efforts, however, America's purpose is more than to follow a process; it is to achieve a result, the end of terrible threats to the civilized world. All free nations have a stake in preventing sudden and catastrophic attacks. And we're asking them to join us, and many are doing so. Yet the course of this nation does not depend on the decisions of others. Whatever action is required, whenever action is necessary, I will defend the freedom and security of the American people.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "But these are not ordinary circumstances. In the midst of a financial crisis and a recession, allowing the U. S. auto industry to collapse is not a responsible course of action. The question is how we can best give it a chance to succeed. Some argue the wisest path is to allow the auto companies to reorganize through Chapter 11 provisions of our bankruptcy laws -- and provide federal loans to keep them operating while they try to restructure under the supervision of a bankruptcy court. But given the current state of the auto industry and the economy, Chapter 11 is unlikely to work for American automakers at this time.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "The most urgent priority for success in Iraq is security, especially in Baghdad. Eighty percent of Iraq's sectarian violence occurs within 30 miles of the capital. This violence is splitting Baghdad into sectarian enclaves, and shaking the confidence of all Iraqis. Only Iraqis can end the sectarian violence and secure their people. And their government has put forward an aggressive plan to do it.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "When I addressed you just over a year ago, nearly 12 million Iraqis had cast their ballots for a unified and democratic nation. The elections of 2005 were a stunning achievement. We thought that these elections would bring the Iraqis together, and that as we trained Iraqi security forces we could accomplish our mission with fewer American troops.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "Our nation's health care system, like our economy, is also in a time of change. Amazing medical technologies are improving and saving lives. This dramatic progress has brought its own challenge, in the rising costs of medical care and health insurance. Members of Congress, we must work together to help control those costs and extend the benefits of modern medicine throughout our country.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "By computerizing health records, we can avoid dangerous medical mistakes, reduce costs, and improve care. To protect the doctor-patient relationship and keep good doctors doing good work, we must eliminate wasteful and frivolous medical lawsuits. And tonight I propose that individuals who buy catastrophic health care coverage as part of our new health savings accounts be allowed to deduct 100 percent of the premiums from their taxes.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "Nine months of intense negotiations involving the United States and Great Britain succeeded with Libya, while 12 years of diplomacy with Iraq did not. And one reason is clear: For diplomacy to be effective, words must be credible, and no one can now doubt the word of America.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "Tonight members of Congress can take pride in the great works of compassion and reform that skeptics had thought impossible. You're raising the standards for our public schools, and you are giving our senior citizens prescription drug coverage under Medicare.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "As we gather tonight, hundreds of thousands of American service men and women are deployed across the world in the war on terror. By bringing hope to the oppressed and delivering justice to the violent, they are making America more secure.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "We also hear doubts that democracy is a realistic goal for the greater Middle East, where freedom is rare. Yet it is mistaken and condescending to assume that whole cultures and great religions are incompatible with liberty and self-government. I believe that God has planted in every human heart the desire to live in freedom. And even when that desire is crushed by tyranny for decades, it will rise again.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "And here at the White House today are representatives of millions of Americans, including labor union members, small-busi-ness owners, and family farmers. Your persistence and determination helped bring us to this day. The American people should be proud of your efforts on their behalf, and I personally thank you all for coming.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "A year ago tax relief was said to be a political impossibility. Six months ago it was supposed to be a political liability. Today it becomes reality. It becomes reality because of the bipartisan leadership of the Members of the United States Congress, Members like Bill Thomas of California, Ralph Hall of Texas, Charles Grassley of Iowa, Max Baucus of Montana, Zell Miller of Georgia, John Breaux of Louisiana, Trent Lott of Mississippi and the entire leadership team in the Senate, and Denny Hastert of Illinois and the leadership team in the House of Representatives--some Democrats, many Republicans--who worked tirelessly and effectively to produce this important result.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "A majority of the Army's current officers started out in the ROTC. For nearly 90 years, this great program has developed leaders and shaped character. Those looking for idealism on the college campuses of America will find it in the men and women of the ROTC. ROTC's traditions and values are a contribution and a credit to every college and every university where they're found.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "As Army Chief of Staff, General Marshall became the architect of America's victory in the second world war. He fought tenaciously against our enemies, and then worked just as hard to secure the peace. President Truman considered George C. Marshall the greatest man he knew. Above all, said Winston Churchill, Marshall \"always fought victoriously against defeatism, discouragement and disillusionment.\" The key to morale and to victory, Marshall said, is \"steadfastness and courage and hope.\"", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "We're learning a lot about al Qaeda operations and their plans. As our enemies have fled their hideouts in Afghanistan, they left some things behind. We found laptop computers, drawings and maps. And through them, we're gaining a clearer picture of the terrorist targets and their methods.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "As the spring thaw comes, we expect cells of trained killers to try to regroup, to murder, create mayhem and try to undermine Afghanistan's efforts to build a lasting peace. We know this from not only intelligence, but from the history of military conflict in Afghanistan. It's been one of initial success, followed by long years of floundering and ultimate failure. We're not going to repeat that mistake.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "We will continue to remind folks they have responsibilities in the short run to defuse the current crisis. The Palestinian Authority must act, must act on its words of condemnation against terror. Israel must continue its withdrawals. And all Arab states must step up to their responsibilities.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "A short time ago, the House of Representatives passed a bill that is essential to helping America's economy weather the financial crisis. The Senate passed the same legislation on Wednesday night. And when Congress sends me the final bill, I'm going to sign it into law.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "This time of adversity offers a unique moment of opportunity, a moment we must seize to change our culture. Through the gathering momentum of millions of acts of service and decency and kindness, I know we can overcome evil with greater good.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "What we have found in Afghanistan confirms that, far from ending there, our war against terror is only beginning. Most of the 19 men who hijacked planes on September 11 were trained in Afghanistan's camps, and so were tens of thousands of others. Thousands of dangerous killers, schooled in the methods of murder, often supported by outlaw regimes, are now spread throughout the world like ticking timebombs, set to go off without warning.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "The American flag flies again over our embassy in Kabul. Terrorists who once occupied Afghanistan now occupy cells at Guantanamo Bay. And terrorist leaders who urged followers to sacrifice their lives are running for their own.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "Good jobs depend on expanded trade. Selling into new markets creates new jobs, so I ask Congress to finally approve trade promotion authority.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "Good jobs begin with good schools, and here we've made a fine start. Republicans and Democrats worked together to achieve historic education reform so that no child is left behind. I was proud to work with members of both parties: Chairman John Boehner and Congressman George Miller; Senator Judd Gregg. And I was so proud of our work, I even had nice things to say about my friend Ted Kennedy. I know the folks at the Crawford coffee shop couldn't believe I'd say such a thing--but our work on this bill shows what is possible if we set aside posturing and focus on results.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "A few days before Christmas, an airline flight attendant spotted a passenger lighting a match. The crew and passengers quickly subdued the man, who had been trained by Al Qaeda and was armed with explosives. The people on that plane were alert and, as a result, likely saved nearly 200 lives. And tonight we welcome and thank flight attendants Hermis Moutardier and Christina Jones.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "September 11 brought out the best in America and the best in this Congress. And I join the American people in applauding your unity and resolve. Now Americans deserve to have this same spirit directed toward addressing problems here at home. I'm a proud member of my party. Yet as we act to win the war, protect our people, and create jobs in America, we must act, first and foremost, not as Republicans, not as Democrats but as Americans.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "Our country also needs citizens working to rebuild our communities. We need mentors to love children, especially children whose parents are in prison. And we need more talented teachers in troubled schools. USA Freedom Corps will expand and improve the good efforts of AmeriCorps and Senior Corps to recruit more than 200,000 new volunteers.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "Our nation enters this conflict reluctantly -- yet, our purpose is sure. The people of the United States and our friends and allies will not live at the mercy of an outlaw regime that threatens the peace with weapons of mass murder. We will meet that threat now, with our Army, Air Force, Navy, Coast Guard and Marines, so that we do not have to meet it later with armies of fire fighters and police and doctors on the streets of our cities.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "And so I can't think of a better place to come and to talk about the good work that's being done and the important work that needs to be done in Washington, D. C., and that's right here in Yuma, Arizona, a place full of decent, hardworking, honorable people. May God bless you all.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "When I was the governor of Texas I used to say family values did not stop at the Rio Grande River. People are coming here to put food on the table, and they're doing jobs Americans are not doing. And the farmers in this part of the world understand exactly what I'm saying. But so do a lot of other folks around the country. People are coming to work, and many of them have no lawful way to come to America, and so they're sneaking in.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "When I landed here at the airport, the first thing I saw was an unmanned aerial vehicle. It's a sophisticated piece of equipment. You can fly it from inside a truck, and you can look at people moving at night. It's the most sophisticated technology we have, and it's down here on the border to help the Border Patrol agents do their job. We've expanded the number of Border Patrol agents from about 9,000 to 13,000, and by the end of 2008, we're going to have a total of more than 18,000 agents.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "I do want to thank Major General David Ratacheck, the Adjutant General of the state of Arizona; thank all the local and state officials; and, most importantly, I want to thank the Border Patrol agents and I want to thank the National Guard folks for wearing the uniform. I am proud to be the Commander-in-Chief of all these units here today and I appreciate your service to the United States of America.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "Throughout the war on terror, we have brought the enemy--we have fought the enemy on every single battlefront. And so long as terrorist danger remains, the United States of America will continue to fight the enemy wherever it makes its stand.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "A little over a year ago, the fight in Iraq was faltering. Extremist elements were succeeding in their efforts to plunge Iraq into chaos. They had established safe havens in many parts of the country. They were creating divisions among the Iraqis along sectarian lines. And their strategy of using violence in Iraq to cause divisions in America was working as pressures built here in Washington for withdrawal before the job was done.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "Out of such chaos in Iraq, the terrorist movement could emerge emboldened, with new recruits, new resources, and an even greater determination to dominate the region and harm America. An emboldened Al Qaida with access to Iraq's oil resources could pursue its ambitions to acquire weapons of mass destruction to attack America and other free nations. Iran would be emboldened as well, with a renewed determination to develop nuclear weapons and impose its brand of hegemony across the Middle East. Our enemies would see an America--an American failure in Iraq as evidence of weakness and a lack of resolve.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "So we're helping the people of Iraq establish a democracy in the heart of the Middle East. A free Iraq will fight terrorists instead of harboring them. A free Iraq will be an example for others of the power of liberty to change the societies and to displace despair with hope. By spreading the hope of liberty in the Middle East, we will help free societies take root. And when they do, freedom will yield the peace that we all desire.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "The Medicare system will now help seniors and their doctors diagnose health problems early, so they can treat them early and our seniors can have a better quality life. For example, starting next year, all people on Medicare will be covered for blood tests that can diagnose heart diseases. Those at high risk for diabetes will be covered for blood sugar screening tests. Modern health care is not complete without prevention -- so we are expanding preventive services under Medicare.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "Neil LeGrow from Culpepper, Virginia, takes 15 medications, costing him at least $700 a month. To afford all those medications, Neil has to stay working. And thanks to this law, once he is enrolled in the drug benefit, he will be able to cut back his work hours and enjoy his retirement more because he'll have coverage that saves him about $4,700 a year.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "I promised these seniors when I met with them that we would work hard to give them the help they need. They are all here today. So I am happy to report to them in person -- Mary Jane, Hugh, and Neil, we are keeping our promise.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "Another drag on our economy is the current tax code, which is a complicated mess -- filled with special interest loopholes, saddling our people with more than six billion hours of paperwork and headache every year. The American people deserve -- and our economic future demands -- a simpler, fairer, pro-growth system. In a new term, I will lead a bipartisan effort to reform and simplify the federal tax code.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "Others understand the historic importance of our work. The terrorists know. They know that a vibrant, successful democracy at the heart of the Middle East will discredit their radical ideology of hate. They know that men and women with hope and purpose and dignity do not strap bombs on their bodies and kill the innocent. The terrorists are fighting freedom with all their cunning and cruelty because freedom is their greatest fear -- and they should be afraid, because freedom is on the march.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "Two months from today, voters will make a choice based on the records we have built, the convictions we hold, and the vision that guides us forward. A presidential election is a contest for the future. Tonight I will tell you where I stand, what I believe, and where I will lead this country in the next four years.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "The world saw that spirit three miles from here, when the people of this city faced peril together, and lifted a flag over the ruins, and defied the enemy with their courage. My fellow Americans, for as long as our country stands, people will look to the resurrection of New York City and they will say: Here buildings fell, here a nation rose.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "Anyone who wants more details on my agenda can find them online. The web address is not very imaginative, but it's easy to remember: GeorgeWBush.com.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "I believe -- I believe every child can learn, and every school must teach -- so we passed the most important federal education reform in history. Because we acted, children are making sustained progress in reading and math, America's schools are getting better, and nothing will hold us back.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "In this time of change, opportunity in some communities is more distant than in others. To stand with workers in poor communities -- and those that have lost manufacturing, textile, and other jobs -- we will create American opportunity zones. In these areas, we will provide tax relief and other incentives to attract new business, and improve housing and job training to bring hope and work throughout all of America.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "This organization has done some good work in mobilizing volunteers of all ages. I've asked Steve to report to me on how we can make the corporation do better, and to get help where it's most needed.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "The search is underway for those who are behind these evil acts. I've directed the full resources of our intelligence and law enforcement communities to find those responsible and to bring them to justice. We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "There are clear-cut ways for nations to demonstrate the commitment to open markets. The United States Congress has an immediate opportunity by approving free trade agreements with Colombia, Peru*, and South Korea. America and other wealthy nations must also ensure this crisis does not become an excuse to reverse our engagement with the developing world. And developing nations should continue policies that foster enterprise and investment. As well, all nations should pledge to conclude a framework this year that leads to a successful Doha agreement.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "In addition, nations around the world have taken unprecedented joint measures. Last month, a number of central banks carried out a coordinated interest rate cut. The Federal Reserve is extending needed liquidity to central banks around the world. The IMF and World Bank are working to ensure that developing nations can weather this crisis.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "Free market capitalism is far more than economic theory. It is the engine of social mobility -- the highway to the American Dream. It's what makes it possible for a husband and wife to start their own business, or a new immigrant to open a restaurant, or a single mom to go back to college and to build a better career. It is what allowed entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley to change the way the world sells products and searches for information. It's what transformed America from a rugged frontier to the greatest economic power in history -- a nation that gave the world the steamboat and the airplane, the computer and the CAT scan, the Internet and the iPod.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "All of us were sent to Washington to carry out the people's business. That is the purpose of this body. It is the meaning of our oath. It remains our charge to keep.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "Since 9/11, we have taken the fight to these terrorists and extremists. We will stay on the offense; we will keep up the pressure; and we will deliver justice to our enemies.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "And tomorrow I will issue an executive order that directs federal agencies to ignore any future earmark that is not voted on by Congress. If these items are truly worth funding, Congress should debate them in the open and hold a public vote.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "America is leading the fight against global poverty with strong education initiatives and humanitarian assistance. We've also changed the way we deliver aid by launching the Millennium Challenge Account. This program strengthens democracy, transparency, and the rule of law in developing nations, and I ask you to fully fund this important initiative.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "In Afghanistan, America, our 25 NATO allies, and 15 partner nations are helping the Afghan people defend their freedom and rebuild their country. Thanks to the courage of these military and civilian personnel, a nation that was once a safe haven for Al Qaeda is now a young democracy where boys and girls are going to school, new roads and hospitals are being built, and people are looking to the future with new hope. These successes must continue, so we're adding 3,200 marines to our forces in Afghanistan, where they will fight the terrorists and train the Afghan Army and police. Defeating the Taliban and Al Qaeda is critical to our security, and I thank the Congress for supporting America's vital mission in Afghanistan.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "We must also find a sensible and humane way to deal with people here illegally. Illegal immigration is complicated, but it can be resolved. And it must be resolved in a way that upholds both our laws and our highest ideals.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "bush", "text": "We're also standing against the forces of extremism embodied by the regime in Tehran. Iran's rulers oppress a good and talented people. And wherever freedom advances in the Middle East, it seems the Iranian regime is there to oppose it. Iran is funding and training militia groups in Iraq, supporting Hizballah terrorists in Lebanon, and backing Hamas efforts to undermine peace in the Holy Land. Tehran is also developing ballistic missiles of increasing range and continues to develop its capability to enrich uranium, which could be used to create a nuclear weapon.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "What has always allowed America to prevail and triumph over the great challenges of the past has been an unyielding and unashamed conviction in the nobility of our country and its unique purpose in history. We must never lose this conviction. We must never forsake our belief in America.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "We passed the largest package of tax cuts and reforms in American history. We slashed more job-killing regulations than any administration had ever done before. We fixed our broken trade deals, withdrew from the horrible Trans-Pacific Partnership and the impossible Paris Climate Accord, renegotiated the one-sided South Korea deal, and we replaced NAFTA with the groundbreaking USMCA -- that's Mexico and Canada -- a deal that's worked out very, very well.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "And perhaps most importantly of all, with nearly $3 trillion, we fully rebuilt the American military -- all made in the USA. We launched the first new branch of the United States Armed Forces in 75 years: the Space Force. And last spring, I stood at Kennedy Space Center in Florida and watched as American astronauts returned to space on American rockets for the first time in many, many years.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "In America, we don't insist on absolute conformity or enforce rigid orthodoxies and punitive speech codes. We just don't do that. America is not a timid nation of tame souls who need to be sheltered and protected from those with whom we disagree. That's not who we are. It will never be who we are.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "My fellow Americans: Four years ago, we launched a great national effort to rebuild our country, to renew its spirit, and to restore the allegiance of this government to its citizens. In short, we embarked on a mission to make America great again -- for all Americans.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "We also unlocked our energy resources and became the world's number-one producer of oil and natural gas by far. Powered by these policies, we built the greatest economy in the history of the world. We reignited America's job creation and achieved record-low unemployment for African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, women -- almost everyone.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "No, no. You're finished.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "States will be asked to cover 25 percent of the cost using existing funding, such as the tens of billions of dollars available to them through the Coronavirus Relief Fund. Under this plan, states will be able to offer greater benefits if they so choose, and the federal government will cover 75 percent of the cost. So we're all set up. It's $400 per week.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "I--I said I--what I said is people can do whatever they want. I guess maybe they'll bring legal actions; maybe they won't, but they won't win. They won't win.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "As you know, we brought suit last week, and we'll see how that all works out. I think we're going to win it. But, basically, what they're trying to do with all of these requirements, including no signature verification: They're trying to steal an election.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Well, the answer is yes, but we have money to do other things, and we have a lot of money that was unspent, and we'll be able to do things with the money that was unspent. We have significant money that was unspent, and we will be able to use that for different purposes.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Now, Joe Biden and the Democrats may not want that. They don't want that because they're adding $3 trillion in taxes. So they'll have the option of raising everybody's taxes and taking this away.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "If I'm victorious on November 3rd, I plan to forgive these taxes and make permanent cuts to the payroll tax. So I'm going to make them all permanent.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "And I actually think it's bad politics, and I think they're starting to come along because I'm seeing more and more people want to open up. And you see the devastating results of lockdowns, too. You know, you have depression and suicide and drugs and alcohol and bad marriages. Marriages that were very good turned out to be very bad.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "We've learned a great deal about this virus and how to treat it. Our strategy is to aggressively shield those at the greatest risk while allowing younger and healthier citizens to safely resume work and school.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "We think it's going to be very rapid. We want it to be very rapid. It's going to be distributed in a way that--whichever the fastest way. There are various methods, and it will be rapidly distributed.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "You look at some of the countries involved. Some of the countries that were really standing out as examples are now exploding. But they'll get it down; they understand it. We're dealing with them. We're dealing with a lot of countries.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer have chosen to hold this vital assistance hostage on behalf of very extreme partisan demands and the radical-left Democrats, and we just can't do that. So, hopefully, we can do something with them at a later date, but we're going to be signing some bills in a little while that are going to be very important, and will take care of, pretty much, this entire situation.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "But, by contrast, the never-ending lockdown being proposed by some, mostly--I guess you could almost say \"almost all\"--in the Democrat Party, would inflict unimaginable harm to our people and to our health for decades to come. It'll hurt our economy, and they view that as a good thing. They actually view that as a good thing because they're interested in one date: November 3rd.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "And just like I promised, we are confronting the unfair trade deals, and we are doing it like nobody has ever done, because our workers have been cheated, our companies have been cheated. They've stolen our wealth. They've brought it to other countries. As you know, I campaigned on that issue; it's very close to my heart. I understand that issue better than anybody.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "And congratulations to VFW's incoming leadership, BJ Lawrence and Sandy Kreebull. Where are they? Great. Great. Congratulations.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "In the first quarter of this year alone, American companies repatriated a record of nearly $300 billion--this is in the first quarter. And it's coming back into our country, with our companies, and our employment, and building plants, and factories, and headquarters in our country, where it belongs.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "And if it doesn't work, or if it's environmentally unsound, or there's something wrong, we're not going approve it. But we're not going to take a process 20, 21 years, and then raise your hand that it's not approved. We'll let you know in a period of a year or maybe two. Right now, it's at two; we're trying to bring it down to one.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Remember, I used to say--I said it here: \"What do you have to lose?\" I was right. Women's unemployment recently achieved a 65-year low. Lowest in 65 years.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Wow. Goodbye, folks. That was great. What a great young man.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Unbelievable. And she wants to now end it so that you pay more. You figure this one out. I don't know--is that good? You figure that one out.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "We don't apologize for America anymore. We stand up for America. We stand up for the patriots who defend America. And we stand up for our National Anthem.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "And thank you also to Commander Harman. We're grateful for your service, for your leadership, and this incredible organization. That's what it is--it's incredible.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Baghdadi has been on the run for many years, long before I took office. At my direction, as Commander-in-Chief, the United States obliterated his 'caliphate' in March of this year. Today's events are another reminder that we will continue to pursue the remaining ISIS terrorists to their brutal end.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Some of you have even pushed the limits a bit too much. So for any cadets who have not finished walking off their hours, as Commander-in-Chief, I hereby absolve all cadets on restriction for minor conduct offenses, and that is effective immediately. Congratulations. That's a nice one, isn't it? Don't you feel better now?", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "And they did it because they believed in the undying principles of our founding. They did it because they cherished their homes, their faith, their family, and their flag. And they did it because when they came to this school, they were taught to hold fast to their love of our country; to cherish our heritage, learn from it, and build upon it. That is what young Americans are taught here at West Point. That is the legacy that you carry forward as second lieutenants in the United States Army, and you must never forget it.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Right now, America needs a class of cadets that lives by your motto: \"With Vision, We Lead.\" We need you to carry on the spirit of the great General Ulysses S. Grant. Soon after assuming overall command, following three years of Union setbacks, General Grant encountered someone heading north to Washington during the Battle of the Wilderness: \"If you see the President,\" Grant said, \"tell him from me that whatever happens, there will be no turning back.\"", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "We're also working with allies and partners to destroy jihadist terrorist organizations such as ISIS, and very successfully so. The United States is leading a very broad coalition to deny terrorists control of their territory and populations, to cut off their funding, and to discredit their wicked ideology.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "And, you know, historically, I guess, there's never really been a businessman or businessperson elected president. It's always been a general or a politician. Throughout history, it's always been a general --you had to be a general --but mostly it was politicians. You never have a businessman.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "The tax cut bill is expected to raise the average American's household income by more than $4,000. The world's largest company, Apple, announced plans to bring $245 billion in overseas profits home to America. Their total investment into the United States economy will be more than $350 billion over the next five years.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "To be successful, it is not enough to invest in our economy. We must invest in our people. When people are forgotten, the world becomes fractured. Only by hearing and responding to the voices of the forgotten can we create a bright future that is truly shared by all.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "We cannot have free and open trade if some countries exploit the system at the expense of others. We support free trade, but it needs to be fair and it needs to be reciprocal. Because, in the end, unfair trade undermines us all.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Thank you, and God bless you all. Thank you very much. Thank you very much.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "He trained terrorist armies, including Hezbollah, launching terrorist strikes against civilian targets. He fueled bloody civil wars all across the region. He viciously wounded and murdered thousands of U. S. troops, including the planting of roadside bombs that maim and dismember their victims.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "For far too long -- all the way back to 1979, to be exact -- nations have tolerated Iran's destructive and destabilizing behavior in the Middle East and beyond. Those days are over. Iran has been the leading sponsor of terrorism, and their pursuit of nuclear weapons threatens the civilized world. We will never let that happen.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "No American or Iraqi lives were lost because of the precautions taken, the dispersal of forces, and an early warning system that worked very well. I salute the incredible skill and courage of America's men and women in uniform.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "A man who I -- I became very friendly with -- I don't know why. Do you ever have where -- I'll ask the media: If certain people call, you take their calls. Other people call -- if they don't have information, they won't take anybody's call. But other people call, and you don't.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "A young woman who I didn't know at all, but she's been so supportive -- and I've had great support from other people in that state. And she's been so supportive, and she's been downright nasty and mean about the unfairness to the President. And Kelly Loeffler, I appreciate very much. Thank you. Great.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "But -- so, Mitch, I want to thank you very much. Incredible. And you have some of your folks here, and they're incredible people -- and they've been, right from the beginning.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "So I'll start: Kelly Armstrong, North Dakota. Kelly, thank you. Great job. Great job.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "And I walked up with Jim, and it's like I didn't exist. Those wrestlers, they grabbed him. They love Jim Jordan, and we love you too because you are some warrior. True. True.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "But she got so friendly toward me. In fact, one of the ads I still have. I'm putting it in the archives as one of the best ads I've ever made. And she tried to convince people that we were best friends. But Josh ended up winning by five or six points.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "And, again, you're out of session. Unfortunately, I didn't -- you know, I only told these folks, \"Let's do this today.\" We did a prayer breakfast this morning, and I thought that was really good. In fact, that was so good it might wipe this out. But by the end -- by the time we finished this, we'll wipe that one out -- those statements.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "I want to thank my legal team, by the way -- not for that advice, but for other advice. Pat, Jay. Pat. You guys stand up, please. Great job.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "So it's really not talked about that much, but it is a tremendous impact. It's having already a tremendous impact. And we have incredible people lined up--just lined up--that are getting ready to go into the courts. And, in many ways, Mitch, I think it's going to be one of the most important things, if not the most important thing, that we're doing.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "So we will be demonstrating that we are very, very serious. One of the reasons I gave a number that was, I thought, a very generous number was because I wanted to see whether or not they were interested in approving that. Because if they don't approve something within that sphere, that means, very simply, that they're not looking to approve it at all. They want to use it for an election issue, but it's now an election issue that will go to our benefit, not their benefit.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "I know that the Senate is planning to bring an immigration bill on the floor, to the floor, in coming weeks. And I'm asking that the framework we submitted--with great flexibility, great flexibility, working with both parties--that something very positive will come out of it for our country, for everybody--for our country. And I think that can happen.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "As you know, I have put forward an immigration framework based on many months of meeting and working with Tom Cotton, and working with John Cornyn, who was in the office the other day, and David Perdue--incredible people--and Bob Goodlatte, who's out here someplace. Really incredible people. And it's a strong bill, but it's a very fair bill. And it protects our border. We have to protect our borders.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "But now we've fulfilled far more promises than we promised. And they're having a hard time with that. We have seriously fulfilled promises. I call it \"promises plus.\"", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Where's Don Young? He's such a quiet guy. Where Is Don? Don Young, also. Don, thank you.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "And not only are we protecting America at home, we're protecting our interests abroad. It's time to finally end the dangerous defense sequester. It would be wonderful if we could go back to a budget--in order to fully fund our military, and do it properly and order properly, and have it over a period of time, and do it the right way. So at some point, I hope, we're going to be able to do that and it should work.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "We eliminated an especially cruel tax that fell mostly on Americans making less than $50,000 a year--forcing them to pay tremendous penalties simply because they could not afford government-ordered health plans. We repealed the core of disastrous Obamacare--the individual mandate is now gone.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Here tonight is Preston Sharp, a 12-year-old boy from Redding, California, who noticed that veterans' graves were not marked with flags on Veterans Day. He decided to change that, and started a movement that has now placed 40,000 flags at the graves of our great heroes. Preston: a job well done.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "We heard tales of Americans like Coast Guard Petty Officer Ashlee Leppert, who is here tonight in the gallery with Melania. Ashlee was aboard one of the first helicopters on the scene in Houston during Hurricane Harvey. Through 18 hours of wind and rain, Ashlee braved live power lines and deep water, to help save more than 40 lives. Thank you, Ashlee.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "In America, we know that faith and family, not government and bureaucracy, are the center of the American life. Our motto is \"in God we trust.\"", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "All Americans deserve accountability and respect--and that is what we are giving them. So tonight, I call on the Congress to empower every Cabinet Secretary with the authority to reward good workers--and to remove Federal employees who undermine the public trust or fail the American people.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Americans fill the world with art and music. They push the bounds of science and discovery. And they forever remind us of what we should never forget: The people dreamed this country. The people built this country. And it is the people who are making America great again.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Young patriots like Preston teach all of us about our civic duty as Americans. Preston's reverence for those who have served our Nation reminds us why we salute our flag, why we put our hands on our hearts for the pledge of allegiance, and why we proudly stand for the national anthem.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Last year, I also pledged that we would work with our allies to extinguish ISIS from the face of the Earth. One year later, I am proud to report that the coalition to defeat ISIS has liberated almost 100 percent of the territory once held by these killers in Iraq and Syria. But there is much more work to be done. We will continue our fight until ISIS is defeated.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Tonight, I am calling on the Congress to finally close the deadly loopholes that have allowed MS-13, and other criminals, to break into our country. We have proposed new legislation that will fix our immigration laws, and support our ICE and Border Patrol Agents, so that this cannot ever happen again.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "The second pillar fully secures the border. That means building a wall on the Southern border, and it means hiring more heroes like CJ to keep our communities safe. Crucially, our plan closes the terrible loopholes exploited by criminals and terrorists to enter our country--and it finally ends the dangerous practice of \"catch and release.\"", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "So today, I am keeping another promise. I just signed an order directing Secretary Mattis to reexamine our military detention policy and to keep open the detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Well, thank you very much and thank you, Jeanne. It is my profound honor to be the first President in history to attend the March for Life. We're here for a very simple reason: to defend the right of every child, born and unborn, to fulfill their God-given potential.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "We are protecting pro-life students' right to free speech on college campuses. And if universities want federal taxpayer dollars, then they must uphold your First Amendment right to speak your mind. And if they don't, they pay a very big financial penalty, which they will not be willing to pay.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "And from the first day in office, I've taken a historic action to support America's families and to protect the unborn. And during my first week in office, I reinstated and expanded the Mexico City Policy, and we issued a landmark pro-life rule to govern the use of Title X taxpayer funding.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "In Afghanistan, our troops are no longer undermined by artificial timelines, and we no longer tell our enemies of our plans. We are beginning to see results on the battlefield. And we have made clear to Pakistan that while we desire continued partnership, we must see decisive action against terrorist groups operating on their territory. And we make massive payments every year to Pakistan. They have to help.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "In addition, our strategy calls for us to confront, discredit, and defeat radical Islamic terrorism and ideology and to prevent it from spreading into the United States. And we will develop new ways to counter those who use new domains, such as cyber and social media, to attack our nation or threaten our society.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "I also want to thank all of the dedicated professionals--military, civilian, and law enforcement--who devote their lives to serving our nation. In particular, I want to recognize General Dunford and the members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Thank you, thank you, thank you.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "As an example, yesterday I received a call from President Putin of Russia thanking our country for the intelligence that our CIA was able to provide them concerning a major terrorist attack planned in St. Petersburg, where many people, perhaps in the thousands, could have been killed. They were able to apprehend these terrorists before the event, with no loss of life. And that's a great thing, and the way it's supposed to work. That is the way it's supposed to work.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "This strategy includes plans to counter modern threats, such as cyber and electromagnetic attacks. It recognizes space as a competitive domain and calls for multi-layered missile defense. This strategy outlines important steps to address new forms of conflict such as economic and political aggression.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Our leaders engaged in nation-building abroad, while they failed to build up and replenish our nation at home. They undercut and shortchanged our men and women in uniform with inadequate resources, unstable funding, and unclear missions. They failed to insist that our often very wealthy allies pay their fair share for defense, putting a massive and unfair burden on the U. S. taxpayer and our great U. S. military.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Our efforts to strengthen the NATO Alliance set the stage for significant increases in member contributions, with tens of billions of dollars more pouring in because I would not allow member states to be delinquent in the payment while we guarantee their safety and are willing to fight wars for them. We have made clear that countries that are immensely wealthy should reimburse the United States for the cost of defending them. This is a major departure from the past, but a fair and necessary one--necessary for our country, necessary for our taxpayer, necessary for our own thought process.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "I have spent a good amount of time over the last month at the Senate, both in meetings with individual senators and in days of hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee. The confirmation process has made ever clearer to me one of the fundamental differences between the federal judiciary and the United States Senate, and perhaps the most acute is the role of policy preferences.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Over the past few weeks, the entire world has seen Justice Barrett's deep knowledge, tremendous poise, and towering intellect. She answered questions for hours on end. Throughout her entire confirmation, her impeccable credentials were unquestioned, unchallenged, and obvious to all.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Thanks also to the Senate for giving its consent to my appointment. I am grateful for the confidence you have expressed in me, and I pledge to you and to the American people that I will discharge my duties to the very best of my ability.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "The United States has just announced tariffs on another $200 billion in Chinese-made goods for a total, so far, of $250 billion. I have great respect and affection for my friend, President Xi, but I have made clear our trade imbalance is just not acceptable. China's market distortions and the way they deal cannot be tolerated.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Thank you very much. Thank you.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Our task is not to erase it, but to embrace it. To build with it. To draw on its ancient wisdom. And to find within it the will to make our nations greater, our regions safer, and the world better.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "As for Americans, we know what kind of future we want for ourselves. We know what kind of a nation America must always be.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "We cannot allow the world's leading sponsor of terrorism to possess the planet's most dangerous weapons. We cannot allow a regime that chants \"Death to America,\" and that threatens Israel with annihilation, to possess the means to deliver a nuclear warhead to any city on Earth. Just can't do it.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Reliance on a single foreign supplier can leave a nation vulnerable to extortion and intimidation. That is why we congratulate European states, such as Poland, for leading the construction of a Baltic pipeline so that nations are not dependent on Russia to meet their energy needs. Germany will become totally dependent on Russian energy if it does not immediately change course.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "The United States is committed to a future of peace and stability in the region, including peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians. That aim is advanced, not harmed, by acknowledging the obvious facts.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Illegal immigration funds criminal networks, ruthless gangs, and the flow of deadly drugs. Illegal immigration exploits vulnerable populations, hurts hardworking citizens, and has produced a vicious cycle of crime, violence, and poverty. Only by upholding national borders, destroying criminal gangs, can we break this cycle and establish a real foundation for prosperity.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Many nations in this hall will agree that the world trading system is in dire need of change. For example, countries were admitted to the World Trade Organization that violate every single principle on which the organization is based. While the United States and many other nations play by the rules, these countries use government-run industrial planning and state-owned enterprises to rig the system in their favor. They engage in relentless product dumping, forced technology transfer, and the theft of intellectual property.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Judge Barrett is a graduate of Rhodes College and the University of Notre Dame Law School. At Notre Dame, she earned a full academic scholarship, served as the Executive Editor of the Law Review, graduated first in her class, and received the law school's award for the best record of scholarship and achievement.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "The entire Notre Dame Law facility and faculty, everybody--everybody at that school also--we got so many letters--also wrote letters of support of Amy's nomination to the Seventh Circuit. They wrote, in effect: \"Despite our differences, we unanimously agree that our constitutional system depends upon an independent judiciary staffed by talented people devoted to the fair and impartial administration of the rule of law. And we unanimously agree that Amy is such a person.\"", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Upon graduation, she became a clerk for Judge Laurence Silberman on the U. S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Amy then received one of the highest honors a young lawyer could have, serving as a clerk on the Supreme Court for Justice Antonin Scalia. A highly, a very highly respected law professor at Notre Dame wrote to Justice Scalia with a one-sentence recommendation: \"Amy Coney is the best student I ever had.\" That's pretty good. Justice Scalia hired her shortly thereafter.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Before joining the bench, Judge Barrett spent 15 years as a Professor at the University of Notre Dame Law School. She was renowned for her scholarship, celebrated by her colleagues, and beloved by her students. Three times, she was selected at Notre Dame, Distinguished Professor of the Year.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "And I can tell you, I did that too. I looked and I studied, and you are very eminently qualified for this job. You are going to be fantastic. Thank you. Really fantastic.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "So we have this massive country, the United States of America. We have the greatest economy in the world--bigger than China's, by a lot--right?--because of what we've done over the last three and a half years, prior to the virus, but including the virus. So we have the biggest economy, the greatest economy we've ever had; the highest employment numbers; the best employment numbers; best unemployment numbers also. The best of everything.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "If I could see the next slide, then. So if I take New York and New Jersey metro area out, this is the other metro areas that we have been tracking very closely. I wanted to show this to you so that you could see how those curves are already starting to plateau.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "I just left the top executives at Abbott. Who would have thought that would have happened, where they have such a great test as that?", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "We spoke about the issue of testing and supplies. And I'm going to ask Dr. Deborah Birx to come forward, as well as Admiral Polowczyk, to reflect on both of those topics for you. Dr. Birx has been leading an effort from the task force from early on, on rapidly expanding testing.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Okay? Thank you, Steve.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "In the race to develop effective treatments, the drug company Gilead announced that its drug, remdesivir, has shown promising results--very promising--in compassionate use settings. In addition, the FDA has just granted emergency use authorization for a device that removes certain proteins from the bloodstream, possibly preventing a patient's immune system from overreacting to the virus and damaging vital organs, which is a big problem.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "I wanted to show you a different way of looking at it today. Obviously, we look at case counts per 100,000 Americans in each of our states and metro areas, but I wanted you to see, in absolute numbers, how much the New York, New Jersey metro area dwarfs all other metro areas.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "So, rapidly continuing to expand testing today. And the governor of Louisiana told me today that they had tested at the highest per capita--according to his numbers--of any state in the union. And we congratulate him for that. But making sure that, going forward, we'll have the infrastructure of testing all across America to deal with the coronavirus should it return in the future.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Together, countries around the world will cut oil production by approximately 20 million barrels. People are saying 10 million, but we think that the number that they'll actually hit is going to be closer to 20 million barrels a day. And that will help a lot with saving jobs all over Texas and Oklahoma and North Dakota and many of other--other of our big energy states.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "I wouldn't tell you. You'd probably be the last person on Earth I'd tell.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "It's total. It's total.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "I think if anybody recommended it other than me, it would be used all over the place, to be honest with you. I think the fact that I recommended it, I probably set it back a lot. But it's a lot of good things that are happening with it. A lot of good tests.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "If you can go to Chicago. And I'm going to run through this kind of quick, but you can see that the geographic alignment, the places that Dr. Birx has talked about is where we're concentrating supplies.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Thank you very much. Tony, please.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Well, we're looking at that certainly. I heard that complaint, but the mayor seems to be very happy with everything we've done.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "But we could have given you--you saw the statements. We have hundreds of statements. Hundreds of statements, including from Democrats and Democrat governors.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "January. I said in January.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "With that, let me--let me bid you all a good evening. And we will be back tomorrow. And --", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "--discussions--wait, excuse me. One second, please. We've had very good discussions with the airlines. Very good discussions.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "ID NOW is not going to be the answer to the number of tests that we need over the next few weeks. Those run a test every 15 minutes, and we can get about 55,000 cartridges a day.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "And they totally misinterpreted him. I saw what they did.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Just to mention really quickly about testing--because you've heard me before talk about it, and then it was a little bit misquoted and misaligned--but there are multiple Abbott machines, so I'm going to be very clear, having spent years in the laboratory. The high-throughput machines, which are the Roche 6800 and the 88--I think it's the 8800 on Roche--and the Abbott M2000--these are the machines that run between 500 and 1,000 assays at a time.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Secondly, on the subject of supplies--I've said it a couple of times from this podium today, but let me say it one more time: President Trump's direction to us, in dealing with the states on personal protective equipment and ventilators, has been to make sure that states have what they need, when they need it. And we recognize that while we all watch the overall curve of the coronavirus in America--understandably, the national numbers--the reality is this outbreak has taken place in its own individual curves: first, on the West Coast; then the New York City area; then Louisiana, Michigan; and now we continue to contend with it in Chicago and Houston and other metropolitan areas. It has given us the opportunity to ensure that personal protective equipment and ventilators are made available on a critical basis.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "So let me tell you from my experience--and I can only speak from my own experience--is that we had been talking, before any meetings that we had, about the pros and the cons, the effectiveness or not, of strong mitigations. So discussions were going on mostly among the medical people about what that would mean.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "I'm not going to say. But, look, certain states are doing very well. Certain big parts of the country are doing very well. They're doing, really, very well. And so we're going to be putting out recommendations and guidelines very soon.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "I've been having many discussions with my team and top experts, and we're very close to completing a plan to open our country, hopefully even ahead of schedule. And that's so important.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "readout. Can you enlighten us --", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Absentee ballot, are you talking about? Absentee ballot?", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "To date, we've facilitated the supply of more than 38 million N95 masks nationwide. This week, we'll be sending 2 million N95 masks to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The Vice President will go into more detail. He's got great detail on that, and I think it's a pretty amazing story. We have a lot of masks already in stock, and we have more coming.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "But the one thing we do know as health people, as physicians and scientists and public health people--as I mentioned, I think over the weekend, on one of the shows, is that some people may think it's going to be like a light switch, on and off. You know, we're either out and we're in. It's just not going to be that way because we have a very large country and there are different impacts. As you see, New York is very different from other parts of the country, from the Midwest, from the mountain region, California and Washington, different than New Orleans.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "So we could give you hundreds of clips like that from governors--including Democratic or \"Democrat,\" as I call them, governors, which is actually the correct term. We could give you hundreds of clips just like that. We have them. We didn't want this to go on too long, but I just want to say it's--you know, it's very sad when people write false stories like, in that case, I guess it was gotten mostly from the New York Times, which is a highly--I mean, if you had libel laws, they would have been out of business even before they'll end up going out of business. So it's too bad.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "But as we make decisions in the days ahead to reopen America, what President Trump also wants to do is have a policy in place to stay open. And having the kind of surveillance testing available around the country so that CDC can do the immediate contact tracing, when you have a positive test, so that we can deploy resources like the new Abbott 15-minute test specifically to nursing homes.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "It was early on that the President formed that public-private partnership with commercial labs. And as we stand here today, more than 2.5 million tests have been performed. And when we add in the estimates of labs that we have to assume, with reasonable protections--projections have not yet reported into the CDC, we think that number could be closer to 3 million tests that have been performed.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "So you start with what's in the stockpile this morning. And then here's the contracts that we'll be delivering over the next few weeks. And we added 8,600 ventilators to the pool we already had. That's the--that's the math that you--that you get there. That's a--that's included the DPA action with GM.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "You don't know that. I'm sorry.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "But we also--we also want to work with Abbott Laboratories for the longer term. Because if the current trend lines hold--and I hope and I literally pray that we will soon find ourselves on the downslope of the coronavirus in this country--this epidemic, in its current form, will come to an end.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "If you go out to the air bridge--80 flights scheduled, 37 complete, 43 on the--on the horizon. And you can see the numbers of material that's been brought in to supplement the volume that's needed.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "The one area we are particularly concerned about is the Small Business program. Quite frankly, it's even more incredibly popular and successful than we anticipated. So the President wants to be very clear: We have money for that. And once we get done with that, we will review with the President. If there is more money that needs to be--to support this economy, to support hardworking Americans--we will work with Congress to get that in time.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Well, I'm going to have to take a look. I wouldn't say Italy is doing great right now, and I wouldn't say Spain is doing great right now. And we just heard that France is extending its stay-inside order, right? Their stay--they've extended it--I just see that--and, I think, for a short period of time.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Well, you don't know that. You don't know that.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Our Customs and Border Protection--and these people, the job they do is incredible--seized nearly 1,500 pounds of fentanyl last year, nearly three times the amount seized in 2016. And I told China: Don't send it. And I told Mexico: Don't send it. Don't send it.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "And if you compare our drug prices to other countries in the world, in some cases it's many times higher for the exact same pill, or whatever it is, in the exact same package, made in the exact same plant. And we're going to change that.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Appreciate it. And so many cases like that.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Now we're attacking this with the same level of action, determination, and resolve that you're bring to the opioid crisis. And that's where we're focused on prevention and getting that one-third fewer illegal opioid prescriptions to our people. The second is the stopping the illicit flow of these opioids into our country. And the third is compassionate treatment for people--evidence-based, science-based, compassionate treatment--that can help people recover and stay away from relapse.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "And I can tell you that Jeff Sessions, who's here with us now, feels so strongly about this. And they're working very hard and very effectively on that, and so we appreciate that very much. Thank you. Thank you, Jeff. Thank you.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "The second part of our initiative is to reduce the supply of illicit drugs. Ninety percent of the heroin in America comes from our southern border, where, eventually, the Democrats will agree with us and we'll build the wall to keep the damn drugs out.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "A lot has been accomplished. Okay.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Take a look at our federal prison population. See how many of them, percentage-wise, are illegal aliens. Just see. Go ahead and see. It's a fake question.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "So, we're going to be signing today, and registering, national emergency. And it's a great thing to do because we have an invasion of drugs, invasion of gangs, invasion of people, and it's unacceptable.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "And we think that they have a great chance for tremendous economic prosperity in the future. So I look forward to seeing Chairman Kim in Vietnam.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "The only place they don't want to give as much money -- $1,375,000,000. Sounds like a lot, but it's not so much, although we're putting it to much better use than it used to be. A lot of the past administrations, they had -- it was easy to get, and they didn't build or they didn't do what they could have done. It would have been great. It would have been great to have done it earlier, but I was a little new to the job, a little new to the profession.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Okay? Any more? Quick, let's go.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "We're taking a lot of money from that realm also. But when you have that kind of money going into the military, this is a very, very small amount that we're asking for.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Well, it's all about growth. But before I --", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "You don't really believe that stat, do you? Do you really believe that stat?", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "But we think that North Korea and Chairman Kim have a tremendous potential as an economic force, economic power. Their location between South Korea and then Russia and China -- right smack in the middle -- is phenomenal.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "But any deal I make toward the end, I'm going to bring Schumer -- at least offer him -- and Pelosi. I'm going to say, \"Please join me on the deal.\"", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "The Democrats are being totally unresponsive. They don't want to do anything about DACA, I'm telling you. And it's very possible that DACA won't happen, and it's not because of the Republicans, it's going to be because of the Democrats. And frankly, you better elect more Republicans, folks, or it will never happen.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "For more than four decades, this event has served as a forum for our nation's top leaders, activists, writers, thinkers. Year after year, leaders have stood on this stage to discuss what we can do together to protect our heritage, to promote our culture, and to defend our freedom.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Why do we protect our airports, and our banks, our government buildings, but not our schools? It's time to make our schools a much harder target for attackers. We don't want them in our schools. We don't want them.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "When we declare our schools to be gun-free zones, it just puts our students in far more danger. Far more danger. Well-trained, gun-adept teachers and coaches and people that work in those buildings; people that were in the Marines for 20 years and retired; people in the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, the Coast Guard; people that are adept -- adept with weaponry and with guns -- they teach. I mean, I don't want to have 100 guards standing with rifles all over the school. You do a concealed carry permit.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "So I just want to tell you that we are going to win. I'd love you to get out there, work really hard for '18. We need more Republicans to keep the tax cuts and keep all of this going.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Anyway, we didn't certify, and lots of interesting things are happening with that whole mess. But we have to treat -- people that treat us well, we treat them well. People that treat us badly, we treat them much worse than they can ever imagine. That's the way it has to be. That's the way it has to be.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "'Oh, shut up, silly woman,' said the reptile with a grin. 'You knew damn well I was a snake before you took me in.'\"", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "She wrapped him up all cozy in a comforter of silk, and laid him by her fireside with some honey and some milk. She hurried home from work that night, and soon as she arrived, she found that pretty snake she'd taken in had been revived.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "'Take me in, oh, tender woman. Take me in for Heaven's sake. Take me in, oh, tender woman,' sighed the vicious snake.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Reverend Graham's belief in the power of God's word gave hope to millions and millions who listened to him with his very beautiful, but very simple message: God loves you. And a very special tribute -- because it's almost never done -- on Wednesday, we will celebrate Billy Graham's life as he lies in honor in the Rotunda of our Capitol. Very rarely.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "On Friday, it was announced that we added another 304,000 jobs last month alone--almost double what was expected. An economic miracle is taking place in the United States--and the only thing that can stop it are foolish wars, politics, or ridiculous partisan investigations.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "We are honored to be joined tonight by Tom Wibberley, whose son, Navy Seaman Craig Wibberley, was one of the 17 sailors we tragically lost. Tom: we vow to always remember the heroes of the USS Cole.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "They did not know if they would survive the hour. They did not know if they would grow old. But they knew that America had to prevail. Their cause was this Nation, and generations yet unborn.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "When I took office, ISIS controlled more than 20,000 square miles in Iraq and Syria. Today, we have liberated virtually all of that territory from the grip of these bloodthirsty killers.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "In the 20th century, America saved freedom, transformed science, and redefined the middle class standard of living for the entire world to see. Now, we must step boldly and bravely into the next chapter of this great American adventure, and we must create a new standard of living for the 21st century. An amazing quality of life for all of our citizens is within our reach.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Let us work together to build a culture that cherishes innocent life. And let us reaffirm a fundamental truth: all children--born and unborn-- are made in the holy image of God.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "I have met the men and women of Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, New Hampshire, and many other states whose dreams were shattered by NAFTA. For years, politicians promised them they would negotiate for a better deal. But no one ever tried--until now.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "I am asking the Congress to pass legislation that finally takes on the problem of global freeloading and delivers fairness and price transparency for American patients. We should also require drug companies, insurance companies, and hospitals to disclose real prices to foster competition and bring costs down.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "There could be no greater contrast to the beautiful image of a mother holding her infant child than the chilling displays our Nation saw in recent days. Lawmakers in New York cheered with delight upon the passage of legislation that would allow a baby to be ripped from the mother's womb moments before birth. These are living, feeling, beautiful babies who will never get the chance to share their love and dreams with the world. And then, we had the case of the Governor of Virginia where he basically stated he would execute a baby after birth.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "In 2019, we also celebrate 50 years since brave young pilots flew a quarter of a million miles through space to plant the American flag on the face of the moon. Half a century later, we are joined by one of the Apollo 11 astronauts who planted that flag: Buzz Aldrin. This year, American astronauts will go back to space on American rockets.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Tragically, over the course of the past year, made so difficult because of covid-19, we have seen political violence spiral out of control. We have seen too many riots, too many mobs, too many acts of intimidation and destruction. It must stop, whether you are on the right or on the left, a democrat or a republican, there is never a justification for violence. No excuses. No exceptions.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "The beauty and the glory of our constitutional system is that it gives us the tools to fight injustice, to heal division, and to continue the work of our Founding Fathers by expanding and growing the blessings of America. If you believe in justice, if you believe in freedom, if you believe in peace, then you must cherish the principles of our founding and the text of our Constitution. It is our founding and our Constitution. It is a firm foundation upon which all progress is achieved. That's why our country is so strong, even despite terrible things that happen over the generations.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Once again, Happy July Fourth to all. Our country is in great shape. Our military has never been stronger. And many, many good things are going to happen. Next year will be one of the greatest years we've ever had.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Throughout our history, our country has been tested and tried - but we have always fought to victory. Whenever our way of life has been threatened, our ancestors have responded with the same resounding answer as those first patriots who fought for independence: We are Americans, and we never back down, we never give in, and we never give up, and we will never yield defense of our nation. We love our nation. We will only fight to win.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "The proposal I will outline today is based on, first and foremost, on input from our border agents and homeland security professionals--and professionals they are. They know what they're doing. It is a compassionate response to the ongoing tragedy on our southern border.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Our plan includes critical measures to protect migrant children from exploitation and abuse. This includes a new system to allow Central American minors to apply for asylum in their home countries, and reform to promote family reunification for unaccompanied children, thousands of whom wind up on our border doorstep.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "That is why I am here today, to break the logjam and provide Congress with a path forward to end the government shutdown and solve the crisis on the southern border. If we are successful in this effort, we will then have the best chance in a very long time at real, bipartisan immigration reform. And it won't stop here. It will keep going until we do it all.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "We will not fail. Our country will thrive and prosper again.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Also with us are Susan Oliver and Jessica Davis. Their husbands -- Deputy Sheriff Danny Oliver and Detective Michael Davis -- were slain in the line of duty in California. They were pillars of their community. These brave men were viciously gunned down by an illegal immigrant with a criminal record and two prior deportations.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Dying industries will come roaring back to life. Heroic veterans will get the care they so desperately need.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "The stock market has gained almost three trillion dollars in value since the election on November 8th, a record. We've saved taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars by bringing down the price of the fantastic new F-35 jet fighter, and will be saving billions more dollars on contracts all across our Government. We have placed a hiring freeze on non-military and non-essential Federal workers.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "We are blessed to be joined tonight by Carryn Owens, the widow of a U. S. Navy Special Operator, Senior Chief William \"Ryan\" Owens. Ryan died as he lived: a warrior, and a hero -- battling against terrorism and securing our Nation.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Obamacare is collapsing -- and we must act decisively to protect all Americans. Action is not a choice -- it is a necessity.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "When we have all of this, we will have made America greater than ever before. For all Americans.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Solving these, and so many other pressing problems, will require us to work past the differences of party. It will require us to tap into the American spirit that has overcome every challenge throughout our long and storied history.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "I will now ask the First Lady of the United States to present you with the honor. Please.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "A good life for American families also requires the most affordable, innovative, and high-quality healthcare system on Earth. Before I took office, health insurance premiums had more than doubled in just five years. I moved quickly to provide affordable alternatives. Our new plans are up to 60 percent less expensive--and better.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Members of Congress, we must never forget that the only victories that matter in Washington are victories that deliver for the American people. The people are the heart of our country, their dreams are the soul of our country, and their love is what powers and sustains our country. We must always remember that our job is to put America first.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Six days ago, I replaced NAFTA and signed the brand-new U. S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement into law. The USMCA will create nearly 100,000 new high-paying American auto jobs, and massively boost exports for our farmers, ranchers, and factory workers. It will also bring trade with Mexico and Canada to a much higher level, but also to be a much greater degree of fairness and reciprocity. We will have that: fairness and reciprocity. And I say that, finally, because it's been many, many years that we were treated fairly on trade.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Janiyah and Stephanie are in the Gallery. Stephanie, thank you so much for being here with your beautiful daughter. Thank you very much.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "My administration is also taking on the big pharmaceutical companies. We have approved a record number of affordable generic drugs, and medicines are being approved by the FDA at a faster clip than ever before. And I was pleased to announce last year that, for the first time in 51 years, the cost of prescription drugs actually went down.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "We are also getting our allies, finally, to help pay their fair share. I have raised contributions from the other NATO members by more than $400 billion, and the number of Allies meeting their minimum obligations has more than doubled.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Thanks to our bold regulatory reduction campaign, the United States has become the number one producer of oil and natural gas anywhere in the world, by far. With the tremendous progress we have made over the past three years, America is now energy independent, and energy jobs, like so many other elements of our country, are at a record high. We are doing numbers that no one would have thought possible just three years ago.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Thank you. God Bless You. And God Bless America. Thank you very much.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Under the last administration, more than 10 million people were added to the food stamp rolls. Under my administration, 7 million Americans have come off food stamps, and 10 million people have been lifted off of welfare.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Since my election, the net worth of the bottom half of wage earners has increased by 47 percent--three times faster than the increase for the top 1 percent. After decades of flat and falling incomes, wages are rising fast--and, wonderfully, they are rising fastest for low-income workers, who have seen a 16 percent pay increase since my election. This is a blue-collar boom.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Over 130 legislators in this chamber have endorsed legislation that would bankrupt our nation by providing free taxpayer-funded healthcare to millions of illegal aliens, forcing taxpayers to subsidize free care for anyone in the world who unlawfully crosses our borders. These proposals would raid the Medicare benefits of our seniors and that our seniors depend on, while acting as a powerful lure for illegal immigration. That is what is happening in California and other states. Their systems are totally out of control, costing taxpayers vast and unaffordable amounts of money.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "No, I'm saying that because we want to save a lot of lives. The fast--with me, it's: The faster, the better. With somebody else, maybe they would say it politically, but I'm saying it in terms of this is what we need. We have to have--if get the vaccine early, that's a great thing, whether it's politics or not.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Wait a minute. So now what they're saying is, \"Oh, wow, this is bad news. President Trump is getting this vaccine in record time.\" By the way, if this were the Obama administration, you wouldn't have that vaccine for three years, and you probably wouldn't have it all.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Yeah, go ahead. In the back.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "But I'm the one that did that. So--but nobody talks about that. Nobody talks about Nord Stream 2.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "The Biden plan begins with a 4-trillion-dollar tax hike. And that will end everything, including growth. There won't be growth. There'll be total contraction.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Yeah. If something can be proven that he did something, always. You know?", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "You take a look at the blackouts in California; it's really rather amazing what's going on there. They've tried to go, and that's just with a small portion going that route. That doesn't work, and it can't fire up our big plants. We're going to have this great industry that we've created. Can't fire up our big plants.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "So I didn't say what you said. What I said is \"by the end of the year.\" But I think it could even be sooner than that. It could be during the month of October, actually. Could be before November.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "I know. I know.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "You know, we have 30,000 people, in just one vaccine right now, under test in very, very highly infected areas. So we're going to be able to get a good result, one way or the other, very soon.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "But I do appreciate Zach coming out. But Zach now is the 15th person that's denied it. Zach now, I think, also talked about the weather aspect of it. And he's probably the 14th or 15th person that blamed it on weather. So that's enough of that.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "The United States has experienced among the lowest case fatality rates of any major country in the world. And we are an absolute leader in every way. Under my leadership, we'll produce a vaccine in record time. Biden and his very liberal running mate--the most liberal person in Congress, by the way, who's not a competent person, in my opinion; would destroy this country and would destroy this economy--should immediately apologize for the reckless anti-vaccine rhetoric that they are talking right now, talking about endangering lives. And it undermines science.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "We'll continue to unleash American energy. We're number one in the world. And we're totally energy independent right now. And in 2021, we'll create 10 million jobs, at least, in the first 10 months.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "I have deep respect for the Iranian people. They are a remarkable people, with an incredible heritage and unlimited potential. We do not seek regime change. However, the Iranian regime's aggression in the region, including the use of proxy fighters to destabilize its neighbors, must end, and it must end now.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "I want to thank Roche, a great company, for their incredible work. I'd also like to thank Thermo Fisher. The FDA's goal is to hopefully authorize their application within 24 hours--it'll go very quickly; it's going very quickly--which will bring, additionally, 1.4 million tests on board next week and 5 million within a month. I doubt we'll need anywhere near that.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Thank you, Mike. Thank you very much.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Ten days ago, I brought together the CEOs of commercial labs at the White House and directed them to immediately begin working on a solution to dramatically increase the availability of tests. Other countries have called us and worked with us, and they're doing similar things or will be doing similar things.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "So, as mentioned, we were called, with the leadership of the Vice President, last week to come together as an industry. And we took advantage of that opportunity to work with the FDA, to work with the Center for Disease Control. And we are up and running with tests in a number of our facilities.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "So, sample to machine to results. That cuts out a lot of the manual pieces that were happening that were delaying the test results.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "What we've done--and one of the reasons I think people are respecting what we've done: We've done it very early. We've gotten it very early. And we've also kept a lot of people out.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Is Tom here? Tom Polen. Tom? Tom Polen. Please.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Yeah, no, I don't take responsibility at all, because we were given a, a set of circumstances and we were given rules, regulations, and specifications from a different time. It wasn't meant for this kind of an event with the kind of numbers that we're talking about. And what we've done is redesigned it very quickly with the help of the people behind me. And we're now in very, very strong shape.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "So I think you can learn very--and I appreciate there were some graphics done by some of the reporting over the last several days. If you align the data from China with the data with South Korea, you can start to see almost a complete overlay of that data. And so that's what we're tracking very closely, as well as Italy. But you have an excellent question.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "I was waiting for that. Go ahead.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "I want to thank Google. Google is helping to develop a website. It's going to be very quickly done, unlike websites of the past, to determine whether a test is warranted and to facilitate testing at a nearby convenient location.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "I'd like to maybe have Tony--do you want to come up? You've become a... I think everybody out here knows you pretty well. But Tony has been doing a tremendous job working long, long hours. And you've seen a lot happen, but this has been, it's been a great experience, and working with you has been terrific.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Yeah, go ahead. Please.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "So, thank you for including us today. In the near term, we're all committed to making sure we're keeping our stores open to serve the American consumer who is rapidly stocking up on household essentials, key food and beverage items that they need during this time; making sure we run safe stores; and creating an environment that's safe for our team members, making sure that they feel supported during this very critical time.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "I'll just stay right over here. And, Richard, if you could come up, please. Richard, please. Walgreens. Thank you.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "And, as you know, he tested negative--meaning, nothing wrong--this morning. And we got that word, too. Because we did have dinner with him; we were sitting next to each other for a long period of time.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "did with the swine flu. It was a disaster.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "I think we'll be announcing, as I said, Sunday night, and this will start very quickly. And we, we'll have, we'll have the ability to do in the millions over a very, very quick period of time. So, no.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Okay. I thought -- I knew you would.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Well, that's been true for a while. But I'll let Mike--why don't you answer that, Mike, please?", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Well, in light of the results, as we discussed before, in light of the results, we're going to be looking at it. And I know the task force is looking at it very strongly--the Vice President, everybody. It was looking good, but they've, the results have been building up pretty rapidly. So we'll, we'll be taking another look at that. Yes, absolutely.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Thank you very much, Deborah. Great.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "At the same time, we've been in discussions with pharmacies and retailers to make drive-thru tests available in the critical locations identified by public health professionals. The goal is for individuals to be able to drive up and be swabbed without having to leave your car.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "We still have a long way to go. There will be many more cases, but we'll take care of that. And ultimately, as the President said, this will end. But what's going on here today is going to help it to end sooner than it would have.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Finally, I want you to know: In South Korea, they did have large number of tests available over the last several weeks. Their positivity rate is between 3 and 4 percent. With LabCorp and Quest expanded testing, their positivity rate is between 1 and 2 percent.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "So we didn't discuss the border. We've had a very good relationship. Just about finished with the USMCA, as you know. He called, actually, he called me to tell me that. I think that was the primary reason for the call.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "We kept the Senate, despite having twice as many seats to defend as Democrats. And in a really -- much more competitive states, we've -- we did a fantastic job with the Senate, and I think we're very proud of what's happened there. We had many more seats to defend.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Poll workers in Michigan were duplicating ballots. But when our observers attempted to challenge the activity, those poll workers jumped in front of the volunteers to block their view so that they couldn't see what they were doing, and it became a little bit dangerous.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "This was also the year of the Republican woman. More Republican women were elected to Congress than ever before. That's a great achievement. I won the largest share of non-white voters of any Republican in 60 years, including historic numbers of Latino, African American, Asian American, and Native American voters -- the largest ever in our history. We grew our party by 4 million voters, the greatest turnout in Republican Party history.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Likewise, in Georgia, I won by a lot -- a lot -- with a lead of over -- getting close to 300,000 votes on Election Night in Georgia. And, by the way, got whittled down, and now it's getting to be to a point where I'll go from winning by a lot to perhaps being even down a little bit.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "No child, no teacher, should ever be in danger in an American school. No parent should ever have to fear for their sons and daughters when they kiss them goodbye in the morning.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Earlier today, I stood alongside Prime Minister Abe of Japan -- a friend of mine, a great gentleman. Had a great reelection. And we signed a terrific new trade deal, which tremendously helps our farmers and ranchers, and technology. The technology companies are really big beneficiaries.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "I'm so surprised; first President for this. I can't believe that I'm first. I spoke to Franklin Graham about that. I can't believe it.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "You look at the two gentlemen heading those two countries -- two good friends of mine -- I said, \"Fellas, work it out. Just work it out.\" Those are two nuclear countries. They've got to work it out.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Well, thank you all for being here. We've had a tremendous three days in New York, at the United Nations. I want to thank the Secretary-General. It's been really incredible what's been taking place. And he's been a fantastic host to a lot of countries.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Thank you very much. Thank you.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "You know, it used to be -- I used to get great press until I ran for politics. I mean, I used to be the king of getting good press. I was very good at it. And I got good. I mean, they covered me well for what -- otherwise, I probably wouldn't be here.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "We're -- we're watching it very carefully, including other countries that may or may not be playing games. We're watching it very closely.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "We had tremendous -- we had tremendous -- it was terrible. And we've got that stopped, and the countries are now helping us. And we stopped those payments, by the way. We don't pay those countries that money anymore. But I will tell you, if they're as good as they seem to be -- they're really doing a job on crime and stopping the wrong people from leaving and coming to the United States -- we'll be helping them a lot with economic development projects and other things.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Just put this in the back of your mind: It's all going to be fine. We know everything that you said, and it's all going to be fine. We're very much involved. We very much know what's going on, and we're very much involved. Okay?", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Well, I just say that socialism will never happen in the United States. It can't happen in the United States. And Venezuela -- unfortunately, I have to use your country as the example of what socialism can do, how it can tear the fabric of a country apart. Because I know a lot about Venezuela.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "And then we had a second race, as you know, and he was up one or two points and ended up winning by -- what was it? Twenty-five points or some incredible -- I'll ask you folks because I don't want to be inaccurate. Otherwise, I'll have a front-page story: \"We have breaking news. Trump exaggerated.\"", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "I'm going to have Mike Pompeo say a couple of words. I'm going to have Steve Mnuchin say a couple of words. And then we'll do a couple of more questions.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "I'm hearing they used old documents. But I--that's what I hear. I hear the report was an incorrect report. I hope it was an incorrect report.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "And we're--really, I'm very happy the governors have been--the governors, really, have been doing a really good job working with us, and it's--it's, really, pretty impressive to see. I've spoken to numerous leaders of countries over the last 48 hours, and they are saying we're leading the way. We're really leading the way in so many different ways.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Yeah, we'll look into it, and I have been looking into it. I've been talking to a lot of the different senators, but I don't want to talk about it now. That was a very interesting presentation.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "As the President mentioned, we'll--you'll receive a report that our task force received formally this week from Bill Bryan of the Science and Technology Directorate at the Department of Homeland Security. He will outline, as the President said, encouraging news about the impact that heat and sunlight have on the coronavirus, which will increase the confidence that we feel about the coming summer.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "But as we have found and as we have, I think, shown everybody in the room, we have many laboratories. We have thou--we have so many laboratories. Nobody--nobody--a lot of the governors did not know that we have this capacity, but we have many laboratories all over our country. Every state has laboratories and some have a lot of them. So I think we will--we will come up with things as time goes by.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "As I mentioned, with knowing this knowledge and having this knowledge, as we continue to study and further know what the virus does and how it reacts, it could impact the way a governor will look at when he opens in a state, how he opens it, in what environments these things are opened up. But I leave that up to the governors to make that decision.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "And I want to thank the head of DHS Science and Technology, Bill Bryan, for what he's going to be doing and what he's going to be saying and the report that he's about to give. I think it's going to be something that nobody has ever heard. It'll be brand-new information and very important information.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Governor Tom Wolf announced the Plan for Pennsylvania that would begin May 8th--will end a stay-at-home order for just portions of Pennsylvania. But the plan, again, requires regions to have fewer than 50 new positive cases per 100,000 for a period of 14 days, and it also lays out a phased reopening roadmap.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Because I know the guy; I see what he writes. He's a total faker.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "It wouldn't be through injection. We're talking about through almost a cleaning, sterilization of an area. Maybe it works, maybe it doesn't work. But it certainly has a big effect if it's on a stationary object.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Yesterday, I shared the emerging results of our work that we're doing now with the Coronavirus Task Force. And today, I would like to share certain trends that we believe are important.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Clinical trials of these products are slated to begin within weeks, and we can maybe have a fairly quick solution. I urge Americans to get in there and keep doing what you're doing, because again, we want those people recovering or recovered from coronavirus to contact their local blood and plasma donation center to learn how they can help. And they've been so great, and I just appreciate it.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "No, I don't agree with him on that. No, I think we're doing a great job in testing. I don't agree. If he said that, I don't agree with him.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Mr. President, with the--with the Guidelines to Open Up America Again, states are making plans. And at your direction, our task force will continue to work very closely, providing them with the data, providing them with the resources to be able to implement those plans in a safe and responsible way.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "And tomorrow, at the President's direction, our task force will convene a conference call with all of the nation's governors to talk about the progress that they are making on testing. And we're going to hear from governors about the practices that--and methods that they are employing to significantly increase testing following our briefing about capacity in laboratories this past Monday.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "The New York metro area, New Jersey, Connecticut, Detroit and New Orleans all appear to be past their peak. And we are seeing consistent declines in hospitalization and cases in regions across the country.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "I did convey the message. I didn't like the fact that he's leaving certain things--I want the states to open more than he does--much more than he does. But I didn't like to see spas at this early stage, nor did the doctors. Is that a correct statement, Deborah?", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "If I may have the first slide, please. And while that's coming up, our most striking observation to date is the powerful effect that solar light appears to have on killing the virus--both surfaces and in the air. We've seen a similar effect with both temperature and humidity as well, where increasing the temperature and humidity or both is generally less favorable to the virus.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "And I watched a couple of interviews, and I say, \"Oh, I look forward to this.\" But they're keeping him sheltered because of the coronavirus. And he's not moving around; he's not moving too much. And then I watch what the press does to the Republican Party--and to me, in particular.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "We're making them--hundreds of thousands of machines. The advantage to the other tests and the laboratory tests is we can get millions and millions of those tests done. It takes a day or two days. But--you know, because it's really a delivery situation, more than anything else. The test itself goes quickly once it gets to the laboratory.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "But we have a lot of great thought went into those calls, and a lot of questions came out and also statements--very strong statements, as to what they recommend. It was--I think it was a great day. We did a lot of--a lot of calling with a lot of very prominent people--but, more importantly, very smart people and people that love our country.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "The battle continues, but the data suggests that nationwide we have passed the peak on new cases. Hopefully that will continue and we will continue to make great progress.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "At that the President's direction, we're going to ensure that all of those that work in food supply, all of those first responders have access to masks. And we're increasing those every day.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "That's one of many. We have professionals. Sonny, you've been waiting for--how long have you been waiting for the man that we're talking about coming in?", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Well, all we're doing is looking at the numbers, we're looking at our graphs, we're looking at our models. We're getting a great response from Deborah and from Tony and from many of the professionals that are working. We have great professionals working with us. And, I think, based on that, we're--we're doing very well.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "So, before I sign off here, Mr. President, I want to remind you and all of us of one more thing: In the United States, we have plenty of food for all of our citizens. I want to be clear: The bare store shelves that you may see in some cities in the country are a demand issue, not a supply issue. The way food is prepared and packaged to be sold in a restaurant or a school is significantly different than the way it's packaged for you to buy in the grocery store. Our supply chain is sophisticated, efficient, integrated, and synchronized, and it's taken us a few days to relocate the misalignment between institutional settings and grocery settings. But that does not mean that we don't have enough food in this country to feed the American people.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "We really appreciate the work of the American people. We see, as a country, we're improving. We see, as metro areas, we're improving. We see, as communities, as counties, and as states, we're improving, but that also still requires everyone to continue to social distance.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Steve? Go ahead. Go ahead.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "I'd like to start my remarks today by echoing what my colleagues at the CDC have been saying regarding the health and safety of our essential employees across the United States. CDC has provided strategies there that aimed at helping our most critical workers, both in healthcare and food processing, to quickly and safely return to work after potential exposure to COVID-19, provided those workers are symptom-free. And this guidance will help these critical industries in the food sector provide--to protect the health and safety of essential workers, while keeping critical functions working throughout the COVID-19 response.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "I don't want to discuss what I talked to him about the laboratory. I just don't want to discuss it. It's inappropriate right now.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "This has never happened to China before. They never gave us 10 cents. Now they're paying us billions of dollars and we appreciate it.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "At least 35 clinical trials of promising therapies are now underway. So 35 different genius companies. If you look at AIDS, if you look at Ebola, if you look at so many things, they've come up with the answers to so many things, you wouldn't have believed it. And we're very honored to be working with them.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "So we have a lot of money that we've taken in from China. We're going to be distributing that money from--from Sonny to the farmers. And there is tremendous money over and above that. That money was paid directly into the Treasury of the United States.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Well, we have the right to do whatever we want. But we wouldn't do that. But, no, we would have the right to close down what they're doing if we want to do that. But we don't want to do that --", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "But because they're taking so much time and approving every--they're trying to put us through the mill. That's--when you talk about partisanship--and it's never ever happened before. You can look at every administration in the history of this country. Nobody--nobody has ever had hundreds of people not approved after three and a half years.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "That is why I am taking immediate presidential action to stop the violence and restore security and safety in America. I am mobilizing all available federal resources--civilian and military--to stop the rioting and looting, to end the destruction and arson, and to protect the rights of law-abiding Americans, including your Second Amendment rights. Therefore, the following measures are going into effect immediately:", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "America needs creation, not destruction; cooperation, not contempt; security, not anarchy; healing, not hatred; justice, not chaos. This is our mission, and we will succeed. One hundred percent, we will succeed. Our country always wins.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Second, the Department of the Treasury will address barriers to the financing of highly efficient, overseas coal energy plants. Ukraine already tells us they need millions and millions of metric tons right now. There are many other places that need it, too. And we want to sell it to them, and to everyone else all over the globe who need it.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Third, my administration has just approved the construction of a new petroleum pipeline to Mexico, which will further boost American energy exports, and that will go right under the wall, right? It's going under, right? Have it go down a little deeper in that one section. You know, a little like this. Right under the wall.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "We do not expect diverse countries to share the same cultures, traditions, or even systems of government. But we do expect all nations to uphold these two core sovereign duties: to respect the interests of their own people and the rights of every other sovereign nation. This is the beautiful vision of this institution, and this is foundation for cooperation and success.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "It is an outrage that some nations would not only trade with such a regime, but would arm, supply, and financially support a country that imperils the world with nuclear conflict. No nation on earth has an interest in seeing this band of criminals arm itself with nuclear weapons and missiles.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Rather than use its resources to improve Iranian lives, its oil profits go to fund Hezbollah and other terrorists that kill innocent Muslims and attack their peaceful Arab and Israeli neighbors. This wealth, which rightly belongs to Iran's people, also goes to shore up Bashar al-Assad's dictatorship, fuel Yemen's civil war, and undermine peace throughout the entire Middle East.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "That was the moment when America awoke, when we looked around and understood that we were a nation. We realized who we were, what we valued, and what we would give our lives to defend. From its very first moments, the American story is the story of what is possible when people take ownership of their future.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "We seek the de-escalation of the Syrian conflict, and a political solution that honors the will of the Syrian people. The actions of the criminal regime of Bashar al-Assad, including the use of chemical weapons against his own citizens--even innocent children--shock the conscience of every decent person. No society can be safe if banned chemical weapons are allowed to spread. That is why the United States carried out a missile strike on the airbase that launched the attack.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "For the cost of resettling one refugee in the United States, we can assist more than 10 in their home region. Out of the goodness of our hearts, we offer financial assistance to hosting countries in the region, and we support recent agreements of the G20 nations that will seek to host refugees as close to their home countries as possible. This is the safe, responsible, and humanitarian approach.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "The true question for the United Nations today, for people all over the world who hope for better lives for themselves and their children, is a basic one: Are we still patriots? Do we love our nations enough to protect their sovereignty and to take ownership of their futures? Do we revere them enough to defend their interests, preserve their cultures, and ensure a peaceful world for their citizens?", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "For decades, the United States has dealt with migration challenges here in the Western Hemisphere. We have learned that, over the long term, uncontrolled migration is deeply unfair to both the sending and the receiving countries.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "We are fortunate to have incredibly strong and healthy trade relationships with many of the Latin American countries gathered here today. Our economic bond forms a critical foundation for advancing peace and prosperity for all of our people and all of our neighbors.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "It is time for the entire world to join us in demanding that Iran's government end its pursuit of death and destruction. It is time for the regime to free all Americans and citizens of other nations that they have unjustly detained. And above all, Iran's government must stop supporting terrorists, begin serving its own people, and respect the sovereign rights of its neighbors.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Using emergency authority, I will be instructing the Treasury Department to defer tax payments, without interest or penalties, for certain individuals and businesses negatively impacted. This action will provide more than $200 billion of additional liquidity to the economy.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Effective immediately, the SBA will begin providing economic loans in affected states and territories. These low-interest loans will help small businesses overcome temporary economic disruptions caused by the virus. To this end, I am asking Congress to increase funding for this program by an additional $50 billion.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "The vast majority of Americans: The risk is very, very low. Young and healthy people can expect to recover fully and quickly if they should get the virus. The highest risk is for elderly population with underlying health conditions. The elderly population must be very, very careful.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "But as far as America is concerned, those days are over. To confront these unfair practices, I placed massive tariffs on more than $500 billion worth of Chinese-made goods. Already, as a result of these tariffs, supply chains are relocating back to America and to other nations, and billions of dollars are being paid to our Treasury.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Here in the Western Hemisphere, we are joining with our partners to ensure stability and opportunity all across the region. In that mission, one of our most critical challenges is illegal immigration, which undermines prosperity, rips apart societies, and empowers ruthless criminal cartels.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "The World Trade Organization needs drastic change. The second-largest economy in the world should not be permitted to declare itself a \"developing country\" in order to game the system at others' expense.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Last month, African American, Hispanic American, and Asian American unemployment reached their lowest rates ever recorded. We are marshaling our nation's vast energy abundance, and the United States is now the number one producer of oil and natural gas anywhere in the world. Wages are rising, incomes are soaring, and 2.5 million Americans have been lifted out of poverty in less than three years.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Freedom and democracy must be constantly guarded and protected, both abroad and from within. We must always be skeptical of those who want conformity and control. Even in free nations, we see alarming signs and new challenges to liberty.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "For this reason, the United States is taking steps to better screen foreign technology and investments and to protect our data and our security. We urge every nation present to do the same.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Fanatics have long used hatred of Israel to distract from their own failures. Thankfully, there is a growing recognition in the wider Middle East that the countries of the region share common interests in battling extremism and unleashing economic opportunity. That is why it is so important to have full, normalized relations between Israel and its neighbors. Only a relationship built on common interests, mutual respect, and religious tolerance can forge a better future.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Americans will also never tire of defending innocent life. We are aware that many United Nations projects have attempted to assert a global right to taxpayer-funded abortion on demand, right up until the moment of delivery. Global bureaucrats have absolutely no business attacking the sovereignty of nations that wish to protect innocent life. Like many nations here today, we in America believe that every child -- born and unborn -- is a sacred gift from God.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "One of the most serious challenges our countries face is the specter of socialism. It's the wrecker of nations and destroyer of societies.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "America is, and must always be, a nation of law and order. The demonstrators who infiltrated the Capitol have defiled the seat of American democracy.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "And by the way, do you see the billions and billions and billions of additional money that we're putting back into our military? Billions of dollars.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Do you remember that famous night on television, November 8th where they said, these dishonest people, where they said, there is no path to victory for Donald Trump. They forgot about the forgotten people.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "You're Boy Scouts, but you know life. You know life.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "I wonder if the television cameras will follow you? They don't doing that when they see these massive crowds. They don't like doing that.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "Should I tell you? Should I tell you?", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "19th Boy Scout Jamboree, wow, and to address such a tremendous group. Boy, you have a lot of people here. The press will say it's about 200 people.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "And he went out and bought a big yacht, and he had a very interesting life. I won't go any more than that, because you're Boy Scouts so I'm not going to tell you what he did.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "It's amazing how many Boy Scouts we have at the highest level of our great government. Many of my top advisers in the White House were Scouts. Ten members of my cabinet were Scouts. Can you believe that? Ten.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "You know, in the Boy Scouts you learn right from wrong, correct? You learn to contribute to your communities, to take pride in your nation, and to seek out opportunities to serve. You pledge to help other people at all times.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "trump", "text": "But it's not good. Not good. And I see what's going on. And believe me, I'd much rather be with you, that I can tell you.", "category": "speech" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "But was it Lady Bruton (whom she used to know)? Was it Peter Walsh grown grey? Lady Rosseter asked herself (who had been Sally Seton). It was old Miss Parry certainly--the old aunt who used to be so cross when she stayed at Bourton. Never should she forget running along the passage naked, and being sent for by Miss Parry!", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Have you never been in love?\" Evelyn asked. \"Oh no--one's only got to look at you to see that,\" she added. She considered. \"I really was in love once,\" she said. She fell into reflection, her eyes losing their bright vitality and approaching something like an expression of tenderness.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Then why, for goodness' sake, did they do nothing but criticize her when she was alive?\" said Helen. Very gentle their voices sounded, as if they fell through the waves of the sea.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Meaning? Oh, something about bubbles--auras--what d'you call 'em? You can't see my bubble; I can't see yours; all we see of each other is a speck, like the wick in the middle of that flame. The flame goes about with us everywhere; it's not ourselves exactly, but what we feel; the world is short, or people mainly; all kinds of people.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Oh, the vow,\" she said casually. \"I'm going to have a baby, if that's what you mean. You can't imagine,\" she burst out, \"how exciting, how beautiful, how satisfying--\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Defoe was an elderly man when he turned novelist, many years the predecessor of Richardson and Fielding, and one of the first indeed to shape the novel and launch it on its way. But it is unnecessary to labour the fact of his precedence, except that he came to his novel-writing with certain conceptions about the art which he derived partly from being himself one of the first to practise it. The novel had to justify its existence by telling a true story and preaching a sound moral. \"This supplying a story by invention is certainly a most scandalous crime,\" he wrote. \"It is a sort of lying that makes a great hole in the heart, in which by degrees a habit of lying enters in.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "In the first place a contemporary can scarcely fail to be struck by the fact that two critics at the same table at the same moment will pronounce completely different opinions about the same book. Here, on the right, it is declared a masterpiece of English prose; on the left, simultaneously, a mere mass of waste-paper which, if the fire could survive it, should be thrown upon the flames. Yet both critics are in agreement about Milton and about Keats. They display an exquisite sensibility and have undoubtedly a genuine enthusiasm. It is only when they discuss the work of contemporary writers that they inevitably come to blows.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Being slightly depressed, however, she went on to think of the only people she had known who had not seemed to her at all selfish or fond of money, who had seemed to her somehow rather finer than the general run; people she willingly acknowledged, who were finer than she was. There were only two of them. One was her brother, who had been drowned before her eyes, the other was a girl, her greatest friend, who had died in giving birth to her first child. These things had happened some fifty years ago.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"I've often walked along the streets where people live all in a row, and one house is exactly like another house, and wondered what on earth the women were doing inside,\" he said. \"Just consider: it's the beginning of the twentieth century, and until a few years ago no woman had ever come out by herself and said things at all. There it was going on in the background, for all those thousands of years, this curious silent unrepresented life. Of course we're always writing about women--abusing them, or jeering at them, or worshipping them; but it's never come from women themselves. I believe we still don't know in the least how they live, or what they feel, or what they do precisely.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "I can't keep up with them, Peter Walsh thought, as they marched up Whitehall, and sure enough, on they marched, past him, past every one, in their steady way, as if one will worked legs and arms uniformly, and life, with its varieties, its irreticences, had been laid under a pavement of monuments and wreaths and drugged into a stiff yet staring corpse by discipline. One had to respect it; one might laugh; but one had to respect it, he thought. There they go, thought Peter Walsh, pausing at the edge of the pavement; and all the exalted statues, Nelson, Gordon, Havelock, the black, the spectacular images of great soldiers stood looking ahead of them, as if they too had made the same renunciation (Peter Walsh felt he too had made it, the great renunciation), trampled under the same temptations, and achieved at length a marble stare. But the stare Peter Walsh did not want for himself in the least; though he could respect it in others. He could respect it in boys.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "He looked round at all the faces looking mildly up at him, although some of them were the faces of men and women old enough to be his grandparents, and gave out his text with weighty significance. The argument of the sermon was that visitors to this beautiful land, although they were on a holiday, owed a duty to the natives. It did not, in truth, differ very much from a leading article upon topics of general interest in the weekly newspapers. It rambled with a kind of amiable verbosity from one heading to another, suggesting that all human beings are very much the same under their skins, illustrating this by the resemblance of the games which little Spanish boys play to the games little boys in London streets play, observing that very small things do influence people, particularly natives; in fact, a very dear friend of Mr. Bax's had told him that the success of our rule in India, that vast country, largely depended upon the strict code of politeness which the English adopted towards the natives, which led to the remark that small things were not necessarily small, and that somehow to the virtue of sympathy, which was a virtue never more needed than to-day, when we lived in a time of experiment and upheaval--witness the aeroplane and wireless telegraph, and there were other problems which hardly presented themselves to our fathers, but which no man who called himself a man could leave unsettled. Here Mr. Bax became more definitely clerical, if it were possible, he seemed to speak with a certain innocent craftiness, as he pointed out that all this laid a special duty upon earnest Christians.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Yes,\" said Peter. \"Yes, yes, yes,\" he said, as if she drew up to the surface something which positively hurt him as it rose. Stop! Stop! he wanted to cry.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Hewet and Rachel had long ago reached the particular place on the edge of the cliff where, looking down into the sea, you might chance on jelly-fish and dolphins. Looking the other way, the vast expanse of land gave them a sensation which is given by no view, however extended, in England; the villages and the hills there having names, and the farthest horizon of hills as often as not dipping and showing a line of mist which is the sea; here the view was one of infinite sun-dried earth, earth pointed in pinnacles, heaped in vast barriers, earth widening and spreading away and away like the immense floor of the sea, earth chequered by day and by night, and partitioned into different lands, where famous cities were founded, and the races of men changed from dark savages to white civilised men, and back to dark savages again. Perhaps their English blood made this prospect uncomfortably impersonal and hostile to them, for having once turned their faces that way they next turned them to the sea, and for the rest of the time sat looking at the sea. The sea, though it was a thin and sparkling water here, which seemed incapable of surge or anger, eventually narrowed itself, clouded its pure tint with grey, and swirled through narrow channels and dashed in a shiver of broken waters against massive granite rocks. It was this sea that flowed up to the mouth of the Thames; and the Thames washed the roots of the city of London.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "It appears, then, that we are to aim at a democratic simplicity. We may enjoy our room in the tower, with the painted walls and the commodious bookcases, but down in the garden there is a man digging who buried his father this morning, and it is he and his like who live the real life and speak the real language. There is certainly an element of truth in that. Things are said very finely at the lower end of the table. There are perhaps more of the qualities that matter among the ignorant than among the learned.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "But she's not married; she's young; quite young, thought Peter, the red carnation he had seen her wear as she came across Trafalgar Square burning again in his eyes and making her lips red. But she waited at the kerbstone. There was a dignity about her. She was not worldly, like Clarissa; not rich, like Clarissa. Was she, he wondered as she moved, respectable?", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "For one likes romantically to feel oneself a deliverer advancing with lights across the waste of years to the rescue of some stranded ghost--a Mrs. Pilkington, a Rev. Henry Elman, a Mrs. Ann Gilbert--waiting, appealing, forgotten, in the growing gloom. Possibly they hear one coming. They shuffle, they preen, they bridle. Old secrets well up to their lips.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"And a miscarriage is so much worse than a confinement,\" Mrs. Thornbury murmured absentmindedly, adjusting her spectacles and picking up The Times. Mrs. Elliot rose and fluttered away.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Don't quite forget me,\" said Doris Kilman; her voice quivered. Right away to the end of the field the dumb creature galloped in terror.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "With a silver pencil she wrote her name and address on the flyleaf of Persuasion, and gave the book to Rachel. Sailors were shouldering the luggage, and people were beginning to congregate. There were Captain Cobbold, Mr. Grice, Willoughby, Helen, and an obscure grateful man in a blue jersey.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "By conviction an atheist perhaps, he is taken by surprise with moments of extraordinary exaltation. Nothing exists outside us except a state of mind, he thinks; a desire for solace, for relief, for something outside these miserable pigmies, these feeble, these ugly, these craven men and women. But if he can conceive of her, then in some sort she exists, he thinks, and advancing down the path with his eyes upon sky and branches he rapidly endows them with womanhood; sees with amazement how grave they become; how majestically, as the breeze stirs them, they dispense with a dark flutter of the leaves charity, comprehension, absolution, and then, flinging themselves suddenly aloft, confound the piety of their aspect with a wild carouse.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Warships, Dick! Over there! Look!\" Clarissa, released from Mr. Grice, appreciative of all his seaweeds, skimmed towards them, gesticulating.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"I do adore the aristocracy!\" Hirst exclaimed after a moment's pause. \"They're so amazingly unscrupulous. None of us would dare to behave as that woman behaves.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Such were the characters of the early books--Lord Jim, Typhoon, The Nigger of the \"Narcissus\", Youth; and these books, in spite of the changes and fashions, are surely secure of their place among our classics. But they reach this height by means of qualities which the simple story of adventure, as Marryat told it, or Fenimore Cooper, has no claim to possess. For it is clear that to admire and celebrate such men and such deeds, romantically, wholeheartedly and with the fervour of a lover, one must be possessed of the double vision; one must be at once inside and out. To praise their silence one must possess a voice. To appreciate their endurance one must be sensitive to fatigue.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"What a dear little room!\" she said, looking round. \"Oh, Cowper's Letters! I've never read them. Are they nice?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "So there was no excuse; nothing whatever the matter, except the sin for which human nature had condemned him to death; that he did not feel. He had not cared when Evans was killed; that was worst; but all the other crimes raised their heads and shook their fingers and jeered and sneered over the rail of the bed in the early hours of the morning at the prostrate body which lay realising its degradation; how he had married his wife without loving her; had lied to her; seduced her; outraged Miss Isabel Pole, and was so pocked and marked with vice that women shuddered when they saw him in the street. The verdict of human nature on such a wretch was death.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Terence sat down by the bedside. Rachel's face was changed. She looked as though she were entirely concentrated upon the effort of keeping alive. Her lips were drawn, and her cheeks were sunken and flushed, though without colour. Her eyes were not entirely shut, the lower half of the white part showing, not as if she saw, but as if they remained open because she was too much exhausted to close them.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "And Richard Dalloway and Hugh Whitbread hesitated at the corner of Conduit Street at the very moment that Millicent Bruton, lying on the sofa, let the thread snap; snored. Contrary winds buffeted at the street corner. They looked in at a shop window; they did not wish to buy or to talk but to part, only with contrary winds buffeting the street corner, with some sort of lapse in the tides of the body, two forces meeting in a swirl, morning and afternoon, they paused. Some newspaper placard went up in the air, gallantly, like a kite at first, then paused, swooped, fluttered; and a lady's veil hung. Yellow awnings trembled.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"It's unthinkable,\" she said. \"Don't tell me you're a suffragist?\" she turned to Ridley.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"You have a small electric battery and a piece of rubber to insulate the wire--isolate?--insulate?--well, we'll skip the details, no good going into details that wouldn't be understood--and in short the little machine stands in any convenient position by the head of the bed, we will say, on a neat mahogany stand. All arrangements being properly fixed by workmen under my direction, the widow applies her ear and summons the spirit by sign as agreed. Women! Widows! Women in black----\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"If I were you,\" said Evelyn, turning to him and drawing her glove vehemently through her fingers, \"I'd raise a troop and conquer some great territory and make it splendid. You'd want women for that. I'd love to start life from the very beginning as it ought to be--nothing squalid--but great halls and gardens and splendid men and women. But you--you only like Law Courts!\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "We have to admit that we are exacting, and, further, that we find it difficult to justify our discontent by explaining what it is that we exact. We frame our question differently at different times. But it reappears most persistently as we drop the finished novel on the crest of a sigh--Is it worth while? What is the point of it all? Can it be that owing to one of those little deviations which the human spirit seems to make from time to time Mr. Bennett has come down with his magnificent apparatus for catching life just an inch or two on the wrong side?", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "So she sewed. When she sewed, he thought, she made a sound like a kettle on the hob; bubbling, murmuring, always busy, her strong little pointed fingers pinching and poking; her needle flashing straight. The sun might go in and out, on the tassels, on the wall-paper, but he would wait, he thought, stretching out his feet, looking at his ringed sock at the end of the sofa; he would wait in this warm place, this pocket of still air, which one comes on at the edge of a wood sometimes in the evening, when, because of a fall in the ground, or some arrangement of the trees (one must be scientific above all, scientific), warmth lingers, and the air buffets the cheek like the wing of a bird.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Quiet descended on her, calm, content, as her needle, drawing the silk smoothly to its gentle pause, collected the green folds together and attached them, very lightly, to the belt. So on a summer's day waves collect, overbalance, and fall; collect and fall; and the whole world seems to be saying \"that is all\" more and more ponderously, until even the heart in the body which lies in the sun on the beach says too, That is all. Fear no more, says the heart. Fear no more, says the heart, committing its burden to some sea, which sighs collectively for all sorrows, and renews, begins, collects, lets fall. And the body alone listens to the passing bee; the wave breaking; the dog barking, far away barking and barking.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Yet,\" said Sally, \"when I heard Clarissa was giving a party, I felt I couldn't not come--must see her again (and I'm staying in Victoria Street, practically next door). So I just came without an invitation. But,\" she whispered, \"tell me, do. Who is this?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"They're old friends,\" said Helen, smiling at the sight. \"Now, is there a room for us to sit in?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Winding veils round their heads, the women walked on deck. They were now moving steadily down the river, passing the dark shapes of ships at anchor, and London was a swarm of lights with a pale yellow canopy drooping above it. There were the lights of the great theatres, the lights of the long streets, lights that indicated huge squares of domestic comfort, lights that hung high in air. No darkness would ever settle upon those lamps, as no darkness had settled upon them for hundreds of years. It seemed dreadful that the town should blaze for ever in the same spot; dreadful at least to people going away to adventure upon the sea, and beholding it as a circumscribed mound, eternally burnt, eternally scarred.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "But the claim of Defoe upon our admiration does not rest upon the fact that he can be shown to have anticipated some of the views of Meredith, or to have written scenes which (the odd suggestion occurs) might have been turned into plays by Ibsen. Whatever his ideas upon the position of women, they are an incidental result of his chief virtue, which is that he deals with the important and lasting side of things and not with the passing and trivial. He is often dull. He can imitate the matter-of-fact precision of a scientific traveller until we wonder that his pen could trace or his brain conceive what has not even the excuse of truth to soften its dryness. He leaves out the whole of vegetable nature, and a large part of human nature.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"I don't mean to go, and I don't mean not to go,\" she replied. She became more and more casual and indifferent.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"When one was young,\" she continued, \"things could seem so very serious if one was made that way. . . . And now my dress.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Looking up, it appeared that each letter of their names stood for one of the hours; subconsciously one was grateful to Rigby and Lowndes for giving one time ratified by Greenwich; and this gratitude (so Hugh Whitbread ruminated, dallying there in front of the shop window), naturally took the form later of buying off Rigby and Lowndes socks or shoes. So he ruminated. It was his habit. He did not go deeply. He brushed surfaces; the dead languages, the living, life in Constantinople, Paris, Rome; riding, shooting, tennis, it had been once.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "As the congregation entered they were met by mild sweet chords issuing from a harmonium, where Miss Willett, concealed from view by a baize curtain, struck emphatic chords with uncertain fingers. The sound spread through the chapel as the rings of water spread from a fallen stone. The twenty or twenty-five people who composed the congregation first bowed their heads and then sat up and looked about them. It was very quiet, and the light down here seemed paler than the light above. The usual bows and smiles were dispensed with, but they recognised each other.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Poetry! Poetry!\" we cried, impatiently. \"Read us poetry!\" I cannot describe the desolation which fell upon us as she opened a little volume and mouthed out the verbose, sentimental foolery which it contained.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "They were both conscious of a certain sense of relief when Dr. Lesage was gone, leaving explicit directions, and promising another visit in a few hours' time; but, unfortunately, the rise of their spirits led them to talk more than usual, and in talking they quarrelled. They quarrelled about a road, the Portsmouth Road. St. John said that it is macadamised where it passes Hindhead, and Terence knew as well as he knew his own name that it is not macadamised at that point. In the course of the argument they said some very sharp things to each other, and the rest of the dinner was eaten in silence, save for an occasional half-stifled reflection from Ridley.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"I don't lose things,\" said Hewet. \"I mislay them. That was the reason why Hirst refused to share a cabin with me on the voyage out.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"For God's sake don't come!\" Septimus cried out. For he could not look upon the dead.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Was there anything else they wished to ask him? Sir William would make all arrangements (he murmured to Rezia) and he would let her know between five and six that evening he murmured.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Not possible?\" said Helen. \"Everything's possible. Who knows what mayn't happen before night-fall?\" she continued, mocking the poor lady's timidity, who depended so implicitly upon one thing following another that the mere glimpse of a world where dinner could be disregarded, or the table moved one inch from its accustomed place, filled her with fears for her own stability.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Sisters and a dormouse and some canaries,\" Rachel murmured, never taking her eyes off him. \"I wonder, I wonder.\" She ceased, her chin upon her hand, still looking at him. A bell chimed behind them, and Richard raised his head. Then he opened his eyes which wore for a second the queer look of a shortsighted person's whose spectacles are lost. It took him a moment to recover from the impropriety of having snored, and possibly grunted, before a young lady.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"I call myself a Conservative for convenience sake,\" said Richard, smiling. \"But there is more in common between the two parties than people generally allow.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "But Hewet need not have increased his torments by imagining that Hirst was still talking to Rachel. The party very soon broke up, the Flushings going in one direction, Hirst in another, and Rachel remaining in the hall, pulling the illustrated papers about, turning from one to another, her movements expressing the unformed restless desire in her mind. She did not know whether to go or to stay, though Mrs. Flushing had commanded her to appear at tea. The hall was empty, save for Miss Willett who was playing scales with her fingers upon a sheet of sacred music, and the Carters, an opulent couple who disliked the girl, because her shoe laces were untied, and she did not look sufficiently cheery, which by some indirect process of thought led them to think that she would not like them. Rachel certainly would not have liked them, if she had seen them, for the excellent reason that Mr. Carter waxed his moustache, and Mrs. Carter wore bracelets, and they were evidently the kind of people who would not like her; but she was too much absorbed by her own restlessness to think or to look.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"I heard from Aunt Bessie not long ago,\" Helen stated. \"She is afraid that you will spoil your arms if you insist upon so much practising.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "It seemed to her as she drank the sweet stuff that she was opening long windows, stepping out into some garden. But where? The clock was striking--one, two, three: how sensible the sound was; compared with all this thumping and whispering; like Septimus himself. She was falling asleep. But the clock went on striking, four, five, six and Mrs. Filmer waving her apron (they wouldn't bring the body in here, would they?)", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "She had gone. Miss Kilman sat at the marble table among the eclairs, stricken once, twice, thrice by shocks of suffering. She had gone. Mrs. Dalloway had triumphed. Elizabeth had gone.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Still, though it is the habit of death to quicken and focus our memories, there clings to the genius of Conrad something essentially, and not accidentally, difficult of approach. His reputation of later years was, with one obvious exception, undoubtedly the highest in England; yet he was not popular. He was read with passionate delight by some; others he left cold and lustreless. Among his readers were people of the most opposite ages and sympathies. Schoolboys of fourteen, driving their way through Marryat, Scott, Henty, and Dickens, swallowed him down with the rest; while the seasoned and the fastidious, who in process of time have eaten their way to the heart of literature and there turn over and over a few precious crumbs, set Conrad scrupulously upon their banqueting table.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"He does not look strong,\" said Mrs. Thornbury. \"His complexion is not good.--Shall I tear it off?\" she asked, for Rachel had stopped, conscious of a long strip trailing behind her.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "As she talked Terence could see the traces of fading youth in her face, the lines that were being drawn by talk and excitement round her mouth and eyes, but he did not pity her; looking into those bright, rather hard, and very courageous eyes, he saw that she did not pity herself, or feel any desire to exchange her own life for the more refined and orderly lives of people like himself and St. John, although, as the years went by, the fight would become harder and harder. Perhaps, though, she would settle down; perhaps, after all, she would marry Perrott. While his mind was half occupied with what she was saying, he thought of her probable destiny, the light clouds of tobacco smoke serving to obscure his face from her eyes.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"There's a tooth-brush in it,\" murmured Clarissa, and smiled; it might have been the contortion of one weeping. She drank.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"You love me?\" Terence asked at length, breaking the silence painfully. To speak or to be silent was equally an effort, for when they were silent they were keenly conscious of each other's presence, and yet words were either too trivial or too large.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Nothing now could assuage Terence's anxiety. He could not read, nor could he sit still, and his sense of security was shaken, in spite of the fact that he was determined that Helen was exaggerating, and that Rachel was not very ill. But he wanted a third person to confirm him in his belief.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Have you seen those wonderful Russian dancers?\" began Mrs. Elliot. But Helen saw her partner coming and rose as the moon rises. She was half round the room before they took their eyes off her, for they could not help admiring her, although they thought it a little odd that a woman of her age should enjoy dancing.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "They had been strong as those are strong who know neither doubts nor hopes. They had been impatient and enduring, turbulent and devoted, unruly and faithful. Well-meaning people had tried to represent these men as whining over every mouthful of their food, as going about their work in fear of their lives. But in truth they had been men who knew toil, privation, violence, debauchery--but knew not fear, and had no desire of spite in their hearts. Men hard to manage, but easy to inspire; voiceless men--but men enough to scorn in their hearts the sentimental voices that bewailed the hardness of their fate.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"I haven't read many classics,\" Rachel stated. She was slightly annoyed by his jaunty and rather unnatural manner, while his masculine acquirements induced her to take a very modest view of her own power.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "James Moggridge is dead now, gone for ever. Well, Minnie--\"I can face it no longer.\" If she said that--(Let me look at her. She is brushing the eggshell into deep declivities). She said it certainly, leaning against the wall of the bedroom, and plucking at the little balls which edge the claret-coloured curtain.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "For they might be parted for hundreds of years, she and Peter; she never wrote a letter and his were dry sticks; but suddenly it would come over her, If he were with me now what would he say?--some days, some sights bringing him back to her calmly, without the old bitterness; which perhaps was the reward of having cared for people; they came back in the middle of St. James's Park on a fine morning--indeed they did. But Peter--however beautiful the day might be, and the trees and the grass, and the little girl in pink--Peter never saw a thing of all that. He would put on his spectacles, if she told him to; he would look. It was the state of the world that interested him; Wagner, Pope's poetry, people's characters eternally, and the defects of her own soul. How he scolded her!", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"I really don't need cooking, Susan,\" said Mrs. Paley, when her niece returned. \"I must trouble you to move me.\" Everything had to be moved. Finally the old lady was placed so that the light wavered over her, as though she were a fish in a net. Susan poured out tea, and was just remarking that they were having hot weather in Wiltshire too, when Mr. Venning asked whether he might join them.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "At last, with a melodramatic gesture which he assumed mechanically and with complete consciousness of its insincerity, he dropped his head on his hands. Now he had surrendered; now other people must help him. People must be sent for. He gave in.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Only I think you ought to discriminate,\" she ended. \"It's a pity to be intimate with people who are--well, rather second-rate, like the Dalloways, and to find it out later.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"I am never sick,\" Richard explained. \"At least, I have only been actually sick once,\" he corrected himself. \"That was crossing the Channel. But a choppy sea, I confess, or still worse, a swell, makes me distinctly uncomfortable. The great thing is never to miss a meal.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"A competent man of business could make a fortune here in no time,\" St. John continued. \"I suppose the heat does something funny to people's brains. Even the English go a little queer. Anyhow they're hopeless people to deal with. They kept me three-quarters of an hour waiting at the chemist's this morning, for no reason whatever.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Shakespeare? I hate Shakespeare!\" Mrs. Flushing exclaimed; and Wilfrid returned admiringly, \"I believe you're the only person who dares to say that, Alice.\" But Mrs. Flushing went on painting. She did not appear to attach much value to her husband's compliment, and painted steadily, sometimes muttering a half-audible word or groan.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"I don't really know him,\" she said, and took refuge in facts, believing that elderly people really like them better than feelings. She produced what she knew of William Pepper. She told Helen that he always called on Sundays when they were at home; he knew about a great many things--about mathematics, history, Greek, zoology, economics, and the Icelandic Sagas. He had turned Persian poetry into English prose, and English prose into Greek iambics; he was an authority upon coins; and--one other thing--oh yes, she thought it was vehicular traffic.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "There they are! he thought. Do what you like with them, Clarissa! There they are! And second by second it seemed to him that the wife of the Major in the Indian Army (his Daisy) and her two small children became more and more lovely as Clarissa looked at them; as if he had set light to a grey pellet on a plate and there had risen up a lovely tree in the brisk sea-salted air of their intimacy (for in some ways no one understood him, felt with him, as Clarissa did)--their exquisite intimacy.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "To be flung into the sea, to be washed hither and thither, and driven about the roots of the world--the idea was incoherently delightful. She sprang up, and began moving about the room, bending and thrusting aside the chairs and tables as if she were indeed striking through the waters. He watched her with pleasure; she seemed to be cleaving a passage for herself, and dealing triumphantly with the obstacles which would hinder their passage through life.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "The rain rushed down. The rain seemed now to extinguish the lightning and the thunder, and the hall became almost dark.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Hirst had no particular wish to describe them, but when he began to consider them he found himself soothed and strengthened. Far away on the other side of the world as they were, in smoky rooms, and grey medieval courts, they appeared remarkable figures, free-spoken men with whom one could be at ease; incomparably more subtle in emotion than the people here. They gave him, certainly, what no woman could give him, not Helen even. Warming at the thought of them, he went on to lay his case before Mrs. Ambrose. Should he stay on at Cambridge or should he go to the Bar?", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "It was odd; it was true; lots of people felt it. Peter Walsh, who had done just respectably, filled the usual posts adequately, was liked, but thought a little cranky, gave himself airs--it was odd that he should have had, especially now that his hair was grey, a contented look; a look of having reserves. It was this that made him attractive to women who liked the sense that he was not altogether manly. There was something unusual about him, or something behind him. It might be that he was bookish--never came to see you without taking up the book on the table (he was now reading, with his bootlaces trailing on the floor); or that he was a gentleman, which showed itself in the way he knocked the ashes out of his pipe, and in his manners of course to women.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Why,\" he said, in his ordinary tone of voice, \"look at the moon. There's a halo round the moon. We shall have rain to-morrow.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "What we are saying amounts to this, then, that we have judged a whole literature stripped of its style. When you have changed every word in a sentence from Russian to English, have thereby altered the sense a little, the sound, weight, and accent of the words in relation to each other completely, nothing remains except a crude and coarsened version of the sense. Thus treated, the great Russian writers are like men deprived by an earthquake or a railway accident not only of all their clothes, but also of something subtler and more important--their manners, the idiosyncrasies of their characters. What remains is, as the English have proved by the fanaticism of their admiration, something very powerful and very impressive, but it is difficult to feel sure, in view of these mutilations, how far we can trust ourselves not to impute, to distort, to read into them an emphasis which is false.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Indoors among ordinary things, the cupboard, the table, the window-sill with its geraniums, suddenly the outline of the landlady, bending to remove the cloth, becomes soft with light, an adorable emblem which only the recollection of cold human contacts forbids us to embrace. She takes the marmalade; she shuts it in the cupboard.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Pebbles!\" he concluded, viciously dropping another bread pellet upon the heap. \"The roads of England are mended with pebbles! 'With the first heavy rainfall,' I've told 'em, 'your road will be a swamp.' Again and again my words have proved true. But d'you suppose they listen to me when I tell 'em so, when I point out the consequences, the consequences to the public purse, when I recommend 'em to read Coryphaeus? No, Mrs. Ambrose, you will form no just opinion of the stupidity of mankind until you have sat upon a Borough Council!\" The little man fixed her with a glance of ferocious energy.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Here flying was discussed at length, and Mrs. Thornbury delivered an opinion which was almost a speech to the effect that it would be quite necessary in time of war, and in England we were terribly behind-hand. \"If I were a young fellow,\" she concluded, \"I should certainly qualify.\" It was odd to look at the little elderly lady, in her grey coat and skirt, with a sandwich in her hand, her eyes lighting up with zeal as she imagined herself a young man in an aeroplane. For some reason, however, the talk did not run easily after this, and all they said was about drink and salt and the view. Suddenly Miss Allan, who was seated with her back to the ruined wall, put down her sandwich, picked something off her neck, and remarked, \"I'm covered with little creatures.\" It was true, and the discovery was very welcome. The ants were pouring down a glacier of loose earth heaped between the stones of the ruin--large brown ants with polished bodies.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"What is it you want?\" said Evelyn. \"You make me feel as if you were always thinking of something you don't say. . . .", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "She liked people who were ill. And every profession is open to the women of your generation, said Miss Kilman. So she might be a doctor. She might be a farmer. Animals are often ill. She might own a thousand acres and have people under her. She would go and see them in their cottages.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"We talked about politics. He told me what he had done for the poor somewhere. I asked him all sorts of questions. He told me about his own life. The day before yesterday, after the storm, he came in to see me.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "It was due to Richard; she had never been so happy. Nothing could be slow enough; nothing last too long. No pleasure could equal, she thought, straightening the chairs, pushing in one book on the shelf, this having done with the triumphs of youth, lost herself in the process of living, to find it, with a shock of delight, as the sun rose, as the day sank. Many a time had she gone, at Bourton when they were all talking, to look at the sky; or seen it between people's shoulders at dinner; seen it in London when she could not sleep. She walked to the window.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Mr. Ormerod required complete silence for his studies. His word was law, even to the dogs, who, in the absence of their master, instinctively obeyed the eldest male person in the room. Some whispered colloquy there might be between Mrs. Ormerod and her daughters--", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"I was afraid it was my husband, still reading Greek,\" she said. \"All this time he's been editing Pindar.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "How you hate her! She'll even lock the bathroom door overnight, too, though it's only cold water you want, and sometimes when the night's been bad it seems as if washing helped. And John at breakfast--the children--meals are worst, and sometimes there are friends--ferns don't altogether hide 'em--they guess, too; so out you go along the front, where the waves are grey, and the papers blow, and the glass shelters green and draughty, and the chairs cost tuppence--too much--for there must be preachers along the sands. Ah, that's a nigger--that's a funny man--that's a man with parakeets--poor little creatures! Is there no one here who thinks of God?--just up there, over the pier, with his rod--but no--there's nothing but grey in the sky or if it's blue the white clouds hide him, and the music--it's military music--and what they are fishing for?", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"It will need considerable organisation,\" said Hewet. He was now padding softly round the room, and stopped to stir the books on the table. They lay heaped one upon another.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"You see--she'll be better,\" Mrs. Flushing jerked out as he left the room. Her anxiety to persuade Terence was very great, and when he left her without saying anything she felt dissatisfied and restless; she did not like to stay, but she could not bear to go. She wandered from room to room looking for some one to talk to, but all the rooms were empty.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Look, look, Septimus!\" she cried. For Dr. Holmes had told her to make her husband (who had nothing whatever seriously the matter with him but was a little out of sorts) take an interest in things outside himself.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "I do so agree with you, she wrote--though I ought not to say so--that the upper class are very--I don't know what to say--but they seem to take no interest in anything--but golfing, etc. One day I was at the Victoria and Albert Museum, just a few sprinkles of legs, for I am sure they looked too frivolous to have bodies and souls attached to them--but what softened the sight to my eyes were 2 little Japs poring over each article with a handbook . . . our bodies, of course, giggling and looking at nothing.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"No, no. I noticed nothing. That's the worst of music--these silly dreams. The second violin was late, you say?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"That's all very interesting,\" said Helen after a pause. \"But of course we've left out the only questions that matter. For instance, are we Christians?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "And of course she enjoyed life immensely. It was her nature to enjoy (though goodness only knows, she had her reserves; it was a mere sketch, he often felt, that even he, after all these years, could make of Clarissa). Anyhow there was no bitterness in her; none of that sense of moral virtue which is so repulsive in good women. She enjoyed practically everything. If you walked with her in Hyde Park now it was a bed of tulips, now a child in a perambulator, now some absurd little drama she made up on the spur of the moment.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "He must be off, he said, getting up. But he stood for a moment as if he were about to say something; and she wondered what? Why? There were the roses.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"You look very ill!\" she exclaimed on seeing him. \"Come and have some tea.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "It was not Lord Orford who was in the cage on that occasion. But, alas! Lord Orford owned another country house, Ilsington Hall, in Dorsetshire, and there Lady Dorothy came in contact first with the mulberry tree, and later with Mr. Thomas Hardy; and we get our first glimpse of the bars. We do not pretend to the ghost of an enthusiasm for Sailors' Homes in general; no doubt mulberry trees are much nicer to look at; but when it comes to calling people \"vandals\" who cut them down to build houses, and to having footstools made from the wood, and to carving upon those footstools inscriptions which testify that \"often and often has King George III. taken his tea\" under this very footstool, then we want to protest--\"Surely you must mean Shakespeare?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"I'd like to explore the hotel,\" Rachel interrupted. She drew her head in and looked at Evelyn, who still sat on the floor.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "So they were going to the Stores. Odd it was, as Miss Kilman stood there (and stand she did, with the power and taciturnity of some prehistoric monster armoured for primeval warfare), how, second by second, the idea of her diminished, how hatred (which was for ideas, not people) crumbled, how she lost her malignity, her size, became second by second merely Miss Kilman, in a mackintosh, whom Heaven knows Clarissa would have liked to help.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "The morning was hot, and the exercise of reading left her mind contracting and expanding like the main-spring of a clock, and the small noises of midday, which one can ascribe to no definite cause, in a regular rhythm. It was all very real, very big, very impersonal, and after a moment or two she began to raise her first finger and to let it fall on the arm of her chair so as to bring back to herself some consciousness of her own existence. She was next overcome by the unspeakable queerness of the fact that she should be sitting in an arm-chair, in the morning, in the middle of the world. Who were the people moving in the house--moving things from one place to another? And life, what was that?", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Evelyn!\" he moaned suddenly, and took her in his arms, and kissed her. She did not resent it, although it made little impression on her.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Thus a rough-and-ready distinction would make us say that it is Marlow who comments, Conrad who creates. It would lead us, aware that we are on dangerous ground, to account for that change which, Conrad tells us, took place when he had finished the last story in the Typhoon volume--\"a subtle change in the nature of the inspiration\"--by some alteration in the relationship of the two old friends. \". . .", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Still talking about her father, of whom she was very proud, she rose, for Arthur upon looking at his watch found that it was time they went back again to the tennis court. The others did not move.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Must,\" \"must,\" why \"must\"? What power had Bradshaw over him? \"What right has Bradshaw to say 'must' to me?\" he demanded.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"After all, though I scold Rachel, I'm not much wiser myself. I'm older, of course, I'm half-way through, and you're just beginning. It's puzzling--sometimes, I think, disappointing; the great things aren't as great, perhaps, as one expects--but it's interesting--Oh, yes, you're certain to find it interesting--And so it goes on,\" they became conscious here of the procession of dark trees into which, as far as they could see, Helen was now looking, \"and there are pleasures where one doesn't expect them (you must write to your father), and you'll be very happy, I've no doubt. But I must go to bed, and if you are sensible you will follow in ten minutes, and so,\" she rose and stood before them, almost featureless and very large, \"Good-night.\" She passed behind the curtain.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"But when we're together we're perfectly happy,\" he said. He continued to hold her hand.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Happily this shepherd had little to say, even under the stimulus of the inevitable mug of beer, about the Unknown Country, for the only remark that he did make proves him either a minor poet, unfit for the care of sheep, or Mr. Belloc himself masquerading with a fountain pen. That is the penalty which the habitual essayist must now be prepared to face. He must masquerade. He cannot afford the time either to be himself or to be other people. He must skim the surface of thought and dilute the strength of personality.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Well, here we are, and if you cast your eye over the room you will see that Tubes and trams and omnibuses, private carriages not a few, even, I venture to believe, landaus with bays in them, have been busy at it, weaving threads from one end of London to the other. Yet I begin to have my doubts--", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Next morning Clarissa was up before anyone else. She dressed, and was out on deck, breathing the fresh air of a calm morning, and, making the circuit of the ship for the second time, she ran straight into the lean person of Mr. Grice, the steward. She apologised, and at the same time asked him to enlighten her: what were those shiny brass stands for, half glass on the top? She had been wondering, and could not guess. When he had done explaining, she cried enthusiastically:", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "There must be Moggridge--life's fault. Life imposes her laws; life blocks the way; life's behind the fern; life's the tyrant; oh, but not the bully! No, for I assure you I come willingly; I come wooed by Heaven knows what compulsion across ferns and cruets, table splashed and bottles smeared. I come irresistibly to lodge myself somewhere on the firm flesh, in the robust spine, wherever I can penetrate or find foothold on the person, in the soul, of Moggridge the man. The enormous stability of the fabric; the spine tough as whalebone, straight as oak-tree; the ribs radiating branches; the flesh taut tarpaulin; the red hollows; the suck and regurgitation of the heart; while from above meat falls in brown cubes and beer gushes to be churned to blood again--and so we reach the eyes.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"And the things you young people are going to see!\" Mrs. Thornbury continued. She included them all in her forecast, she included them all in her maternity, although the party comprised William Pepper and Miss Allan, both of whom might have been supposed to have seen a fair share of the panorama. \"When I see how the world has changed in my lifetime,\" she went on, \"I can set no limit to what may happen in the next fifty years. Ah, no, Mr. Pepper, I don't agree with you in the least,\" she laughed, interrupting his gloomy remark about things going steadily from bad to worse. \"I know I ought to feel that, but I don't, I'm afraid.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "The table was laid under the tree again, and taking her place before the teacups, Mrs. Thornbury beckoned and nodded until she had collected quite a number of people, Susan and Arthur and Mr. Pepper, who were strolling about, waiting for the tournament to begin. A murmuring tree, a river brimming in the moonlight, Terence's words came back to Rachel as she sat drinking the tea and listening to the words which flowed on so lightly, so kindly, and with such silvery smoothness. This long life and all these children had left her very smooth; they seemed to have rubbed away the marks of individuality, and to have left only what was old and maternal.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Thank God, Helen, I'm not like you! I sometimes think you don't think or feel or care to do anything but exist! You're like Mr. Hirst. You see that things are bad, and you pride yourself on saying so. It's what you call being honest; as a matter of fact it's being lazy, being dull, being nothing.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Since it was a very hot night and the paper boys went by with placards proclaiming in huge red letters that there was a heat-wave, wicker chairs were placed on the hotel steps and there, sipping, smoking, detached gentlemen sat. Peter Walsh sat there. One might fancy that day, the London day, was just beginning. Like a woman who had slipped off her print dress and white apron to array herself in blue and pearls, the day changed, put off stuff, took gauze, changed to evening, and with the same sigh of exhilaration that a woman breathes, tumbling petticoats on the floor, it too shed dust, heat, colour; the traffic thinned; motor cars, tinkling, darting, succeeded the lumber of vans; and here and there among the thick foliage of the squares an intense light hung. I resign, the evening seemed to say, as it paled and faded above the battlements and prominences, moulded, pointed, of hotel, flat, and block of shops, I fade, she was beginning, I disappear, but London would have none of it, and rushed her bayonets into the sky, pinioned her, constrained her to partnership in her revelry.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Brothers and sisters must have laughed when Jane read out loud her last hit at the vices which they all abhorred. \"I die a martyr to my grief for the loss of Augustius. One fatal swoon has cost me my life. Beware of Swoons, Dear Laura. .", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "And yet for her own part, it was too much of an effort. She was not enjoying it. It was too much like being--just anybody, standing there; anybody could do it; yet this anybody she did a little admire, couldn't help feeling that she had, anyhow, made this happen, that it marked a stage, this post that she felt herself to have become, for oddly enough she had quite forgotten what she looked like, but felt herself a stake driven in at the top of her stairs. Every time she gave a party she had this feeling of being something not herself, and that every one was unreal in one way; much more real in another. It was, she thought, partly their clothes, partly being taken out of their ordinary ways, partly the background, it was possible to say things you couldn't say anyhow else, things that needed an effort; possible to go much deeper.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Good books?\" she said, looking at the ceiling. \"You must remember,\" she began, speaking with extreme rapidity, \"that fiction is the mirror of life. And you can't deny that education is of the highest importance, and that it would be extremely annoying, if you found yourself alone at Brighton late at night, not to know which was the best boarding house to stay at, and suppose it was a dripping Sunday evening--wouldn't it be nice to go to the Movies?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Of course I am, disgustingly bitter, and it's a beastly thing to be. But the worst of me is that I'm so envious. I envy every one. I can't endure people who do things better than I do--perfectly absurd things too--waiters balancing piles of plates--even Arthur, because Susan's in love with him. I want people to like me, and they don't.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "She was indeed very proud that she had finished her book, for no one knew what an amount of determination had gone to the making of it. Also she thought that it was a good piece of work, and, considering what anxiety she had been in about her brother while she wrote it, she could not resist telling them a little more about it.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Certainly a barrier which usually stands fast had fallen, and it was possible to speak of matters which are generally only alluded to between men and women when doctors are present, or the shadow of death. In five minutes he was telling her the history of his life. It was long, for it was full of extremely elaborate incidents, which led on to a discussion of the principles on which morality is founded, and thus to several very interesting matters, which even in this ballroom had to be discussed in a whisper, lest one of the pouter pigeon ladies or resplendent merchants should overhear them, and proceed to demand that they should leave the place. When they had come to an end, or, to speak more accurately, when Helen intimated by a slight slackening of her attention that they had sat there long enough, Hirst rose, exclaiming, \"So there's no reason whatever for all this mystery!\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "And Elizabeth waited in Victoria Street for an omnibus. It was so nice to be out of doors. She thought perhaps she need not go home just yet. It was so nice to be out in the air. So she would get on to an omnibus.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Our quarrel, then, is not with the classics, and if we speak of quarrelling with Mr. Wells, Mr. Bennett, and Mr. Galsworthy it is partly that by the mere fact of their existence in the flesh their work has a living, breathing, every day imperfection which bids us take what liberties with it we choose. But it is also true that, while we thank them for a thousand gifts, we reserve our unconditional gratitude for Mr. Hardy, for Mr. Conrad, and in a much lesser degree for the Mr. Hudson, of The Purple Land, Green Mansions, and Far Away and Long Ago. Mr. Wells, Mr. Bennett, and Mr. Galsworthy have excited so many hopes and disappointed them so persistently that our gratitude largely takes the form of thanking them for having shown us what they might have done but have not done; what we certainly could not do, but as certainly, perhaps, do not wish to do. No single phrase will sum up the charge or grievance which we have to bring against a mass of work so large in its volume and embodying so many qualities, both admirable and the reverse. If we tried to formulate our meaning in one word we should say that these three writers are materialists.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"It goes round, round, round, like a roll of oil-cloth,\" she hazarded. Evidently she meant Hewet alone to hear her words, but Hirst demanded, \"What d'you mean?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "A scuffling was heard on the gravel. The women had fled. They did not stop running until they felt certain that no eye could penetrate the darkness and the hotel was only a square shadow in the distance, with red holes regularly cut in it.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Oh, perfectly well!\" said Clarissa. (Lady Bruton detested illness in the wives of politicians.)", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"About Miss Vinrace,\" he began,--\"oh, look here, do let's be St. John and Helen, and Rachel and Terence--what's she like? Does she reason, does she feel, or is she merely a kind of footstool?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"A bargain,\" he announced, laying it down on the cloth. \"I've just bought it from the big man with the ear-rings. Fine, isn't it? It wouldn't suit every one, of course, but it's just the thing--isn't it, Hilda?--for Mrs. Raymond Parry.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"It may be a fancy, but I don't like to see anybody fall ill in May,\" she continued. \"Things seem to go wrong in May. Perhaps it's the moon. They say the moon affects the brain, don't they, Sir?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "What can we point out to Lady Dorothy Nevill? that with all her advantages she had never learned to spell? that she could not write a grammatical sentence? that she lived for eighty-seven years and did nothing but put food into her mouth and slip gold through her fingers? But delightful though it is to indulge in righteous indignation, it is misplaced if we agree with the lady's-maid that high birth is a form of congenital insanity, that the sufferer merely inherits the diseases of his ancestors, and endures them, for the most part very stoically, in one of those comfortably padded lunatic asylums which are known, euphemistically, as the stately homes of England.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Cows,\" he reflected, \"draw together in a field; ships in a calm; and we're just the same when we've nothing else to do. But why do we do it?--is it to prevent ourselves from seeing to the bottom of things\" (he stopped by a stream and began stirring it with his walking-stick and clouding the water with mud), \"making cities and mountains and whole universes out of nothing, or do we really love each other, or do we, on the other hand, live in a state of perpetual uncertainty, knowing nothing, leaping from moment to moment as from world to world?--which is, on the whole, the view I incline to.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"In the stable-yard,\" said Mrs. Flushing. \"Covered with ice in winter. We had to get in; if we didn't, we were whipped. The strong ones lived--the others died. What you call survival of the fittest--a most excellent plan, I daresay, if you've thirteen children!\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Mrs. Elliot and Mr. and Mrs. Thornbury now confronted them; Mrs. Elliot was holding out her watch, and playfully tapping it upon the face. Hewet was recalled to the fact that this was a party for which he was responsible, and he immediately led them back to the watch-tower, where they were to have tea before starting home again. A bright crimson scarf fluttered from the top of the wall, which Mr. Perrott and Evelyn were tying to a stone as the others came up. The heat had changed just so far that instead of sitting in the shadow they sat in the sun, which was still hot enough to paint their faces red and yellow, and to colour great sections of the earth beneath them.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "If she denied this, she must defend her belief that human beings were as various as the beasts at the Zoo, which had stripes and manes, and horns and humps; and so, wrestling over the entire list of their acquaintances, and diverging into anecdote and theory and speculation, they came to know each other. The hours passed quickly, and seemed to them full to leaking-point. After a night's solitude they were always ready to begin again.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"I believe in foreign travel myself,\" she stated, \"if one knows one's native land, which I think I can honestly say I do. I should not allow any one to travel until they had visited Kent and Dorsetshire--Kent for the hops, and Dorsetshire for its old stone cottages. There is nothing to compare with them here.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "The hall of the house was cool as a vault. Mrs. Dalloway raised her hand to her eyes, and, as the maid shut the door to, and she heard the swish of Lucy's skirts, she felt like a nun who has left the world and feels fold round her the familiar veils and the response to old devotions. The cook whistled in the kitchen. She heard the click of the typewriter. It was her life, and, bending her head over the hall table, she bowed beneath the influence, felt blessed and purified, saying to herself, as she took the pad with the telephone message on it, how moments like this are buds on the tree of life, flowers of darkness they are, she thought (as if some lovely rose had blossomed for her eyes only); not for a moment did she believe in God; but all the more, she thought, taking up the pad, must one repay in daily life to servants, yes, to dogs and canaries, above all to Richard her husband, who was the foundation of it--of the gay sounds, of the green lights, of the cook even whistling, for Mrs. Walker was Irish and whistled all day long--one must pay back from this secret deposit of exquisite moments, she thought, lifting the pad, while Lucy stood by her, trying to explain how.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Helen did not know that, but she would not allow herself inferior to her husband in powers of observation. She merely said:", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Oh, it's time,\" said Clarissa. \"Well, good-bye. I do like you,\" she murmured as she kissed Rachel. People in the way made it unnecessary for Richard to shake Rachel by the hand; he managed to look at her very stiffly for a second before he followed his wife down the ship's side.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"But I don't travel about with a miscellaneous collection of eighteenth-century historians!\" her uncle exclaimed. \"Gibbon! Ten big volumes at least.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"So I used to think once,\" said Hirst. \"But now they're all types. Don't take us,--take this hotel. You could draw circles round the whole lot of them, and they'd never stray outside.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "At dinner, however, she did not feel exalted, but merely uncomfortable, as if she and Richard had seen something together which is hidden in ordinary life, so that they did not like to look at each other. Richard slid his eyes over her uneasily once, and never looked at her again. Formal platitudes were manufactured with effort, but Willoughby was kindled.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"I suppose we're all proud of something,\" she said, \"and I'm proud of my knitting. I think things like that run in families. We all knit well. I had an uncle who knitted his own socks to the day of his death--and he did it better than any of his daughters, dear old gentleman. Now I wonder that you, Miss Allan, who use your eyes so much, don't take up knitting in the evenings.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Rachel kept her eyes fixed upon the peaked shadow on the ceiling, and all her energy was concentrated upon the desire that this shadow should move. But the shadow and the woman seemed to be eternally fixed above her. She shut her eyes. When she opened them again several more hours had passed, but the night still lasted interminably. The woman was still playing cards, only she sat now in a tunnel under a river, and the light stood in a little archway in the wall above her.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "In some mysterious way, human beings inflict their own vagaries upon nature. Moths and birds must have flitted more silently through the little garden; over everything must have brooded the same fantastic peace. Then, red-faced, garrulous, inquisitive, in burst Richard Lovell Edgeworth. He looked at the globes; he satisfied himself that they were of \"accurate design and workmanlike construction\". He knocked at the door.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Let's sit down a moment,\" said Hewet. He spread his coat on the ground. \"Let's sit down and consider.\" They sat down and looked out over the bay; it was very still, the sea was rippling faintly, and lines of green and blue were beginning to stripe it. There were no sailing boats as yet, but a steamer was anchored in the bay, looking very ghostly in the mist; it gave one unearthly cry, and then all was silent.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Pooh--that's been exaggerated,\" said Richard. \"No, I pity them, I confess. The discomfort of sitting on those steps must be awful.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Well, we must make the best of it,\" Helen replied philosophically. It was very hot, and they were indifferent to any amount of silence, so that they lay back in their chairs waiting for something to happen. The bell rang for luncheon, but there was no sound of movement in the house. Was there any news? Helen asked; anything in the papers?", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"And you have a brilliant career before you,\" said Sir William. There was Mr. Brewer's letter on the table. \"An exceptionally brilliant career.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"The truth? But isn't it wonderful,\" she broke off--\"Mr. Chitter has written a weekly article for the past thirty years upon love or hot buttered toast and has sent all his sons to Eton----\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Mon Dieu!\" he exclaimed, throwing out his hands. \"You must begin to-morrow. I shall send you my copy. What I want to know is--\" he looked at her critically. \"You see, the problem is, can one really talk to you?", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"I'm a mermaid! I can swim,\" she cried, \"so the game's up.\" Her dress was torn across, and peace being established, she fetched a needle and thread and began to mend the tear.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"What does any sane person want with those great big houses?\" she demanded. \"If you go downstairs after dark you're covered with black beetles, and the electric lights always goin' out. What would you do if spiders came out of the tap when you turned on the hot water?\" she demanded, fixing her eye on Helen.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Sometimes, however, the Duchess walked abroad. She would issue out in her own proper person, dressed in a thousand gems and furbelows, to visit the houses of the neighbouring gentry. Her pen made instant report of these excursions. She recorded how Lady C. R. \"did beat her husband in a public assembly\"; Sir F. O. \"I am sorry to hear hath undervalued himself so much below his birth and wealth as to marry his kitchen-maid\"; \"Miss P. I. has become a sanctified soul, a spiritual sister, she has left curling her hair, black patches are become abominable to her, laced shoes and Galoshoes are steps to pride--she asked me what posture I thought was the best to be used in prayer\".", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "For now that it was all over, truce signed, and the dead buried, he had, especially in the evening, these sudden thunder-claps of fear. He could not feel. As he opened the door of the room where the Italian girls sat making hats, he could see them; could hear them; they were rubbing wires among coloured beads in saucers; they were turning buckram shapes this way and that; the table was all strewn with feathers, spangles, silks, ribbons; scissors were rapping on the table; but something failed him; he could not feel. Still, scissors rapping, girls laughing, hats being made protected him; he was assured of safety; he had a refuge. But he could not sit there all night.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "But how dangerous a thing is life! Can one be sure that anything not wholly made of mahogany will to the very end stand empty in the sun? Even cupboards have their secret springs, and when, inadvertently we are sure, Miss Hill touches this one, out, terrible to relate, topples a stout old gentleman. In plain English, Miss Mitford had a father. There is nothing actually improper in that.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "She's a queer-looking girl, he thought, suddenly remembering Elizabeth as she came into the room and stood by her mother. Grown big; quite grown-up, not exactly pretty; handsome rather; and she can't be more than eighteen. Probably she doesn't get on with Clarissa. \"There's my Elizabeth\"--that sort of thing--why not \"Here's Elizabeth\" simply?--trying to make out, like most mothers, that things are what they're not. She trusts to her charm too much, he thought.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "At fifty-three he had to come and ask them to put him into some secretary's office, to find him some usher's job teaching little boys Latin, at the beck and call of some mandarin in an office, something that brought in five hundred a year; for if he married Daisy, even with his pension, they could never do on less. Whitbread could do it presumably; or Dalloway. He didn't mind what he asked Dalloway. He was a thorough good sort; a bit limited; a bit thick in the head; yes; but a thorough good sort. Whatever he took up he did in the same matter-of-fact sensible way; without a touch of imagination, without a spark of brilliancy, but with the inexplicable niceness of his type.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "The group indeed had come together in a miscellaneous way; one tea-table joining to another tea-table, and deck-chairs serving to connect two groups. But even at a distance it could be seen that Mrs. Flushing, upright and imperious, dominated the party. She was talking vehemently to Helen across the table.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "How it rejoiced her that! Not for weeks had they laughed like this together, poking fun privately like married people. What she meant was that if Mrs. Filmer had come in, or Mrs. Peters or anybody they would not have understood what she and Septimus were laughing at.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "At this Terence professed the greatest admiration for St. John Hirst. Dwelling upon his good qualities he became seriously convinced of them; he had a mind like a torpedo, he declared, aimed at falsehood. Where should we all be without him and his like? Choked in weeds; Christians, bigots,--why, Rachel herself, would be a slave with a fan to sing songs to men when they felt drowsy.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "She and Peter had settled down together. They were talking: it seemed so familiar--that they should be talking. They would discuss the past. With the two of them (more even than with Richard) she shared her past; the garden; the trees; old Joseph Breitkopf singing Brahms without any voice; the drawing-room wall-paper; the smell of the mats. A part of this Sally must always be; Peter must always be.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "This art is possessed to perfection by Mr. Beerbohm. But he has not searched the dictionary for polysyllables. He has not moulded firm periods or seduced our ears with intricate cadences and strange melodies. Some of his companions--Henley and Stevenson, for example--are momentarily more impressive. But A Cloud of Pinafores had in it that indescribable inequality, stir, and final expressiveness which belong to life and to life alone.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "I consider woman as a beautiful romantic animal, that may be adorned with furs and feathers, pearls and diamonds, ores and silks. The lynx shall cast its skin at her feet to make her a tippet; the peacock, parrot, and swan, shall pay contributions to her muff; the sea shall be searched for shells, and the rocks for gems; and every part of nature furnish out its share towards the embellishment of a creature that is the most consummate work of it. All this I shall indulge them in; but as for the petticoat I have been speaking of, I neither can nor will allow it.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"In trouble with some woman,\" said Lady Bruton. They had all guessed that that was at the bottom of it.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "She was really wondering what Arthur Venning would say she was. Her feeling about him was decidedly queer. She would not admit to herself that she was in love with him or that she wanted to marry him, yet she spent every minute when she was alone in wondering what he thought of her, and in comparing what they had done to-day with what they had done the day before.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "The vivacious white figure rode well in front; she had somehow possessed herself of a leafy branch and wore it round her hat like a garland. They went on for a few minutes in silence.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "The next dance was beginning; it was the Barcarolle out of Hoffman, which made Helen beat her toe in time to it; but she felt that after such a compliment it was impossible to get up and go, and, besides being amused, she was really flattered, and the honesty of his conceit attracted her. She suspected that he was not happy, and was sufficiently feminine to wish to receive confidences.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Lazy and indifferent, shaking space easily from his wings, knowing his way, the heron passes over the church beneath the sky. White and distant, absorbed in itself, endlessly the sky covers and uncovers, moves and remains. A lake? Blot the shores of it out! A mountain?", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Well, how shall I reply? In one word--Unity. Unity of aim, of dominion, of progress. The dispersion of the best ideas over the greatest area.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Not for herself. She felt only how Sally was being mauled already, maltreated; she felt his hostility; his jealousy; his determination to break into their companionship. All this she saw as one sees a landscape in a flash of lightning--and Sally (never had she admired her so much!) gallantly taking her way unvanquished. She laughed.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "She did not see that Hewet kept looking at her across the gangway, between the figures of waiters hurrying past with plates. He was inattentive, and Hirst was finding him also very cross and disagreeable. They had touched upon all the usual topics--upon politics and literature, gossip and Christianity. They had quarrelled over the service, which was every bit as fine as Sappho, according to Hewet; so that Hirst's paganism was mere ostentation. Why go to church, he demanded, merely in order to read Sappho?", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Elizabeth turned her head. The waitress came. One had to pay at the desk, Elizabeth said, and went off, drawing out, so Miss Kilman felt, the very entrails in her body, stretching them as she crossed the room, and then, with a final twist, bowing her head very politely, she went.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"I want to write a novel about Silence,\" he said; \"the things people don't say. But the difficulty is immense.\" He sighed. \"However, you don't care,\" he continued. He looked at her almost severely. \"Nobody cares.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "She was thinking of this very question, revolving the figures, as she sat in her wheeled chair with a table spread with cards by her side. The Patience had somehow got into a muddle, and she did not like to call for Susan to help her, as Susan seemed to be busy with Arthur.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Examined separately, such flourishes of ornament look grotesque enough, but in their place--such is the persuasive power of design--they are part of the decoration; they complete the monument. Whether Addison or another is interred within, it is a very fine tomb. But now that two centuries have passed since the real body of Addison was laid by night under the Abbey floor, we are, through no merit of our own, partially qualified to test the first of the flourishes on that fictitious tombstone to which, though it may be empty, we have done homage, in a formal kind of way, these sixty-seven years. The compositions of Addison will live as long as the English language. Since every moment brings proof that our mother tongue is more lusty and lively than sorts with complete sedateness or chastity, we need only concern ourselves with the vitality of Addison.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"And when you allude to a grave,\" said Mr. Thornbury, who spoke almost for the first time, \"have you any authority for calling that ruin a grave? I am quite with you in refusing to accept the common interpretation which declares it to be the remains of an Elizabethan watch-tower--any more than I believe that the circular mounds or barrows which we find on the top of our English downs were camps. The antiquaries call everything a camp. I am always asking them, Well then, where do you think our ancestors kept their cattle? Half the camps in England are merely the ancient pound or barton as we call it in my part of the world.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"I'd much rather be a cook than a nurse,\" said Helen. \"Nothing would induce me to take charge of children.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"You are still rheumatic?\" asked Helen. Her voice was low and seductive, though she spoke absently enough, the sight of town and river being still present to her mind.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "His eyes became dreamy, as though he were matching things, and reminded Rachel in their colour of the green flesh of a snail. She sat beside him looking at the mountains too. When it became painful to look any longer, the great size of the view seeming to enlarge her eyes beyond their natural limit, she looked at the ground; it pleased her to scrutinise this inch of the soil of South America so minutely that she noticed every grain of earth and made it into a world where she was endowed with the supreme power. She bent a blade of grass, and set an insect on the utmost tassel of it, and wondered if the insect realised his strange adventure, and thought how strange it was that she should have bent that tassel rather than any other of the million tassels.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Her wisdom had come to be recognised, and held in respect. Meanwhile as they stood talking, the musicians were unwrapping their instruments, and the violin was repeating again and again a note struck upon the piano. Everything was ready to begin.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Although he spoke much as usual, Helen could have seen, had she looked, that he was also impatient and disturbed. But she was not called upon to answer, for Mr. Flushing now exclaimed \"There!\" They looked at the hut on the bank, a desolate place with a large rent in the roof, and the ground round it yellow, scarred with fires and scattered with rusty open tins.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "The next day we read: \"For the rest one can only say that if Mr. Eliot had been pleased to write in demotic English The Waste Land might not have been, as it just is to all but anthropologists, and literati, so much waste-paper. \"--The Manchester Guardian.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Lunch went on methodically, until each of the seven courses was left in fragments and the fruit was merely a toy, to be peeled and sliced as a child destroys a daisy, petal by petal. The food served as an extinguisher upon any faint flame of the human spirit that might survive the midday heat, but Susan sat in her room afterwards, turning over and over the delightful fact that Mr. Venning had come to her in the garden, and had sat there quite half an hour while she read aloud to her aunt. Men and women sought different corners where they could lie unobserved, and from two to four it might be said without exaggeration that the hotel was inhabited by bodies without souls. Disastrous would have been the result if a fire or a death had suddenly demanded something heroic of human nature, but tragedies come in the hungry hours. Towards four o'clock the human spirit again began to lick the body, as a flame licks a black promontory of coal.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"My brain, on the contrary,\" said Hirst, \"is in a condition of abnormal activity.\" He sat in his favourite position with his arms binding his legs together and his chin resting on the top of his knees. \"I see through everything--absolutely everything. Life has no more mysteries for me.\" He spoke with conviction, but did not appear to wish for an answer. Near though they sat, and familiar though they felt, they seemed mere shadows to each other.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "After this Terence could no longer stay downstairs. He went up, knocked at Rachel's door, and asked Helen whether he might see her for a few minutes. He had not seen her yesterday. She made no objection, and went and sat at a table in the window.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"'Again, it's the fashion now to say that women are more practical and less idealistic than men, also that they have considerable organising ability but no sense of honour'--query, what is meant by masculine term, honour?--what corresponds to it in your sex? Eh?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Now you'll hate him,\" he said, \"which is wrong. Poor old Hirst--he can't help his method. And really, Miss Vinrace, he was doing his best; he was paying you a compliment--he was trying--he was trying--\" he could not finish for the laughter that overcame him.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "[12]Charlotte and Emily Bronte had much the same sense of colour. \". . . we saw--ah!", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"And they were nice,\" said Rachel. \"They were extraordinarily interesting.\" She tried to recall the image of the world as a live thing that Richard had given her, with drains like nerves, and bad houses like patches of diseased skin. She recalled his watch-words--Unity--Imagination, and saw again the bubbles meeting in her tea-cup as he spoke of sisters and canaries, boyhood and his father, her small world becoming wonderfully enlarged.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "He pursed his lips, but made no immediate answer, for Helen was still slightly inattentive. She had been thinking about Rachel and which of the two young men she was likely to fall in love with, and now sitting opposite to Hirst she thought, \"He's ugly. It's a pity they're so ugly.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Dashed to the crest of the waves, bumped and battered on the stones at the bottom, it is difficult for an English reader to feel at ease. The process to which he is accustomed in his own literature is reversed. If we wished to tell the story of a General's love affair (and we should find it very difficult in the first place not to laugh at a General), we should begin with his house; we should solidify his surroundings. Only when all was ready should we attempt to deal with the General himself. Moreover, it is not the samovar but the teapot that rules in England; time is limited; space crowded; the influence of other points of view, of other books, even of other ages, makes itself felt.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "She said she loved Bach. So did Hutton. That was the bond between them, and Hutton (a very bad poet) always felt that Mrs. Dalloway was far the best of the great ladies who took an interest in art. It was odd how strict she was. About music she was purely impersonal.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"What I like about them,\" said Helen as she sat down, \"is that they're so well put together. Naked, Mrs. Flushing would be superb. Dressed as she dresses, it's absurd, of course.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"I've had the most interesting talk of my life!\" she exclaimed, taking her seat beside Willoughby. \"D'you realise that one of your men is a philosopher and a poet?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "The strongest wish in her being at this moment was to be able to do something for the unhappy people--to see them--to assure them--to help them. It was dreadful to be so far away from them. But Mr. Flushing shook his head; he did not think that now--later perhaps one might be able to help. Here Mrs. Flushing rose stiffly, turned her back to them, and walked to the dressing-room opposite. As she walked, they could see her breast slowly rise and slowly fall.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "But Helen came in at that point, and Mrs. Dalloway saw with relief that though slightly eccentric in appearance, she was not untidy, held herself well, and her voice had restraint in it, which she held to be the sign of a lady. Mr. Pepper had not troubled to change his neat ugly suit.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "He looked at her with a bewildered expression as if he did not really understand what she was saying. With a considerable effort he collected himself, stood up, and said, \"Now I think I have told you what I feel, and I will only add that I can wait as long as ever you wish.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "And they went further and further from her, being attached to her by a thin thread (since they had lunched with her) which would stretch and stretch, get thinner and thinner as they walked across London; as if one's friends were attached to one's body, after lunching with them, by a thin thread, which (as she dozed there) became hazy with the sound of bells, striking the hour or ringing to service, as a single spider's thread is blotted with rain-drops, and, burdened, sags down. So she slept.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "There are people who, when they travel, wrap themselves up \"se defendans de la contagion d'un air incogneu\" in silence and suspicion. When they dine they must have the same food they get at home. Every sight and custom is bad unless it resembles those of their own village. They travel only to return. That is entirely the wrong way to set about it.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"I'm afraid he's right,\" said Clarissa. \"He generally is--the wretch!\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"I love walking in London,\" said Mrs. Dalloway. \"Really it's better than walking in the country.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Ridley conjectured that it was now permissible for him to take his leave. Politeness required him to thank Mrs. Elliot for his tea, and to add, with a wave of his hand, \"You must come up and see us.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Ah dear, she remembered--it was Wednesday in Brook Street. Those kind good fellows, Richard Dalloway, Hugh Whitbread, had gone this hot day through the streets whose growl came up to her lying on the sofa. Power was hers, position, income. She had lived in the forefront of her time. She had had good friends; known the ablest men of her day.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Suddenly Mrs. Coates looked up into the sky. The sound of an aeroplane bored ominously into the ears of the crowd. There it was coming over the trees, letting out white smoke from behind, which curled and twisted, actually writing something! making letters in the sky! Every one looked up.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "No, the words meant absolutely nothing to her now. She could not even get an echo of her old emotion. But she could remember going cold with excitement, and doing her hair in a kind of ecstasy (now the old feeling began to come back to her, as she took out her hairpins, laid them on the dressing-table, began to do her hair), with the rooks flaunting up and down in the pink evening light, and dressing, and going downstairs, and feeling as she crossed the hall \"if it were now to die 'twere now to be most happy.\" That was her feeling--Othello's feeling, and she felt it, she was convinced, as strongly as Shakespeare meant Othello to feel it, all because she was coming down to dinner in a white frock to meet Sally Seton!", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "It was asking a good deal of Hirst to tell him to go without waiting for a sight of Helen. These little glimpses of Helen were the only respites from strain and boredom, and very often they seemed to make up for the discomfort of the day, although she might not have anything to tell them. However, as they were on an expedition together, he had made up his mind to obey.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "So with pardonable impatience we might exclaim as we shut our Elizabethan play. But what then is the exclamation with which we close War and Peace? Not one of disappointment; we are not left lamenting the superficiality, upbraiding the triviality of the novelist's art. Rather we are made more than ever aware of the inexhaustible richness of human sensibility. Here, in the play, we recognise the general; here, in the novel, the particular.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Right at the back of the chapel Mrs. Flushing, Hirst, and Hewet sat in a row in a very different frame of mind. Hewet was staring at the roof with his legs stuck out in front of him, for as he had never tried to make the service fit any feeling or idea of his, he was able to enjoy the beauty of the language without hindrance. His mind was occupied first with accidental things, such as the women's hair in front of him, the light on the faces, then with the words which seemed to him magnificent, and then more vaguely with the characters of the other worshippers. But when he suddenly perceived Rachel, all these thoughts were driven out of his head, and he thought only of her. The psalms, the prayers, the Litany, and the sermon were all reduced to one chanting sound which paused, and then renewed itself, a little higher or a little lower.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"You see,\" she said, \"you must take things as they are; and if you want friendship with men you must run risks. Personally,\" she continued, breaking into a smile, \"I think it's worth it; I don't mind being kissed; I'm rather jealous, I believe, that Mr. Dalloway kissed you and didn't kiss me. Though,\" she added, \"he bored me considerably.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Bishop Colenso, however, was far more troublesome than the working men of Sheffield; and the Ritualists vexed him so persistently that even his vast strength felt the strain. The questions which were referred to him for decision were peculiarly fitted to tease and annoy even a man of his bulk and his blandness. Shall a drunkard found dead in a ditch, or a burglar who has fallen through a skylight, be given the benefit of the Burial Service? he was asked. The question of lighted candles was \"most difficult\"; the wearing of coloured stoles and the administration of the mixed chalice taxed him considerably; and finally there was the Rev.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "For a few moments they sat looking at one another in silence, holding each other's hands. During this time his sense of dismay and catastrophe were almost physically painful; all round him he seemed to hear the shiver of broken glass which, as it fell to earth, left him sitting in the open air. But at the end of two minutes, noticing that she was not sharing his dismay, but was only rather more languid and heavy-eyed than usual, he recovered, fetched Helen, and asked her to tell him what they had better do, for Rachel had a headache.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "She found an ally in Helen, who proceeded to expound her views of the human race, as she regarded with complacency the pyramid of variegated fruits in the centre of the table. It wasn't that they were cruel, or meant to hurt, or even stupid exactly; but she had always found that the ordinary person had so little emotion in his own life that the scent of it in the lives of others was like the scent of blood in the nostrils of a bloodhound. Warming to the theme, she continued:", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "There is a sentence in Dr. Johnson's Life of Gray which might well be written up in all those rooms, too humble to be called libraries, yet full of books, where the pursuit of reading is carried on by private people. \". . . I rejoice to concur with the common reader; for by the common sense of readers, uncorrupted by literary prejudices, after all the refinements of subtilty and the dogmatism of learning, must be finally decided all claim to poetical honours.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Symposium?\" cried Mrs. Flushing. \"That's Latin or Greek? Tell me, is there a good translation?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"She was quite nice, but a thimble-pated creature,\" Helen continued. \"I never heard such nonsense! Chitter-chatter-chitter-chatter--fish and the Greek alphabet--never listened to a word any one said--chock-full of idiotic theories about the way to bring up children--I'd far rather talk to him any day. He was pompous, but he did at least understand what was said to him.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"I sometimes think I haven't got it in me to care very much for one person only. Some one else would make you a better wife. I can imagine you very happy with some one else.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"And character is what one wants,\" said Mrs. Elliot. \"Now that young man is clever enough,\" she added, nodding at Hirst, who came past with Miss Allan on his arm.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "So she might have walked until she had lost all knowledge of her way, had it not been for the interruption of a tree, which, although it did not grow across her path, stopped her as effectively as if the branches had struck her in the face. It was an ordinary tree, but to her it appeared so strange that it might have been the only tree in the world. Dark was the trunk in the middle, and the branches sprang here and there, leaving jagged intervals of light between them as distinctly as if it had but that second risen from the ground. Having seen a sight that would last her for a lifetime, and for a lifetime would preserve that second, the tree once more sank into the ordinary ranks of trees, and she was able to seat herself in its shade and to pick the red flowers with the thin green leaves which were growing beneath it. She laid them side by side, flower to flower and stalk to stalk, caressing them for walking alone.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"I've never in my life seen anything bigger than a hare!\" Hirst exclaimed with genuine excitement. \"What an ass I was not to bring my Kodak!\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "As the streets that lead from the Strand to the Embankment are very narrow, it is better not to walk down them arm-in-arm. If you persist, lawyers' clerks will have to make flying leaps into the mud; young lady typists will have to fidget behind you. In the streets of London where beauty goes unregarded, eccentricity must pay the penalty, and it is better not to be very tall, to wear a long blue cloak, or to beat the air with your left hand.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"That's the worst of these places,\" he said. \"People will behave as though they were in England, and they're not. I've no doubt myself that Miss Vinrace caught the infection up at the villa itself. She probably ran risks a dozen times a day that might have given her the illness. It's absurd to say she caught it with us.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"It's insolent to--\" said Rachel, and stopped. She did not know exactly why she had been made so angry. With a great effort she pulled herself together.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Slightly waved by tears the broad path, the nurse, the man in grey, the perambulator, rose and fell before her eyes. To be rocked by this malignant torturer was her lot. But why? She was like a bird sheltering under the thin hollow of a leaf, who blinks at the sun when the leaf moves; starts at the crack of a dry twig. She was exposed; she was surrounded by the enormous trees, vast clouds of an indifferent world, exposed; tortured; and why should she suffer?", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Further, in reckoning the doubts and difficulties there is this important problem--Where are we to laugh in reading Greek? There is a passage in the Odyssey where laughter begins to steal upon us, but if Homer were looking we should probably think it better to control our merriment. To laugh instantly it is almost necessary (though Aristophanes may supply us with an exception) to laugh in English. Humour, after all, is closely bound up with a sense of the body. When we laugh at the humour of Wycherley, we are laughing with the body of that burly rustic who was our common ancestor on the village green.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "And so on. Evelyn watched this to the end, and then remarked that \"the spectacle was so uncomfortable that I was not able to stay the sight of another\", as we might say that the lions growl so loud and the sight of raw meat is so unpleasant that we will now visit the penguins. Allowing for his discomfort, there is enough discrepancy between his view of pain and ours to make us wonder whether we see any fact with the same eyes, marry any woman from the same motives, or judge any conduct by the same standards. To sit passive when muscles tore and bones cracked, not to flinch when the wooden horse was raised higher and the executioner fetched a horn and poured two buckets of water down the man's throat, to suffer this iniquity on a suspicion of robbery which the man denied--all this seems to put Evelyn in one of those cages where we still mentally seclude the riff-raff of Whitechapel. Only it is obvious that we have somehow got it wrong.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "There were Jorrocks' Jaunts and Jollities; there were Soapy Sponge and Mrs. Asquith's Memoirs and Big Game Shooting in Nigeria, all spread open. Ever so many books there were; but none that seemed exactly right to take to Evelyn Whitbread in her nursing home. Nothing that would serve to amuse her and make that indescribably dried-up little woman look, as Clarissa came in, just for a moment cordial; before they settled down for the usual interminable talk of women's ailments. How much she wanted it--that people should look pleased as she came in, Clarissa thought and turned and walked back towards Bond Street, annoyed, because it was silly to have other reasons for doing things. Much rather would she have been one of those people like Richard who did things for themselves, whereas, she thought, waiting to cross, half the time she did things not simply, not for themselves; but to make people think this or that; perfect idiocy she knew (and now the policeman held up his hand) for no one was ever for a second taken in.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Well, Rachel,\" he replied in his usual voice, upon which she opened her eyes quite widely and smiled with her familiar smile. He kissed her and took her hand.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Mrs. Thornbury shook her head slightly but made no reply, and pressing Evelyn's hand she went on down the passage. Impelled by a strong desire to hear something, although she did not know exactly what there was to hear, she was making her way to the Flushings' room. As she opened their door she felt that she had interrupted some argument between husband and wife. Mrs. Flushing was sitting with her back to the light, and Mr. Flushing was standing near her, arguing and trying to persuade her of something.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Rachel continued, \"The day your note came, asking us to go on the picnic, I was sitting where you're sitting now, thinking that; I wonder if I could think that again? I wonder if the world's changed? and if so, when it'll stop changing, and which is the real world?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"You who know everything, Mr. Pepper,\" she said, \"tell us how did those wonderful French ladies manage their salons? Did we ever do anything of the same kind in England, or do you think that there is some reason why we cannot do it in England?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Oh, it's intolerable!\" Hirst exclaimed, and then checked himself, as if it were a breach of their agreement. Again and again Terence would creep half-way up the stairs in case he might be able to glean news of Rachel. But the only news now was of a very fragmentary kind; she had drunk something; she had slept a little; she seemed quieter. In the same way, Dr. Lesage confined himself to talking about details, save once when he volunteered the information that he had just been called in to ascertain, by severing a vein in the wrist, that an old lady of eighty-five was really dead. She had a horror of being buried alive.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"D'you suppose we shall ever meet in London?\" said Ridley ironically. \"You'll have forgotten all about me by the time you step out there.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "But they had found it in the drawing room. Not that one could ever see them. The window panes reflected apples, reflected roses; all the leaves were green in the glass. If they moved in the drawing room, the apple only turned its yellow side. Yet, the moment after, if the door was opened, spread about the floor, hung upon the walls, pendant from the ceiling--what?", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "If Hirst had looked at her instead of looking intently at his teacup he would have seen Helen blush, partly with pleasure, partly with an impulse of affection towards the young man who had seemed, and would seem again, so ugly and so limited. She pitied him, for she suspected that he suffered, and she was interested in him, for many of the things he said seemed to her true; she admired the morality of youth, and yet she felt imprisoned. As if her instinct were to escape to something brightly coloured and impersonal, which she could hold in her hands, she went into the house and returned with her embroidery. But he was not interested in her embroidery; he did not even look at it.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "But Rezia could not understand him. Dr. Holmes was such a kind man. He was so interested in Septimus. He only wanted to help them, he said. He had four little children and he had asked her to tea, she told Septimus.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"And that's my dad,\" said Evelyn, for there were two photographs in one frame. The second photograph represented a handsome soldier with high regular features and a heavy black moustache; his hand rested on the hilt of his sword; there was a decided likeness between him and Evelyn.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Considering the last batch,\" said Helen, \"you deserve beating. You were asked to lecture, you were offered a degree, and some silly woman praised not only your books but your beauty--she said he was what Shelley would have been if Shelley had lived to fifty-five and grown a beard. Really, Ridley, I think you're the vainest man I know,\" she ended, rising from the table, \"which I may tell you is saying a good deal.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"He is dead,\" she said, smiling at the poor old woman who guarded her with her honest light-blue eyes fixed on the door. (They wouldn't bring him in here, would they?) But Mrs. Filmer pooh-poohed. Oh no, oh no! They were carrying him away now.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "She was now successful, and a lump of ginger emerged on the end of the button-hook. While she went to wipe the button-hook, Rachel bit the ginger and at once cried, \"I must spit it out!\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Susan laughed. She had done her tea; she was feeling very well contented, partly because she had been playing tennis brilliantly, and then every one was so nice; she was beginning to find it so much easier to talk, and to hold her own even with quite clever people, for somehow clever people did not frighten her any more. Even Mr. Hirst, whom she had disliked when she first met him, really wasn't disagreeable; and, poor man, he always looked so ill; perhaps he was in love; perhaps he had been in love with Rachel--she really shouldn't wonder; or perhaps it was Evelyn--she was of course very attractive to men. Leaning forward, she went on with the conversation. She said that she thought that the reason why parties were so dull was mainly because gentlemen will not dress: even in London, she stated, it struck her very much how people don't think it necessary to dress in the evening, and of course if they don't dress in London they won't dress in the country.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Oh, and Yarmouth,\" Mrs. Flushing called back over her shoulder. \"Put those things away and hang 'em in their right places, there's a good girl, or it fusses Mr. Flushin'.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"For instance, here are two women you've never seen. Suppose one of them suffers from mountain-sickness, as my sister does, and the other--\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Am I in a fit state to encounter my fellow-beings?\" she asked. \"I forget which way it is--but they find black animals very rarely have coloured babies--it may be the other way round. I have had it so often explained to me that it is very stupid of me to have forgotten again.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"And what d'you know about it?\" said Mr. Grice, kindling in a strange manner. \"Pardon me. What does any man or woman brought up in England know about the sea? They profess to know; but they don't.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "The figures of these men and women straggled past the flower-bed with a curiously irregular movement not unlike that of the white and blue butterflies who crossed the turf in zig-zag flights from bed to bed. The man was about six inches in front of the woman, strolling carelessly, while she bore on with greater purpose, only turning her head now and then to see that the children were not too far behind. The man kept this distance in front of the woman purposely, though perhaps unconsciously, for he wished to go on with his thoughts.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"I see things movin',\" Mrs. Flushing explained. \"So\"--she swept her hand through a yard of the air. She then took up one of the cardboards which Rachel had laid aside, seated herself on a stool, and began to flourish a stump of charcoal. While she occupied herself in strokes which seemed to serve her as speech serves others, Rachel, who was very restless, looked about her.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"To--to--answer questions,\" she replied in some confusion. Whereupon she told me the whole of her story. But in the middle of an account which interested and excited me more than anything I had ever heard, she gave the strangest cry, half whoop, half holloa--", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "That was his old trick, opening a pocket-knife, thought Sally, always opening and shutting a knife when he got excited. They had been very, very intimate, she and Peter Walsh, when he was in love with Clarissa, and there was that dreadful, ridiculous scene over Richard Dalloway at lunch. She had called Richard \"Wickham.\" Why not call Richard \"Wickham\"? Clarissa had flared up! and indeed they had never seen each other since, she and Clarissa, not more than half a dozen times perhaps in the last ten years.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "She put on her hat, and ran through cornfields--where could it have been?--on to some hill, somewhere near the sea, for there were ships, gulls, butterflies; they sat on a cliff. In London too, there they sat, and, half dreaming, came to her through the bedroom door, rain falling, whisperings, stirrings among dry corn, the caress of the sea, as it seemed to her, hollowing them in its arched shell and murmuring to her laid on shore, strewn she felt, like flying flowers over some tomb.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Dear Clarissa!\" exclaimed Mrs. Hilbery. She looked to-night, she said, so like her mother as she first saw her walking in a garden in a grey hat.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Of course they are. So far as brains go I think it's true what he said the other day; they're the cleverest people in England. But--you ought to take him in hand,\" he added. \"There's a great deal more in him than's ever been got at. He wants some one to laugh at him.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "As Rachel hesitated, Mrs. Flushing came forward, still with a paint-brush in her mouth, flung open the wings of her wardrobe, and tossed a quantity of shawls, stuffs, cloaks, embroideries, on to the bed. Rachel began to finger them. Mrs. Flushing came up once more, and dropped a quantity of beads, brooches, earrings, bracelets, tassels, and combs among the draperies. Then she went back to her stool and began to paint in silence. The stuffs were coloured and dark and pale; they made a curious swarm of lines and colours upon the counterpane, with the reddish lumps of stone and peacocks' feathers and clear pale tortoise-shell combs lying among them.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Volubly, troublously, the late clock sounded, coming in on the wake of Big Ben, with its lap full of trifles. Beaten up, broken up by the assault of carriages, the brutality of vans, the eager advance of myriads of angular men, of flaunting women, the domes and spires of offices and hospitals, the last relics of this lap full of odds and ends seemed to break, like the spray of an exhausted wave, upon the body of Miss Kilman standing still in the street for a moment to mutter \"It is the flesh.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"They're sheer nonsense!\" Rachel exclaimed. \"Think of words compared with sounds!\" she continued. \"Think of novels and plays and histories--\" Perched on the edge of the table, she stirred the red and yellow volumes contemptuously. She seemed to herself to be in a position where she could despise all human learning. Terence looked at them too.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"When I went to Dresden six-and-twenty years ago,\" she said, \"a certain friend of mine announced her intention of making me a present. She thought that in the event of shipwreck or accident a stimulant might be useful. However, as I had no occasion for it, I gave it back on my return. On the eve of any foreign journey the same bottle always makes its appearance, with the same note; on my return in safety it is always handed back. I consider it a kind of charm against accidents.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"She ought not to have died,\" Mrs. Paley continued. \"She looked so strong. But people will drink the water. I can never make out why. It seems such a simple thing to tell them to put a bottle of Seltzer water in your bedroom.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"By the way, Hirst,\" said Hewet, after a pause, \"I have a terrible confession to make. Your book--the poems of Wordsworth, which if you remember I took off your table just as we were starting, and certainly put in my pocket here--\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "After St. John had spent some hours in the heat of the sun wrangling with evasive and very garrulous natives, he extracted the information that there was a doctor, a French doctor, who was at present away on a holiday in the hills. It was quite impossible, so they said, to find him. With his experience of the country, St. John thought it unlikely that a telegram would either be sent or received; but having reduced the distance of the hill town, in which he was staying, from a hundred miles to thirty miles, and having hired a carriage and horses, he started at once to fetch the doctor himself. He succeeded in finding him, and eventually forced the unwilling man to leave his young wife and return forthwith. They reached the villa at midday on Tuesday.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "The Prime Minister was coming, Agnes said: so she had heard them say in the dining-room, she said, coming in with a tray of glasses. Did it matter, did it matter in the least, one Prime Minister more or less? It made no difference at this hour of the night to Mrs. Walker among the plates, saucepans, cullenders, frying-pans, chicken in aspic, ice-cream freezers, pared crusts of bread, lemons, soup tureens, and pudding basins which, however hard they washed up in the scullery seemed to be all on top of her, on the kitchen table, on chairs, while the fire blared and roared, the electric lights glared, and still supper had to be laid. All she felt was, one Prime Minister more or less made not a scrap of difference to Mrs. Walker.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Why had she done it? He shrugged his shoulders. Why do people kill themselves? Why do the lower orders do any of the things they do do? Nobody knows.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "There is no trace of humour or insight there, but only the vindictiveness of a grudge which we feel to be personal in its origin. But terrible as the complexity of our social system is in its demands upon the sympathy and discernment of a novelist straying across the boundaries, Maggie Tulliver did worse than drag George Eliot from her natural surroundings. She insisted upon the introduction of the great emotional scene. She must love; she must despair; she must be drowned clasping her brother in her arms. The more one examines the great emotional scenes the more nervously one anticipates the brewing and gathering and thickening of the cloud which will burst upon our heads at the moment of crisis in a shower of disillusionment and verbosity.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"I always think that people are so like their boots,\" said Miss Allan. \"That is Mrs. Paley's--\" but as she spoke the door opened, and Mrs. Paley rolled out in her chair, equipped also for tea.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "They were talking about him at lunch, said Richard. (But he could not tell her he loved her. He held her hand. Happiness is this, he thought.) They had been writing a letter to the Times for Millicent Bruton.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Suppose it was a wet night? Suppose one's father, or somebody who had known one in better days had happened to pass, and saw one standing there in the gutter? And where did she sleep at night?", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "He took it out of her hands. He said it was an organ grinder's monkey's hat.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Oh, I'm different,\" Hewet replied. \"I've got between six and seven hundred a year of my own. And then no one takes a novelist seriously, thank heavens. There's no doubt it helps to make up for the drudgery of a profession if a man's taken very, very seriously by every one--if he gets appointments, and has offices and a title, and lots of letters after his name, and bits of ribbon and degrees. I don't grudge it 'em, though sometimes it comes over me--what an amazing concoction!", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Once at Bar-le-Duc Montaigne saw a portrait which Rene, King of Sicily, had painted of himself, and asked, \"Why is it not, in like manner, lawful for every one to draw himself with a pen, as he did with a crayon?\" Off-hand one might reply, Not only is it lawful, but nothing could be easier. Other people may evade us, but our own features are almost too familiar. Let us begin. And then, when we attempt the task, the pen falls from our fingers; it is a matter of profound, mysterious, and overwhelming difficulty.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"I'm flattered, I assure you. But--let me see--what happened? Well, riding, lessons, sisters. There was an enchanted rubbish heap, I remember, where all kinds of queer things happened. Odd, what things impress children!", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "And just because nobody yet knew he was in London, except Clarissa, and the earth, after the voyage, still seemed an island to him, the strangeness of standing alone, alive, unknown, at half-past eleven in Trafalgar Square overcame him. What is it? Where am I? And why, after all, does one do it? he thought, the divorce seeming all moonshine.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Was it true?\" he asked. She was playing the gramophone? Yes; she had told him about it at the time; she had found Mrs. Peters playing the gramophone.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "By leaving Santa Marina early in the morning, driving twenty miles and riding eight, the party, which was composed finally of six English people, reached the river-side as the night fell. They came cantering through the trees--Mr. and Mrs. Flushing, Helen Ambrose, Rachel, Terence, and St. John. The tired little horses then stopped automatically, and the English dismounted. Mrs. Flushing strode to the river-bank in high spirits.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"I don't quite agree, Richard,\" said Mrs. Dalloway. \"Think of Shelley. I feel that there's almost everything one wants in 'Adonais.'\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "The tea-party, however, included too many different kinds of people for general conversation to flourish; and from Rachel's point of view possessed the great advantage that it was quite unnecessary for her to talk. Over there Susan and Arthur were explaining to Mrs. Paley that an expedition had been proposed; and Mrs. Paley having grasped the fact, gave the advice of an old traveller that they should take nice canned vegetables, fur cloaks, and insect powder. She leant over to Mrs. Flushing and whispered something which from the twinkle in her eyes probably had reference to bugs. Then Helen was reciting \"Toll for the Brave\" to St. John Hirst, in order apparently to win a sixpence which lay upon the table; while Mr. Hughling Elliot imposed silence upon his section of the audience by his fascinating anecdote of Lord Curzon and the undergraduate's bicycle. Mrs. Thornbury was trying to remember the name of a man who might have been another Garibaldi, and had written a book which they ought to read; and Mr. Thornbury recollected that he had a pair of binoculars at anybody's service.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "The fear which attacks the recorder of centenaries lest he should find himself measuring a diminishing spectre and forced to foretell its approaching dissolution is not only absent in the case of Robinson Crusoe but the mere thought of it is ridiculous. It may be true that Robinson Crusoe is two hundred years of age upon the twenty-fifth of April 1919, but far from raising the familiar speculations as to whether people now read it and will continue to read it, the effect of the bi-centenary is to make us marvel that Robinson Crusoe, the perennial and immortal, should have been in existence so short a time as that. The book resembles one of the anonymous productions of the race itself rather than the effort of a single mind; and as for celebrating its centenary we should as soon think of celebrating the centenaries of Stonehenge itself. Something of this we may attribute to the fact that we have all had Robinson Crusoe read aloud to us as children, and were thus much in the same state of mind towards Defoe and his story that the Greeks were in towards Homer. It never occurred to us that there was such a person as Defoe, and to have been told that Robinson Crusoe was the work of a man with a pen in his hand would either have disturbed us unpleasantly or meant nothing at all.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"I sketch a great deal,\" said Mrs. Elliot, \"but that isn't really an occupation. It's so disconcerting to find girls just beginning doing better than one does oneself! And nature's difficult--very difficult!\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"I confess I sympathise,\" said Ridley with a melancholy sigh. \"I have a weakness for people who can't begin.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"In love!\" she said. That he at his age should be sucked under in his little bow-tie by that monster! And there's no flesh on his neck; his hands are red; and he's six months older than I am! her eye flashed back to her; but in her heart she felt, all the same, he is in love. He has that, she felt; he is in love.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Already Margaret was eager to take advantage of such indulgence to gratify certain tastes. Already she liked reading better than needlework, dressing and \"inventing fashions\" better than reading, and writing best of all. Sixteen paper books of no title, written in straggling letters, for the impetuosity of her thought always outdid the pace of her fingers, testify to the use she made of her mother's liberality. The happiness of their home life had other results as well. They were a devoted family.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Of what? It becomes every minute more difficult to say why, in spite of everything, I sit here believing I can't now say what, or even remember the last time it happened.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"That's the tragedy of life--as I always say!\" said Mrs. Dalloway. \"Beginning things and having to end them. Still, I'm not going to let this end, if you're willing.\" It was the morning, the sea was calm, and the ship once again was anchored not far from another shore.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Pindar,\" said Helen. \"May a married woman who was forty in October dance? I can't stand still.\" She seemed to fade into Hewet, and they both dissolved in the crowd.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Rezia, sitting at the table twisting a hat in her hands, watched him; saw him smiling. He was happy then. But she could not bear to see him smiling. It was not marriage; it was not being one's husband to look strange like that, always to be starting, laughing, sitting hour after hour silent, or clutching her and telling her to write. The table drawer was full of those writings; about war; about Shakespeare; about great discoveries; how there is no death.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Yes, I like what I know of you,\" Helen replied. \"But then--one knows so little.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "He had just missed his eleven, said Lady Bradshaw, because of the mumps. His father minded even more than he did, she thought \"being,\" she said, \"nothing but a great boy himself.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Yes, I think I can fairly say I have finished it,\" she said. \"That is, omitting Swinburne--Beowulf to Browning--I rather like the two B's myself. Beowulf to Browning,\" she repeated, \"I think that is the kind of title which might catch one's eye on a railway book-stall.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "The gentleman replies so fast to the lady, and she runs up the scale with such witty exchange of compliment now culminating in a sob of passion, that the words are indistinguishable though the meaning is plain enough--love, laughter, flight, pursuit, celestial bliss--all floated out on the gayest ripple of tender endearment--until the sound of the silver horns, at first far distant, gradually sounds more and more distinctly, as if seneschals were saluting the dawn or proclaiming ominously the escape of the lovers.... The green garden, moonlit pool, lemons, lovers, and fish are all dissolved in the opal sky, across which, as the horns are joined by trumpets and supported by clarions there rise white arches firmly planted on marble pillars.... Tramp and trumpeting. Clang and clangour. Firm establishment. Fast foundations.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "The curtain with its flight of birds of Paradise blew out again. And Clarissa saw--she saw Ralph Lyon beat it back, and go on talking. So it wasn't a failure after all! it was going to be all right now--her party. It had begun.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "In the ballroom, meanwhile, the dancers were being formed into squares for the lancers. Arthur and Rachel, Susan and Hewet, Miss Allan and Hughling Elliot found themselves together.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"How sensible!\" chirped Mrs. Elliot. \"That's just what one would always like--only unfortunately it's not possible.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Don't let me interrupt,\" Clarissa implored. \"I heard you playing, and I couldn't resist. I adore Bach!\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Is that all we're to hear about you?\" said Helen. She stated that she was very old--forty last October, and her father had been a solicitor in the city who had gone bankrupt, for which reason she had never had much education--they lived in one place after another--but an elder brother used to lend her books.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Of course I'm coming. So are you, Helen. And Mr. Pepper too.\" As she sat she realised that she was surrounded by people she knew, but that Terence was not among them. From various angles people began saying what they thought of the proposed expedition. According to some it would be hot, but the nights would be cold; according to others, the difficulties would lie rather in getting a boat, and in speaking the language.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Too emotional, somehow,\" said Clarissa. \"One notices it at once when a boy or girl takes up music as a profession. Sir William Broadley told me just the same thing. Don't you hate the kind of attitudes people go into over Wagner--like this--\" She cast her eyes to the ceiling, clasped her hands, and assumed a look of intensity. \"It really doesn't mean that they appreciate him; in fact, I always think it's the other way round.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Her words roused her husband, who had been muttering rhythmically to himself, surveying his guests and his food and his wife with eyes that were now melancholy and now fierce, according to the fortunes of the lady in his ballad. He cut Helen short with a protest. He hated even the semblance of cynicism in women. \"Nonsense, nonsense,\" he remarked abruptly.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "For this is the truth about our soul, he thought, our self, who fish-like inhabits deep seas and plies among obscurities threading her way between the boles of giant weeds, over sun-flickered spaces and on and on into gloom, cold, deep, inscrutable; suddenly she shoots to the surface and sports on the wind-wrinkled waves; that is, has a positive need to brush, scrape, kindle herself, gossiping. What did the Government mean--Richard Dalloway would know--to do about India?", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "We have to cast about in order to discover where the emphasis in these strange stories rightly comes. Tchekov's own words give us a lead in the right direction. \". . .", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "She stiffened a little on the kerb, waiting for Durtnall's van to pass. A charming woman, Scrope Purvis thought her (knowing her as one does know people who live next door to one in Westminster); a touch of the bird about her, of the jay, blue-green, light, vivacious, though she was over fifty, and grown very white since her illness. There she perched, never seeing him, waiting to cross, very upright.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Unable to stay in the empty drawing-room, he wandered out and sat on the stairs half-way up to Rachel's room. He longed for some one to talk to, but Hirst was asleep, and Ridley was asleep; there was no sound in Rachel's room. The only sound in the house was the sound of Chailey moving in the kitchen. At last there was a rustling on the stairs overhead, and Nurse McInnis came down fastening the links in her cuffs, in preparation for the night's watch. Terence rose and stopped her.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "There is no room for the impurities of literature in an essay. Somehow or other, by dint of labour or bounty of nature, or both combined, the essay must be pure--pure like water or pure like wine, but pure from dullness, deadness, and deposits of extraneous matter. Of all writers in the first volume, Walter Pater best achieves this arduous task, because before setting out to write his essay (\"Notes on Leonardo da Vinci\") he has somehow contrived to get his material fused. He is a learned man, but it is not knowledge of Leonardo that remains with us, but a vision, such as we get in a good novel where everything contributes to bring the writer's conception as a whole before us. Only here, in the essay, where the bounds are so strict and facts have to be used in their nakedness, the true writer like Walter Pater makes these limitations yield their own quality.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"And it makes one sorry for them too,\" Rachel continued, as though she were tracing the course of her feelings. \"I don't know either of them, but I could almost burst into tears. That's silly, isn't it?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "After standing still for a minute or two he turned and began to walk towards the gate. With the movement of his body, the excitement, the romance and the richness of life crowded into his brain. He shouted out a line of poetry, but the words escaped him, and he stumbled among lines and fragments of lines which had no meaning at all except for the beauty of the words. He shut the gate, and ran swinging from side to side down the hill, shouting any nonsense that came into his head. \"Here am I,\" he cried rhythmically, as his feet pounded to the left and to the right, \"plunging along, like an elephant in the jungle, stripping the branches as I go (he snatched at the twigs of a bush at the roadside), roaring innumerable words, lovely words about innumerable things, running downhill and talking nonsense aloud to myself about roads and leaves and lights and women coming out into the darkness--about women--about Rachel, about Rachel.\" He stopped and drew a deep breath.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Why should I mind, Simon? Doesn't one always think of the past, in a garden with men and women lying under the trees? Aren't they one's past, all that remains of it, those men and women, those ghosts lying under the trees, ... one's happiness, one's reality?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "After the lancers there was a waltz; after the waltz a polka; and then a terrible thing happened; the music, which had been sounding regularly with five-minute pauses, stopped suddenly. The lady with the great dark eyes began to swathe her violin in silk, and the gentleman placed his horn carefully in its case. They were surrounded by couples imploring them in English, in French, in Spanish, of one more dance, one only; it was still early. But the old man at the piano merely exhibited his watch and shook his head. He turned up the collar of his coat and produced a red silk muffler, which completely dashed his festive appearance.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "That any one of these people had ever felt what she felt, or could ever feel it, or had even the right to pretend for a single second that they were capable of feeling it, appalled her much as the church service had done, much as the face of the hospital nurse had done; and if they didn't feel a thing why did they go and pretend to? The simplicity and arrogance and hardness of her youth, now concentrated into a single spark as it was by her love of him, puzzled Terence; being engaged had not that effect on him; the world was different, but not in that way; he still wanted the things he had always wanted, and in particular he wanted the companionship of other people more than ever perhaps. He took the letters out of her hand, and protested:", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "While she spoke thus half to herself and with increasing vagueness, because her eye was caught by a ship that had just come into the bay, she did not see that Terence had ceased to stare contentedly in front of him, and was looking at her keenly and with dissatisfaction. She seemed to be able to cut herself adrift from him, and to pass away to unknown places where she had no need of him. The thought roused his jealousy.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"You've never told me your name,\" said Hewet suddenly. \"Miss Somebody Vinrace. . . .", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "At this moment Mrs. Elliot looked up and exclaimed, \"Oh, Hugh! He's bringing some one,\" she added.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Everything had come to a standstill. The throb of the motor engines sounded like a pulse irregularly drumming through an entire body. The sun became extraordinarily hot because the motor car had stopped outside Mulberry's shop window; old ladies on the tops of omnibuses spread their black parasols; here a green, here a red parasol opened with a little pop. Mrs. Dalloway, coming to the window with her arms full of sweet peas, looked out with her little pink face pursed in enquiry. Every one looked at the motor car.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Well, it is,\" said Richard. \"It's humiliating to find what a slave one is to one's body in this world. D'you know, I can never work without a kettle on the hob. As often as not I don't drink tea, but I must feel that I can if I want to.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "When Evelyn began talking--it was a fact she often regretted--her thoughts came so quickly that she never had any time to listen to other people's thoughts. She continued without more pause than was needed for taking breath.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "For the young people could not talk. And why should they? Shout, embrace, swing, be up at dawn; carry sugar to ponies; kiss and caress the snouts of adorable chows; and then all tingling and streaming, plunge and swim. But the enormous resources of the English language, the power it bestows, after all, of communicating feelings (at their age, she and Peter would have been arguing all the evening), was not for them. They would solidify young.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Sally's power was amazing, her gift, her personality. There was her way with flowers, for instance. At Bourton they always had stiff little vases all the way down the table. Sally went out, picked hollyhocks, dahlias--all sorts of flowers that had never been seen together--cut their heads off, and made them swim on the top of water in bowls. The effect was extraordinary--coming in to dinner in the sunset.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Oddly enough, she was one of the most thoroughgoing sceptics he had ever met, and possibly (this was a theory he used to make up to account for her, so transparent in some ways, so inscrutable in others), possibly she said to herself, As we are a doomed race, chained to a sinking ship (her favourite reading as a girl was Huxley and Tyndall, and they were fond of these nautical metaphors), as the whole thing is a bad joke, let us, at any rate, do our part; mitigate the sufferings of our fellow-prisoners (Huxley again); decorate the dungeon with flowers and air-cushions; be as decent as we possibly can. Those ruffians, the Gods, shan't have it all their own way,--her notion being that the Gods, who never lost a chance of hurting, thwarting and spoiling human lives were seriously put out if, all the same, you behaved like a lady. That phase came directly after Sylvia's death--that horrible affair. To see your own sister killed by a falling tree (all Justin Parry's fault--all his carelessness) before your very eyes, a girl too on the verge of life, the most gifted of them, Clarissa always said, was enough to turn one bitter. Later she wasn't so positive perhaps; she thought there were no Gods; no one was to blame; and so she evolved this atheist's religion of doing good for the sake of goodness.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Every one was silent. Mr. Pepper's hand stayed upon his Knight. Mrs. Thornbury somehow moved him to a chair, sat herself beside him, and with tears in her own eyes said gently, \"You have done everything for your friend.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Yes, Miss Kilman stood on the landing, and wore a mackintosh; but had her reasons. First, it was cheap; second, she was over forty; and did not, after all, dress to please. She was poor, moreover; degradingly poor. Otherwise she would not be taking jobs from people like the Dalloways; from rich people, who liked to be kind. Mr. Dalloway, to do him justice, had been kind.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Oh, our faults!\" she cried. \"What do they matter?\" Then she demanded, \"Am I in love--is this being in love--are we to marry each other?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Well, I don't know about that,\" said Miss Ormerod, pondering a little. \"To be sure, I've chosen my epitaph. 'She introduced Paris Green into England,' and there might be a word or two about the Hessian fly--that, I do believe, was a good piece of work.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "He hadn't blamed her for minding the fact, since in those days a girl brought up as she was, knew nothing, but it was her manner that annoyed him; timid; hard; something arrogant; unimaginative; prudish. \"The death of the soul.\" He had said that instinctively, ticketing the moment as he used to do--the death of her soul.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "and he will tell you what his characters wore, how they looked, what they ate and drank, as if poetry could handle the common facts of this very moment of Tuesday, the sixteenth day of April, 1387, without dirtying her hands. If he withdraws to the time of the Greeks or the Romans, it is only that his story leads him there. He has no desire to wrap himself round in antiquity, to take refuge in age, or to shirk the associations of common grocer's English.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Her yawn must have been the image of a yawn. Instead of letting her mouth droop, dropping all her clothes in a bunch as though they depended on one string, and stretching her limbs to the utmost end of her berth, she merely changed her dress for a dressing-gown, with innumerable frills, and wrapping her feet in a rug, sat down with a writing-pad on her knee. Already this cramped little cabin was the dressing room of a lady of quality. There were bottles containing liquids; there were trays, boxes, brushes, pins. Evidently not an inch of her person lacked its proper instrument.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Go on, go on, do go on,\" she laughed, clapping her hands. \"It's delightful to hear you!\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"You find him monotonous, I suppose. But you know--\" He opened the book, and began searching for passages to read aloud, and in a little time he found a good one which he considered suitable. But there was nothing in the world that bored Ridley more than being read aloud to, and he was besides scrupulously fastidious as to the dress and behaviour of ladies. In the space of fifteen minutes he had decided against Mrs. Flushing on the ground that her orange plume did not suit her complexion, that she spoke too loud, that she crossed her legs, and finally, when he saw her accept a cigarette that Hewet offered her, he jumped up, exclaiming something about \"bar parlours,\" and left them. Mrs. Flushing was evidently relieved by his departure.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Away from people--they must get away from people, he said (jumping up), right away over there, where there were chairs beneath a tree and the long slope of the park dipped like a length of green stuff with a ceiling cloth of blue and pink smoke high above, and there was a rampart of far irregular houses hazed in smoke, the traffic hummed in a circle, and on the right, dun-coloured animals stretched long necks over the Zoo palings, barking, howling. There they sat down under a tree.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Thank God!\" he exclaimed. \"That's one mercy. You see,\" he continued with emotion, \"I'd rather you liked me than any one I've ever met.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "There is, to begin with, English literature. A sense of the beauty of nature has never been altogether absent, however much the cow may change from age to age, from English poetry. Nevertheless, the difference between Pope and Wordsworth in this respect is very considerable. Lyrical Ballads was published in 1798; Our Village in 1824. One being in verse and the other in prose, it is not necessary to labour a comparison which contains, however, not only the elements of justice, but the seeds of many volumes.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "There, they were going upstairs; that was the first to come, and now they would come faster and faster, so that Mrs. Parkinson (hired for parties) would leave the hall door ajar, and the hall would be full of gentlemen waiting (they stood waiting, sleeking down their hair) while the ladies took their cloaks off in the room along the passage; where Mrs. Barnet helped them, old Ellen Barnet, who had been with the family for forty years, and came every summer to help the ladies, and remembered mothers when they were girls, and though very unassuming did shake hands; said \"milady\" very respectfully, yet had a humorous way with her, looking at the young ladies, and ever so tactfully helping Lady Lovejoy, who had some trouble with her underbodice. And they could not help feeling, Lady Lovejoy and Miss Alice, that some little privilege in the matter of brush and comb, was awarded them having known Mrs. Barnet--\"thirty years, milady,\" Mrs. Barnet supplied her. Young ladies did not use to rouge, said Lady Lovejoy, when they stayed at Bourton in the old days. And Miss Alice didn't need rouge, said Mrs. Barnet, looking at her fondly. There Mrs. Barnet would sit, in the cloakroom, patting down the furs, smoothing out the Spanish shawls, tidying the dressing-table, and knowing perfectly well, in spite of the furs and the embroideries, which were nice ladies, which were not.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Mrs. Thornbury had received a great many letters. She was completely engrossed in them. When she had finished a page she handed it to her husband, or gave him the sense of what she was reading in a series of short quotations linked together by a sound at the back of her throat. \"Evie writes that George has gone to Glasgow. 'He finds Mr. Chadbourne so nice to work with, and we hope to spend Christmas together, but I should not like to move Betty and Alfred any great distance (no, quite right), though it is difficult to imagine cold weather in this heat.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "And that is being young, Peter Walsh thought as he passed them. To be having an awful scene--the poor girl looked absolutely desperate--in the middle of the morning. But what was it about, he wondered, what had the young man in the overcoat been saying to her to make her look like that; what awful fix had they got themselves into, both to look so desperate as that on a fine summer morning? The amusing thing about coming back to England, after five years, was the way it made, anyhow the first days, things stand out as if one had never seen them before; lovers squabbling under a tree; the domestic family life of the parks. Never had he seen London look so enchanting--the softness of the distances; the richness; the greenness; the civilisation, after India, he thought, strolling across the grass.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "[3]Essays of Montaigne, translated by Charles Cotton, 5 vols. The Navarre Society, PS6: 6s. net", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Flo Graves--the girl I told you about, who was engaged to that dreadful Mr. Vincent,\" said Susan. \"Is Mr. Hutchinson married?\" she asked.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"I long to ask questions,\" she continued. \"You interest me so much. If I'm impertinent, you must just box my ears.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "This morning also for the first time Ridley found it impossible to sit alone in his room. He was very uncomfortable downstairs, and, as he did not know what was going on, constantly in the way; but he would not leave the drawing-room. Too restless to read, and having nothing to do, he began to pace up and down reciting poetry in an undertone. Occupied in various ways--now in undoing parcels, now in uncorking bottles, now in writing directions, the sound of Ridley's song and the beat of his pacing worked into the minds of Terence and St. John all the morning as a half comprehended refrain.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Clorinda was the first to come to her senses. \"It's all our fault,\" she said. \"Every one of us knows how to read. But no one, save Poll, has ever taken the trouble to do it. I, for one, have taken it for granted that it was a woman's duty to spend her youth in bearing children.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"We're such lucky people,\" she said, looking at her husband. \"We really have no wants.\" She was apt to say this, partly in order to convince herself, and partly in order to convince other people. But she was prevented from wondering how far she carried conviction by the entrance of Mr. and Mrs. Flushing, who came through the hall and stopped by the chess-board. Mrs. Flushing looked wilder than ever. A great strand of black hair looped down across her brow, her cheeks were whipped a dark blood red, and drops of rain made wet marks upon them.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "For Miss Helena Parry was not dead: Miss Parry was alive. She was past eighty. She ascended staircases slowly with a stick. She was placed in a chair (Richard had seen to it). People who had known Burma in the 'seventies were always led up to her.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Horror! horror! she wanted to cry. (She had left her people; they had warned her what would happen.)", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "When Rachel tried to explain, she found it very difficult. She could not say that she found the vision of herself walking in a crocodile with her hair down her back peculiarly unjust and horrible, nor could she explain why Hirst's assumption of the superiority of his nature and experience had seemed to her not only galling but terrible--as if a gate had clanged in her face. Pacing up and down the terrace beside Hewet she said bitterly:", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Clarissa had asked her. It was tiring; it was noisy; but Clarissa had asked her. So she had come. It was a pity that they lived in London--Richard and Clarissa. If only for Clarissa's health it would have been better to live in the country.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"We lived in the country for six months of the year. When I say 'we' I mean four sisters, a brother, and myself. There's nothing like coming of a large family. Sisters particularly are delightful.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "The sight of the village indeed affected them all curiously though all differently. St. John had left the others and was walking slowly down to the river, absorbed in his own thoughts, which were bitter and unhappy, for he felt himself alone; and Helen, standing by herself in the sunny space among the native women, was exposed to presentiments of disaster. The cries of the senseless beasts rang in her ears high and low in the air, as they ran from tree-trunk to tree-top. How small the little figures looked wandering through the trees! She became acutely conscious of the little limbs, the thin veins, the delicate flesh of men and women, which breaks so easily and lets the life escape compared with these great trees and deep waters.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "The boat sinks. Rising, the figures ascend, but now leaf thin, tapering to a dusky wraith, which, fiery tipped, draws its twofold passion from my heart. For me it sings, unseals my sorrow, thaws compassion, floods with love the sunless world, nor, ceasing, abates its tenderness but deftly, subtly, weaves in and out until in this pattern, this consummation, the cleft ones unify; soar, sob, sink to rest, sorrow and joy.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"The important questions,\" Hewet pondered, \"the really interesting ones. I doubt that one ever does ask them.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "The patron we want, then, is one who will help us to preserve our flowers from decay. But as his qualities change from age to age, and it needs considerable integrity and conviction not to be dazzled by the pretensions or bamboozled by the persuasions of the competing crowd, this business of patron-finding is one of the tests and trials of authorship. To know whom to write for is to know how to write. Some of the modern patron's qualities are, however, fairly plain. The writer will require at this moment, it is obvious, a patron with the book-reading habit rather than the play-going habit.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Go on, please go on,\" he urged. \"Let's imagine it's a Wednesday. You're all at luncheon. You sit there, and Aunt Lucy there, and Aunt Clara here\"; he arranged three pebbles on the grass between them.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Elizabeth rather wondered, as they did up the parcel, what Miss Kilman was thinking. They must have their tea, said Miss Kilman, rousing, collecting herself. They had their tea.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "There is, in the first place, the difficulty of expression. We all indulge in the strange, pleasant process called thinking, but when it comes to saying, even to some one opposite, what we think, then how little we are able to convey! The phantom is through the mind and out of the window before we can lay salt on its tail, or slowly sinking and returning to the profound darkness which it has lit up momentarily with a wandering light. Face, voice, and accent eke out our words and impress their feebleness with character in speech. But the pen is a rigid instrument; it can say very little; it has all kinds of habits and ceremonies of its own.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "But Ridley was now off on grievances of his own connected with the washing of his shirts, which somehow led to the frequent visits of Hughling Elliot, who was a bore, a pedant, a dry stick of a man, and yet Ridley couldn't simply point at the door and tell him to go. The truth of it was, they saw too many people. And so on and so on, more conjugal talk pattering softly and unintelligibly, until they were both ready to go down to tea.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Look here, Hirst,\" said Terence, \"there's nothing to be done for two hours.\" He consulted the sheet pinned to the door. \"You go and lie down. I'll wait here. Chailey sits with Rachel while Helen has her luncheon.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"They found his body and his skins and a notebook,\" her husband replied. But the boat had soon carried them on and left the place behind.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"I'm not a young lady,\" Evelyn flashed; she bit her underlip. \"Just because I like splendid things you laugh at me. Why are there no men like Garibaldi now?\" she demanded.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"I was coming to ask you,\" said Mrs. Thornbury, addressing Wilfrid, for it was useless to speak to his wife. \"Is there anything you think that one could do? Has the father arrived? Could one go and see?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"When you're eighty and the gout tweezes you, you'll be swearing like a trooper,\" Terence remarked. \"You'll be very fat, very testy, very disagreeable. Can't you imagine him--bald as a coot, with a pair of sponge-bag trousers, a little spotted tie, and a corporation?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Not only did the silence weigh upon them, but they were both unable to frame any thoughts. There was something between them which had to be spoken of. One of them had to begin, but which of them was it to be? Then Hewet picked up a red fruit and threw it as high as he could. When it dropped, he would speak.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Yes, yes,\" he replied; but there were so many things to be said, and now that they were alone it seemed necessary to bring themselves still more near, and to surmount a barrier which had grown up since they had last spoken. It was difficult, frightening even, oddly embarrassing. At one moment he was clear-sighted, and, at the next, confused.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "But is it the end, we ask? We have rather the feeling that we have overrun our signals; or it is as if a tune had stopped short without the expected chords to close it. These stories are inconclusive, we say, and proceed to frame a criticism based upon the assumption that stories ought to conclude in a way that we recognise. In so doing we raise the question of our own fitness as readers. Where the tune is familiar and the end emphatic--lovers united, villains discomfited, intrigues exposed--as it is in most Victorian fiction, we can scarcely go wrong, but where the tune is unfamiliar and the end a note of interrogation or merely the information that they went on talking, as it is in Tchekov, we need a very daring and alert sense of literature to make us hear the tune, and in particular those last notes which complete the harmony.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Hugh was at lunch,\" said Richard. She had met him too! Well, he was getting absolutely intolerable. Buying Evelyn necklaces; fatter than ever; an intolerable ass.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"It is,\" she replied, emphatically nodding her head. \"Invent the steps.\" Sure of her melody she marked the rhythm boldly so as to simplify the way. Helen caught the idea; seized Miss Allan by the arm, and whirled round the room, now curtseying, now spinning round, now tripping this way and that like a child skipping through a meadow.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Tea? Oh yes. Five o'clock. Then I say what I've done, and my aunts say what they've done, and perhaps some one comes in: Mrs. Hunt, let's suppose. She's an old lady with a lame leg.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"I'm not a hen in a circle,\" said Hewet. \"I'm a dove on a tree-top.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Our chicken got into the salt,\" Hewet said dolefully to Susan. \"Nor is it true that bananas include moisture as well as sustenance.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Love destroyed too. Everything that was fine, everything that was true went. Take Peter Walsh now. There was a man, charming, clever, with ideas about everything. If you wanted to know about Pope, say, or Addison, or just to talk nonsense, what people were like, what things meant, Peter knew better than any one.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Rachel sat down on the bed, with the two pictures in her hands, and compared them--the man and the woman who had, so Evelyn said, loved each other. That fact interested her more than the campaign on behalf of unfortunate women which Evelyn was once more beginning to describe. She looked again from one to the other.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "He would go to Clarissa's party. (The Morrises moved off; but they would meet again.) He would go to Clarissa's party, because he wanted to ask Richard what they were doing in India--the conservative duffers. And what's being acted? And music.... Oh yes, and mere gossip.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "These circumstances, as they affected her character, may have left their traces on her work. A novelist, we reflect, is bound to build up his structure with much very perishable material which begins by lending it reality and ends by cumbering it with rubbish. As we open Jane Eyre once more we cannot stifle the suspicion that we shall find her world of imagination as antiquated, mid-Victorian, and out of date as the parsonage on the moor, a place only to be visited by the curious, only preserved by the pious. So we open Jane Eyre; and in two pages every doubt is swept clean from our minds.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "The others looked up. They were glad that he had not spoken to them. But Miss Allan replied without any hesitation, \"I was thinking of my imaginary uncle. Hasn't every one got an imaginary uncle?\" she continued. \"I have one--a most delightful old gentleman.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "The advocates of women's rights would hardly care, perhaps, to claim Moll Flanders and Roxana among their patron saints; and yet it is clear that Defoe not only intended them to speak some very modern doctrines upon the subject, but placed them in circumstances where their peculiar hardships are displayed in such a way as to elicit our sympathy. Courage, said Moll Flanders, was what women needed, and the power to \"stand their ground\"; and at once gave practical demonstration of the benefits that would result. Roxana, a lady of the same profession, argues more subtly against the slavery of marriage. She \"had started a new thing in the world\" the merchant told her; \"it was a way of arguing contrary to the general practise\". But Defoe is the last writer to be guilty of bald preaching.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "In July, 1843, Lord Macaulay pronounced the opinion that Joseph Addison had enriched our literature with compositions \"that will live as long as the English language\". But when Lord Macaulay pronounced an opinion it was not merely an opinion. Even now, at a distance of seventy-six years, the words seem to issue from the mouth of the chosen representative of the people. There is an authority about them, a sonority, a sense of responsibility, which put us in mind of a Prime Minister making a proclamation on behalf of a great empire rather than of a journalist writing about a deceased man of letters for a magazine. The article upon Addison is, indeed, one of the most vigorous of the famous essays.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "The sun was beginning to go down, and a change had come over the mountains, as if they were robbed of their earthly substance, and composed merely of intense blue mist. Long thin clouds of flamingo red, with edges like the edges of curled ostrich feathers, lay up and down the sky at different altitudes. The roofs of the town seemed to have sunk lower than usual; the cypresses appeared very black between the roofs, and the roofs themselves were brown and white. As usual in the evening, single cries and single bells became audible rising from beneath.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Not so very far off lie more ruins--the ruins of Bromholm Priory, where John Paston was buried, naturally enough, since his house was only a mile or so away, lying on low ground by the sea, twenty miles north of Norwich. The coast is dangerous, and the land, even in our time, inaccessible. Nevertheless the little bit of wood at Bromholm, the fragment of the true Cross, brought pilgrims incessantly to the Priory, and sent them away with eyes opened and limbs straightened. But some of them with their newly-opened eyes saw a sight which shocked them--the grave of John Paston in Bromholm Priory without a tombstone. The news spread over the country-side.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "At tea Rezia told him that Mrs. Filmer's daughter was expecting a baby. She could not grow old and have no children! She was very lonely, she was very unhappy! She cried for the first time since they were married. Far away he heard her sobbing; he heard it accurately, he noticed it distinctly; he compared it to a piston thumping.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Never had any words been so vivid and so beautiful--Arabia Felix--Aethiopia. But those were not more noble than the others, hardy barbarians, forests, and morasses. They seemed to drive roads back to the very beginning of the world, on either side of which the populations of all times and countries stood in avenues, and by passing down them all knowledge would be hers, and the book of the world turned back to the very first page. Such was her excitement at the possibilities of knowledge now opening before her that she ceased to read, and a breeze turning the page, the covers of Gibbon gently ruffled and closed together. She then rose again and walked on.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "But there remains one final question which, if we could make him look up from his enthralling occupation, we should like to put to this great master of the art of life. In these extraordinary volumes of short and broken, long and learned, logical and contradictory statements, we have heard the very pulse and rhythm of the soul, beating day after day, year after year through a veil which, as time goes on, fines itself almost to transparency. Here is some one who succeeded in the hazardous enterprise of living; who served his country and lived retired; was landlord, husband, father; entertained kings, loved women, and mused for hours alone over old books. By means of perpetual experiment and observation of the subtlest he achieved at last a miraculous adjustment of all these wayward parts that constitute the human soul. He laid hold of the beauty of the world with all his fingers.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Stay at home,\" said Ridley. \"I often wish I had! Everyone ought to stay at home. But, of course, they won't.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"And I thought you--a prig,\" she recollected. \"No; that's not quite it. There were the ants who stole the tongue, and I thought you and St. John were like those ants--very big, very ugly, very energetic, with all your virtues on your backs. However, when I talked to you I liked you--\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Marlow was one of those born observers who are happiest in retirement. Marlow liked nothing better than to sit on deck, in some obscure creek of the Thames, smoking and recollecting; smoking and speculating; sending after his smoke beautiful rings of words until all the summer's night became a little clouded with tobacco smoke. Marlow, too, had a profound respect for the men with whom he had sailed; but he saw the humour of them. He nosed out and described in masterly fashion those livid creatures who prey successfully upon the clumsy veterans. He had a flair for human deformity; his humour was sardonic.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Helen was very late in coming down. She looked like a person who has been sitting for a long time in the dark. She was pale and thinner, and the expression of her eyes was harassed but determined. She ate her luncheon quickly, and seemed indifferent to what she was doing. She brushed aside Terence's enquiries, and at last, as if he had not spoken, she looked at him with a slight frown and said:", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "It had gone; it was behind the clouds. There was no sound. The clouds to which the letters E, G, or L had attached themselves moved freely, as if destined to cross from West to East on a mission of the greatest importance which would never be revealed, and yet certainly so it was--a mission of the greatest importance. Then suddenly, as a train comes out of a tunnel, the aeroplane rushed out of the clouds again, the sound boring into the ears of all people in the Mall, in the Green Park, in Piccadilly, in Regent Street, in Regent's Park, and the bar of smoke curved behind and it dropped down, and it soared up and wrote one letter after another--but what word was it writing?", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Half asleep, and murmuring broken words, they stood in the angle made by the bow of the boat. It slipped on down the river. Now a bell struck on the bridge, and they heard the lapping of water as it rippled away on either side, and once a bird startled in its sleep creaked, flew on to the next tree, and was silent again. The darkness poured down profusely, and left them with scarcely any feeling of life, except that they were standing there together in the darkness.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"We looked in and saw you laughing,\" Helen remarked. \"Mr. Pepper had just told a very good story.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "When it grew dark and the lamps were brought in, Terence felt unable to control his irritation any longer. St. John went to bed in a state of complete exhaustion, bidding Terence good-night with rather more affection than usual because of their quarrel, and Ridley retired to his books. Left alone, Terence walked up and down the room; he stood at the open window.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"D'you think they are happy?\" Evelyn murmured to Terence in an undertone, and she hoped that he would say that he did not think them happy; but, instead, he said that they must go too--go home, for they were always being late for meals, and Mrs. Ambrose, who was very stern and particular, didn't like that. Evelyn laid hold of Rachel's skirt and protested. Why should they go? It was still early, and she had so many things to say to them. \"No,\" said Terence, \"we must go, because we walk so slowly.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Hamlet was what you might call too introspective for Mr. Grice, the sonnets too passionate; Henry the Fifth was to him the model of an English gentleman. But his favourite reading was Huxley, Herbert Spencer, and Henry George; while Emerson and Thomas Hardy he read for relaxation. He was giving Mrs. Dalloway his views upon the present state of England when the breakfast bell rung so imperiously that she had to tear herself away, promising to come back and be shown his sea-weeds.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Rachel went to bed; she lay in the dark, it seemed to her, for a very long time, but at length, waking from a transparent kind of sleep, she saw the windows white in front of her, and recollected that some time before she had gone to bed with a headache, and that Helen had said it would be gone when she woke. She supposed, therefore, that she was now quite well again. At the same time the wall of her room was painfully white, and curved slightly, instead of being straight and flat. Turning her eyes to the window, she was not reassured by what she saw there. The movement of the blind as it filled with air and blew slowly out, drawing the cord with a little trailing sound along the floor, seemed to her terrifying, as if it were the movement of an animal in the room.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Nonsense, nonsense! she cried to herself, pushing through the swing doors of Mulberry's the florists.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"You've all been sitting here,\" she said, \"for almost an hour, and you haven't noticed my figs, or my flowers, or the way the light comes through, or anything. I haven't been listening, because I've been looking at you. You looked very beautiful; I wish you'd go on sitting for ever.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Of course I care for you,\" she began, rushing her words out in a hurry; \"I should be a brute if I didn't. I think you're quite one of the nicest people I've ever known, and one of the finest too. But I wish . . .", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "But it could be seen from a glance at their faces that most of the others, the men in particular, felt the inconvenience of the sudden intrusion of this old savage. They looked more secular and critical as they listened to the ravings of the old black man with a cloth round his loins cursing with vehement gesture by a camp-fire in the desert. After that there was a general sound of pages being turned as if they were in class, and then they read a little bit of the Old Testament about making a well, very much as school boys translate an easy passage from the Anabasis when they have shut up their French grammar. Then they returned to the New Testament and the sad and beautiful figure of Christ. While Christ spoke they made another effort to fit his interpretation of life upon the lives they lived, but as they were all very different, some practical, some ambitious, some stupid, some wild and experimental, some in love, and others long past any feeling except a feeling of comfort, they did very different things with the words of Christ.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"They're making a mess of it,\" said Mr. Thornbury. He had reached the second column of the report, a spasmodic column, for the Irish members had been brawling three weeks ago at Westminster over a question of naval efficiency. After a disturbed paragraph or two, the column of print once more ran smoothly.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "The faint but penetrating pulse of an electric bell could now be heard in the corridor. Old Mrs. Paley, having woken hungry but without her spectacles, was summoning her maid to find the biscuit-box. The maid having answered the bell, drearily respectful even at this hour though muffled in a mackintosh, the passage was left in silence. Downstairs all was empty and dark; but on the upper floor a light still burnt in the room where the boots had dropped so heavily above Miss Allan's head. Here was the gentleman who, a few hours previously, in the shade of the curtain, had seemed to consist entirely of legs.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Mr. Dalloway, ma'am, told me to tell you he would be lunching out.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"I advise you to be circumspect,\" said Ridley. \"There's Willoughby, remember--Willoughby\"; he pointed at a letter.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "The shouts were renewed behind, warning them that they were bearing too far to the left. Improving their course, he continued, \"Yes, marriage.\" The feeling that they could not be united until she knew all about him made him again endeavour to explain.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"The old woman with the knife,\" she replied, not speaking to Terence in particular, and looking past him. As she appeared to be looking at a vase on the shelf opposite, he rose and took it down.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "The prim little girl grew up. She became \"the prettiest, silliest, most affected husband-hunting butterfly\" Mrs. Mitford ever remembered, and, incidentally, the authoress of a novel called Pride and Prejudice, which, written stealthily under cover of a creaking door, lay for many years unpublished. A little later, it is thought, she began another story, The Watsons, and being for some reason dissatisfied with it, left it unfinished. Unfinished and unsuccessful, it may throw more light upon its writer's genius than the polished masterpiece blazing in universal fame. Her difficulties are more apparent in it, and the method she took to overcome them less artfully concealed.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"I don't know,\" said Evelyn. \"Don't you have feelings about people? Feelings you're absolutely certain are right? I had a long talk with Terence the other night. I felt we were really friends after that.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Laughing and delightful, she had crossed Oxford Street and Great Portland Street and turned down one of the little streets, and now, and now, the great moment was approaching, for now she slackened, opened her bag, and with one look in his direction, but not at him, one look that bade farewell, summed up the whole situation and dismissed it triumphantly, for ever, had fitted her key, opened the door, and gone! Clarissa's voice saying, Remember my party, Remember my party, sang in his ears. The house was one of those flat red houses with hanging flower-baskets of vague impropriety. It was over.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Thus one couple after another with much the same irregular and aimless movement passed the flower-bed and were enveloped in layer after layer of green blue vapour, in which at first their bodies had substance and a dash of colour, but later both substance and colour dissolved in the green-blue atmosphere. How hot it was! So hot that even the thrush chose to hop, like a mechanical bird, in the shadow of the flowers, with long pauses between one movement and the next; instead of rambling vaguely the white butterflies danced one above another, making with their white shifting flakes the outline of a shattered marble column above the tallest flowers; the glass roofs of the palm house shone as if a whole market full of shiny green umbrellas had opened in the sun; and in the drone of the aeroplane the voice of the summer sky murmured its fierce soul. Yellow and black, pink and snow white, shapes of all these colours, men, women, and children were spotted for a second upon the horizon, and then, seeing the breadth of yellow that lay upon the grass, they wavered and sought shade beneath the trees, dissolving like drops of water in the yellow and green atmosphere, staining it faintly with red and blue. It seemed as if all gross and heavy bodies had sunk down in the heat motionless and lay huddled upon the ground, but their voices went wavering from them as if they were flames lolling from the thick waxen bodies of candles.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "He could look at Rachel without her noticing it. She was still absorbed in the water and the exquisitely pleasant sensations which a little depth of the sea washing over rocks suggests. He noticed that she was wearing a dress of deep blue colour, made of a soft thin cotton stuff, which clung to the shape of her body. It was a body with the angles and hollows of a young woman's body not yet developed, but in no way distorted, and thus interesting and even lovable. Raising his eyes Hewet observed her head; she had taken her hat off, and the face rested on her hand.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Or there were the poets and thinkers. Suppose he had had that passion, and had gone to Sir William Bradshaw, a great doctor yet to her obscurely evil, without sex or lust, extremely polite to women, but capable of some indescribable outrage--forcing your soul, that was it--if this young man had gone to him, and Sir William had impressed him, like that, with his power, might he not then have said (indeed she felt it now), Life is made intolerable; they make life intolerable, men like that?", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Yet, dismiss the heroines without sympathy, confine George Eliot to the agricultural world of her \"remotest past\", and you not only diminish her greatness but lose her true flavour. That greatness is here we can have no doubt. The width of the prospect, the large strong outlines of the principal features, the ruddy light of the early books, the searching power and reflective richness of the later tempt us to linger and expatiate beyond our limits. But it is upon the heroines that we would cast a final glance. \"I have always been finding out my religion since I was a little girl,\" says Dorothea Casaubon.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "But in the midst of all this tolerance and sympathy there are, even in the early books, moments of greater stress. Her humour has shown itself broad enough to cover a wide range of fools and failures, mothers and children, dogs and flourishing midland fields, farmers, sagacious or fuddled over their ale, horse-dealers, inn-keepers, curates, and carpenters. Over them all broods a certain romance, the only romance that George Eliot allowed herself--the romance of the past. The books are astonishingly readable and have no trace of pomposity or pretence. But to the reader who holds a large stretch of her early work in view it will become obvious that the mist of recollection gradually withdraws.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"It's far better that you should know nothing,\" he said paternally, \"and you wrong yourself, I'm sure. You play very nicely, I'm told, and I've no doubt you've read heaps of learned books.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "When this had happened about five times, Hirst, who leant against a window-frame, like some singular gargoyle, perceived that Helen Ambrose and Rachel stood in the doorway. The crowd was such that they could not move, but he recognised them by a piece of Helen's shoulder and a glimpse of Rachel's head turning round. He made his way to them; they greeted him with relief.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "He had spent eighteen months in Newgate and talked with thieves, pirates, highwaymen, and coiners before he wrote the history of Moll Flanders. But to have facts thrust upon you by dint of living and accident is one thing; to swallow them voraciously and retain the imprint of them indelibly, is another. It is not merely that Defoe knew the stress of poverty and had talked with the victims of it, but that the unsheltered life, exposed to circumstances and forced to shift for itself, appealed to him imaginatively as the right matter for his art. In the first pages of each of his great novels he reduces his hero or heroine to such a state of unfriended misery that their existence must be a continued struggle, and their survival at all the result of luck and their own exertions. Moll Flanders was born in Newgate of a criminal mother; Captain Singleton was stolen as a child and sold to the gipsies; Colonel Jack, though \"born a gentleman, was put 'prentice to a pickpocket\"; Roxana starts under better auspices, but, having married at fifteen, she sees her husband go bankrupt and is left with five children in \"a condition the most deplorable that words can express\".", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"I don't know of anything more dreadful,\" he said, pulling at the joint of a chicken's leg, \"than being seen when one isn't conscious of it. One feels sure one has been caught doing something ridiculous--looking at one's tongue in a hansom, for instance.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"It does no good to keep people waiting for an answer,\" sighed Miss Ormerod, \"though I don't feel as able as I did since that unlucky accident at Waterloo. And no one realises what the strain of the work is--often I'm the only lady in the room, and the gentlemen so learned, though I've always found them most helpful, most generous in every way. But I'm growing old. Miss Hartwell, that's what it is. That's what led me to be thinking of this difficult matter of flour infestation in the middle of the road so that I didn't see the horse until he had poked his nose into my ear.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "As we saunter through those famous courts where Dr. Bentley once reigned supreme we sometimes catch sight of a figure hurrying on its way to Chapel or Hall which, as it disappears, draws our thoughts enthusiastically after it. For that man, we are told, has the whole of Sophocles at his finger-ends; knows Homer by heart; reads Pindar as we read the Times; and spends his life, save for these short excursions to eat and pray, wholly in the company of the Greeks. It is true that the infirmities of our education prevent us from appreciating his emendations as they deserve; his life's work is a sealed book to us; none the less, we treasure up the last flicker of his black gown, and feel as if a bird of Paradise had flashed by us, so bright is his spirit's raiment, and in the murk of a November evening we had been privileged to see it winging its way to roost in fields of amaranth and beds of moly. Of all men, great scholars are the most mysterious, the most august. Since it is unlikely that we shall ever be admitted to their intimacy, or see much more of them than a black gown crossing a court at dusk, the best we can do is to read their lives--for example, the Life of Dr. Bentley by Bishop Monk.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Yes,\" said Rachel. \"I've fed rabbits for twenty-four years; it seems odd now.\" She looked meditative, and Hewet, who had been talking much at random and instinctively adopting the feminine point of view, saw that she would now talk about herself, which was what he wanted, for so they might come to know each other.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Love between man and woman was repulsive to Shakespeare. The business of copulation was filth to him before the end. But, Rezia said, she must have children. They had been married five years.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "To begin with, that prim little girl whom Philadelphia found so unlike a child of twelve, whimsical and affected, was soon to be the authoress of an astonishing and unchildish story, Love and Friendship,[9] which, incredible though it appears, was written at the age of fifteen. It was written, apparently, to amuse the schoolroom; one of the stories in the same book is dedicated with mock solemnity to her brother; another is neatly illustrated with water-colour heads by her sister. There are jokes which, one feels, were family property; thrusts of satire, which went home because all little Austens made mock in common of fine ladies who \"sighed and fainted on the sofa\".", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "He never knew what people thought. It became more and more difficult for him to concentrate. He became absorbed; he became busied with his own concerns; now surly, now gay; dependent on women, absent-minded, moody, less and less able (so he thought as he shaved) to understand why Clarissa couldn't simply find them a lodging and be nice to Daisy; introduce her. And then he could just--just do what? just haunt and hover (he was at the moment actually engaged in sorting out various keys, papers), swoop and taste, be alone, in short, sufficient to himself; and yet nobody of course was more dependent upon others (he buttoned his waistcoat); it had been his undoing.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "He crossed to the window and exclaimed, \"Lord, how good it is to think of lanes, muddy lanes, with brambles and nettles, you know, and real grass fields, and farmyards with pigs and cows, and men walking beside carts with pitchforks--there's nothing to compare with that here--look at the stony red earth, and the bright blue sea, and the glaring white houses--how tired one gets of it! And the air, without a stain or a wrinkle. I'd give anything for a sea mist.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"That they're damnable humbugs,\" said Peter, looking at them casually. He made Sally laugh.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"There are tracks all through the trees there,\" he explained. \"We're no distance from civilisation yet.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Stooping, holding their silver lamp above us, long they look and deeply. Long they pause. The wind drives straightly; the flame stoops slightly. Wild beams of moonlight cross both floor and wall, and, meeting, stain the faces bent; the faces pondering; the faces that search the sleepers and seek their hidden joy.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Leave it to me--leave it to me!\" said Willoughby, obviously intending to do much more than she asked of him. But Ridley and Mr. Pepper were heard fumbling at the door.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Thus, in spite of dullness, bombast, rhetoric, and confusion we still read the lesser Elizabethans, still find ourselves adventuring in the land of the jeweller and the unicorn. The familiar factories of Liverpool fade into thin air and we scarcely recognise any likeness between the knight who imported timber and died of pneumonia at Muswell Hill and the Armenian Duke who fell like a Roman on his sword while the owl shrieked in the ivy and the Duchess gave birth to a still-born babe 'mongst women howling. To join those territories and recognise the same man in different disguises we have to adjust and revise. But make the necessary alterations in perspective, draw in those filaments of sensibility which the moderns have so marvellously developed, use instead the ear and the eye which the moderns have so basely starved, hear words as they are laughed and shouted, not as they are printed in black letters on the page, see before your eyes the changing faces and living bodies of men and women, put yourself, in short, into a different, but not more elementary stage of your reading development and then the true merits of Elizabethan drama will assert themselves. The power of the whole is undeniable.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Then suddenly, without any warning or any apparent reason, the tears formed in her eyes and rolled steadily down her cheeks. She cried with scarcely any attempt at movement of her features, and without any attempt to stop herself, as if she did not know that she was crying. In spite of the relief which her words gave him, Terence was dismayed by the sight; had everything given way? Were there no limits to the power of this illness? Would everything go down before it?", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Now, Nurse,\" he whispered, \"please tell me your opinion. Do you consider that she is very seriously ill? Is she in any danger?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "There remained the Hessian Fly and the Bot--mysterious insects! Not, one would have thought, among God's most triumphant creations, and yet--if you see them trader a microscope!--the Bot, obese, globular, obscene; the Hessian, booted, spurred, whiskered, cadaverous. Next slip under the glass an innocent grain; behold it pock-marked and livid; or take this strip of hide, and note those odious pullulating lumps--well, what does the landscape look like then?", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "After all, in the whole of literature, how many people have succeeded in drawing themselves with a pen? Only Montaigne and Pepys and Rousseau perhaps. The Religio Medici is a coloured glass through which darkly one sees racing stars and a strange and turbulent soul. A bright polished mirror reflects the face of Boswell peeping between other people's shoulders in the famous biography. But this talking of oneself, following one's own vagaries, giving the whole map, weight, colour, and circumference of the soul in its confusion, its variety, its imperfection--this art belonged to one man only: to Montaigne.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"In love,\" he repeated, now speaking rather dryly to Clarissa Dalloway; \"in love with a girl in India.\" He had deposited his garland. Clarissa could make what she would of it.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "The play is poetry we say, and the novel prose. Let us attempt to obliterate detail, and place the two before us side by side, feeling, so far as we can, the angles and edges of each, recalling each, so far as we are able, as a whole. Then, at once, the prime differences emerge; the long leisurely accumulated novel; the little contracted play; the emotion all split up, dissipated and then woven together, slowly and gradually massed into a whole, in the novel; the emotion concentrated, generalised, heightened in the play. What moments of intensity, what phrases of astonishing beauty the play shot at us!", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Of course I did, thought Peter; it almost broke my heart too, he thought; and was overcome with his own grief, which rose like a moon looked at from a terrace, ghastly beautiful with light from the sunken day. I was more unhappy than I've ever been since, he thought. And as if in truth he were sitting there on the terrace he edged a little towards Clarissa; put his hand out; raised it; let it fall. There above them it hung, that moon. She too seemed to be sitting with him on the terrace, in the moonlight.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Mr. Perrott was waiting for her. Indeed, he had gone straight into the garden after luncheon, and had been walking up and down the path for more than half an hour, in a state of acute suspense.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Oh yes, Sally remembered; she had it still, a ruby ring which Marie Antoinette had given her great-grandfather. She never had a penny to her name in those days, and going to Bourton always meant some frightful pinch. But going to Bourton had meant so much to her--had kept her sane, she believed, so unhappy had she been at home. But that was all a thing of the past--all over now, she said. And Mr. Parry was dead; and Miss Parry was still alive.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "But Hewet's complacency was a little chilled as he walked with Hirst to the place where a general meeting had been appointed. He wondered why on earth he had asked these people, and what one really expected to get from bunching human beings up together.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "While we spoke, men were crying hoarsely and wearily in the street, and, listening, we heard that the Treaty of Peace had just been signed. The voices died away. The rain was falling and interfered no doubt with the proper explosion of the fireworks.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "It was strange; it was still. Not a sound was to be heard above the traffic. Unguided it seemed; sped of its own free will. And now, curving up and up, straight up, like something mounting in ecstasy, in pure delight, out from behind poured white smoke looping, writing a T, an O, an F.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"It must be very wonderful to be twenty-five, and not merely to imagine that you're twenty-five,\" she said, looking from one to the other with her smooth, bright glance. \"It must be very wonderful, very wonderful indeed.\" She stood talking to them at the gate for a long time; she seemed reluctant that they should go.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"But somewhat dangerous to navigation,\" boomed Richard, in the bass, like the bassoon to the flourish of his wife's violin. \"Why, weeds can be bad enough, can't they, Vinrace? I remember crossing in the Mauretania once, and saying to the Captain--Richards--did you know him?--'Now tell me what perils you really dread most for your ship, Captain Richards?' expecting him to say icebergs, or derelicts, or fog, or something of that sort. Not a bit of it. I've always remembered his answer.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "The boat separating from the vessel made off towards the land, and for some minutes Helen, Ridley, and Rachel leant over the rail, watching. Once Mrs. Dalloway turned and waved; but the boat steadily grew smaller and smaller until it ceased to rise and fall, and nothing could be seen save two resolute backs.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Whatever the reason might be, for the first time in her life, instead of slipping at once into some curious pleasant cloud of emotion, too familiar to be considered, Rachel listened critically to what was being said. By the time they had swung in an irregular way from prayer to psalm, from psalm to history, from history to poetry, and Mr. Bax was giving out his text, she was in a state of acute discomfort. Such was the discomfort she felt when forced to sit through an unsatisfactory piece of music badly played. Tantalised, enraged by the clumsy insensitiveness of the conductor, who put the stress on the wrong places, and annoyed by the vast flock of the audience tamely praising and acquiescing without knowing or caring, so she was now tantalised and enraged, only here, with eyes half-shut and lips pursed together, the atmosphere of forced solemnity increased her anger. All round her were people pretending to feel what they did not feel, while somewhere above her floated the idea which they could none of them grasp, which they pretended to grasp, always escaping out of reach, a beautiful idea, an idea like a butterfly.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Don't, Wilfrid,\" said Mrs. Flushing, neither moving nor taking her eyes off the spot on the floor upon which they rested. \"What's the use of talking? What's the use--?\" She ceased.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "The block dissolved before Evelyn answered. But as she left them in the hall, she looked at him brightly and said, \"Half-past three, did you say? That'll suit me.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "During the three months she had been here she had made up considerably, as Helen meant she should, for time spent in interminable walks round sheltered gardens, and the household gossip of her aunts. But Mrs. Ambrose would have been the first to disclaim any influence, or indeed any belief that to influence was within her power. She saw her less shy, and less serious, which was all to the good, and the violent leaps and the interminable mazes which had led to that result were usually not even guessed at by her. Talk was the medicine she trusted to, talk about everything, talk that was free, unguarded, and as candid as a habit of talking with men made natural in her own case. Nor did she encourage those habits of unselfishness and amiability founded upon insincerity which are put at so high a value in mixed households of men and women.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "For the great revolution of Mr. Willett's summer time had taken place since Peter Walsh's last visit to England. The prolonged evening was new to him. It was inspiriting, rather. For as the young people went by with their despatch-boxes, awfully glad to be free, proud too, dumbly, of stepping this famous pavement, joy of a kind, cheap, tinselly, if you like, but all the same rapture, flushed their faces. They dressed well too; pink stockings; pretty shoes.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "The two parties who were strolling about and losing their unity now came together, and joined each other in a long stare over the yellow and green patches of the heated landscape below. The hot air danced across it, making it impossible to see the roofs of a village on the plain distinctly. Even on the top of the mountain where a breeze played lightly, it was very hot, and the heat, the food, the immense space, and perhaps some less well-defined cause produced a comfortable drowsiness and a sense of happy relaxation in them. They did not say much, but felt no constraint in being silent.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Next,\" said Hirst, having taken in these facts; he pointed at Hewet. \"I am the son of an English gentleman. I am twenty-seven,\" Hewet began. \"My father was a fox-hunting squire. He died when I was ten in the hunting field.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Would there be any chance of seeing you this afternoon, about three-thirty say? I shall be in the garden, by the fountain.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "By degrees as the river narrowed, and the high sandbanks fell to level ground thickly grown with trees, the sounds of the forest could be heard. It echoed like a hall. There were sudden cries; and then long spaces of silence, such as there are in a cathedral when a boy's voice has ceased and the echo of it still seems to haunt about the remote places of the roof. Once Mr. Flushing rose and spoke to a sailor, and even announced that some time after luncheon the steamer would stop, and they could walk a little way through the forest.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "But the strangest sentence in this strange story has yet to be written, and Bishop Monk writes it as if it were a commonplace requiring no comment. \"For a person who was neither a poet, nor possessed of poetical taste to venture upon such a task was no common presumption.\" The task was to detect every slip of language in Paradise Lost, and all instances of bad taste and incorrect imagery. The result was notoriously lamentable. Yet in what, we may ask, did it differ from those in which Bentley was held to have acquitted himself magnificently?", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Beef for Mr. Dalloway!\" he shouted. \"Come now--after that walk you're at the beef stage, Dalloway!\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Twice every day he went in to sit with Rachel, and twice every day the same thing happened. On going into her room, which was not very dark, where the music was lying about as usual, and her books and letters, his spirits rose instantly. When he saw her he felt completely reassured. She did not look very ill. Sitting by her side he would tell her what he had been doing, using his natural voice to speak to her, only a few tones lower down than usual; but by the time he had sat there for five minutes he was plunged into the deepest gloom.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "But we must beware. Socrates did not care for \"mere beauty\", by which he meant, perhaps, beauty as ornament. A people who judged as much as the Athenians did by ear, sitting out-of-doors at the play or listening to argument in the market-place, were far less apt than we are to break off sentences and appreciate them apart from the context. For them there were no Beauties of Hardy, Beauties of Meredith, Sayings from George Eliot. The writer had to think more of the whole and less of the detail.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"She sat outside the house; it was very awkward,\" said Dalloway. \"At last I plucked up courage and said to her, 'My good creature, you're only in the way where you are. You're hindering me, and you're doing no good to yourself.'\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "After intense contemplation of the immaculate Gibbon Mr. Hirst smiled at the question of his friend. He laid aside his book and considered.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"It was hard to keep the ball rolling at dinner, certainly,\" said Richard. \"Why is it that the women, in that class, are so much queerer than the men?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"D'you remember the morning after the dance?\" he demanded. \"It was here we sat, and you talked nonsense, and Rachel made little heaps of stones. I, on the other hand, had the whole meaning of life revealed to me in a flash.\" He paused for a second, and drew his lips together in a tight little purse. \"Love,\" he said. \"It seems to me to explain everything.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "But Hirst did not help him, and the other people with their aimless movements and their unknown lives were disturbing, so that he longed for the empty darkness. The first thing he looked for when he stepped out of the hall door was the light of the Ambroses' villa. When he had definitely decided that a certain light apart from the others higher up the hill was their light, he was considerably reassured. There seemed to be at once a little stability in all this incoherence. Without any definite plan in his head, he took the turning to the right and walked through the town and came to the wall by the meeting of the roads, where he stopped.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Here we left it,\" she said. And he added, \"Oh, but here too!\" \"It's upstairs,\" she murmured. \"And in the garden,\" he whispered. \"Quietly,\" they said, \"or we shall wake them.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Human nature, in short, was on him--the repulsive brute, with the blood-red nostrils. Holmes was on him. Dr. Holmes came quite regularly every day. Once you stumble, Septimus wrote on the back of a postcard, human nature is on you. Holmes is on you.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Why then grieve? Ask what? Remain unsatisfied? I say all's been settled; yes; laid to rest under a coverlet of rose leaves, falling. Falling.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Hirst? Oh, he's one of these learned chaps,\" said Arthur indifferently. \"He don't look as if he enjoyed it. You should hear him talking to Elliot. It's as much as I can do to follow 'em at all.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"She's a good girl,\" he said at length. \"There is a likeness?\"--he nodded his head at the photograph of Theresa and sighed. Helen looked at Theresa pursing up her lips before the Cockney photographer. It suggested her in an absurd human way, and she felt an intense desire to share some joke.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"God, Rachel, you do read trash!\" he exclaimed. \"And you're behind the times too, my dear. No one dreams of reading this kind of thing now--antiquated problem plays, harrowing descriptions of life in the east end--oh, no, we've exploded all that. Read poetry, Rachel, poetry, poetry, poetry!\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "As they approached, Helen turned round and looked at them. She looked at them for some time without speaking, and when they were close to her she said quietly:", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"So I observed,\" said Hewet. \"That's a thing that never ceases to amaze me.\" He had recovered his composure to such an extent that he could light and smoke a cigarette, and feeling her ease, became happy and easy himself.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "The cab, by trotting steadily along the same road, soon withdrew them from the West End, and plunged them into London. It appeared that this was a great manufacturing place, where the people were engaged in making things, as though the West End, with its electric lamps, its vast plate-glass windows all shining yellow, its carefully-finished houses, and tiny live figures trotting on the pavement, or bowled along on wheels in the road, was the finished work. It appeared to her a very small bit of work for such an enormous factory to have made. For some reason it appeared to her as a small golden tassel on the edge of a vast black cloak.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "And that is not the way to read. To be thinking that dead people deserved these censures and admired this morality, judged the eloquence, which we find so frigid, sublime, the philosophy to us so superficial, profound, to take a collector's joy in such signs of antiquity, is to treat literature as if it were a broken jar of undeniable age but doubtful beauty, to be stood in a cabinet behind glass doors. The charm which still makes Cato very readable is much of this nature. When Syphax exclaims,", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"You deserve a holiday,\" he said. \"You're always doing things for other people.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "The way she had been educated, joined to a fine natural indolence, was of course partly the reason of it, for she had been educated as the majority of well-to-do girls in the last part of the nineteenth century were educated. Kindly doctors and gentle old professors had taught her the rudiments of about ten different branches of knowledge, but they would as soon have forced her to go through one piece of drudgery thoroughly as they would have told her that her hands were dirty. The one hour or the two hours weekly passed very pleasantly, partly owing to the other pupils, partly to the fact that the window looked upon the back of a shop, where figures appeared against the red windows in winter, partly to the accidents that are bound to happen when more than two people are in the same room together. But there was no subject in the world which she knew accurately. Her mind was in the state of an intelligent man's in the beginning of the reign of Queen Elizabeth; she would believe practically anything she was told, invent reasons for anything she said.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "It was a splendid morning too. Like the pulse of a perfect heart, life struck straight through the streets. There was no fumbling--no hesitation. Sweeping and swerving, accurately, punctually, noiselessly, there, precisely at the right instant, the motor-car stopped at the door. The girl, silk-stockinged, feathered, evanescent, but not to him particularly attractive (for he had had his fling), alighted.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Very trying to the eyes,\" was Mrs. Eliot's next remark, after watching the yellow whirl in which so few of the whirlers had either name or character for her, for a few minutes. Bursting out of the crowd, Helen approached them, and took a vacant chair.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"We sat upon the ground,\" she confirmed him. The recollection of sitting upon the ground, such as it was, seemed to unite them again, and they walked on in silence, their minds sometimes working with difficulty and sometimes ceasing to work, their eyes alone perceiving the things round them. Now he would attempt again to tell her his faults, and why he loved her; and she would describe what she had felt at this time or at that time, and together they would interpret her feeling. So beautiful was the sound of their voices that by degrees they scarcely listened to the words they framed. Long silences came between their words, which were no longer silences of struggle and confusion but refreshing silences, in which trivial thoughts moved easily.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"It's as though they'd taken pains to torment me!\" he cried, stopping dead. \"Did I come on this voyage in order to catch rheumatism and pneumonia? Really one might have credited Vinrace with more sense. My dear,\" Helen was on her knees under a table, \"you are only making yourself untidy, and we had much better recognise the fact that we are condemned to six weeks of unspeakable misery. To come at all was the height of folly, but now that we are here I suppose that I can face it like a man.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Whereupon Lady Bruton, who seldom did a graceful thing, stuffed all Hugh's carnations into the front of her dress, and flinging her hands out called him \"My Prime Minister!\" What she would have done without them both she did not know. They rose. And Richard Dalloway strolled off as usual to have a look at the General's portrait, because he meant, whenever he had a moment of leisure, to write a history of Lady Bruton's family.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"There's my brother-in-law, Ambrose, the scholar (I daresay you've heard his name), his wife, my old friend Pepper, a very quiet fellow, but knows everything, I'm told. And that's all. We're a very small party. I'm dropping them on the coast.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "DEAR MRS. AMBROSE--I am getting up a picnic for next Friday, when we propose to start at eleven-thirty if the weather is fine, and to make the ascent of Monte Rosa. It will take some time, but the view should be magnificent. It would give me great pleasure if you and Miss Vinrace would consent to be of the party.--Yours sincerely,", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"I never allow my wife to talk politics,\" he said seriously. \"For this reason. It is impossible for human beings, constituted as they are, both to fight and to have ideals. If I have preserved mine, as I am thankful to say that in great measure I have, it is due to the fact that I have been able to come home to my wife in the evening and to find that she has spent her day in calling, music, play with the children, domestic duties--what you will; her illusions have not been destroyed. She gives me courage to go on.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Whether the flimsiness of foreign sheets and the coarseness of their type is any proof of frivolity and ignorance, there is no doubt that English people scarce consider news read there as news, any more than a programme bought from a man in the street inspires confidence in what it says. A very respectable elderly pair, having inspected the long tables of newspapers, did not think it worth their while to read more than the headlines.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "But after life. The slow pulling down of thick green stalks so that the cup of the flower, as it turns over, deluges one with purple and red light. Why, after all, should one not be born there as one is born here, helpless, speechless, unable to focus one's eyesight, groping at the roots of the grass, at the toes of the Giants? As for saying which are trees, and which are men and women, or whether there are such things, that one won't be in a condition to do for fifty years or so. There will be nothing but spaces of light and dark, intersected by thick stalks, and rather higher up perhaps, rose-shaped blots of an indistinct colour--dim pinks and blues--which will, as time goes on, become more definite, become--I don't know what....", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Go and get a breath of air, Dick,\" she said. \"You look quite washed out. . . .", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Susan rose. \"I think this has been the happiest night of my life!\" she exclaimed. \"I do adore music,\" she said, as she thanked Rachel. \"It just seems to say all the things one can't say oneself.\" She gave a nervous little laugh and looked from one to another with great benignity, as though she would like to say something but could not find the words in which to express it. \"Every one's been so kind--so very kind,\" she said.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Quite suddenly the storm relaxed its grasp. It happened at tea; the expected paroxysm of the blast gave out just as it reached its climax and dwindled away, and the ship instead of taking the usual plunge went steadily. The monotonous order of plunging and rising, roaring and relaxing, was interfered with, and every one at table looked up and felt something loosen within them. The strain was slackened and human feelings began to peep again, as they do when daylight shows at the end of a tunnel.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"You've never tried?\" enquired Miss Allan. \"Then I consider that it is your duty to try now. Why, you may add a new pleasure to life, and as you are still young--\" She wondered whether a button-hook would do. \"I make it a rule to try everything,\" she said. \"Don't you think it would be very annoying if you tasted ginger for the first time on your death-bed, and found you never liked anything so much?", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Rachel was one of those who had begged them to continue. When they refused she began turning over the sheets of dance music which lay upon the piano. The pieces were generally bound in coloured covers, with pictures on them of romantic scenes--gondoliers astride on the crescent of the moon, nuns peering through the bars of a convent window, or young women with their hair down pointing a gun at the stars. She remembered that the general effect of the music to which they had danced so gaily was one of passionate regret for dead love and the innocent years of youth; dreadful sorrows had always separated the dancers from their past happiness.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Mr. Pepper was pleased to explain very accurately why there has never been an English salon. There were three reasons, and they were very good ones, he said. As for himself, when he went to a party, as one was sometimes obliged to, from a wish not to give offence--his niece, for example, had been married the other day--he walked into the middle of the room, said \"Ha! ha!\" as loud as ever he could, considered that he had done his duty, and walked away again. Mrs. Thornbury protested.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "For of course it was that afternoon, that very afternoon, that Dalloway had come over; and Clarissa called him \"Wickham\"; that was the beginning of it all. Somebody had brought him over; and Clarissa got his name wrong. She introduced him to everybody as Wickham. At last he said \"My name is Dalloway!\"--that was his first view of Richard--a fair young man, rather awkward, sitting on a deck-chair, and blurting out \"My name is Dalloway!\" Sally got hold of it; always after that she called him \"My name is Dalloway!\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Why should these things happen? Why should people suffer? I honestly believe,\" she went on, lowering her voice slightly, \"that Rachel's in Heaven, but Terence. . .", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Terrible--terrible,\" she murmured after another pause, but in saying this she was thinking as much of the persistent churning of the water as of her own feeling. On and on it went in the distance, the senseless and cruel churning of the water. She observed that the tears were running down Terence's cheeks.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"My cook will have bought the Evening News,\" said Castalia, \"and Ann will be spelling it out over her tea. I must go home.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "Sir John was buried; and John the younger brother succeeded in his turn. The Paston letters go on; life at Paston continues much the same as before. Over it all broods a sense of discomfort and nakedness; of unwashed limbs thrust into splendid clothing; of tapestry blowing on the draughty walls; of the bedroom with its privy; of winds sweeping straight over land unmitigated by hedge or town; of Caister Castle covering with solid stone six acres of ground, and of the plain-faced Pastons indefatigably accumulating wealth, treading out the roads of Norfolk, and persisting with an obstinate courage which does them infinite credit in furnishing the bareness of England.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "The shores of Portugal were beginning to lose their substance; but the land was still the land, though at a great distance. They could distinguish the little towns that were sprinkled in the folds of the hills, and the smoke rising faintly. The towns appeared to be very small in comparison with the great purple mountains behind them.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"Why, there's a toe all the way down there!\" the woman said, proceeding to tuck in the bedclothes. Rachel did not realise that the toe was hers.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "The wind roars up the avenue. Trees stoop and bend this way and that. Moonbeams splash and spill wildly in the rain. But the beam of the lamp falls straight from the window. The candle burns stiff and still.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "But they beckoned; leaves were alive; trees were alive. And the leaves being connected by millions of fibres with his own body, there on the seat, fanned it up and down; when the branch stretched he, too, made that statement. The sparrows fluttering, rising, and falling in jagged fountains were part of the pattern; the white and blue, barred with black branches. Sounds made harmonies with premeditation; the spaces between them were as significant as the sounds. A child cried.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "woolf", "text": "\"I thought you would be,\" said Hirst. \"Which was it, Monk? The thought of the immortal passions, or the thought of new-born males to keep the Roman Catholics out? I assure you,\" he said to Helen, \"he's capable of being moved by either.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"What grass?\" he inquired blankly. \"Oh, the grass in the yard.\" He looked out the window at it, but, judging from his expression, I don't believe he saw a thing.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Tell that to somebody else,\" scoffed Amory. \"You know you're perfectly effulgent.\" He asked her the one thing that he knew might embarrass her. It was the remark that the first bore made to Adam.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Her conversation was also timely: \"I don't care,\" she would say, \"I should worry and lose my figure\"--and again: \"I can't make my feet behave when I hear that tune. Oh, baby!\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Oh, my pretty face,\" she whispered, passionately grieving. \"Oh, my pretty face! Oh, I don't want to live without my pretty face! Oh, what's happened?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Four o'clock: her little feet moving to melody, her face distinct in the crowd, her partner happy as a petted puppy and mad as the immemorial hatter.... Then--then night would come drifting down and perhaps another damp. The signs would spill their light into the street. Who knew? No wiser than he, they haply sought to recapture that picture done in cream and shadow they had seen on the hushed Avenue the night before. And they might, ah, they might!", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"She doesn't look like her father,\" explained Daisy. \"She looks like me. She's got my hair and shape of the face.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "She was the only girl he ever knew with whom he could understand how another man might be preferred. Often Amory met wives whom he had known as debutantes, and looking intently at them imagined that he found something in their faces which said:", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Well, what impressed you more than anything while you were in the army? You look a great deal older.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Evylyn had ceased accentuating her smile within a month after the Freddy Gedney affair. Externally things had gone an very much as they had before. But in those few minutes during which she had discovered how much she loved her husband, Evylyn had realized how indelibly she had hurt him. For a month she struggled against aching silences, wild reproaches and accusations--she pled with him, made quiet, pitiful little love to him, and he laughed at her bitterly--and then she, too, slipped gradually into silence and a shadowy, impenetrable barrier dropped between them. The surge of love that had risen in her she lavished on Donald, her little boy, realizing him almost wonderingly as a part of her life.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Though the conversation amused Anthony, it did generate the idea that life would be more amusing as a sergeant or, should he find a less exacting medical examiner, as an officer. He was little interested in the work, which seemed to belie the army's boasted gallantry. At the inspections one did not dress up to look well, one dressed up to keep from looking badly.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "After half an hour, the sun shone again, and the grocer's automobile rounded Gatsby's drive with the raw material for his servants' dinner--I felt sure he wouldn't eat a spoonful. A maid began opening the upper windows of his house, appeared momentarily in each, and, leaning from the large central bay, spat meditatively into the garden. It was time I went back. While the rain continued it had seemed like the murmur of their voices, rising and swelling a little now and then with gusts of emotion. But in the new silence I felt that silence had fallen within the house too.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"You see, I am fate,\" it shouted, \"and stronger than your puny plans; and I am how-things-turn-out and I am different from your little dreams, and I am the flight of time and the end of beauty and unfulfilled desire; all the accidents and imperceptions and the little minutes that shape the crucial hours are mine. I am the exception that proves no rules, the limits of your control, the condiment in the dish of life.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"And entitled A Song in the Time of Order,\" came the professor's voice, droning far away. \"Time of Order\"--Good Lord! Everything crammed in the box and the Victorians sitting on the lid smiling serenely.... With Browning in his Italian villa crying bravely: \"All's for the best.\" Amory scribbled again.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "After a while she confided the adventure to a girl friend, and later, as she watched her friend disappear down the sleepy street of dusty sunshine she knew in a flash of intuition that her story was going out into the world. Yet after telling it she felt much better, and a little bitter, and made as near an approach to character as she was capable of by walking in another direction and meeting another man with the honest intention of gratifying herself again. As a rule things happened to Dot. She was not weak, because there was nothing in her to tell her she was being weak. She was not strong, because she never knew that some of the things she did were brave.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "There he was! The room closed about Anthony, warmed him. The glow of that strong persuasive mind, that temperament almost Oriental in its outward impassivity, warmed Anthony's restless soul and brought him a peace that could be likened only to the peace a stupid woman gives. One must understand all--else one must take all for granted. Maury filled the room, tigerlike, godlike.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Burne was drawing farther and farther away from the world about him. He resigned the vice-presidency of the senior class and took to reading and walking as almost his only pursuits. He voluntarily attended graduate lectures in philosophy and biology, and sat in all of them with a rather pathetically intent look in his eyes, as if waiting for something the lecturer would never quite come to. Sometimes Amory would see him squirm in his seat; and his face would light up; he was on fire to debate a point.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "The night came that drew him out upon his second venture, and as he walked the dark street he felt in himself a great resemblance to a cat--a certain supple, swinging litheness. His muscles were rippling smoothly and sleekly under his spare, healthy flesh--he had an absurd desire to bound along the street, to run dodging among trees, to turn \"cart-wheels\" over soft grass.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Oh, that's different,\" Dick asserted astoundingly. \"I have a reputation, you see, so I'm expected to deal with strong themes.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Won't it be good! I think we ought to travel a lot. I want to go to the Mediterranean and Italy. And I'd like to go on the stage some time--say for about a year.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Young Anthony had one picture of his father and mother together--so often had it faced his eyes in childhood that it had acquired the impersonality of furniture, but every one who came into his bedroom regarded it with interest. It showed a dandy of the nineties, spare and handsome, standing beside a tall dark lady with a muff and the suggestion of a bustle. Between them was a little boy with long brown curls, dressed in a velvet Lord Fauntleroy suit. This was Anthony at five, the year of his mother's death.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"It seemed, last night,\" she said gravely, her fingers playing in his hair, \"that all the part of me you loved, the part that was worth knowing, all the pride and fire, was gone. I knew that what was left of me would always love you, but never in quite the same way.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Two studies. One of them I call Montauk Point--The Gulls, and the other I call Montauk Point--The Sea.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Say, who are all these women?\" demanded Kerry one day, protesting at the size of Amory's mail. \"I've been looking at the postmarks lately--Farmington and Dobbs and Westover and Dana Hall--what's the idea?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "The old man suddenly remembered, but this was made apparent only by a partial falling open of his mouth, displaying rows of gray gums. Eying Anthony with a green and ancient stare he hesitated between confessing his error and covering it up.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"It wasn't her fault,\" said Gedney rather humbly. \"I just came.\" But Piper shook his head, and his expression when he stared up was as if some physical accident had jarred his mind into a temporary inability to function. His eyes, grown suddenly pitiful, struck a deep, unsounded chord in Evylyn--and simultaneously a furious anger surged in her. She felt her eyelids burning; she stamped her foot violently; her hands scurried nervously over the table as if searching for a weapon, and then she flung herself wildly at Gedney.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"That dog?\" He looked at it admiringly. \"That dog will cost you ten dollars.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"No; for instance you never take care of your eyebrows. They're black and lustrous, but by leaving them straggly they're a blemish. They'd be beautiful if you'd take care of them in one-tenth the time you take doing nothing. You're going to brush them so that they'll grow straight.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"I knew we'd sold bonds, but--have we spent that much a year? How did we?\" Her awe increased.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"And I wish American novelists would give up trying to make business romantically interesting. Nobody wants to read about it, unless it's crooked business. If it was an entertaining subject they'd buy the life of James J. Hill and not one of these long office tragedies that harp along on the significance of smoke--\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"I don't know what happened,\" said Ferrenby in a strained voice. \"Dick was driving and he wouldn't give up the wheel; we told him he'd been drinking too much--then there was this damn curve--oh, my God!...\" He threw himself face downward on the floor and broke into dry sobs.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "She had no sense of humor, but, to take its place, a happy disposition that made her laugh at the proper times when she was with men. She had no definite intentions--sometimes she regretted vaguely that her reputation precluded what chance she had ever had for security. There had been no open discovery: her mother was interested only in starting her off on time each morning for the jewelry store where she earned fourteen dollars a week. But some of the boys she had known in high school now looked the other way when they were walking with \"nice girls,\" and these incidents hurt her feelings. When they occurred she went home and cried.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "ROSALIND: No--no--I'm taking the hardest course, the strongest course. Marrying you would be a failure and I never fail--if you don't stop walking up and down I'll scream!", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Beatrice,\" he said suddenly, \"I want to go away to school. Everybody in Minneapolis is going to go away to school.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"What time is it?\" Anthony was sitting up in bed, staring at her with owlish precision.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"That's all. I think the worst thing to contemplate is this--it's all happened before, how soon will it happen again? Fifty years after Waterloo Napoleon was as much a hero to English school children as Wellington. How do we know our grandchildren won't idolize Von Hindenburg the same way?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Tana, grinning, bore the glass away to the kitchen. In a few moments Maury gave him another.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"You remember Amory Blaine, of course. Well, he's simply mad to see you again. He's stayed over a day from college, and he's coming to-night. He's heard so much about you--says he remembers your eyes.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Her name's Gloria. She's from home--Kansas City. Her mother's a practising Bilphist, and her father's quite dull but a perfect gentleman.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"... But wisdom passes... still the years Will feed us wisdom.... Age will go Back to the old-- For all our tears We shall not know.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Oh, you're going to get married, are you?\" He said this with such a dubious mildness and shook his head up and down so many times that Anthony was not a little depressed. While he was unaware of his grandfather's intentions he presumed that a large part of the money would come to him. A good deal would go in charities, of course; a good deal to carry on the business of reform.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "He hadn't once ceased looking at Daisy, and I think he revalued everything in his house according to the measure of response it drew from her well-loved eyes. Sometimes too, he stared around at his possessions in a dazed way, as though in her actual and astounding presence none of it was any longer real. Once he nearly toppled down a flight of stairs.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "After the operation Beatrice had a nervous breakdown that bore a suspicious resemblance to delirium tremens, and Amory was left in Minneapolis, destined to spend the ensuing two years with his aunt and uncle. There the crude, vulgar air of Western civilization first catches him--in his underwear, so to speak.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"She never loved you, do you hear?\" he cried. \"She only married you because I was poor and she was tired of waiting for me. It was a terrible mistake, but in her heart she never loved anyone except me!\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Several times, twice, at least, Mrs. Gilbert knew it had gone as far as a private engagement--with Tudor Baird and that Holcome boy at Pasadena. She was sure it had, because--this must go no further--she had come in unexpectedly and found Gloria acting, well, very much engaged indeed. She had not spoken to her daughter, of course. She had had a certain sense of delicacy and, besides, each time she had expected an announcement in a few weeks. But the announcement never came; instead, a new man came.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Can't stand them.\" She looked at Myrtle and then at Tom. \"What I say is, why go on living with them if they can't stand them? If I was them I'd get a divorce and get married to each other right away.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Ever had any children? Come on, George, sit still--I asked you a question. Did you ever have any children?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "One must be broad about these things, and Gloria being young, being beautiful, must have reasonable privileges. Yet it wearied him that he failed to understand.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Come on,\" said Mr. Sloane to Tom, \"we're late. We've got to go.\" And then to me: \"Tell him we couldn't wait, will you?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Dear little nut!\" he cried. \"Come and kiss me and let's forget.\" That very night at the end of a vaudeville performance the orchestra played \"Dixie\" and Sally Carrol felt something stronger and more enduring than her tears and smiles of the day brim up inside her. She leaned forward gripping the arms of her chair until her face grew crimson.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "SHE: Well, Amory, you don't mind--do you? When I meet a man that doesn't bore me to death after two weeks, perhaps it'll be different.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "With a bound Amory was out of bed, scattering the bureau cover's burden on the floor. The coast... he hadn't seen it for years, since he and his mother were on their pilgrimage.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "One afternoon when there were only three days left of her visit Bernice was waiting in the hall for Warren, with whom she was going to a bridge party. She was in rather a blissful mood, and when Marjorie--also bound for the party--appeared beside her and began casually to adjust her hat in the mirror, Bernice was utterly unprepared for anything in the nature of a clash. Marjorie did her work very coldly and succinctly in three sentences.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "But as winter wore away--the short, snowless winter marked by damp nights and cool, rainy days--he marvelled at how quickly the system had grasped him. He was a soldier--all who were not soldiers were civilians. The world was divided primarily into those two classifications.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Mrs. Harvey's voice implied that modern situations were too much for her. When she was a girl all young ladies who belonged to nice families had glorious times.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "For the first time in so long that he could scarcely remember, Anthony felt a touch of the old pleasant contempt for his friend. Richard Caramel continued:", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"I thought you didn't, if you'll pardon my--you see, I carry on a little business on the side, a sort of side line, you understand. And I thought that if you don't make very much--You're selling bonds, aren't you, old sport?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "But so was Gloria. They were both willing--anxious; they assured each other of it. The evening ended on a note of tremendous sentiment, the majesty of leisure, the ill health of Adam Patch, love at any cost.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"I wouldn't. Think what an ass she'd be not to realize it before she married him. He's the sort whose idea of honoring and respecting a woman would be never to give her any excitement. With the best intentions, he was deep in the dark ages.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"And it's still me,\" he said aloud in wonder as he lay awake in the darkness. \"I'm the man who sat in Berkeley with temerity to wonder if that rap would have had actual existence had my ear not been there to hear it. I'm still that man. I could be electrocuted for the crimes he committed.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"No, I'll do what you want. We're you--not me. Oh, you're so much a part, so much all of me...\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Yes--but they usually pray first. Anyway, you use this method to clear the closets and also for behind all doors--\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"How do I get up?\" he cried from the foot of the haystack, whither he had arrived, dripping wet. A head appeared over the edge--it was so dark that Amory could just make out a patch of damp hair and two eyes that gleamed like a cat's.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "An hour later, shaven and dressed, he was sitting at his desk looking at a small piece of paper he had taken out of his wallet. It was scrawled with semi-legible memoranda: \"See Mr. Howland at five. Get hair-cut. See about Rivers' bill. Go book-store.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Oh, yes, you do! You got a crush on Froggy Parker. I guess everybody knows that.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Anthony's in the Infantry.\" The words in their relation to the cocktail gave Gloria a sort of glow. With each sip she approached a warm and comforting patriotism.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Of course when he had learned to keep his mouth shut every one promptly forgot all about him. The next autumn, with his realization that consideration for others was the discreet attitude, he made good use of the clean start given him by the shortness of boyhood memory. By the beginning of his senior year Samuel Meredith was one of the best-liked boys of his class--and no one was any stronger for him than his first friend and constant companion, Gilly Hood.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"I'm afraid you do,\" agreed Amory reluctantly. \"It just seemed an easy way out of everything--when I think of another useless, draggy year.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Take a stick\" answered Alec, with ponderous reverence, \"one about the length of a broom-handle. Now, the first thing to do is to get the room cleared--to do this you rush with your eyes closed into your study and turn on the lights--next, approaching the closet, carefully run the stick in the door three or four times. Then, if nothing happens, you can look in. Always, always run the stick in viciously first--never look first!\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "For an instant this seemed a sardonic and unnecessary paradox hurled at him across the impassable distances she created about herself. Her entrancement had increased--her eyes rested upon a Semitic violinist who swayed his shoulders to the rhythm of the year's mellowest fox-trot:", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"No, Beatrice. I enjoyed them. I adapted myself to the bourgeoisie. I became conventional.\" He surprised himself by saying that, and he pictured how Froggy would have gaped.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Momentarily. But it's really a transparent, artificial sort of spectacle. It's got its press-agented stars and its flimsy, unenduring stage settings and, I'll admit, the greatest army of supers ever assembled--\" He paused, laughed shortly, and added: \"Technically excellent, perhaps, but not convincing.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Marietta itself offered little social life. Half a dozen farm-estates formed a hectagon around it, but these belonged to ancient men who displayed themselves only as inert, gray-thatched lumps in the back of limousines on their way to the station, whither they were sometimes accompanied by equally ancient and doubly massive wives. The townspeople were a particularly uninteresting type--unmarried females were predominant for the most part--with school-festival horizons and souls bleak as the forbidding white architecture of the three churches. The only native with whom they came into close contact was the broad-hipped, broad-shouldered Swedish girl who came every day to do their work. She was silent and efficient, and Gloria, after finding her weeping violently into her bowed arms upon the kitchen table, developed an uncanny fear of her and stopped complaining about the food.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"No, thanks. But I'd be glad if you'd order me the taxi. I'll wait outside.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "As the American troops were poured into the French and British trenches he began to find the names of many Harvard men among the casualties recorded in the Army and Navy Journal. But for all the sweat and blood the situation appeared unchanged, and he saw no prospect of the war's ending in the perceptible future. In the old chronicles the right wing of one army always defeated the left wing of the other, the left wing being, meanwhile, vanquished by the enemy's right. After that the mercenaries fled. It had been so simple, in those days, almost as if prearranged....", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Amory considered the question. He tried to look at himself in the mirror but even by squinting up one eye could only see as far as the row of bottles behind the bar.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Then there came a far-away, booming voice like a low, clear bell. It came from the centre of the bowl and down the great sides to the ground and then bounced toward her eagerly.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"My life is blighted,\" muttered Marcia tragically. \"I'm a beaten woman. I'll go through life without ever having a kiss with Brazilian trimmings.\" She sighed. \"Anyways, Omar, will you come and see my show?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "MAURY: \"That's it\". (He advances, smiling, and holding out his hand) How are you, old boy? Haven't seen you for years.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"You've got to go, Fred,\" she said steadily, and the slight emphasis of hurry in her voice was a new thrust for him. \"I gave him my word of honor I wouldn't see you. I know just how far I can go with Harold, and being here with you this evening is one of the things I can't do.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Feeling very much alone, Amory yielded to an impulse and set off southward, intending to join Monsignor in Washington. They missed connections by two hours, and, deciding to spend a few days with an ancient, remembered uncle, Amory journeyed up through the luxuriant fields of Maryland into Ramilly County. But instead of two days his stay lasted from mid-August nearly through September, for in Maryland he met Eleanor.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"All right, thanks.\" He picked up his hat and in a moment was striding beside the orderly through the hot, almost suffocating, darkness. Over in the headquarters shack he saluted a dozing night-service officer.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Adam Patch, in a pious rage against the Germans, subsisted on the war news. Pin maps plastered his walls; atlases were piled deep on tables convenient to his hand together with \"Photographic Histories of the World War,\" official Explain-alls, and the \"Personal Impressions\" of war correspondents and of Privates X, Y, and Z. Several times during Anthony's visit his grandfather's secretary, Edward Shuttleworth, the one-time \"Accomplished Gin-physician\" of \"Pat's Place\" in Hoboken, now shod with righteous indignation, would appear with an extra. The old man attacked each paper with untiring fury, tearing out those columns which appeared to him of sufficient pregnancy for preservation and thrusting them into one of his already bulging files.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Tell me. I'll believe it. I always believe anything any one tells me about myself--don't you?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Passing by a few glittering and formidable bazaars he entered a grocery store. A talkative proprietor told him that before buying any stocks he was going to see how the armistice affected the market. To Anthony this seemed almost unfair. In Mr. Carleton's salesman's Utopia the only reason prospective buyers ever gave for not purchasing stock was that they doubted it to be a promising investment. Obviously a man in that state was almost ludicrously easy game, to be brought down merely by the judicious application of the correct selling points.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "But they dared not dismiss him. Such a step would have been abhorrent to their inertia. They endured Tana as they endured ill weather and sickness of the body and the estimable Will of God--as they endured all things, even themselves.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "And when the day came they did sit upon the lounge. After a while Anthony kissed her because it came about quite naturally; he found sweetness sleeping still upon her lips, and felt that he had never been away. The fire was bright and the breeze sighing in through the curtains brought a mellow damp, promising May and world of summer. His soul thrilled to remote harmonies; he heard the strum of far guitars and waters lapping on a warm Mediterranean shore--for he was young now as he would never be again, and more triumphant than death.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Sit down and wait,\" suggested the lieutenant nonchalantly. \"Girl seemed awful anxious to speak to you.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "In justification of his manner of living there was first, of course, The Meaninglessness of Life. As aides and ministers, pages and squires, butlers and lackeys to this great Khan there were a thousand books glowing on his shelves, there was his apartment and all the money that was to be his when the old man up the river should choke on his last morality. From a world fraught with the menace of debutantes and the stupidity of many Geraldines he was thankfully delivered--rather should he emulate the feline immobility of Maury and wear proudly the culminative wisdom of the numbered generations.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "It was Dangerous Dan McGrew; and two other faces she didn't know. \"Child, child! We've been looking for you two hours! Harry's half-crazy!\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Then she knew where it was. She remembered the house party they had planned on the crest of their exuberance; she remembered a room full of men to whose less exhilarated moments she and Anthony were of no importance, and Anthony's boast of the transcendent merit and seclusion of the gray house, that it was so isolated that it didn't matter how much noise went on there. Then Dick, who had visited them, cried enthusiastically that it was the best little house imaginable, and that they were idiotic not to take it for another summer. It had been easy to work themselves up to a sense of how hot and deserted the city was getting, of how cool and ambrosial were the charms of Marietta. Anthony had picked up the lease and waved it wildly, found Gloria happily acquiescent, and with one last burst of garrulous decision during which all the men agreed with solemn handshakes that they would come out for a visit ...", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Just before five o'clock Babe approached Carlyle. There were half a dozen rifles aboard the Narcissus he said. Had it been decided to offer no resistance?", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"I'm very sorry,\" he said, a little impatiently. \"I--I didn't know you made such fine distinctions.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Of course it took more than an hour, or a week, for Samuel to rearrange his ideas on the essential importance of good form. At first he simply admitted that his wrongness had made him powerless--as it had made him powerless against Gilly--but eventually his mistake about the workman influenced his entire attitude. Snobbishness is, after all, merely good breeding grown dictatorial; so Samuel's code remained but the necessity of imposing it upon others had faded out in a certain gutter. Within that year his class had somehow stopped referring to him as a snob.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Ten o'clock found them penniless. They had suppered greatly on their last eleven cents and, singing, strolled up through the casinos and lighted arches on the boardwalk, stopping to listen approvingly to all band concerts. In one place Kerry took up a collection for the French War Orphans which netted a dollar and twenty cents, and with this they bought some brandy in case they caught cold in the night. They finished the day in a moving-picture show and went into solemn systematic roars of laughter at an ancient comedy, to the startled annoyance of the rest of the audience. Their entrance was distinctly strategic, for each man as he entered pointed reproachfully at the one just behind him.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Up in the city, I tried for a while to list the quotations on an interminable amount of stock, then I fell asleep in my swivel-chair. Just before noon the phone woke me, and I started up with sweat breaking out on my forehead. It was Jordan Baker; she often called me up at this hour because the uncertainty of her own movements between hotels and clubs and private houses made her hard to find in any other way. Usually her voice came over the wire as something fresh and cool, as if a divot from a green golf-links had come sailing in at the office window, but this morning it seemed harsh and dry.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Of course, of course! They're fine!\" and he added hollowly, \"... old sport.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"You don't have to tell me what kind of car it was! I know what kind of car it was!\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Any person with any imagination is bound to be afraid,\" said Burne earnestly. \"And this very walking at night is one of the things I was afraid about. I'm going to tell you why I can walk anywhere now and not be afraid.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "This dignity appeared also in his personality. The last aura of the successful travelling-man had faded from him, that deliberate ingratiation of which the lowest form is the bawdy joke in the Pullman smoker. One imagined that, having been fawned upon financially, he had attained aloofness; having been snubbed socially, he had acquired reticence. But whatever had given him weight instead of bulk, Anthony no longer felt a correct superiority in his presence.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Six o'clock,\" said Amory, glancing at his wrist-watch. \"I'll buy you a grea' big dinner on the strength of the Juvenalia of your collected editions.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"D'you mind? I love gum-drops. Everybody kids me about it because I'm always whacking away at one--whenever my daddy's not around.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Marcia Tarbox's connection with the stage is not only as a spectator but as the wife of a performer. She was married last year to Horace Tarbox, who every evening delights the children at the Hippodrome with his wondrous flying performance. It is said that the young couple have dubbed themselves Head and Shoulders, referring doubtless to the fact that Mrs. Tarbox supplies the literary and mental qualities, while the supple and agile shoulder of her husband contribute their share to the family fortunes.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"I want to order three thousand more copies of 'Heart Talks' for distribution among my salesmen. They have done more for getting work out of the men than any bonus proposition ever considered. I read them myself constantly, and I desire to heartily congratulate you on getting at the roots of the biggest problem that faces our generation to-day--the problem of salesmanship. The rock bottom on which the country is founded is the problem of salesmanship. With many felicitations I am", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"I'm so glad,\" said the beautiful Mrs. Harold Piper, lights appearing in her young, dark eyes; \"and you must come often. I'm almost always alone in the afternoon.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Next day at Taine's, when they met for lunch, Samuel dropped all pretense and made frank love to her. He had no plans, no definite intentions, except to kiss her lips again, to hold her in his arms and feel that she was very little and pathetic and lovable. . . .", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "So she waited at the head of the stairs that evening while slippers were fetched. Just as she was growing impatient, Sally came out of the dressing-room, beaming with her accustomed good nature and high spirits, and together they descended to the floor below, while the shifting search-light of Isabelle's mind flashed on two ideas: she was glad she had high color to-night, and she wondered if he danced well.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Then the night came that was to be the last. Tom and Amory, bound in the morning for different training-camps, paced the shadowy walks as usual and seemed still to see around them the faces of the men they knew.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Joe Hull had a yellow beard continually fighting through his skin and a low voice which varied between basso profundo and a husky whisper. Anthony, carrying Maury's suitcase up-stairs, followed into the room and carefully closed the door.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"These things excite me so,\" she whispered. \"If you want to kiss me any time during the evening, Nick, just let me know and I'll be glad to arrange it for you. Just mention my name. Or present a green card. I'm giving out green--\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Well, Alec has left. His family had been after him to go home and live, so he--\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "She turned a page and learned that a candidate for Congress was being accused of atheism by an opponent. Gloria's surprise vanished when she found that the charges were false. The candidate had merely denied the miracle of the loaves and fishes. He admitted, under pressure, that he gave full credence to the stroll upon the water.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"It doesn't matter about me. Everything I do is in accordance with my ideas: to use every minute of these years, when I'm young, in having the best time I possibly can.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Having decided to be one of the gods of the class, he reported for freshman football practice, but in the second week, playing quarter-back, already paragraphed in corners of the Princetonian, he wrenched his knee seriously enough to put him out for the rest of the season. This forced him to retire and consider the situation.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "And then came that disconcerting ride. We hadn't reached West Egg village before Gatsby began leaving his elegant sentences unfinished and slapping himself indecisively on the knee of his caramel-coloured suit.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "The generation which numbered Bryan Dalyrimple drifted out of adolescence to a mighty fan-fare of trumpets. Bryan played the star in an affair which included a Lewis gun and a nine-day romp behind the retreating German lines, so luck triumphant or sentiment rampant awarded him a row of medals and on his arrival in the States he was told that he was second in importance only to General Pershing and Sergeant York. This was a lot of fun. The governor of his State, a stray congressman, and a citizens' committee gave him enormous smiles and \"By God, Sirs\" on the dock at Hoboken; there were newspaper reporters and photographers who said \"would you mind\" and \"if you could just\"; and back in his home town there were old ladies, the rims of whose eyes grew red as they talked to him, and girls who hadn't remembered him so well since his father's business went blah! in nineteen-twelve.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Early in the winter, when all conversation turned on the probability of America's going into the war, when Anthony was making a desperate and sincere attempt to write, Muriel Kane arrived in New York and came immediately to see them. Like Gloria, she seemed never to change. She knew the latest slang, danced the latest dances, and talked of the latest songs and plays with all the fervor of her first season as a New York drifter. Her coyness was eternally new, eternally ineffectual; her clothes were extreme; her black hair was bobbed, now, like Gloria's.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Very well, call me that if you want to. I once told you that I was ten thousand years older than you--I am.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"April 21st.--Woke up thinking of Anthony and sure enough he called and sounded sweet on the phone--so I broke a date for him. To-day I feel I'd break anything for him, including the ten commandments and my neck. He's coming at eight and I shall wear pink and look very fresh and starched----\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Simultaneously they both half rose, were half embarrassed, and exchanged what amounted to a half handshake. Then, as though to complete the matter, they both half laughed.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"But you can't, Anthony. Beautiful things grow to a certain height and then they fail and fade off, breathing out memories as they decay. And just as any period decays in our minds, the things of that period should decay too, and in that way they're preserved for a while in the few hearts like mine that react to them. That graveyard at Tarrytown, for instance. The asses who give money to preserve things have spoiled that too.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"You can get no rise from me,\" muttered Dick. \"My mind is full of any number of material things. I want a warm bath too much to worry about the importance of my work or what proportion of us are pathetic figures.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "CABLE: She certainly is a beauty. Not like you, Dicky. Bet she brings old Anthony to terms.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "His movements--he was on foot all the time--were afterward traced to Port Roosevelt and then to Gad's Hill, where he bought a sandwich that he didn't eat, and a cup of coffee. He must have been tired and walking slowly, for he didn't reach Gad's Hill until noon. Thus far there was no difficulty in accounting for his time--there were boys who had seen a man \"acting sort of crazy,\" and motorists at whom he stared oddly from the side of the road. Then for three hours he disappeared from view. The police, on the strength of what he said to Michaelis, that he \"had a way of finding out,\" supposed that he spent that time going from garage to garage thereabout, inquiring for a yellow car.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"I hate dainty minds,\" answered Marjorie. \"But a girl has to be dainty in person. If she looks like a million dollars she can talk about Russia, ping-pong, or the League of Nations and get away with it.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Ten minutes later as he headed down the street toward Skipper's Gymnasium he felt a placid wonder, quite unmixed with humor, at what he was going to do. How he would have gaped at himself a year before! How every one would have gaped! But when you opened your door at the rap of life you let in many things.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Is that so? Well, well! I live near Cos Cob myself. Bought a place there only recently. We're only five miles apart.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Ardita,\" he said not unkindly, \"I'm no fool. I've been round. I know men. And, child, confirmed libertines don't reform until they're tired--and then they're not themselves--they're husks of themselves.\" He looked at her as if expecting agreement, but receiving no sight or sound of it he continued.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "I've only discovered one soldier who passed through the much-advertised spiritual crisis, like this fellow, Donald Hankey, and the one I knew was already studying for the ministry, so he was ripe for it. I honestly think that's all pretty much rot, though it seemed to give sentimental comfort to those at home; and may make fathers and mothers appreciate their children. This crisis-inspired religion is rather valueless and fleeting at best. I think four men have discovered Paris to one that discovered God.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"I want to be a society vampire, you see,\" she announced coolly, and went on to inform him that bobbed hair was the necessary prelude. She added that she wanted to ask his advice, because she had heard he was so critical about girls.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "What a wonderful song, she thought--everything was wonderful to-night, most of all this romantic scene in the den, with their hands clinging and the inevitable looming charmingly close. The future vista of her life seemed an unending succession of scenes like this: under moonlight and pale starlight, and in the backs of warm limousines and in low, cosy roadsters stopped under sheltering trees--only the boy might change, and this one was so nice. He took her hand softly. With a sudden movement he turned it and, holding it to his lips, kissed the palm.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"You two amuse me,\" he said. \"Of all the unpractical people! As soon as a place is mentioned you expect us to pull great piles of photographs out of our pockets showing the different styles of architecture available in bungalows.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "In a sense Gloria's past was an old story to him. He had followed it with the eyes of a journalist, for he was going to write a book about her some day. But his interests, just at present, were family interests. He wanted to know, in particular, who was this Joseph Bloeckman that he had seen her with several times; and those two girls she was with constantly, \"this\" Rachael Jerryl and \"this\" Miss Kane--surely Miss Kane wasn't exactly the sort one would associate with Gloria!", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Why don't some of you cut in?\" cried Otis resentfully. \"She likes more variety.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Don't mention it,\" he enjoined me eagerly. \"Don't give it another thought, old sport.\" The familiar expression held no more familiarity than the hand which reassuringly brushed my shoulder. \"And don't forget we're going up in the hydroplane tomorrow morning, at nine o'clock.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"It's late, Gloria,\" said Rachael--she was flushed and her hair was dishevelled. \"You'd better stay here all night.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"They're a rotten crowd,\" I shouted across the lawn. \"You're worth the whole damn bunch put together.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"My dear,\" said the curious Mrs. Roger Fairboalt, \"I love your house. I think it's quite artistic.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"I didn't hint anything,\" said Marjorie succinctly. \"I said, as I remember, that it was better to wear a becoming dress three times straight than to alternate it with two frights.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Quite possibly,\" admitted Amory. \"Of course, it's overflowing just as the French Revolution did, but I've no doubt that it's really a great experiment and well worth while.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"I wanted to see you--\" began Anthony uncertainly. He did not feel that he could ask for a loan with the girl not four feet away, so he broke off and made a perceptible motion of his head as if to beckon Maury to one side.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Why,\" Anthony considered \"--he's all shrunken up and he's got the remains of some gray hair that always looks as though the wind were in it. He's very moral.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"That's it. The kind who believes that the annual moral let-down of the country is a very good thing or the kind who believes it's a very ominous thing. Either pince-nez or postures. Well, this girl talked about legs. She talked about skin too--her own skin.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "HE: I'm afraid of you. I'm always afraid of a girl--until I've kissed her.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"I have worked--some.\" This by Anthony was an imprudent bringing up of raw reserves. Gloria laughed, torn between delight and derision; she resented his sophistry as at the same time she admired his nonchalance. She would never blame him for being the ineffectual idler so long as he did it sincerely, from the attitude that nothing much was worth doing.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "MRS. CONNAGE: (Sarcastically) You have so many admirers lately that I couldn't imagine which one. (ROSALIND doesn't answer.) Dawson Ryder is more patient than I thought he'd be. You haven't given him an evening this week.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Suddenly her nervous tension moved up a last impossible notch. She had heard a very faint but quite unmistakable creak from the floor of the dining room. Fred was trying to get out the back way.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "In tribute to the momentous occasion this two-day revel had been planned, since, he said, after he began working he'd have to get to bed early during the week. Maury Noble had arrived from Philadelphia on a trip that had to do with seeing some man in Wall Street (whom, incidentally, he failed to see), and Richard Caramel had been half persuaded, half tricked into joining them. They had condescended to a wet and fashionable wedding on Monday afternoon, and in the evening had occurred the denouement: Gloria, going beyond her accustomed limit of four precisely timed cocktails, led them on as gay and joyous a bacchanal as they had ever known, disclosing an astonishing knowledge of ballet steps, and singing songs which she confessed had been taught her by her cook when she was innocent and seventeen. She repeated these by request at intervals throughout the evening with such frank conviviality that Anthony, far from being annoyed, was gratified at this fresh source of entertainment. The occasion was memorable in other ways--a long conversation between Maury and a defunct crab, which he was dragging around on the end of a string, as to whether the crab was fully conversant with the applications of the binomial theorem, and the aforementioned race in two hansom cabs with the sedate and impressive shadows of Fifth Avenue for audience, ending in a labyrinthine escape into the darkness of Central Park.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Of course not--I can never judge a man while he's talking. But I'm not through; the reason you have so little real self-confidence, even though you gravely announce to the occasional philistine that you think you're a genius, is that you've attributed all sorts of atrocious faults to yourself and are trying to live up to them. For instance, you're always saying that you are a slave to high-balls.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Don't allow yourself to be kept out! Show them you've made up your mind to talk to them, and they'll listen.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Halcyon days like boats drifting along slow-moving rivers; spring evenings full of a plaintive melancholy that made the past beautiful and bitter, bidding them look back and see that the loves of other summers long gone were dead with the forgotten waltzes of their years. Always the most poignant moments were when some artificial barrier kept them apart: in the theatre their hands would steal together, join, give and return gentle pressures through the long dark; in crowded rooms they would form words with their lips for each other's eyes--not knowing that they were but following in the footsteps of dusty generations but comprehending dimly that if truth is the end of life happiness is a mode of it, to be cherished in its brief and tremulous moment. And then, one fairy night, May became June. Sixteen days now--fifteen--fourteen----", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"I don't want to sound like Pollyanna,\" she began, \"but you haven't grasped me yet. My courage is faith--faith in the eternal resilience of me--that joy'll come back, and hope and spontaneity. And I feel that till it does I've got to keep my lips shut and my chin high, and my eyes wide--not necessarily any silly smiling. Oh, I've been through hell without a whine quite often--and the female hell is deadlier than the male.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "A dozen blocks down Broadway Anthony's eyes were caught by a large and unfamiliar electric sign spelling \"Marathon\" in glorious yellow script, adorned with electrical leaves and flowers that alternately vanished and beamed upon the wet and glistening street. He leaned and rapped on the taxi-window and in a moment was receiving information from a colored doorman: Yes, this was a cabaret. Fine cabaret. Bes' showina city!", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "ROSALIND: The unfortunate part is that the only men who interest me at all are the totally ineligible ones. Now--if I were poor I'd go on the stage.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"You win the iron pansy. I'll buy you a meal on the arrogance of the last two lines.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Anthony turned over sleepily in his bed, greeting a patch of cold sun on his counterpane, crisscrossed with the shadows of the leaded window. The room was full of morning. The carved chest in the corner, the ancient and inscrutable wardrobe, stood about the room like dark symbols of the obliviousness of matter; only the rug was beckoning and perishable to his perishable feet, and Bounds, horribly inappropriate in his soft collar, was of stuff as fading as the gauze of frozen breath he uttered. He was close to the bed, his hand still lowered where he had been jerking at the upper blanket, his dark-brown eyes fixed imperturbably upon his master.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"My God, I believe the man's coming,\" said Tom. \"Doesn't he know she doesn't want him?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Are you a writer too, Mr. Pats? ... Well, perhaps we can all bask in Richard's fame. \"--Gentle laughter led by Mrs. Gilbert.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "He ran into the bedroom, the bath. She was not there. A negligee of robin's-egg blue laid out upon the bed diffused a faint perfume, illusive and familiar. On a chair were a pair of stockings and a street dress; an open powder box yawned upon the bureau. She must just have gone out.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "But he hated to be sober. It made him conscious of the people around him, of that air of struggle, of greedy ambition, of hope more sordid than despair, of incessant passage up or down, which in every metropolis is most in evidence through the unstable middle class. Unable to live with the rich he thought that his next choice would have been to live with the very poor. Anything was better than this cup of perspiration and tears.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Let him take care of her, then!\" shouted Amory furiously. \"I'm no W. Y. C. A. worker, am I?--am I?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Often they swam and as Amory floated lazily in the water he shut his mind to all thoughts except those of hazy soap-bubble lands where the sun splattered through wind-drunk trees. How could any one possibly think or worry, or do anything except splash and dive and loll there on the edge of time while the flower months failed. Let the days move over--sadness and memory and pain recurred outside, and here, once more, before he went on to meet them he wanted to drift and be young.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "PARAMORE: I think we ought to look on the question more broad-mindedly. Was it Abraham Lincoln who said that a gentleman is one who never inflicts pain?", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"The town, I mean. Do you like it? Can you feel the pep in the air?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Still, they had found a taxi. \"My meter's broken and it'll cost you a dollar and a half to get home,\" said the taxi driver. \"Well,\" said Anthony, \"I'm young Packy McFarland and if you'll come down here I'll beat you till you can't stand up.\" ... At that point the man had driven off without them. They must have found another taxi, for they were in the apartment....", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Yes,\" he agreed, \"you're right. I wouldn't have liked it. Still, it's hard to be made a cynic at twenty.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Gatsby, his hands still in his pockets, was reclining against the mantelpiece in a strained counterfeit of perfect ease, even of boredom. His head leaned back so far that it rested against the face of a defunct mantelpiece clock, and from this position his distraught eyes stared down at Daisy, who was sitting, frightened but graceful, on the edge of a stiff chair.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Amory rather scornfully avoided the popular professors who dispensed easy epigrams and thimblefuls of Chartreuse to groups of admirers every night. He was disappointed, too, at the air of general uncertainty on every subject that seemed linked with the pedantic temperament; his opinions took shape in a miniature satire called \"In a Lecture-Room,\" which he persuaded Tom to print in the Nassau Lit.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "In the middle of June Anthony and Gloria celebrated their first anniversary by having a \"date.\" Anthony knocked at the door and she ran to let him in. Then they sat together on the couch calling over those names they had made for each other, new combinations of endearments ages old. Yet to this \"date\" was appended no attenuated good-night with its ecstasy of regret.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "He finished his dressing, found a black bow tie and adjusted it carefully by the three-sided mirror in the bathroom. Then yielding to an impulse he walked quickly into the bedroom and again looked out the window. The woman was standing up now; she had tossed her hair back and he had a full view of her. She was fat, full thirty-five, utterly undistinguished. Making a clicking noise with his mouth he returned to the bathroom and reparted his hair.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"No chance. I registered under my own name; besides, they'd trail the auto license number.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Somebody's there!\" cried the voice unalarmed. \"Who are you?--Manfred, St. Christopher, or Queen Victoria?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Miserable, confined to bounds, unpopular with both faculty and students--that was Amory's first term. But at Christmas he had returned to Minneapolis, tight-lipped and strangely jubilant.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "MAURY: That's my theory: immediate electrocution of all ignorant and dirty people. I'm all for the criminals--give color to life. Trouble is if you started to punish ignorance you'd have to begin in the first families, then you could take up the moving picture people, and finally Congress and the clergy.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Were you--pious when you were young, Kieth?\" she asked. \"You know what I mean. Were you religious? If you don't mind these personal questions.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "She was disposed to like many men, preferably those who gave her frank homage and unfailing entertainment--but often with a flash of insight she told Anthony that some one of his friends was merely using him, and consequently had best be left alone. Anthony customarily demurred, insisting that the accused was a \"good one,\" but he found that his judgment was more fallible than hers, memorably when, as it happened on several occasions, he was left with a succession of restaurant checks for which to render a solitary account.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Gloria,\" he whispered very softly. Again she had made a magic, subtle and pervading as a spilt perfume, irresistible and sweet.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Nobody out there,\" he declared conclusively; \"my golly, nobody could be out there. This here's a sheer fall to the street of fifty feet. It was the wind you heard, tugging at the blind.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"I like it. It sounds as if it were something where you sort of cracked your knuckles or something.... Let me drive.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Suddenly one of these gypsies, in trembling opal, seizes a cocktail out of the air, dumps it down for courage and, moving her hands like Frisco, dances out alone on the canvas platform. A momentary hush; the orchestra leader varies his rhythm obligingly for her, and there is a burst of chatter as the erroneous news goes around that she is Gilda Gray's understudy from the Follies. The party has begun.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"You're my cousin,\" sobbed Bernice. \"I'm v-v-visiting you. I was to stay a month, and if I go home my mother will know and she'll wah-wonder----\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "It was late morning when he woke and found the telephone beside his bed in the hotel tolling frantically, and remembered that he had left word to be called at eleven. Sloane was snoring heavily, his clothes in a pile by his bed. They dressed and ate breakfast in silence, and then sauntered out to get some air. Amory's mind was working slowly, trying to assimilate what had happened and separate from the chaotic imagery that stacked his memory the bare shreds of truth. If the morning had been cold and gray he could have grasped the reins of the past in an instant, but it was one of those days that New York gets sometimes in May, when the air on Fifth Avenue is a soft, light wine.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Late in the afternoon arrived a special delivery, mailed from some small New Jersey town, and the familiarity of the phrasing, the almost audible undertone of worry and discontent, were so familiar that they comforted her. Who knew? Perhaps army discipline would harden Anthony and accustom him to the idea of work. She had immutable faith that the war would be over before he was called upon to fight, and meanwhile the suit would be won, and they could begin again, this time on a different basis. The first thing different would be that she would have a child.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"No,\" said Ardita frankly. \"I'm all for you. I'd really like to see you make a get-away.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Refusing further preliminaries, Bernice took her seat on high. A man in the chair next to her turned on his side and gave her a glance, half lather, half amazement. One barber started and spoiled little Willy Schuneman's monthly haircut. Mr. O'Reilly in the last chair grunted and swore musically in ancient Gaelic as a razor bit into his cheek. Two bootblacks became wide-eyed and rushed for her feet.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"No,\" she said; \"I'd never marry again. I've got my two children and I want myself for them. I like you--I like all clever men, you more than any--but you know me well enough to know that I'd never marry a clever man--\" She broke off suddenly.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "There followed an address on Madison Avenue, and instructions to appear at one o'clock that afternoon. Gloria, glancing over his shoulder after one of their usual late breakfasts, saw him regarding it idly.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Go to bed, you silly child,\" laughed Mrs. Harvey. \"I wouldn't have told you that if I'd thought you were going to remember it. And I think most of your ideas are perfectly idiotic,\" she finished sleepily.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Lois--Lois--Lois,\" he repeated in wonder. \"Child, we'll go in here a minute, because I want you to meet the rector, and then we'll walk around. I have a thousand things to talk to you about.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"We're having a punch evening,\" he announced jovially--Evylyn saw that he had already sampled his concoction--\"so there won't be any cocktails except the punch. It's m' wife's greatest achievement, Mrs. Ahearn; she'll give you the recipe if you want it; but owing to a slight\"--he caught his wife's eye and paused --\"to a slight indisposition; I'm responsible for this batch. Here's how!\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Jingling the change in his hand he shook his head. \"No. I've got to have a drink. I'm so darn nervous that I'm shivering.\" A thought struck him.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "This was his healthy state and it made him cheerful, pleasant, and very attractive to intelligent men and to all women. In this state he considered that he would one day accomplish some quiet subtle thing that the elect would deem worthy and, passing on, would join the dimmer stars in a nebulous, indeterminate heaven half-way between death and immortality. Until the time came for this effort he would be Anthony Patch--not a portrait of a man but a distinct and dynamic personality, opinionated, contemptuous, functioning from within outward--a man who was aware that there could be no honor and yet had honor, who knew the sophistry of courage and yet was brave.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"That's an advertisement,\" Michaelis assured him. Something made him turn away from the window and look back into the room. But Wilson stood there a long time, his face close to the window pane, nodding into the twilight.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "I shook hands with him; it seemed silly not to, for I felt suddenly as though I were talking to a child. Then he went into the jewellery store to buy a pearl necklace--or perhaps only a pair of cuff buttons--rid of my provincial squeamishness forever.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Meanwhile they kept unfolding to each other, unwillingly, by curious reactions and evasions, by distastes and prejudices and unintended hints of the past. The girl was proudly incapable of jealousy and, because he was extremely jealous, this virtue piqued him. He told her recondite incidents of his own life on purpose to arouse some spark of it, but to no avail. She possessed him now--nor did she desire the dead years.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "The idea that the girl was poverty-stricken had appealed to Amory's sense of situation. He arrived in Philadelphia expecting to be told that 921 Ark Street was in a miserable lane of hovels. He was even disappointed when it proved to be nothing of the sort. It was an old house that had been in her husband's family for years. An elderly aunt, who objected to having it sold, had put ten years' taxes with a lawyer and pranced off to Honolulu, leaving Clara to struggle with the heating-problem as best she could.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "I went in--after making every possible noise in the kitchen, short of pushing over the stove--but I don't believe they heard a sound. They were sitting at either end of the couch, looking at each other as if some question had been asked, or was in the air, and every vestige of embarrassment was gone. Daisy's face was smeared with tears, and when I came in she jumped up and began wiping at it with her handkerchief before a mirror. But there was a change in Gatsby that was simply confounding. He literally glowed; without a word or a gesture of exultation a new well-being radiated from him and filled the little room.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"And Maury's a cat.\" Simultaneously it occurred to him how like Bloeckman was to a robust and offensive hog. But he preserved a discreet silence.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Out of the window Isabelle watched the snow glide by in the frosty morning. It was ever so much colder here than in Baltimore; she had not remembered; the glass of the side door was iced, the windows were shirred with snow in the corners. Her mind played still with one subject. Did he dress like that boy there, who walked calmly down a bustling business street, in moccasins and winter-carnival costume? How very Western!", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Gloria arrived. Muriel arrived. Rachael arrived. After a hurried \"Hello, people!\" uttered by Gloria and echoed by the other two, the three swept by into the dressing room.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Go on. He won't annoy you. I think he realizes that his presumptuous little flirtation is over.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Ted Converse? 'At's easy. He'll fail his exams, tutor all summer at Harstrum's, get into Sheff with about four conditions, and flunk out in the middle of the freshman year. Then he'll go back West and raise hell for a year or so; finally his father will make him go into the paint business. He'll marry and have four sons, all bone heads.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "But, after all, this critical circle is not close enough to the stage to see the actors' faces and catch the subtler byplay. It can only frown and lean, ask questions and make satisfactory deductions from its set of postulates, such as the one which states that every young man with a large income leads the life of a hunted partridge. It never really appreciates the drama of the shifting, semi-cruel world of adolescence. No; boxes, orchestra-circle, principals, and chorus be represented by the medley of faces and voices that sway to the plaintive African rhythm of Dyer's dance orchestra.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"No; I----\" She stood there fidgeting. \"It was a letter, Mrs. Piper, that I put somewhere.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "The bar, where we glanced first, was crowded, but Gatsby was not there. She couldn't find him from the top of the steps, and he wasn't on the veranda. On a chance we tried an important-looking door, and walked into a high Gothic library, panelled with carved English oak, and probably transported complete from some ruin overseas.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Then he saw Gloria. She was sitting at a table for two directly across the room. Her dress was black, and above it her animated face, tinted with the most glamourous rose, made, he thought, a spot of poignant beauty on the room. His heart leaped as though to a new music. He jostled his way toward her and called her name just as the gray eyes looked up and found him.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Well, it'd be a year and a half before you'd make any money out of a novel. Try some popular short stories. And, by the way, unless they're exceptionally brilliant they have to be cheerful and on the side of the heaviest artillery to make you any money.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "He was on his feet, shaking hands briskly--then his car was a wraith of dust down the road. Anthony turned to his wife in bewilderment.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"I should change the light,\" he said after a moment. \"I'd like to bring out the modelling of the features. And I'd try to get hold of all the back hair.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "The Charley Moores are always going to change jobs next month. They do, once or twice in their careers, after which they sit around comparing their last job with the present one, to the infinite disparagement of the latter.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "ALEC: I did, but since seeing these girls--I don't know. I'm awfully attached to Amory. He's sensitive and I don't want him to break his heart over somebody who doesn't care about him.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "He grew more abstracted on the street and was even accused of becoming a snob, but Amory knew it was nothing of the sort, and once when Burne passed him four feet off, absolutely unseeingly, his mind a thousand miles away, Amory almost choked with the romantic joy of watching him. Burne seemed to be climbing heights where others would be forever unable to get a foothold.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"What keeps you here to-day?\" Anthony spread himself over a yielding sofa and made an elbow-rest among the pillows.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "When he reached home his imagination had been teeming with high pitched, unfamiliar dreams. There was suddenly no question on his mind, no eternal problem for a solution and resolution. He had experienced an emotion that was neither mental nor physical, nor merely a mixture of the two, and the love of life absorbed him for the present to the exclusion of all else. He was content to let the experiment remain isolated and unique. Almost impersonally he was convinced that no woman he had ever met compared in any way with Gloria.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Back in America, he was sallying into the search for amusement with the same consistent absorption. He who had never taken more than a few cocktails or a pint of wine at a sitting, taught himself to drink as he would have taught himself Greek--like Greek it would be the gateway to a wealth of new sensations, new psychic states, new reactions in joy or misery.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"I can't drift--I want to be interested. I want to pull strings, even for somebody else, or be Princetonian chairman or Triangle president. I want to be admired, Kerry.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"See here,\" said Anthony softly, \"you two get out--now, both of you. Or else I'll tell my grandfather.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "She began to sing softly, wishing now that he would take down his arm. Suddenly her eye fell on an intimate scene across the room--Rachael and Captain Wolf were engrossed in a long kiss. Gloria shivered slightly--she knew not why.... Pink face approached again.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "He sat down miserably, as if I had pushed him, and simultaneously there was the sound of a motor turning into my lane. We both jumped up, and, a little harrowed myself, I went out into the yard.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"What's the idea of all the discord?\" demanded Ardita cheerfully. \"Is this the varsity crew from the county nut farm?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "MAURY: I've done pretty well on this bottle. I've gone from \"Proof\" down to \"Distillery.\" (He indicates the words on the label.)", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "I suppose that there's a caddish streak in every man that runs crosswise across his character and disposition and general outlook. With some men it's secret and we never know it's there until they strike us in the dark one night. But Samuel's showed when it was in action, and the sight of it made people see red. He was rather lucky in that, because every time his little devil came up it met a reception that sent it scurrying down below in a sickly, feeble condition. It was the same devil, the same streak that made him order Gilly's friends off the bed, that made him go inside Marjorie's house.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "He broke off as he halted the car in front of a rambling, dilapidated house. Marylyn Wade and Joe Ewing appeared in the doorway.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"We've really got to go,\" repeated Gloria. \"We can get a taxi to the station.... Come on, Anthony!\" she commanded a bit more imperiously.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "By the next autumn she was gay again, gay as ever. She had a debut after the armistice, and in February she was presumably engaged to a man from New Orleans. In June she married Tom Buchanan of Chicago, with more pomp and circumstance than Louisville ever knew before. He came down with a hundred people in four private cars, and hired a whole floor of the Muhlbach Hotel, and the day before the wedding he gave her a string of pearls valued at three hundred and fifty thousand dollars.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Go on,\" Amory urged eagerly. They were striding toward the woods, Burne's nervous, enthusiastic voice warming to his subject.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "The night was alive with thaw; it was so nearly warm that a breeze drifting low along the sidewalk brought to Anthony a vision of an unhoped-for hyacinthine spring. Above in the blue oblong of sky, around them in the caress of the drifting air, the illusion of a new season carried relief from the stiff and breathed-over atmosphere they had left, and for a hushed moment the traffic sounds and the murmur of water flowing in the gutters seemed an illusive and rarefied prolongation of that music to which they had lately danced. When Anthony spoke it was with surety that his words came from something breathless and desirous that the night had conceived in their two hearts.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "When he reaches the table he shakes hands with ANTHONY and MAURY. He is one of those men who invariably shake hands, even with people whom they have seen an hour before.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "In the late afternoon they sat with their backs against great boulders on the highest part of the cliff and Carlyle sketched for her his vague plans. He was sure they were hot after him by this time. The total proceeds of the coup he had pulled off and concerning which he still refused to enlighten her, he estimated as just under a million dollars. He counted on lying up here several weeks and then setting off southward, keeping well outside the usual channels of travel rounding the Horn and heading for Callao, in Peru. The details of coaling and provisioning he was leaving entirely to Babe who, it seemed, had sailed these seas in every capacity from cabin-boy aboard a coffee trader to virtual first mate on a Brazillian pirate craft, whose skipper had long since been hung.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"See here--I think you're a little crazy!\" exclaimed Bloeckman. He took two paces forward as though to pass by, but Anthony stepped in his way.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"So your mother says--a remarkable woman; have a cigarette--I'm sure you smoke. Well, if you're like me, you loathe all science and mathematics--\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "MAURY: Why are all grooms given the title of \"old\"? I think marriage is an error of youth.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "At the end of a month \"Burglar Bill of the Silver District was the nurse-girl's standby for frightening children. Five burglaries were attributed to him, but though Dalyrimple had only committed three, he considered that majority had it and appropriated the title to himself. He had once been seen--\"a large bloated creature with the meanest face you ever laid eyes on.\" Mrs. Henry Coleman, awaking at two o'clock at the beam of an electric torch flashed in her eye, could not have been expected to recognize Bryan Dalyrimple at whom she had waved flags last Fourth of July, and whom she had described as \"not at all the daredevil type, do you think?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Jitney! Jitney!\" ... It was an empty Ford.... \"I want to go to town.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Warren stifled a sigh and nodded. It might be for all he knew or cared. He wondered idly whether she was a poor conversationalist because she got no attention or got no attention because she was a poor conversationalist.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Why it's Margery Lee,\" she crooned softly to herself. \"I knew you'd come.\" It really was Margery Lee, and she was just as Sally Carrol had known she would be, with a young, white brow, and wide welcoming eyes, and a hoop-skirt of some soft material that was quite comforting to rest on.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"But it won't be--like our two beds--ever again. Everywhere we go and move on and change, something's lost--something's left behind. You can't ever quite repeat anything, and I've been so yours, here--\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"You should worry and grow thin like a dime.\" He recognized the current witticism of the year as it issued stridently from one of the pairs at his elbow.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "She noticed now that his eyes were of the same fibre as hers, with the green left out, and that his mouth was much gentler, really, than in the picture--or was it that the face had grown up to it lately? He was getting a little bald just on top of his head. She wondered if that was from wearing a hat so much. It seemed awful for a man to grow bald and no one to care about it.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "It was October in 1913, midway in a week of pleasant days, with the sunshine loitering in the cross-streets and the atmosphere so languid as to seem weighted with ghostly falling leaves. It was pleasant to sit lazily by the open window finishing a chapter of \"Erewhon.\" It was pleasant to yawn about five, toss the book on a table, and saunter humming along the hall to his bath.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "In September, with his suspicions of Gloria, the company of Dot had become tedious, then almost intolerable. He was nervous and irritable from lack of sleep; his heart was sick and afraid. Three days ago he had gone to Captain Dunning and asked for a furlough, only to be met with benignant procrastination. The division was starting overseas, while Anthony was going to an officers' training-camp; what furloughs could be given must go to the men who were leaving the country.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Those things,\" answered Mr. Fraser, \"are mechanical. Linotype is a resuscitator of reputations. Wait till you see the herald, beginning next week--that is if you're with us--that is,\" and his voice hardened slightly, \"if you haven't got too many ideas yourself about how things ought to be run.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "She went stealthily to the bureau, picked up an article that lay there, and turning out all the lights stood quietly until her eyes became accustomed to the darkness. Softly she pushed open the door to Marjorie's room. She heard the quiet, even breathing of an untroubled conscience asleep.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "ROSALIND: Oh, God, I want to die! (After a moment she rises and with her eyes closed feels her way to the door. Then she turns and looks once more at the room. Here they had sat and dreamed: that tray she had so often filled with matches for him; that shade that they had discreetly lowered one long Sunday afternoon. Misty-eyed she stands and remembers; she speaks aloud.)", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "The fringe of palms was in turn ringed in by a round mile of flat, sandy country. They followed it south and brushing through a farther rim of tropical vegetation came out on a pearl-gray virgin beach where Ardita kicked of her brown golf shoes--she seemed to have permanently abandoned stockings--and went wading. Then they sauntered back to the yacht, where the indefatigable Babe had luncheon ready for them. He had posted a lookout on the high cliff to the north to watch the sea on both sides, though he doubted if the entrance to the cliff was generally known--he had never even seen a map on which the island was marked.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"I don't like girls in the daytime,\" he said shortly, and then, thinking this a bit abrupt, he added: \"But I like you.\" He cleared his throat. \"I like you first and second and third.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Geraldine Burke, usher at Keith's, had been an amusement of several months. She demanded so little that he liked her, for since a lamentable affair with a debutante the preceding summer, when he had discovered that after half a dozen kisses a proposal was expected, he had been wary of girls of his own class. It was only too easy to turn a critical eye on their imperfections: some physical harshness or a general lack of personal delicacy--but a girl who was usher at Keith's was approached with a different attitude. One could tolerate qualities in an intimate valet that would be unforgivable in a mere acquaintance on one's social level.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "At the present time no one I know has the slightest desire to hit Samuel Meredith; possibly this is because a man over fifty is liable to be rather severely cracked at the impact of a hostile fist, but, for my part, I am inclined to think that all his hitable qualities have quite vanished. But it is certain that at various times in his life hitable qualities were in his face, as surely as kissable qualities have ever lurked in a girl's lips.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "The burial took place in the family plot at Tarrytown. Anthony and Gloria rode in the first carriage, too worried to feel grotesque, both trying desperately to glean presage of fortune from the faces of retainers who had been with him at the end.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"And courage to me meant ploughing through that dull gray mist that comes down on life--not only overriding people and circumstances but overriding the bleakness of living. A sort of insistence on the value of life and the worth of transient things.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "His habits were a matter for esoteric speculation. He had three rooms in a bachelor apartment on Forty-forth street, but he was seldom to be found there. The telephone girl had received the most positive instructions that no one should even have his ear without first giving a name to be passed upon. She had a list of half a dozen people to whom he was never at home, and of the same number to whom he was always at home. Foremost on the latter list were Anthony Patch and Richard Caramel.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "We shook hands and I started away. Just before I reached the hedge I remembered something and turned around.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"You ought to go away,\" I said. \"It's pretty certain they'll trace your car.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"I met a girl who knew Maury, the other day, and she says he doesn't drink any more. He's getting pretty cagey.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "This was a new voice; Anthony imagined that it was somehow more tolerant, better disposed than the first. Again arms were about him, half lifting, half dragging him into a welcome shadow four doors up the street and propping him against the stone front of a millinery shop.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "This sort of semi-tragic fiasco had become so usual that when they occurred he was no longer stirred into making amends. If Gloria protested--and of late she was more likely to sink into contemptuous silence--he would either engage in a bitter defense of himself or else stalk dismally from the apartment. Never since the incident on the station platform at Redgate had he laid his hands on her in anger--though he was withheld often only by some instinct that itself made him tremble with rage. Just as he still cared more for her than for any other creature, so did he more intensely and frequently hate her.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Done some good work on my novel.\" Dick was looking and talking emphatically at the sidewalk. \"But I have to get out once in a while.\" He glanced at Anthony apologetically, as though craving encouragement.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Why do we have to do the next thing? It never seems the sort of thing I should do.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "ALEC: (Brilliantly) Of course you've come to the best people to find out. She'd naturally be with us.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Well,\" said Marcia with the sweet smile she used in Act Two (\"Oh, so the Duke liked my dancing!\") \"Well, Omar Khayyam, here I am beside you singing in the wilderness.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"You can't do nothin' now,\" came the voice. \"Get 'em some other time. I'm tellin' you straight, ain't I? I'm helpin' you.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Not seeing,\" said Gatsby. \"No, we couldn't meet. But both of us loved each other all that time, old sport, and you didn't know. I used to laugh sometimes\"--but there was no laughter in his eyes--\"to think that you didn't know.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "To show she was not stopping him she melted into melancholy tears. Together they marshalled the armies of sentiment--words, kisses, endearments, self-reproaches. They attained nothing. Inevitably they attained nothing. Finally, in a burst of gargantuan emotion each of them sat down and wrote a letter.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Sometimes she and Miss Baker talked at once, unobtrusively and with a bantering inconsequence that was never quite chatter, that was as cool as their white dresses and their impersonal eyes in the absence of all desire. They were here, and they accepted Tom and me, making only a polite pleasant effort to entertain or to be entertained. They knew that presently dinner would be over and a little later the evening too would be over and casually put away. It was sharply different from the West, where an evening was hurried from phase to phase towards its close, in a continually disappointed anticipation or else in sheer nervous dread of the moment itself.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"I love it,\" she said frankly. It was impossible to doubt her. Her gray eyes roved here and there, drowsing, idle or alert, on each group, passing to the next with unconcealed enjoyment, and to Anthony were made plain the different values of her profile, the wonderfully alive expressions of her mouth, and the authentic distinction of face and form and manner that made her like a single flower amidst a collection of cheap bric-a-brac. At her happiness, a gorgeous sentiment welled into his eyes, choked him up, set his nerves a-tingle, and filled his throat with husky and vibrant emotion. There was a hush upon the room.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "When she awoke the sight of the empty bed beside her brought a renewal of misery, dispelled shortly, however, by the inevitable callousness of the bright morning. Though she was not conscious of it, there was relief in eating breakfast without Anthony's tired and worried face opposite her. Now that she was alone she lost all desire to complain about the food. She would change her breakfasts, she thought--have a lemonade and a tomato sandwich instead of the sempiternal bacon and eggs and toast.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"All right--I'll just give you a few examples now. First you have no ease of manner. Why? Because you're never sure about your personal appearance. When a girl feels that she's perfectly groomed and dressed she can forget that part of her.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"You go, too, Anthony,\" urged Gloria; \"I want you to have some sleep, dear. You've been as pale as a ghost all day.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "At quarter to twelve Amory shook hands with her gravely, in the midst of a small crowd assembled to wish him good-speed. For an instant he lost his poise, and she felt a bit rattled when a satirical voice from a concealed wit cried:", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"You mos' cert'nly won't!\" returned Anthony with fine defiance. \"All I want know is how many.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Following the gigantic labor of conception he decided to wait until he heard from the first story before beginning another. Dick had told him that he might get as much as two hundred dollars. If by any chance it did happen to be unsuited, the editor's letter would, no doubt, give him an idea of what changes should be made.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"You see, when you were little they kept sending me snap-shots of you, first as a baby and then as a child in socks playing on the beach with a pail and shovel, and then suddenly as a wistful little girl with wondering, pure eyes--and I used to build dreams about you. A man has to have something living to cling to. I think, Lois, it was your little white soul I tried to keep near me--even when life was at its loudest and every intellectual idea of God seemed the sheerest mockery, and desire and love and a million things came up to me and said: 'Look here at me! See, I'm Life. You're turning your back on it!'", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Oh,\" he said, scrutinizing these worthies, \"Humbird looks like a knock-out, but this Langueduc--he's the rugged type, isn't he? I distrust that sort. All diamonds look big in the rough.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Milton Piper rose suddenly and awkwardly to his feet. In a second every one was standing tensely and Milton was saying something very hurriedly about having to go early, and the Ahearns were listening with eager intentness. Then Mrs. Ahearn swallowed and turned with a forced smile toward Jessie. Evylyn saw Tom lurch forward and put his hand on Ahearns shoulder--and suddenly she was listening to a new, anxious voice at her elbow, and, turning, found Hilda, the second maid.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Oh, gosh!\" protested Gloria, collapsing mentally, \"why won't you do it for us? I hate trains.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Unfortunately, I've mislaid my list of little gray houses with swamp maples around them--but I'll try to find it. Meanwhile you take a piece of paper and write down the names of seven possible towns. And every day this week you take a trip to one of those towns.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Maury gave them an elaborate \"drinking set,\" which included silver goblets, cocktail shaker, and bottle-openers. The extortion from Dick was more conventional--a tea set from Tiffany's. From Joseph Bloeckman came a simple and exquisite travelling clock, with his card. There was even a cigarette-holder from Bounds; this touched Anthony and made him want to weep--indeed, any emotion short of hysteria seemed natural in the half-dozen people who were swept up by this tremendous sacrifice to convention. The room set aside in the Plaza bulged with offerings sent by Harvard friends and by associates of his grandfather, with remembrances of Gloria's Farmover days, and with rather pathetic trophies from her former beaux, which last arrived with esoteric, melancholy messages, written on cards tucked carefully inside, beginning \"I little thought when--\" or \"I'm sure I wish you all the happiness--\" or even \"When you get this I shall be on my way to--\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "But the moment had passed. Mrs. Gilbert having climbed the hill of exposition was about to glide swiftly down the ski-jump of collapse. Her eyes were like a blue sky seen through two round, red window-casements. The flesh about her mouth was trembling.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Amory moved forward on the deck until he found a stool under an electric light. He searched in his pocket for note-book and pencil and then began to write, slowly, laboriously:", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"My house looks well, doesn't it?\" he demanded. \"See how the whole front of it catches the light.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "It was Charlie Moon who promised her five thousand Pall Malls if she would pay a call on Horace Tarbox, prodigy extraordinary. Charlie was a senior in Sheffield, and he and Horace were first cousins. They liked and pitied each other.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Everything blurred into a swinging mist. With a sound half-gasp, half-cry she rocked on her feet and reeled backward into Kieth's suddenly outstretched arms.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Well, I'll speak to Gloria about it. Personally I'd like to, but of course it's up to the Gilberts, you see.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Had a hell of a dream about you last night,\" came in the cracked voice through the cigar smoke. \"I had an idea you were in some trouble.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"You say--at least you used to--that happiness is the only thing worth while in life. Do you think you're any happier for being a pessimist?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"I don't see the idea of going to town,\" broke out Tom savagely. \"Women get these notions in their heads--\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"I was beginning to think I was growing eccentric till I came up here. It was a pose, I guess.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "It was a clear night and the exhilaration of the road went to Amory's head. He had the ghost of two stanzas of a poem forming in his mind. ...", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "It's late--I have all the windows open and the air outside, is just as soft as spring, yet, somehow, much more young and frail than spring. Why do they make spring a young girl, why does that illusion dance and yodel its way for three months through the world's preposterous barrenness. Spring is a lean old plough horse with its ribs showing--it's a pile of refuse in a field, parched by the sun and the rain to an ominous cleanliness.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "We were all irritable now with the fading ale, and aware of it we drove for a while in silence. Then as Doctor T. J. Eckleburg's faded eyes came into sight down the road, I remembered Gatsby's caution about gasoline.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"I suppose that the beginning of the second phase of my education was a ghastly dissatisfaction at being used in spite of myself for some inscrutable purpose of whose ultimate goal I was unaware--if, indeed, there was an ultimate goal. It was a difficult choice. The schoolmistress seemed to be saying, 'We're going to play football and nothing but football. If you don't want to play football you can't play at all--'", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"To be afraid,\" said Ardita, \"a person has either to be very great and strong--or else a coward. I'm neither.\" She paused for a moment, and eagerness crept into her tone. \"But I want to talk about you. What on earth have you done--and how did you do it?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Anthony dressed and went out, as he should have done long before, and down to Richard Caramel's room to hear the last revision of the last chapter of \"The Demon Lover.\" He did not call Gloria again until six. He did not find her in until eight and--oh, climax of anticlimaxes!--she could give him no engagement until Tuesday afternoon. A broken piece of gutta-percha clattered to the floor as he banged up the phone.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Alert at once, she sat up straight. Those eyes, with the grayness and eternity of a cliff of soft granite, caught his.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "On the station platform other prospective passengers were beginning to turn and stare; the drone of the train was audible, it increased to a clamor. Gloria's efforts redoubled, then ceased altogether, and she stood there trembling and hot-eyed at this helpless humiliation, as the engine roared and thundered into the station.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "By his frequent and soothing interpolation of the word \"just\" he aroused her lethargic enthusiasm. Strutting violently about the room, he simulated a dynamic and irresistible efficiency. \"We'll buy a car to-morrow.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "He got up absent-mindedly and left the room. A little later she called to him and he went out and brought her some potato salad and cold chicken from the delicatessen.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "They jolted to a stop, and Amory peered up, startled. A woman was standing beside the road, talking to Alec at the wheel. Afterward he remembered the harpy effect that her old kimono gave her, and the cracked hollowness of her voice as she spoke:", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Gloria has a very young soul--irresponsible, as much as anything else. She has no sense of responsibility.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "She obeyed, clung to the table with her eyes wide and staring. At length she was feeling slightly encouraged and her confidence increased.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "This spirit has long rocked the colleges in America. It begins, as a rule, during the immaturities and facile impressions of freshman year--sometimes back in preparatory school. Prosperous apostles known for their emotional acting go the rounds of the universities and, by frightening the amiable sheep and dulling the quickening of interest and intellectual curiosity which is the purpose of all education, distil a mysterious conviction of sin, harking back to childhood crimes and to the ever-present menace of \"women.\" To these lectures go the wicked youths to cheer and joke and the timid to swallow the tasty pills, which would be harmless if administered to farmers' wives and pious drug-clerks but are rather dangerous medicine for these \"future leaders of men.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "By seven o'clock the orchestra has arrived, no thin five-piece affair, but a whole pitful of oboes and trombones and saxophones and viols and cornets and piccolos, and low and high drums. The last swimmers have come in from the beach now and are dressing upstairs; the cars from New York are parked five deep in the drive, and already the halls and salons and verandas are gaudy with primary colours, and hair bobbed in strange new ways, and shawls beyond the dreams of Castile. The bar is in full swing, and floating rounds of cocktails permeate the garden outside, until the air is alive with chatter and laughter, and casual innuendo and introductions forgotten on the spot, and enthusiastic meetings between women who never knew each other's names.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Myra,\" he said, lowering his voice and choosing his words carefully, \"I beg a thousand pardons. Can you ever forgive me?\" She regarded him gravely, his intent green eyes, his mouth, that to her thirteen-year-old, arrow-collar taste was the quintessence of romance. Yes, Myra could forgive him very easily.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"I think it's that crazy Indian blood in Bernice,\" continued Marjorie. \"Maybe she's a reversion to type. Indian women all just sat round and never said anything.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Again the library of the Connage house. ROSALIND is alone, sitting on the lounge staring very moodily and unhappily at nothing. She has changed perceptibly--she is a trifle thinner for one thing; the light in her eyes is not so bright; she looks easily a year older.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Now that's a slight exaggeration. You know darn well I sold an essay to The Florentine--and it attracted a lot of attention considering the circulation of The Florentine. And what's more, Gloria, you know I sat up till five o'clock in the morning finishing it.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "After the fifth cocktail he kissed her, and between laughter and bantering caresses and a half-stifled flare of passion they passed an hour. At four-thirty she claimed an engagement, and going into the bathroom she rearranged her hair. Refusing to let him order her a taxi she stood for a moment in the doorway.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"I'm only going to stay half an hour,\" Amory said sternly. He wondered if it sounded priggish.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "She paid no attention but brushed by him and into the pantry to put the bacon and eggs in the ice-box. When his drinking had been unusually excessive he was invariably in a whining mood. This time he followed her and, standing in the pantry door, persisted in his question.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"How can they get it without taking it? For years people have been stalled off with promises. Socialism may not be progress, but the threat of the red flag is certainly the inspiring force of all reform. You've got to be sensational to get attention.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"I'm going to have the McKees come up,\" she announced as we rose in the elevator. \"And, of course, I got to call up my sister, too.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Perhaps you know that lady.\" Gatsby indicated a gorgeous, scarcely human orchid of a woman who sat in state under a white-plum tree. Tom and Daisy stared, with that peculiarly unreal feeling that accompanies the recognition of a hitherto ghostly celebrity of the movies.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"I heard who's been keepin' y' out, an' he's not a bit better'n you. I can fix whole damn thing up. Would've before, but I didn't know you. Harol' tol' me you felt bad about the thing----\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Don't make a sound!\" It was Alec's voice. \"Jill--do you hear me?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Anthony and Gloria, seated, looked about them. At the next table a party of four were in process of being joined by a party of three, two men and a girl, who were evidently late--and the manner of the girl was a study in national sociology. She was meeting some new men--and she was pretending desperately. By gesture she was pretending and by words and by the scarcely perceptible motionings of her eyelids that she belonged to a class a little superior to the class with which she now had to do, that a while ago she had been, and presently would again be, in a higher, rarer air. She was almost painfully refined--she wore a last year's hat covered with violets no more yearningly pretentious and palpably artificial than herself.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Some men,\" he continued, \"escape the grip. Maybe their wives have no social ambitions; maybe they've hit a sentence or two in a 'dangerous book' that pleased them; maybe they started on the treadmill as I did and were knocked off. Anyway, they're the congressmen you can't bribe, the Presidents who aren't politicians, the writers, speakers, scientists, statesmen who aren't just popular grab-bags for a half-dozen women and children.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "From the first he loved Princeton--its lazy beauty, its half-grasped significance, the wild moonlight revel of the rushes, the handsome, prosperous big-game crowds, and under it all the air of struggle that pervaded his class. From the day when, wild-eyed and exhausted, the jerseyed freshmen sat in the gymnasium and elected some one from Hill School class president, a Lawrenceville celebrity vice-president, a hockey star from St. Paul's secretary, up until the end of sophomore year it never ceased, that breathless social system, that worship, seldom named, never really admitted, of the bogey \"Big Man.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "As the weeks dried up and blew away, the range of Anthony's travels extended until he grew to comprehend the camp and its environment. For the first time in his life he was in constant personal contact with the waiters to whom he had given tips, the chauffeurs who had touched their hats to him, the carpenters, plumbers, barbers, and farmers who had previously been remarkable only in the subservience of their professional genuflections. During his first two months in camp he did not hold ten minutes' consecutive conversation with a single man.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Who are the heirs?\" asked Mr. Haight. \"You see when you can tell me so little about it--\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Ardita scrutinized him carefully--and classed him immediately as a romantic figure. He gave the effect of towering self-confidence erected on a slight foundation--just under the surface of each of his decisions she discerned a hesitancy that was in decided contrast to the arrogant curl of his lips.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"She's a deep one,\" said Wilson, as if that answered the question. \"Ah-h-h--\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "For half a minute there wasn't a sound. Then from the living-room I heard a sort of choking murmur and part of a laugh, followed by Daisy's voice on a clear artificial note:", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Of course I love you,\" she said impatiently, making out a quick case for herself. \"It's just because I do that I hate to see you go to pieces by just lying around and saying you ought to work. Perhaps if I did go into this for a while it'd stir you up so you'd do something.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Through early March he took to going to Philadelphia for week-ends. Almost always there was some one else there and she seemed not anxious to see him alone, for many occasions presented themselves when a word from her would have given him another delicious half-hour of adoration. But he fell gradually in love and began to speculate wildly on marriage. Though this design flowed through his brain even to his lips, still he knew afterward that the desire had not been deeply rooted. Once he dreamt that it had come true and woke up in a cold panic, for in his dream she had been a silly, flaxen Clara, with the gold gone out of her hair and platitudes falling insipidly from her changeling tongue.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"What line do you throw 'em?\" demanded Kerry. \"I've tried everything, and the mad wags aren't even afraid of me.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Yes.\" His eyes went over it, every arched door and square tower. \"It took me just three years to earn the money that bought it.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"No chance. I wrote a St. Timothy girl a really loving letter last year. In one place I got rattled and said: 'My God, how I love you!' She took a nail scissors, clipped out the 'My God' and showed the rest of the letter all over school. Doesn't work at all. I'm just 'good old Kerry' and all that rot.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Frightfully so,\" she answered, \"but depressing with a stale, sickly depression, nevertheless. I came out here to get wet--like a wet hen; wet hens always have great clarity of mind,\" she concluded.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "The author, indeed, spent his days in a state of pleasant madness. The book was in his conversation three-fourths of the time--he wanted to know if one had heard \"the latest\"; he would go into a store and in a loud voice order books to be charged to him, in order to catch a chance morsel of recognition from clerk or customer. He knew to a town in what sections of the country it was selling best; he knew exactly what he cleared on each edition, and when he met any one who had not read it, or, as it happened only too often, had not heard of it, he succumbed to moody depression.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Who are you, anyhow?\" broke out Tom. \"You're one of that bunch that hangs around with Meyer Wolfshiem--that much I happen to know. I've made a little investigation into your affairs--and I'll carry it further tomorrow.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"I'm sure I couldn't say,\" said Audits shortly. \"Maybe because he's the only man I know, good or bad, who has an imagination and the courage of his convictions. Maybe it's to get away from the young fools that spend their vacuous hours pursuing me around the country. But as for the famous Russian bracelet, you can set your mind at rest on that score. He's going to give it to me at Palm Beach--if you'll show a little intelligence.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"The Revolt of the Angels. Sounds pretty good. French, eh?\" He stared at her with new interest \"You French?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"I only know vaguely,\" answered Anthony. \"A man named Shuttleworth, who was a sort of pet of his, has the whole thing in charge as administrator or trustee or something--all except the direct bequests to charity and the provisions for servants and for those two cousins in Idaho.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "(He goes to the door, fumbles for the knob, finds it--she sees him throw back his head--and he is gone. Gone--she half starts from the lounge and then sinks forward on her face into the pillows.)", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "ROSALIND: Honestly, there are only two costumes in the world that I really enjoy being in--(Combing her hair at the dressing-table.) One's a hoop skirt with pantaloons; the other's a one-piece bathing-suit. I'm quite charming in both of them.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Oh, it isn't about that. At least--\" He fumbled with a series of beginnings. \"Why, I thought--why, look here, old sport, you don't make much money, do you?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Mrs. Buchanan... and Mr. Buchanan--\" After an instant's hesitation he added: \"the polo player.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Daisy took her face in her hands as if feeling its lovely shape, and her eyes moved gradually out into the velvet dusk. I saw that turbulent emotions possessed her, so I asked what I thought would be some sedative questions about her little girl.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Home was a rambling frame house set on a white lap of snow, and there she met a big, gray-haired man of whom she approved, and a lady who was like an egg, and who kissed her--these were Harry's parents. There was a breathless indescribable hour crammed full of self-sentences, hot water, bacon and eggs and confusion; and after that she was alone with Harry in the library, asking him if she dared smoke.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"I'll let you have that car,\" said Tom. \"I'll send it over tomorrow afternoon.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Anthony must have followed the main road. She laughed with a sort of malicious cunning at having eluded him; she could spare the time to wait until the train went by.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"No,\" said Horace miserably, \"and I never will again. I don't know why I came to-night. Here under all these lights and with all these people laughing and chattering I feel completely out of my sphere. I don't know what to talk to you about.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Wait. I tell.\" He screwed his face up in a tremendous effort to express himself: \"I been think--many words--end same. Like i-n-g.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "So he found \"Dorian Gray\" and the \"Mystic and Somber Dolores\" and the \"Belle Dame sans Merci\"; for a month was keen on naught else. The world became pale and interesting, and he tried hard to look at Princeton through the satiated eyes of Oscar Wilde and Swinburne--or \"Fingal O'Flaherty\" and \"Algernon Charles,\" as he called them in precieuse jest. He read enormously every night--Shaw, Chesterton, Barrie, Pinero, Yeats, Synge, Ernest Dowson, Arthur Symons, Keats, Sudermann, Robert Hugh Benson, the Savoy Operas--just a heterogeneous mixture, for he suddenly discovered that he had read nothing for years.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Wait!\" Samuel had risen slowly and was motioning back. Some time, somewhere, he had been struck like that before. Then he remembered--Gilly Hood. In the silence, as he dusted himself off, the whole scene in the room at Andover was before his eyes-- and he knew intuitively that he had been wrong again.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Out of the deep sophistication of Anthony an understanding formed, nothing atavistic or obscure, indeed scarcely physical at all, an understanding remembered from the romancings of many generations of minds that as she talked and caught his eyes and turned her lovely head, she moved him as he had never been moved before. The sheath that held her soul had assumed significance--that was all. She was a sun, radiant, growing, gathering light and storing it--then after an eternity pouring it forth in a glance, the fragment of a sentence, to that part of him that cherished all beauty and all illusion.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "In November they moved into Anthony's apartment, from which they sallied triumphantly to the Yale-Harvard and Harvard-Princeton football games, to the St. Nicholas ice-skating rink, to a thorough round of the theatres and to a miscellany of entertainments--from small, staid dances to the great affairs that Gloria loved, held in those few houses where lackeys with powdered wigs scurried around in magnificent Anglomania under the direction of gigantic majordomos. Their intention was to go abroad the first of the year or, at any rate, when the war was over. Anthony had actually completed a Chestertonian essay on the twelfth century by way of introduction to his proposed book and Gloria had done some extensive research work on the question of Russian sable coats--in fact the winter was approaching quite comfortably, when the Bilphistic demiurge decided suddenly in mid-December that Mrs. Gilbert's soul had aged sufficiently in its present incarnation. In consequence Anthony took a miserable and hysterical Gloria out to Kansas City, where, in the fashion of mankind, they paid the terrible and mind-shaking deference to the dead.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Anthony hung up sharply and rose. Who was Mr. Crawford? And who was it that was taking her to the ball? How long had this been going on? All these questions asked and answered themselves a dozen times, a dozen ways.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Dressed up in white flannels I went over to his lawn a little after seven, and wandered around rather ill at ease among swirls and eddies of people I didn't know--though here and there was a face I had noticed on the commuting train. I was immediately struck by the number of young Englishmen dotted about; all well dressed, all looking a little hungry, and all talking in low, earnest voices to solid and prosperous Americans. I was sure that they were selling something: bonds or insurance or automobiles. They were at least agonizingly aware of the easy money in the vicinity and convinced that it was theirs for a few words in the right key.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Gloria used the adjective \"little\" whenever she asked a favor--it made the favor sound less arduous. But Anthony laughed again--whether she wanted a cake of ice or a marble of it, he must go down-stairs to the kitchen.... Her voice followed him through the hall: \"And just a little cracker with just a little marmalade on it....\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"The bles-sed pre-cious! Did mother get powder on your old yellowy hair? Stand up now, and say--How-de-do.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "GILLESPIE: (Helplessly) They're still thin and brown. You're a vampire, that's all.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Put on 'Hearts and Flowers'!\" he howled. \"Oh, my Lord, I'm going to cast a kitten.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"You've got me.\" He raised his voice and called up to the acting skipper: \"Oh, Babe, is this your island?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "This time Anthony had a good look at him. He was young, thin, already faded; he was like his own mustache; he was like a great piece of shiny straw. His chin receded, faintly; this was offset by a magnificent and unconvincing scowl, a scowl that Anthony was to connect with the faces of many young officers during the ensuing year.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Quarter to five,\" sighed Dick; \"almost another hour to wait. Look! Two gone.\" He was pointing to Anthony, whose lids had sagged over his eyes. \"Sleep of the Patch family--\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Not by a darned sight--unless we're all children. Did you ever see a grown man when he's trying for a secret society--or a rising family whose name is up at some club? They'll jump when they hear the sound of the word. The idea that to make a man work you've got to hold gold in front of his eyes is a growth, not an axiom. We've done that for so long that we've forgotten there's any other way.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "How assured they seemed; she had expected a certain shyness, reserve at least. There were several jokes unintelligible to her, which seemed to delight every one, and the little Father Rector referred to the trio of them as \"dim old monks,\" which she appreciated, because of course they weren't monks at all. She had a lightning impression that they were especially fond of Kieth--the Father Rector had called him \"Kieth\" and one of the others had kept a hand on his shoulder all through the conversation. Then she was shaking hands again and promising to come back a little later for some ice-cream, and smiling and smiling and being rather absurdly happy . .", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "There was a stir, and Sally led the way over to their table. Amory struggled to Isabelle's side, and whispered:", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"All right,\" said Daisy. \"What'll we plan?\" She turned to me helplessly: \"What do people plan?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "She had paused slightly before the last word and Anthony suspected that she had started to say \"beautiful.\" It was undeniably what she had intended.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"What are you,\" asked the big man, \"one of these parlor Bolsheviks, one of these idealists? I must say I fail to see the difference. The idealists loaf around and write the stuff that stirs up the poor immigrants.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"There!\" she said, implying that her fingers had been worked to the bone by a brutal taskmaster.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Amory kept thinking how Monsignor would have enjoyed his own funeral. It was magnificently Catholic and liturgical. Bishop O'Neill sang solemn high mass and the cardinal gave the final absolutions. Thornton Hancock, Mrs. Lawrence, the British and Italian ambassadors, the papal delegate, and a host of friends and priests were there--yet the inexorable shears had cut through all these threads that Monsignor had gathered into his hands. To Amory it was a haunting grief to see him lying in his coffin, with closed hands upon his purple vestments.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Oh, Lord!\" cried Dick, \"neither is Morristown!' No, and neither is Santa Barbara, Gloria. Now listen. To begin with, unless you have a fortune there's no use considering any place like Newport or Southhampton or Tuxedo.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"You don't want me to go with you,\" she said evenly; \"maybe you're going to meet that--that girl--\" She could not bring herself to say wife. \"How do I know? Well, then, I reckon you're not my fellow any more. So go way.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Reaching the ground floor they naively avoided the hotel candy counter, descended the wide front staircase, and walking through several corridors found a drug-store in the Grand Central Station. After an intense examination of the perfume counter she made her purchase. Then on some mutual unmentioned impulse they strolled, arm in arm, not in the direction from which they had come, but out into Forty-third Street.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "The two women sat there in the lamplight and looked at each other, each in a different way helpless before this thing. Gloria was still pretty, as pretty as she would ever be again--her cheeks were flushed and she was wearing a new dress that she had bought--imprudently--for fifty dollars. She had hoped she could persuade Anthony to take her out to-night, to a restaurant or even to one of the great, gorgeous moving picture palaces where there would be a few people to look at her, at whom she could bear to look in turn. She wanted this because she knew her cheeks were flushed and because her dress was new and becomingly fragile. Only very occasionally, now, did they receive any invitations.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"That's a great idea, Tana. Save time. You'll make a fortune. Press one key and there's 'ing.' Hope you work it out.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "After all, it had too many associations with license and indulgence. Weak things were often beautiful, weak things were never good. And in this new loneness of his that had been selected for what greatness he might achieve, beauty must be relative or, itself a harmony, it would make only a discord.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "I began to walk about the room, examining various indefinite objects in the half darkness. A large photograph of an elderly man in yachting costume attracted me, hung on the wall over his desk.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Marjorie on being twitted only laughed. She said she was mighty glad that Warren had at last found some one who appreciated him. So the younger set laughed, too, and guessed that Marjorie didn't care and let it go at that.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Gloria,\" he lied, in a great burst of comprehension, \"of course I don't. I was thinking you might go as a nurse or something.\" He wondered dully if his grandfather would consider this.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "With an effort I managed to restrain my incredulous laughter. The very phrases were worn so threadbare that they evoked no image except that of a turbaned \"character\" leaking sawdust at every pore as he pursued a tiger through the Bois de Boulogne.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Epigrams. I'm going home,\" she said sadly. \"Let's get off the haystack and walk to the cross-roads.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Four days after that he returned at last to the apartment. Tom was engaged on a book review for The New Democracy on the staff of which he was employed. They regarded each other for a moment in silence.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Then her heart took a flying leap as a hollow ringing note like a gong echoed and re-echoed through the house. Gedney's arm had struck the big cut-glass bowl.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"But, yes. I must come. I have to come. I have read the book of Madame, and I have been charmed\"--he fumbled in his pocket--\"ah I have read of you too. In this newspaper which I read to-day it has your name.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"A classic,\" suggested Anthony, \"is a successful book that has survived the reaction of the next period or generation. Then it's safe, like a style in architecture or furniture. It's acquired a picturesque dignity to take the place of its fashion....\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"He's not like me,\" she thought \"There's a difference somewhere.\" Being a supreme egotist Ardita frequently thought about herself; never having had her egotism disputed she did it entirely naturally and with no detraction from her unquestioned charm. Though she was nineteen she gave the effect of a high-spirited precocious child, and in the present glow of her youth and beauty all the men and women she had known were but driftwood on the ripples of her temperament. She had met other egotists--in fact she found that selfish people bored her rather less than unselfish people--but as yet there had not been one she had not eventually defeated and brought to her feet.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "He went all wrong at the start, was generally considered both conceited and arrogant, and universally detested. He played football intensely, alternating a reckless brilliancy with a tendency to keep himself as safe from hazard as decency would permit. In a wild panic he backed out of a fight with a boy his own size, to a chorus of scorn, and a week later, in desperation, picked a battle with another boy very much bigger, from which he emerged badly beaten, but rather proud of himself.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Anthony went on into the Biltmore, for no reason in particular except that the entrance was at hand, and ascending the wide stair found a seat in an alcove. He was furiously aware that he had been snubbed; he was as hurt and angry as it was possible for him to be when in that condition. Nevertheless, he was stubbornly preoccupied with the necessity of obtaining some money before he went home, and once again he told over on his fingers the acquaintances he might conceivably call on in this emergency. He thought, eventually, that he might approach Mr. Howland, his broker, at his home.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "They signed a lease that night and, in the agent's car, returned jubilantly to the somnolent and dilapidated Marietta Inn, which was too broken for even the chance immoralities and consequent gaieties of a country road-house. Half the night they lay awake planning the things they were to do there. Anthony was going to work at an astounding pace on his history and thus ingratiate himself with his cynical grandfather.... When the car was repaired they would explore the country and join the nearest \"really nice\" club, where Gloria would play golf \"or something\" while Anthony wrote. This, of course, was Anthony's idea--Gloria was sure she wanted but to read and dream and be fed tomato sandwiches and lemonades by some angelic servant still in a shadowy hinterland.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Well Ardita, no use standing up there and chewing out the insides of your mouth. You ought to break those nervous habits while you're young. Come over here and sit down.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Later, some probationers passing noticed him kneeling before the pieta, and coming back after a time found him still there. And he was there until twilight came down and the courteous trees grew garrulous overhead and the crickets took up their burden of song in the dusky grass.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Yes--unless they break down mentally or physically. Of course in a discipline like ours a lot drop out.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"I've put my own books in, of course,\" said Richard Caramel hastily, \"though one or two of them are uneven--I'm afraid I wrote a little too fast when I had that magazine contract. But I don't believe in false modesty. Of course some of the critics haven't paid so much attention to me since I've been established--but, after all, it's not the critics that count. They're just sheep.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "The same girl... deep in an atmosphere of jungle music and the questioning of moral codes. Amory found it rather fascinating to feel that any popular girl he met before eight he might quite possibly kiss before twelve.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "But the grotesque, the unbelievable, the histrionic incident is about to occur, one of those incidents in which life seems set upon the passionate imitation of the lowest forms of literature. PARAMORE has been trying to emulate GLORIA, and as the commotion reaches its height he begins to spin round and round, more and more dizzily--he staggers, recovers, staggers again and then falls in the direction of the hall ... almost into the arms of old ADAM PATCH, whose approach has been rendered inaudible by the pandemonium in the room.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"It isn't,\" she said, after a moment of concentrated gazing, \"it's still there--and it looks like Old Nick--oh, Amory, what'll we do! It's just the height of your shoulder.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Damned fool!\" he exclaimed in disgust, and with a voluminous sigh rose and approached the bottle. After another glass he gave way loosely to the luxury of tears. Purposely he called up into his mind little incidents of the vanished spring, phrased to himself emotions that would make him react even more strongly to sorrow.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Tom threw on both brakes impatiently, and we slid to an abrupt dusty stop under Wilson's sign. After a moment the proprietor emerged from the interior of his establishment and gazed hollow-eyed at the car.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"I want to speak to Daisy alone,\" he insisted. \"She's all excited now--\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Shall we all go in my car?\" suggested Gatsby. He felt the hot, green leather of the seat. \"I ought to have left it in the shade.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"No--but he's got me all balled up. Either I've misjudged him or he's suddenly become the world's worst radical.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Meanwhile the suit progressed slowly, with interminable examinations of witnesses and marshallings of evidence. The preliminary proceedings of settling the estate were finished. Mr. Haight saw no reason why the case should not come up for trial before summer.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Their hands dropped and Anthony hesitated. Maury made no move to introduce him, but only stood there regarding him with an inscrutable feline silence.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "His hand, trembling with his effort at self-control, bore to his lips the last of his glass of ale. Daisy's voice got us to our feet and out on to the blazing gravel drive.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"I'm going to.\" Gilly nodded his head in fierce agreement. \"Don't you worry. He needn't think I'm any ole butler.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Sally Carrol Happer, resting her chin on her arm, and her arm on an old window-seat, gazed sleepily down over the spangled dust whence the heat waves were rising for the first time this spring. She was watching a very ancient Ford turn a perilous corner and rattle and groan to a jolting stop at the end of the walk. See made no sound and in a minute a strident familiar whistle rent the air. Sally Carrol smiled and blinked.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Michaelis and this man reached her first, but when they had torn open her shirtwaist, still damp with perspiration, they saw that her left breast was swinging loose like a flap, and there was no need to listen for the heart beneath. The mouth was wide open and ripped a little at the corners, as though she had choked a little in giving up the tremendous vitality she had stored so long.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Several times he turned his head and looked back for their car, and if the traffic delayed them he slowed up until they came into sight. I think he was afraid they would dart down a side-street and out of his life forever.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"I love to be with you,\" she said, \"more than with any man I've ever met. And I like your looks and your dark old hair, and the way you go over the side of the rail when we come ashore. In fact, Curtis Carlyle, I like all the things you do when you're perfectly natural. I think you've got nerve and you know how I feel about that. Sometimes when you're around I've been tempted to kiss you suddenly and tell you that you were just an idealistic boy with a lot of caste nonsense in his head.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "The man nodded, unable to follow such a sally of spontaneity. There was something subtly immoral in doing anything without several months' consideration.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "The visits to his broker varied from semi-social chats to discussions of the safety of eight per cent investments, and Anthony always enjoyed them. The big trust company building seemed to link him definitely to the great fortunes whose solidarity he respected and to assure him that he was adequately chaperoned by the hierarchy of finance. From these hurried men he derived the same sense of safety that he had in contemplating his grandfather's money--even more, for the latter appeared, vaguely, a demand loan made by the world to Adam Patch's own moral righteousness, while this money down-town seemed rather to have been grasped and held by sheer indomitable strengths and tremendous feats of will; in addition, it seemed more definitely and explicitly--money.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "I remember the portrait of him up in Gatsby's bedroom, a grey, florid man with a hard, empty face--the pioneer debauchee, who during one phase of American life brought back to the Eastern seaboard the savage violence of the frontier brothel and saloon. It was indirectly due to Cody that Gatsby drank so little. Sometimes in the course of gay parties women used to rub champagne into his hair; for himself he formed the habit of letting liquor alone.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Amory based his loss of faith in help from others on several sweeping syllogisms. Granted that his generation, however bruised and decimated from this Victorian war, were the heirs of progress. Waving aside petty differences of conclusions which, although they might occasionally cause the deaths of several millions of young men, might be explained away--supposing that after all Bernard Shaw and Bernhardi, Bonar Law and Bethmann-Hollweg were mutual heirs of progress if only in agreeing against the ducking of witches--waiving the antitheses and approaching individually these men who seemed to be the leaders, he was repelled by the discrepancies and contradictions in the men themselves.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "He leaned forward hurriedly and tapped at the glass. The taxi was only at Brooklyn Bridge, but the metre showed a dollar and eighty cents, and Anthony would never have omitted the ten per cent tip.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Yes--sort of. You better not come in with me.\" Again he felt helplessly in his pockets. \"Say,\" he continued, apologetically, swaying dangerously on his feet, \"I'm afraid I haven't got a cent.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Burne, I think they're the ugliest-looking crowd I ever came across. They look like an old man's home.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "We both looked down at the grass--there was a sharp line where my ragged lawn ended and the darker, well-kept expanse of his began. I suspected that he meant my grass.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "The apartment was on the top floor--a small living-room, a small dining-room, a small bedroom, and a bath. The living-room was crowded to the doors with a set of tapestried furniture entirely too large for it, so that to move about was to stumble continually over scenes of ladies swinging in the gardens of Versailles. The only picture was an over-enlarged photograph, apparently a hen sitting on a blurred rock. Looked at from a distance, however, the hen resolved itself into a bonnet, and the countenance of a stout old lady beamed down into the room. Several old copies of Town Tattle lay on the table together with a copy of Simon Called Peter, and some of the small scandal magazines of Broadway.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Doesn't it? Can't you see us travelling round and spending money right and left, and being worshipped by bell-boys and waiters? Oh, blessed are the simple rich for they inherit the earth!\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "ROSALIND: Well--here's one little thing. There was a little poor boy we met in Rye Tuesday afternoon--and, oh, Dawson took him on his lap and talked to him and promised him an Indian suit--and next day he remembered and bought it--and, oh, it was so sweet and I couldn't help thinking he'd be so nice to--to our children--take care of them--and I wouldn't have to worry.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "All went well at first. There was no enthusiasm, but each one of the seventeen ranchers concerned knew Samuel's business, knew what he had behind him, and that they had as little chance of holding out as flies on a window-pane. Some of them were resigned--some of them cared like the devil, but they'd talked it over, argued it with lawyers and couldn't see any possible loophole. Five of the ranches had oil, the other twelve were part of the chance, but quite as necessary to Hamil's purpose, in any event.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Your last letter was quite enough to make me worry about you. It was not a bit like yourself. Reading between the lines I should imagine that your engagement to this girl is making you rather unhappy, and I see you have lost all the feeling of romance that you had before the war. You make a great mistake if you think you can be romantic without religion. Sometimes I think that with both of us the secret of success, when we find it, is the mystical element in us: something flows into us that enlarges our personalities, and when it ebbs out our personalities shrink; I should call your last two letters rather shrivelled.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Remember now!\" he warned her nervously, \"the man said we oughtn't to go over twenty miles an hour for the first five thousand miles.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Shut up!\" roared McIntyre suddenly. \"I want the privilege of talking.\" He walked to the door and looked out across the land, the sunny, steaming pasturage that began almost at his feet and ended with the gray-green of the distant mountains. When he turned around his mouth was trembling.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Oh, he's all right. Here's the old jitney waiter. If you ask me, I want a double Daiquiri.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"You are!\" He took down his drink as if it were a drop in the bottom of a glass. \"How you ever get anything done is beyond me.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Well--I'll tell you. I guess you don't know about the auto accident,\" he romanced.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Gloria wrote that she was reading a great deal. What a mess they had made of their affairs, she said. She had so little to do now that she spent her time imagining how differently things might have turned out. Her whole environment appeared insecure--and a few years back she had seemed to hold all the strings in her own little hand....", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "There was the bowl, reflecting the electric light in crimson squares edged with black and yellow squares edged with blue, ponderous and glittering, grotesquely and triumphantly ominous. She took a step forward and paused again; another step and she would see over the top and into the inside--another step and she would see an edge of white--another step--her hands fell on the rough, cold surface--", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "His thoughts zigzagged back to Marjorie. This disappearance would be like other disappearances. When she reappeared he would demand where she had been--would be told emphatically that it was none of his business. What a pity she was so sure of him! She basked in the knowledge that no other girl in town interested him; she defied him to fall in love with Genevieve or Roberta.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Oh, no,\" said the first girl, \"it couldn't be that, because he was in the American army during the war.\" As our credulity switched back to her she leaned forward with enthusiasm. \"You look at him sometimes when he thinks nobody's looking at him. I'll bet he killed a man.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "A man named Klipspringer was there so often that he became known as \"the boarder\"--I doubt if he had any other home. Of theatrical people there were Gus Waize and Horace O'Donavan and Lester Myer and George Duckweed and Francis Bull. Also from New York were the Chromes and the Backhyssons and the Dennickers and Russel Betty and the Corrigans and the Kellehers and the Dewars and the Scullys and S. W. Belcher and the Smirkes and the young Quinns, divorced now, and Henry L. Palmetto, who killed himself by jumping in front of a subway train in Times Square.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "He broke off suddenly--Gloria was sobbing. They had reached home, and when they entered the apartment she threw herself upon the lounge, crying as though he had struck at her very soul.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"It was pretty bad,\" he admitted. \"The poor little beast turned around and looked at me rather plaintively as though hoping I'd pick him up and be kind to him--he was really just a kitten--and before he knew it a big foot launched out at him and caught his little back\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "He pictured the rooms where these people lived--where the patterns of the blistered wall-papers were heavy reiterated sunflowers on green and yellow backgrounds, where there were tin bathtubs and gloomy hallways and verdureless, unnamable spaces in back of the buildings; where even love dressed as seduction--a sordid murder around the corner, illicit motherhood in the flat above. And always there was the economical stuffiness of indoor winter, and the long summers, nightmares of perspiration between sticky enveloping walls... dirty restaurants where careless, tired people helped themselves to sugar with their own used coffee-spoons, leaving hard brown deposits in the bowl.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "But the lure of promiscuity, colorful, various, labyrinthine, and ever a little odorous and stale, had no call or promise for Gloria. Had she so desired she would have remained, without hesitation, without regret; as it was she could face coolly the six hostile and offended eyes that followed her out into the hall with forced politeness and hollow words.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Samuel didn't argue. He rather liked the idea and he made up his mind that, whatever it was, he would put it through just as Carhart wanted it. That was his employer's greatest hobby, and the men around him were as dumb under direct orders as infantry subalterns.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "On that first night, as they stood by the gate, he kissed Dorothy and made an engagement to meet her the following Saturday. Then he went out to camp, and with the light burning lawlessly in his tent, he wrote a long letter to Gloria, a glowing letter, full of the sentimental dark, full of the remembered breath of flowers, full of a true and exceeding tenderness--these things he had learned again for a moment in a kiss given and taken under a rich warm moonlight just an hour before.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Jill's low spirits seemed to have gone faster than the scattering night. \"Let me tell you,\" she said emphatically, \"when you want to stage that sorta party stay away from liquor, and when you want to get tight stay away from bedrooms.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "She rose at six and sliding uncomfortably into her clothes stumbled up to the diner for a cup of coffee. The snow had filtered into the vestibules and covered the door with a slippery coating. It was intriguing this cold, it crept in everywhere. Her breath was quite visible and she blew into the air with a naive enjoyment. Seated in the diner she stared out the window at white hills and valleys and scattered pines whose every branch was a green platter for a cold feast of snow.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "On the stage she felt better. This was her dance--and she always felt that the way she did it wasn't suggestive any more than to some men every pretty girl is suggestive. She made it a stunt.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Clarence Endive was from East Egg, as I remember. He came only once, in white knickerbockers, and had a fight with a bum named Etty in the garden. From farther out on the Island came the Cheadles and the O. R. P. Schraeders, and the Stonewall Jackson Abrams of Georgia, and the Fishguards and the Ripley Snells. Snell was there three days before he went to the penitentiary, so drunk out on the gravel drive that Mrs. Ulysses Swett's automobile ran over his right hand. The Dancies came, too, and S. B. Whitebait, who was well over sixty, and Maurice A. Flink, and the Hammerheads, and Beluga the tobacco importer, and Beluga's girls.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Blood rushed back into her limbs, blood and life together. With a start of energy she sat upright, shifting her body until her feet touched the floor over the side of the bed. She knew what she must do--now, now, before it was too late. She must go out into this cool damp, out, away, to feel the wet swish of the grass around her feet and the fresh moisture on her forehead. Mechanically she struggled into her clothes, groping in the dark of the closet for a hat.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"He came to my door, drunk. I think I'd gotten sort of crazy by that time.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Hm,\" he said, \"Stonewall Jackson claimed that lemon-juice cleared his head. Your head feel pretty clear?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "The car was crowded and already thick with breath. It was one of the type known as \"tourist\" cars, a sort of brummagem Pullman, with a bare floor, and straw seats that needed cleaning. Nevertheless, Anthony greeted it with relief. He had vaguely expected that the trip South would be made in a freight-car, in one end of which would stand eight horses and in the other forty men. He had heard the \"hommes 40, chevaux 8\" story so often that it had become confused and ominous.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Still,\" Ardita continued, \"the men kept gathering--old men and young men, my mental and physical inferiors, most of them, but all intensely desiring to have me--to own this rather magnificent proud tradition I'd built up round me. Do you see?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Ladies and gentlemen,\" he cried. \"At the request of Mr. Gatsby we are going to play for you Mr. Vladmir Tostoff's latest work, which attracted so much attention at Carnegie Hall last May. If you read the papers you know there was a big sensation.\" He smiled with jovial condescension, and added: \"Some sensation!\" Whereupon everybody laughed.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "It was not fashionable then. It was to be fashionable in five or six years. At that time it was considered extremely daring.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Daisy put her arm through his abruptly, but he seemed absorbed in what he had just said. Possibly it had occurred to him that the colossal significance of that light had now vanished forever. Compared to the great distance that had separated him from Daisy it had seemed very near to her, almost touching her. It had seemed as close as a star to the moon. Now it was again a green light on a dock.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Under the glass portcullis of a theatre Amory stood, watching the first great drops of rain splatter down and flatten to dark stains on the sidewalk. The air became gray and opalescent; a solitary light suddenly outlined a window over the way; then another light; then a hundred more danced and glimmered into vision. Under his feet a thick, iron-studded skylight turned yellow; in the street the lamps of the taxi-cabs sent out glistening sheens along the already black pavement. The unwelcome November rain had perversely stolen the day's last hour and pawned it with that ancient fence, the night.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"You see,\" said Carlyle softly, \"this is the beauty I want. Beauty has got to be astonishing, astounding--it's got to burst in on you like a dream, like the exquisite eyes of a girl.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "On the following Wednesday evening there was a dinner-dance at the country club. When the guests strolled in Bernice found her place-card with a slight feeling of irritation. Though at her right sat G. Reece Stoddard, a most desirable and distinguished young bachelor, the all-important left held only Charley Paulson. Charley lacked height, beauty, and social shrewdness, and in her new enlightenment Bernice decided that his only qualification to be her partner was that he had never been stuck with her. But this feeling of irritation left with the last of the soup-plates, and Marjorie's specific instruction came to her.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Well, at any rate, we both fitted. If our corners were not rubbed off they were at least pulled in. But deep in us both was something that made us require more for happiness. I didn't know what I wanted. I went from man to man, restless, impatient, month by month getting less acquiescent and more dissatisfied.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"--and I don't suppose he ever thought I was much good. I didn't go into business, you see. But I feel certain that up to last summer I was one of the beneficiaries. We had a house out in Marietta, and one night grandfather got the notion he'd come over and see us. It just happened that there was a rather gay party going on and he arrived without any warning.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Come on,\" she urged. \"I'll telephone my sister Catherine. She's said to be very beautiful by people who ought to know.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"About myself! What on earth have I got to do with whatever stray felonies you've committed?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "I went back to the drawing-room and thought for an instant that they were chance visitors, all these official people who suddenly filled it. But, though they drew back the sheet and looked at Gatsby with shocked eyes, his protest continued in my brain:", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Very well. I'll take care of your reputation then. Just keep yourself on the right side of the fence.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"No, I don't want you with me. I want to be alone. I want to sleep--oh, I want to sleep. And then to-morrow, when you've got all the smell of whiskey and cigarettes out of the house, and everything straight, and Hull is gone, then I'll come home. If I went now, that thing--oh--!\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Her eyes brightened and he waited for her to enlarge on the theme. He had drawn her out, at any rate--he bent forward slightly to catch the words.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "He had no great self-reproach--some, of course, but there were other things dominant in him now, far more urgent. He was not so much in love with Gloria as mad for her. Unless he could have her near him again, kiss her, hold her close and acquiescent, he wanted nothing more from life. By her three minutes of utter unwavering indifference the girl had lifted herself from a high but somehow casual position in his mind, to be instead his complete preoccupation. However much his wild thoughts varied between a passionate desire for her kisses and an equally passionate craving to hurt and mar her, the residue of his mind craved in finer fashion to possess the triumphant soul that had shone through those three minutes.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"My dear, wasn't that odd! And he left town about then didn't he?\" Mrs. Fairboalt was scribbling italicized notes on her memory--\"hard, beautiful, empty, and easy to see through.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "It's just destiny--she thought--it's just the way things work out in this damn world. If cowardice is all that's been holding me back there won't be any more holding back. So we'll just let things take their course and never be sorry.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "I hadn't gone twenty yards when I heard my name and Gatsby stepped from between two bushes into the path. I must have felt pretty weird by that time, because I could think of nothing except the luminosity of his pink suit under the moon.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"No, it's business. 'Heart Talks' have been incorporated and we're putting some shares on the market--\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Well--\" she said with a quick upward glance, \"isn't it? As long as I'm--young.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Amory, after an easy victory in the first sophomore Princetonian competition, stepped into a vacancy of the cast as Boiling Oil, a Pirate Lieutenant. Every night for the last week they had rehearsed \"Ha-Ha Hortense!\" in the Casino, from two in the afternoon until eight in the morning, sustained by dark and powerful coffee, and sleeping in lectures through the interim. A rare scene, the Casino. A big, barnlike auditorium, dotted with boys as girls, boys as pirates, boys as babies; the scenery in course of being violently set up; the spotlight man rehearsing by throwing weird shafts into angry eyes; over all the constant tuning of the orchestra or the cheerful tumpty-tump of a Triangle tune. The boy who writes the lyrics stands in the corner, biting a pencil, with twenty minutes to think of an encore; the business manager argues with the secretary as to how much money can be spent on \"those damn milkmaid costumes\"; the old graduate, president in ninety-eight, perches on a box and thinks how much simpler it was in his day.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "One afternoon in Coronado, where they made the longest stay of their trip, more than three weeks, Gloria was arraying herself brilliantly for tea. Anthony, who had been down-stairs listening to the latest rumor bulletins of war in Europe, entered the room, kissed the back of her powdered neck, and went to his dresser. After a great pulling out and pushing in of drawers, evidently unsatisfactory, he turned around to the Unfinished Masterpiece.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "They rejoiced happily, gay again with reborn irresponsibility. Then he told her of his opportunity to go abroad, and that he was almost ashamed to reject it.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "ANTHONY: (interested) \"The Demon Lover\"? Oh \"woman wailing\"--No--not a bit bad! Not bad at all--d'you think?", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Back in his apartment after the bridal dinner, Anthony snapped out his lights and, feeling impersonal and fragile as a piece of china waiting on a serving table, got into bed. It was a warm night--a sheet was enough for comfort--and through his wide-open windows came sound, evanescent and summery, alive with remote anticipation. He was thinking that the young years behind him, hollow and colorful, had been lived in facile and vacillating cynicism upon the recorded emotions of men long dust. And there was something beyond that; he knew now. There was the union of his soul with Gloria's, whose radiant fire and freshness was the living material of which the dead beauty of books was made.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "December. Cool winds at night now, and damp, chilly mornings on the drill-grounds. As the heat faded, Anthony found himself increasingly glad to be alive. Renewed strangely through his body, he worried little and existed in the present with a sort of animal content. It was not that Gloria or the life that Gloria represented was less often in his thoughts--it was simply that she became, day by day, less real, less vivid.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"That's altogether about seventy-five hundred a year.\" Then he added softly: \"It ought to be plenty. If you have any sense it ought to be plenty. But the question is whether you have any or not.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Anything I hate is to get my head stuck in a pool,\" mumbled Miss Baedeker. \"They almost drowned me once over in New Jersey.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "TANA:(His brow undergoing preposterous contraction) I play train song. How you call?--railroad song. So call in my countree. Like train. It go so-o-o; that mean whistle; train start.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"No wind is stirring in the grass; not one wind stirs... the water in the hidden pools, as glass, fronts the full moon and so inters the golden token in its icy mass,\" chanted Eleanor to the trees that skeletoned the body of the night. \"Isn't it ghostly here? If you can hold your horse's feet up, let's cut through the woods and find the hidden pools.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "The front room had fine high ceilings and three large windows that loomed down pleasantly upon Fifty-second Street. In its appointments it escaped by a safe margin being of any particular period; it escaped stiffness, stuffiness, bareness, and decadence. It smelt neither of smoke nor of incense--it was tall and faintly blue. There was a deep lounge of the softest brown leather with somnolence drifting about it like a haze. There was a high screen of Chinese lacquer chiefly concerned with geometrical fishermen and huntsmen in black and gold; this made a corner alcove for a voluminous chair guarded by an orange-colored standing lamp.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "He turned thankfully down the hush that blew like a dark wind out of a cross-street, passed a bakery-restaurant in whose windows a dozen roast chickens turned over and over on an automatic spit. From the door came a smell that was hot, doughy, and pink. A drug-store next, exhaling medicines, spilt soda water and a pleasant undertone from the cosmetic counter; then a Chinese laundry, still open, steamy and stifling, smelling folded and vaguely yellow. All these depressed him; reaching Sixth Avenue he stopped at a corner cigar store and emerged feeling better--the cigar store was cheerful, humanity in a navy blue mist, buying a luxury ....", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "When we pulled out into the winter night and the real snow, our snow, began to stretch out beside us and twinkle against the windows, and the dim lights of small Wisconsin stations moved by, a sharp wild brace came suddenly into the air. We drew in deep breaths of it as we walked back from dinner through the cold vestibules, unutterably aware of our identity with this country for one strange hour, before we melted indistinguishably into it again.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"You see,\" said Kerry, \"the car belongs down there. In fact, it was stolen from Asbury Park by persons unknown, who deserted it in Princeton and left for the West. Heartless Humbird here got permission from the city council to deliver it.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Who wants to go to town?\" demanded Daisy insistently. Gatsby's eyes floated toward her. \"Ah,\" she cried, \"you look so cool.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Wait a minute,\" said Amory quietly. \"Just drop that big-bully stuff. We merely got caught, that's all.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "She was by the bedside now, very deliberate and calm. She acted swiftly. Bending over she found one of the braids of Marjorie's hair, followed it up with her hand to the point nearest the head, and then holding it a little slack so that the sleeper would feel no pull, she reached down with the shears and severed it. With the pigtail in her hand she held her breath. Marjorie had muttered something in her sleep.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"You men may think the war is over. Well, let me tell you, it isn't! Those fellows aren't going to sign the armistice. It's another trick, and we'd be crazy to let anything slacken up here in the company, because, let me tell you, we're going to sail from here within a week, and when we do we're going to see some real fighting.\" He paused that they might get the full effect of his pronouncement.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "I began to like New York, the racy, adventurous feel of it at night, and the satisfaction that the constant flicker of men and women and machines gives to the restless eye. I liked to walk up Fifth Avenue and pick out romantic women from the crowd and imagine that in a few minutes I was going to enter into their lives, and no one would ever know or disapprove. Sometimes, in my mind, I followed them to their apartments on the corners of hidden streets, and they turned and smiled back at me before they faded through a door into warm darkness. At the enchanted metropolitan twilight I felt a haunting loneliness sometimes, and felt it in others--poor young clerks who loitered in front of windows waiting until it was time for a solitary restaurant dinner--young clerks in the dusk, wasting the most poignant moments of night and life.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"You wouldn't have to do any business with Wolfshiem.\" Evidently he thought that I was shying away from the \"gonnegtion\" mentioned at lunch, but I assured him he was wrong. He waited a moment longer, hoping I'd begin a conversation, but I was too absorbed to be responsive, so he went unwillingly home.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Ten o'clock,\" she remarked, apparently finding the time on the ceiling. \"Time for this good girl to go to bed.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Why, Anthony!\" Her eyes were startled. \"Do you want to go? Without me?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Just prior to the seventh false start a third sound contributes to the subdued discord. It is a taxi outside. A minute's silence, then the taxi again, its boisterous retreat almost obliterating the scrape of footsteps on the cinder walk. The door-bell shrieks alarmingly through the house.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "We were silent. The voice in the hall rose high with annoyance: \"Very well, then, I won't sell you the car at all... I'm under no obligations to you at all... and as for your bothering me about it at lunch time, I won't stand that at all!\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"She does, though. The trouble is that sometimes she gets foolish ideas in her head and doesn't know what she's doing.\" He nodded sagely. \"And what's more, I love Daisy too. Once in a while I go off on a spree and make a fool of myself, but I always come back, and in my heart I love her all the time.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Oh, I'll admit there's money in it eventually. Talent doesn't starve any more. Even art gets enough to eat these days. Artists draw your magazine covers, write your advertisements, hash out rag-time for your theatres. By the great commercializing of printing you've found a harmless, polite occupation for every genius who might have carved his own niche.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Don't be cross,\" begged Anthony piteously. \"We've got nothing but each other, after all.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"I began thinking--and it seemed to me that you ought to think a little more about the after-life. You ought to be--steadier\"--he paused and seemed to grope about for the right word--\"more industrious--why--\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Very well, then. Here's my history: I was a 'why' child. I wanted to see the wheels go round. My father was a young economics professor at Princeton. He brought me up on the system of answering every question I asked him to the best of his ability.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Warren\"----a soft voice at his elbow broke in upon his thoughts, and he turned to see Marjorie, flushed and radiant as usual. She laid a hand on his shoulder and a glow settled almost imperceptibly over him.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"You don't know how true you spoke. No idea. 'At's the whole trouble.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Both of them were immense. Under the ceilings of the former even the great canopied bed seemed of only average size. On the floor an exotic rug of crimson velvet was soft as fleece on his bare feet. His bathroom, in contrast to the rather portentous character of his bedroom, was gay, bright, extremely habitable and even faintly facetious. Framed around the walls were photographs of four celebrated thespian beauties of the day: Julia Sanderson as \"The Sunshine Girl,\" Ina Claire as \"The Quaker Girl,\" Billie Burke as \"The Mind-the-Paint Girl,\" and Hazel Dawn as \"The Pink Lady.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"And personally I hate New Jersey. Then, of course, there's upper New York, above Tuxedo.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Let's be frank--we'll never see each other again. I wanted to come out here with you because I thought you were the best-looking girl in sight. You really don't care whether you ever see me again, do you?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "He knew that his contempt was unreasonable. He, knew that he would have changed places with Dick unhesitatingly. He himself had tried his best to write with his tongue in his cheek. Ah, well, then--can a man disparage his life-work so readily? ...", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "About one o'clock they moved to Maxim's, and two found them in Deviniere's. Sloane had been drinking consecutively and was in a state of unsteady exhilaration, but Amory was quite tiresomely sober; they had run across none of those ancient, corrupt buyers of champagne who usually assisted their New York parties. They were just through dancing and were making their way back to their chairs when Amory became aware that some one at a near-by table was looking at him. He turned and glanced casually... a middle-aged man dressed in a brown sack suit, it was, sitting a little apart at a table by himself and watching their party intently. At Amory's glance he smiled faintly.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Ten o'clock found Gloria and Anthony beginning a dance. Just as they were out of ear-shot of the table she said in a low voice:", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Amory kept his temper with difficulty. He became aware that he had not an ounce of real affection for Isabelle, but her coldness piqued him. He wanted to kiss her, kiss her a lot, because then he knew he could leave in the morning and not care. On the contrary, if he didn't kiss her, it would worry him.... It would interfere vaguely with his idea of himself as a conqueror.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"It's all sunshine outdoors,\" he said gravely. \"Don't you want to take a walk?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "It was not for several months that Beatrice wrote Amory the full situation. The entire residue of the Blaine and O'Hara fortunes consisted of the place at Lake Geneva and approximately a half million dollars, invested now in fairly conservative six-per-cent holdings. In fact, Beatrice wrote that she was putting the money into railroad and street-car bonds as fast as she could conveniently transfer it.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Turning over the pages her eyes rested idly on the scattered entries of the past four months. She read the last few carefully.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"What do you think of it up here?\" demanded Harry eagerly. \"Does it surprise you? Is it what you expected I mean?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "He became conscious of his stomach. As they stepped into the machine he hurriedly slapped the paint of diplomacy over a rather box-like plan he had conceived. It was based upon some \"trade-lasts\" gleaned at dancing-school, to the effect that he was \"awful good-looking and English, sort of.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "And Monsignor, upon whom a cardinal rested, had moments of strange and horrible insecurity--inexplicable in a religion that explained even disbelief in terms of its own faith: if you doubted the devil it was the devil that made you doubt him. Amory had seen Monsignor go to the houses of stolid philistines, read popular novels furiously, saturate himself in routine, to escape from that horror.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Not for a week did Anthony muster the courage to go to Tarrytown. The prospect was revolting and left alone he would have been incapable of making the trip--but if his will had deteriorated in these past three years, so had his power to resist urging. Gloria compelled him to go. It was all very well to wait a week, she said, for that would give his grandfather's violent animosity time to cool--but to wait longer would be an error--it would give it a chance to harden.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "My own face had now assumed a deep tropical burn. I couldn't muster up a single commonplace out of the thousand in my head.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "He wouldn't say another word. His correctness grew on him as we neared the city. We passed Port Roosevelt, where there was a glimpse of red-belted oceangoing ships, and sped along a cobbled slum lined with the dark, undeserted saloons of the faded-gilt nineteen-hundreds. Then the valley of ashes opened out on both sides of us, and I had a glimpse of Mrs. Wilson straining at the garage pump with panting vitality as we went by.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "There was one brilliant place in \"Ha-Ha Hortense!\" It is a Princeton tradition that whenever a Yale man who is a member of the widely advertised \"Skull and Bones\" hears the sacred name mentioned, he must leave the room. It is also a tradition that the members are invariably successful in later life, amassing fortunes or votes or coupons or whatever they choose to amass. Therefore, at each performance of \"Ha-Ha Hortense!\" half-a-dozen seats were kept from sale and occupied by six of the worst-looking vagabonds that could be hired from the streets, further touched up by the Triangle make-up man. At the moment in the show where Firebrand, the Pirate Chief, pointed at his black flag and said, \"I am a Yale graduate--note my Skull and Bones!\"--at this very moment the six vagabonds were instructed to rise conspicuously and leave the theatre with looks of deep melancholy and an injured dignity. It was claimed though never proved that on one occasion the hired Elis were swelled by one of the real thing.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Her eyes were soft as shadows. Were they violet, or was it their blue darkness mingling with the gray hues of dusk?", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Well,\" he said, \"Charlie Paulson's the man to see. He'll book you inside of four days, once he sees you work out. He won't be in now, but I'll get hold of him for to-morrow night.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "They were formally introduced two days later, and his aunt told him her history. The Ramillys were two: old Mr. Ramilly and his granddaughter, Eleanor. She had lived in France with a restless mother whom Amory imagined to have been very like his own, on whose death she had come to America, to live in Maryland. She had gone to Baltimore first to stay with a bachelor uncle, and there she insisted on being a debutante at the age of seventeen. She had a wild winter and arrived in the country in March, having quarrelled frantically with all her Baltimore relatives, and shocked them into fiery protest.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Another room . . . the same breathing, enlivened by one ghastly snort that sent his heart again on its tour of his breast. Round object--watch; chain; roll of bills; stick-pins; two rings--he remembered that he had got rings from the other bureau.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Oh, Isabelle,\" he reproached himself, \"I'm a goopher. Really, I'm sorry--I shouldn't have held you so close.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"It belonged to Demaine, the oil man.\" He turned me around again, politely and abruptly. \"We'll go inside.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "The trait first showed itself in a dozen incidents of little more than nervousness--his warning to a taxi-driver against fast driving, in Chicago; his refusal to take her to a certain tough cafe she had always wished to visit; these of course admitted the conventional interpretation--that it was of her he had been thinking; nevertheless, their culminative weight disturbed her. But something that occurred in a San Francisco hotel, when they had been married a week, gave the matter certainty.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Haven't,\" insisted Rahill. \"I let people impose on me here and don't get anything out of it. I'm the prey of my friends, damn it--do their lessons, get 'em out of trouble, pay 'em stupid summer visits, and always entertain their kid sisters; keep my temper when they get selfish and then they think they pay me back by voting for me and telling me I'm the 'big man' of St. Regis's. I want to get where everybody does their own work and I can tell people where to go. I'm tired of being nice to every poor fish in school.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"I don't drink so very much,\" he declared. \"Last month I didn't touch a drop for three weeks. And I only get really tight about once a week.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"I know,\" agreed Marcia, nodding--\"your name's Horace. I just call you Omar because you remind me of a smoked cigarette.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "He thought back through two years, of Burne as a hurried, nervous freshman, quite submerged in his brother's personality. Then he remembered an incident of sophomore year, in which Burne had been suspected of the leading role.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Good night,\" called Miss Baker from the stairs. \"I haven't heard a word.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "She had gone some distance along the barely discernible road, probably half a mile, passed a single deserted barn that loomed up, black and foreboding, the only building of any sort between the gray house and Marietta; then she turned the fork, where the road entered the wood and ran between two high walls of leaves and branches that nearly touched overhead. She noticed suddenly a thin, longitudinal gleam of silver upon the road before her, like a bright sword half embedded in the mud. As she came closer she gave a little cry of satisfaction--it was a wagon-rut full of water, and glancing heavenward she saw a light rift of sky and knew that the moon was out.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Oh, I wasn't thinking about that. I was considering whether we hadn't better bob your hair.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Well--I'm not afraid of the dark, so I put on my slicker and rubber boots and came out. You see I was always afraid, before, to say I didn't believe in God--because the lightning might strike me--but here I am and it hasn't, of course, but the main point is that this time I wasn't any more afraid of it than I had been when I was a Christian Scientist, like I was last year. So now I know I'm a materialist and I was fraternizing with the hay when you came out and stood by the woods, scared to death.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Gilly interrupted this sentence by rising and walking up to Samuel. He paused several inches away and eyed him fiercely.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "That state of things continued, assumed an air of permanency. Nothing harmed Gloria or changed her or moved her. And then out of a clear sky one day she informed her mother that undergraduates wearied her. She was absolutely going to no more college dances.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Lois gasped. She was not prepared for this. At first when she had conceived the plan of taking the hot journey down to Baltimore staying the night with a friend and then coming out to see her brother, she had felt rather consciously virtuous, hoped he wouldn't be priggish or resentful about her not having come before--but walking here with him under the trees seemed such a little thing, and surprisingly a happy thing.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Yes,\" he said with his eyes still far away--and she felt that his intense abstraction was as much a part of his personality as his attention. \"Yes, I suppose I was, when I was--sober.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Jimmy was bound to get ahead. He always had some resolves like this or something. Do you notice what he's got about improving his mind? He was always great for that. He told me I et like a hog once, and I beat him for it.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Oh, what does it matter?\" see cried; \"she's got blood-poisoning. Can't you hear?\" He looked at her bewildered--sat half-way up in bed.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "On a warm impulse he wrapped them in brown paper from the bottom of his army trunk, and printed false teeth on the package in clumsy pencil letters. Then, the next night, he walked down Philmore Street, and shied the package onto the lawn so that it would be near the door. Next day the paper announced that the police had a clew--they knew that the burglar was in town. However, they didn't mention what the clew was.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "There is no confusion like the confusion of a simple mind, and as we drove away Tom was feeling the hot whips of panic. His wife and his mistress, until an hour ago secure and inviolate, were slipping precipitately from his control. Instinct made him step on the accelerator with the double purpose of overtaking Daisy and leaving Wilson behind, and we sped along toward Astoria at fifty miles an hour, until, among the spidery girders of the elevated, we came in sight of the easygoing blue coupe.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "She followed him out of the sleigh and waited while he hitched the horse. A party of four--Gordon, Myra, Roger Patton, and another girl--drew up beside them with a mighty jingle of bells. There were quite a crowd already, bundled in fur or sheepskin, shouting and calling to each other as they moved through the snow, which was now so thick that people could scarcely be distinguished a few yards away.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "He dumped her in a bouncing bundle on the couch, and rushed off to the kitchen, shouting \"Tana! Tana!\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "ROSALIND: (With a burst of insight) Amory, you're young. I'm young. People excuse us now for our poses and vanities, for treating people like Sancho and yet getting away with it. They excuse us now. But you've got a lot of knocks coming to you--", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "To Gloria the shrinkage of their income was a remarkable phenomenon, without explanation or precedent--that it could happen at all within the space of five years seemed almost an intended cruelty, conceived and executed by a sardonic God. When they were married seventy-five hundred a year had seemed ample for a young couple, especially when augmented by the expectation of many millions. Gloria had failed to realize that it was decreasing not only in amount but in purchasing power until the payment of Mr. Haight's retaining fee of fifteen thousand dollars made the fact suddenly and startlingly obvious. When Anthony was drafted they had calculated their income at over four hundred a month, with the dollar even then decreasing in value, but on his return to New York they discovered an even more alarming condition of affairs. They were receiving only forty-five hundred a year from their investments.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "The music eased to a sighing complaint, and from outside drifted in the full-throated remnant chant of the marching clubs. It grew louder like some paean of a viking tribe traversing an ancient wild; it swelled--they were coming nearer; then a row of torches appeared, and another and another, and keeping time with their moccasined feet a long column of gray-mackinawed figures swept in, snow-shoes slung at their shoulders, torches soaring and flickering as their voice rose along the great walls.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "... And, after all, an obsolete list. She was in love now, set for the eternal romance that was to be the synthesis of all romance, yet sad for these men and these moonlights and for the \"thrills\" she had had--and the kisses. The past--her past, oh, what a joy! She had been exuberantly happy.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Mr. McKee was a pale, feminine man from the flat below. He had just shaved, for there was a white spot of lather on his cheekbone, and he was most respectful in his greeting to everyone in the room. He informed me that he was in the \"artistic game,\" and I gathered later that he was a photographer and had made the dim enlargement of Mrs. Wilson's mother which hovered like an ectoplasm on the wall. His wife was shrill, languid, handsome, and horrible. She told me with pride that her husband had photographed her a hundred and twenty-seven times since they had been married.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"I'm letting you talk, you know,\" he said, \"but please avoid stomachs. I've been feeling mine all day. Anyway, I don't agree with one-half you've said. Government ownership is the basis of your whole argument, and it's invariably a beehive of corruption. Men won't work for blue ribbons, that's all rot.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Well, I'm ashamed to say that I'm a blank on the subject of Whitman. How about you, Tom?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Almost at the moment when Mr. Gatsby identified himself a butler hurried toward him with the information that Chicago was calling him on the wire. He excused himself with a small bow that included each of us in turn.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "He was aware of a certain irremediable lack of originality in his remarks. Indeed he felt that the whole atmosphere had grown oppressive. He wished she would speak, rail at him, cry out upon him, anything but this pervasive and chilling silence. He cursed himself for a weak fool; his clearest desire was to move her, to hurt her, to see her wince. Helplessly, involuntarily, he erred again.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Listen,\" she leaned close again, \"I like clever men and good-looking men, and, of course, no one cares more for personality than I do. Oh, just one person in fifty has any glimmer of what sex is. I'm hipped on Freud and all that, but it's rotten that every bit of real love in the world is ninety-nine per cent passion and one little soupcon of jealousy.\" She finished as suddenly as she began.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Gloria, having attained sentimental comfort, retired into her doze. Five minutes ticked away on Bloeckman's travelling clock; silence lay all about the room, over the unfamiliar, impersonal furniture and the half-oppressive ceiling that melted imperceptibly into invisible walls on both sides. Then there was suddenly a rattling flutter at the window, staccato and loud upon the hushed, pent air.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Wonderingly, Martha withdrew, and still Evylyn sat there, only the muscles around her eyes moving--contracting and relaxing and contracting again. She knew now where the letter was--she knew as well as if she had put it there herself. And she felt instinctively and unquestionably what the letter was. It was long and narrow like an advertisement, but up in the corner in large letters it said \"War Department\" and, in smaller letters below, \"Official Business.\" She knew it lay there in the big bowl with her name in ink on the outside and her soul's death within.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Because of the chasm which his grandfather's visit had opened before him, and the consequent revulsion from his late mode of life, it was inevitable that he should look around in this suddenly hostile city for the friends and environments that had once seemed the warmest and most secure. His first step was a desperate attempt to get back his old apartment.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Dalyrimple, you've got brains and you've got the stuff in you-- and that's what I want. I'm going to put you into the State Senate.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Why do you say such awful things?\" she protested. You talk as if you and Gloria were in the middle classes.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Maybe,\" she answered; \"but I think not. I'm never really wild and never have been. That little outburst was pure spring.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Warren was distinctly surprised when--the exchange having been effected--the man relieved proved to be none ether than G. Reece Stoddard himself. And G. Reece seemed not at all jubilant at being relieved. Next time Bernice danced near, Warren regarded her intently. Yes, she was pretty, distinctly pretty; and to-night her face seemed really vivacious. She had that look that no woman, however histrionically proficient, can successfully counterfeit--she looked as if she were having a good time.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "The next day she felt weak and ill. She tried to go out, and saved herself from collapse only by clinging to a mail box near the front door. The Martinique elevator boy helped her up-stairs, and she waited on the bed for Anthony's return without energy to unhook her brassiere.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Asleep or waking is it? for her neck Kissed over close, wears yet a purple speck Wherein the pained blood falters and goes out; Soft and stung softly--fairer for a fleck...\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Never heard of it, but let's go on. We can't turn here and there's probably a detour back to the Post Road.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "It was a sort of lassitude that brought them back to Marietta for another summer. Through a golden enervating spring they had loitered, restive and lazily extravagant, along the California coast, joining other parties intermittently and drifting from Pasadena to Coronado, from Coronado to Santa Barbara, with no purpose more apparent than Gloria's desire to dance by different music or catch some infinitesimal variant among the changing colors of the sea. Out of the Pacific there rose to greet them savage rocklands and equally barbaric hostelries built that at tea-time one might drowse into a languid wicker bazaar glorified by the polo costumes of Southhampton and Lake Forest and Newport and Palm Beach. And, as the waves met and splashed and glittered in the most placid of the bays, so they joined this group and that, and with them shifted stations, murmuring ever of those strange unsubstantial gaieties in wait just over the next green and fruitful valley.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Hell!\" he faltered aloud, and then he choked and collapsed on the bed in a shaken spasm of grief. After a minute he opened his eyes and regarded the ceiling.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "The girl bobbed courtesies all around. Poor creature; Amory supposed she had never before been noticed in her life--possibly she was half-witted. While she accompanied them (Kerry had invited her to supper) she said nothing which could discountenance such a belief.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"But Kieth, they don't know what they're doing. They haven't had any experience of what they're missing.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Kerry's death was a blow, so was Jesse's to a certain extent. And I have a great curiosity to know what queer corner of the world has swallowed Burne. Do you suppose he's in prison under some false name? I confess that the war instead of making me orthodox, which is the correct reaction, has made me a passionate agnostic. The Catholic Church has had its wings clipped so often lately that its part was timidly negligible, and they haven't any good writers any more.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "All these people grieved because they had to some extent depended upon Monsignor. Their grief was more than sentiment for the \"crack in his voice or a certain break in his walk,\" as Wells put it. These people had leaned on Monsignor's faith, his way of finding cheer, of making religion a thing of lights and shadows, making all light and shadow merely aspects of God. People felt safe when he was near.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"From everybody--for all the years since you've been away.\" She blushed appropriately. On her right Froggy was hors de combat already, although he hadn't quite realized it.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Hasn't been a very pleasant evening for you,\" sighed the girl in lilac. Her voice seemed as much a part of the night as the drowsy breeze stirring the wide brim of her hat.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Crispness folded down upon New York a month later, bringing November and the three big football games and a great fluttering of furs along Fifth Avenue. It brought, also, a sense of tension to the city, and suppressed excitement. Every morning now there were invitations in Anthony's mail. Three dozen virtuous females of the first layer were proclaiming their fitness, if not their specific willingness, to bear children unto three dozen millionaires. Five dozen virtuous females of the second layer were proclaiming not only this fitness, but in addition a tremendous undaunted ambition toward the first three dozen young men, who were of course invited to each of the ninety-six parties--as were the young lady's group of family friends, acquaintances, college boys, and eager young outsiders.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "I can't imagine what the matter is, Gloria. I haven't had a line from you for two weeks and it's only natural to be worried--", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Bernice hesitated. She felt that wit in some form was demanded of her, but under her cousin's suddenly frigid eyes she was completely incapacitated.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "After two years I remember the rest of that day, and that night and the next day, only as an endless drill of police and photographers and newspaper men in and out of Gatsby's front door. A rope stretched across the main gate and a policeman by it kept out the curious, but little boys soon discovered that they could enter through my yard, and there were always a few of them clustered open-mouthed about the pool. Someone with a positive manner, perhaps a detective, used the expression \"madman\" as he bent over Wilson's body that afternoon, and the adventitious authority of his voice set the key for the newspaper reports next morning.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"He hasn't seen her for six months,\" she said angrily. \"Don't you suppose I have enough pride to see to that? Don't you know by this time that I can do any darn thing with any darn man I want to?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"We're getting old,\" said Daisy. \"If we were young we'd rise and dance.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "One of my most vivid memories is of coming back West from prep school and later from college at Christmas time. Those who went farther than Chicago would gather in the old dim Union Station at six o'clock of a December evening, with a few Chicago friends, already caught up into their own holiday gaieties, to bid them a hasty goodbye. I remember the fur coats of the girls returning from Miss This-or-That's and the chatter of frozen breath and the hands waving overhead as we caught sight of old acquaintances, and the matchings of invitations: \"Are you going to the Ordways'? the Herseys'? the Schultzes'?\" and the long green tickets clasped tight in our gloved hands.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "The music-room came into view. Only Harold and Milton were there, the former leaning against a chair, his face very pale, his collar open, and his mouth moving loosely.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Then she slid toward the mirror and, as in the test, sprawled face downward upon the floor--and lay there sobbing. It was the first awkward movement she had ever made.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Amory was now eighteen years old, just under six feet tall and exceptionally, but not conventionally, handsome. He had rather a young face, the ingenuousness of which was marred by the penetrating green eyes, fringed with long dark eyelashes. He lacked somehow that intense animal magnetism that so often accompanies beauty in men or women; his personality seemed rather a mental thing, and it was not in his power to turn it on and off like a water-faucet. But people never forgot his face.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Oh-h-h-h-h She works in a Jam Factoree And--that-may-be-all-right But you can't-fool-me For I know--DAMN--WELL That she DON'T-make-jam-all-night! Oh-h-h-h!\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "One afternoon when the snow was dirty again along Riverside Drive, Gloria, who had been to the grocer's, entered the apartment to find Anthony pacing the floor in a state of aggravated nervousness. The feverish eyes he turned on her were traced with tiny pink lines that reminded her of rivers on a map. For a moment she received the impression that he was suddenly and definitely old.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Yes, it's all quiet.\" I hesitated. \"You'd better come home and get some sleep.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Idiot!\" he cried, \"that from you! Here I sit, young Anthony, as I'll sit for a generation or more and watch such gay souls as you and Dick and Gloria Gilbert go past me, dancing and singing and loving and hating one another and being moved, being eternally moved. And I am moved only by my lack of emotion. I shall sit and the snow will come--oh, for a Caramel to take notes--and another winter and I shall be thirty and you and Dick and Gloria will go on being eternally moved and dancing by me and singing.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "In one of the windows over the garage the curtains had been moved aside a little, and Myrtle Wilson was peering down at the car. So engrossed was she that she had no consciousness of being observed, and one emotion after another crept into her face like objects into a slowly developing picture. Her expression was curiously familiar--it was an expression I had often seen on women's faces, but on Myrtle Wilson's face it seemed purposeless and inexplicable until I realized that her eyes, wide with jealous terror, were fixed not on Tom, but on Jordan Baker, whom she took to be his wife.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "ADAM PATCH is very white. He leans upon a stick. The man with him is EDWARD SHUTTLEWORTH, and it is he who seizes PARAMORE by the shoulder and deflects the course of his fall away from the venerable philanthropist.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Amory said to himself that there were essentially two sorts of people who through natural clarity or disillusion left the enclosure and sought the labyrinth. There were men like Wells and Plato, who had, half unconsciously, a strange, hidden orthodoxy, who would accept for themselves only what could be accepted for all men--incurable romanticists who never, for all their efforts, could enter the labyrinth as stark souls; there were on the other hand sword-like pioneering personalities, Samuel Butler, Renan, Voltaire, who progressed much slower, yet eventually much further, not in the direct pessimistic line of speculative philosophy but concerned in the eternal attempt to attach a positive value to life....", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"I won't stand this!\" cried Daisy. \"Oh, please let's get out.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "... In all, a wonderful week, that saw Amory's mind turned inside out, a hundred of his theories confirmed, and his joy of life crystallized to a thousand ambitions. Not that the conversation was scholastic--heaven forbid! Amory had only the vaguest idea as to what Bernard Shaw was--but Monsignor made quite as much out of \"The Beloved Vagabond\" and \"Sir Nigel,\" taking good care that Amory never once felt out of his depth.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"My God!\" came the girl's voice again. \"You'll have to let them in.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "After an hour and with the help of two strong whiskies he brought himself up to another attempt. He walked into a plumber's shop, but when he mentioned his business the plumber began pulling on his coat in a great hurry, gruffly announcing that he had to go to lunch. Anthony remarked politely that it was futile to try to sell a man anything when he was hungry, and the plumber heartily agreed.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Family bridge was over for the evening and she sighed with relief. She had made more mistakes than usual this evening and she didn't care. Irene shouldn't have made that remark about the infantry being particularly dangerous. There had been no letter for three weeks now, and, while this was nothing out of the ordinary, it never failed to make her nervous; naturally she hadn't known how many clubs were out.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"I read somewhere that the sun's getting hotter every year,\" said Tom genially. \"It seems that pretty soon the earth's going to fall into the sun--or wait a minute--it's just the opposite--the sun's getting colder every year.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"There's a lot of bluffs in the world,\" continued Marjorie quite pleasantly. \"I should think you'd be young enough to know that, Otis.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "PARAMORE: I oughtn't to. (Lowering his voice for MAURY'S ear alone) What if I were to tell you this is the third drink I've ever taken in my life?", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"You'd better go to-morrow,\" answered Carhart, glancing at the calendar. \"That's the 1st of May. I'll expect your report here on the 1st of June.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"I won't go in the train,\" he said, his voice trembling a little with anger. \"We're going to the Barneses.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "There was an undertone of sadness in her character, a conscious evasion of all except the pleasurable minutiae of life. Her violet eyes would remain for hours apparently insensate as, thoughtless and reckless, she basked like a cat in the sun. He wondered what the tired, spiritless mother thought of them, and whether in her moments of uttermost cynicism she ever guessed at their relationship.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "The hard brown beetles kept thudding against the dull light, and whenever Michaelis heard a car go tearing along the road outside it sounded to him like the car that hadn't stopped a few hours before. He didn't like to go into the garage, because the work bench was stained where the body had been lying, so he moved uncomfortably around the office--he knew every object in it before morning--and from time to time sat down beside Wilson trying to keep him more quiet.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"I'm going to start being that. I don't like being twenty-two. I hate it more than anything in the world.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Ardita,\" he repeated breathlessly, \"I've got to tell you the--the truth. It was all a plant, Ardita. My name isn't Carlyle. It's Moreland, Toby Moreland. The story was invented, Ardita, invented out of thin Florida air.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"I just got wised up to something funny the last two days,\" remarked Wilson. \"That's why I want to get away. That's why I been bothering you about the car.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Oh, if there was one man here you couldn't do this! You couldn't do this! You coward! You coward, oh, you coward!\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Existence had settled back to an ambitionless normality. They had decided that with economy they could still afford the apartment, which Tom, with the domesticity of an elderly cat, had grown fond of. The old English hunting prints on the wall were Tom's, and the large tapestry by courtesy, a relic of decadent days in college, and the great profusion of orphaned candlesticks and the carved Louis XV chair in which no one could sit more than a minute without acute spinal disorders--Tom claimed that this was because one was sitting in the lap of Montespan's wraith--at any rate, it was Tom's furniture that decided them to stay.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"I have to talk. I guess very few people ever really think, I mean sit down and ponder and have ideas in sequence. I do my thinking in writing or conversation. You've got to have a start, sort of--something to defend or contradict--don't you think?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"April 20th.--Spent the day with Anthony. Maybe I'll marry him some time. I kind of like his ideas--he stimulates all the originality in me. Blockhead came around about ten in his new car and took me out Riverside Drive. I liked him to-night: he's so considerate.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Blockhead said he'd put me in--only if I'm ever going to do anything I'll have to start now. They only want young women. Think of the money, Anthony!\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"No,\" said his scornful mouth slowly; \"No, I won't get off the yacht. You can get off if you wish.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"But it took about ten thousand dollars to educate me where I could write your darned stuff for you. Anyway, as far as length of service goes, you've got stenographers here you've paid fifteen a week for five years.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Out the front door she tottered and over to the stone steps, and there, summoning every fibre of her soul and body for a last effort, swung herself half around--for a second, as she tried to loose her hold, her numb fingers clung to the rough surface, and in that second she slipped and, losing balance, toppled forward with a despairing cry, her arms still around the bowl . . . down . .", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"It's a piker organization. My Gosh! Lookit what they give me. I'm quittin' in a coupla months. Hell!", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "About midnight he began to realize that he was hungry. He went down into Fifty-second Street, where it was so cold that he could scarcely see; the moisture froze on his lashes and in the corners of his lips. Everywhere dreariness had come down from the north, settling upon the thin and cheerless street, where black bundled figures blacker still against the night, moved stumbling along the sidewalk through the shrieking wind, sliding their feet cautiously ahead as though they were on skis. Anthony turned over toward Sixth Avenue, so absorbed in his thoughts as not to notice that several passers-by had stared at him. His overcoat was wide open, and the wind was biting in, hard and full of merciless death.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"I just think of people,\" she continued, \"whether they seem right where they are and fit into the picture. I don't mind if they don't do anything. I don't see why they should; in fact it always astonishes me when anybody does anything.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Well, I can't say anything else--I get to the end of all the logic about non-resistance, and there, like an excluded middle, stands the huge spectre of man as he is and always will be. And this spectre stands right beside the one logical necessity of Tolstoi's, and the other logical necessity of Nietzsche's--\" Amory broke off suddenly. \"When are you going?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "In that second, as Samuel slumped to the ground, it flashed to him that he had been hit like that twice before, and simultaneously the incident altered like a dream--he felt suddenly awake. Mechanically he sprang to his feet and squared off. The other man was waiting, fists up, a yard away, but Samuel knew that though physically he had him by several inches and many pounds, he wouldn't hit him. The situation had miraculously and entirely changed--a moment before Samuel had seemed to himself heroic; now he seemed the cad, the outsider, and Marjorie's husband, silhouetted against the lights of the little house, the eternal heroic figure, the defender of his home.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "But it did not come. Ardita's face became suddenly radiant, and with a little laugh she went swiftly to young Moreland and looked up at him without a trace of wrath in her gray eyes.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Anthony's affair with Dorothy Raycroft was an inevitable result of his increasing carelessness about himself. He did not go to her desiring to possess the desirable, nor did he fall before a personality more vital, more compelling than his own, as he had done with Gloria four years before. He merely slid into the matter through his inability to make definite judgments. He could say \"No!\" neither to man nor woman; borrower and temptress alike found him tender-minded and pliable.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "This was a first real break from the hypocrisy of school tradition. The slicker was a definite element of success, differing intrinsically from the prep school \"big man.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "ROSALIND is seated on the lounge and on her left is HOWARD GILLESPIE, a vapid youth of about twenty-four. He is obviously very unhappy, and she is quite bored.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"I hate you!\" Her low words were expelled like venom through her clenched teeth. \"Oh, let me go! Oh, I hate you!\" She tried to jerk herself away but he only grasped the other arm.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "She felt a space beside her and something told her that Jarvis had gasped and sat down very suddenly . . . then she was kneeling and as the flaming monstrance slowly left the altar in the hands of the priest, she heard a great rushing noise in her ears--the crash of the bells was like hammer-blows . .", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Down-stairs she opened the big front door, closed it carefully behind her, and feeling oddly happy and exuberant stepped off the porch into the moonlight, swinging her heavy grip like a shopping-bag. After a minute's brisk walk she discovered that her left hand still held the two blond braids. She laughed unexpectedly--had to shut her mouth hard to keep from emitting an absolute peal. She was passing Warren's house now, and on the impulse she set down her baggage, and swinging the braids like piece of rope flung them at the wooden porch, where they landed with a slight thud. She laughed again, no longer restraining herself.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "The shock that followed this declaration found voice in a sustained \"Ah-h-h!\" as the door of the coupe swung slowly open. The crowd--it was now a crowd--stepped back involuntarily, and when the door had opened wide there was a ghostly pause. Then, very gradually, part by part, a pale, dangling individual stepped out of the wreck, pawing tentatively at the ground with a large uncertain dancing shoe.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Then she was sorry for him. She wanted only to comfort him and draw him back tenderly into her arms, to tell them to go away because the thing their presence connotated was odious. Yet she could not raise her head for shame. She heard a broken sentence, apologies, conventions of the employee and one unrestrained snicker from a bell-boy.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "A NEW VOICE: (Fiercely) Hello, Maury. Hello, Anthony Comstock Patch. How is old Adam's grandson? Debutantes still after you, eh?", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Here now,\" said the big man, \"you'll have to admit that the laboring man is certainly highly paid--five and six hour days--it's ridiculous. You can't buy an honest day's work from a man in the trades-unions.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Oh, sure,\" agreed Wilson hurriedly, and went toward the little office, mingling immediately with the cement colour of the walls. A white ashen dust veiled his dark suit and his pale hair as it veiled everything in the vicinity--except his wife, who moved close to Tom.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "He heard from below the shrieks of laughter, and smelled the vapid odor of hot chocolate and tea-cakes as he silently followed mother and daughter down-stairs. The sound of the graphophone mingled with the voices of many girls humming the air, and a faint glow was born and spread over him:", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Even when everything seems rotten you can't trust that judgment,\" Gloria had said. \"It's the sum of all your judgments that counts.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"It would be, wouldn't it?\" She thought for a moment. \"Let's do it next Sunday.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "To move in the literary fashion I should say that this was all because when way back in colonial days the hardy pioneers had come to a bald place in Connecticut and asked of each other, \"Now, what shall we build here?\" the hardiest one among 'em had answered: \"Let's build a town where theatrical managers can try out musical comedies!\" How afterward they founded Yale College there, to try the musical comedies on, is a story every one knows. At any rate one December, \"Home James\" opened at the Shubert, and all the students encored Marcia Meadow, who sang a song about the Blundering Blimp in the first act and did a shaky, shivery, celebrated dance in the last.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "It was only nine but the dance was in full blast. The panorama was incredible. Women, women everywhere--girls gay with wine singing shrilly above the clamor of the dazzling confetti-covered throng; girls set off by the uniforms of a dozen nations; fat females collapsing without dignity upon the floor and retaining self-respect by shouting \"Hurraw for the Allies! \"; three women with white hair dancing hand in hand around a sailor, who revolved in a dizzying spin upon the floor, clasping to his heart an empty bottle of champagne.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "He had been two months in Minneapolis, and his chief struggle had been the concealing from \"the other guys at school\" how particularly superior he felt himself to be, yet this conviction was built upon shifting sands. He had shown off one day in French class (he was in senior French class) to the utter confusion of Mr. Reardon, whose accent Amory damned contemptuously, and to the delight of the class. Mr. Reardon, who had spent several weeks in Paris ten years before, took his revenge on the verbs, whenever he had his book open. But another time Amory showed off in history class, with quite disastrous results, for the boys there were his own age, and they shrilled innuendoes at each other all the following week:", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Anthony went back to the apartment and set to work. He found that the business of optimism was no mean task. After half a dozen futile starts he went to the public library and for a week investigated the files of a popular magazine. Then, better equipped, he accomplished his first story, \"The Dictaphone of Fate.\" It was founded upon one of his few remaining impressions of that six weeks in Wall Street the year before.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "New York seemed not so much awakening as turning over in its bed. Pallid men rushed by, pinching together their coat-collars; a great swarm of tired, magpie girls from a department-store crowded along with shrieks of strident laughter, three to an umbrella; a squad of marching policemen passed, already miraculously protected by oilskin capes.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "It was seven o'clock when we got into the coupe with him and started for Long Island. Tom talked incessantly, exulting and laughing, but his voice was as remote from Jordan and me as the foreign clamour on the sidewalk or the tumult of the elevated overhead. Human sympathy has its limits, and we were content to let all their tragic arguments fade with the city lights behind. Thirty--the promise of a decade of loneliness, a thinning list of single men to know, a thinning briefcase of enthusiasm, thinning hair. But there was Jordan beside me, who, unlike Daisy, was too wise ever to carry well-forgotten dreams from age to age.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Lincoln's birthday,\" affirmed Anthony without enthusiasm, \"or St. Valentine's or somebody's. When did we start on this insane party?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"You know these new novels make me tired. My God! Everywhere I go some silly girl asks me if I've read 'This Side of Paradise.' Are our girls really like that? If it's true to life, which I don't believe, the next generation is going to the dogs.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "I stayed late that night. Gatsby asked me to wait until he was free, and I lingered in the garden until the inevitable swimming party had run up, chilled and exalted, from the black beach, until the lights were extinguished in the guestrooms overhead. When he came down the steps at last the tanned skin was drawn unusually tight on his face, and his eyes were bright and tired.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "The particular weakness he indulged on this occasion was his need of excitement and stimulus from without. He felt that for the first time in four years he could express and interpret himself anew. The girl promised rest; the hours in her company each evening alleviated the morbid and inevitably futile poundings of his imagination. He had become a coward in earnest--completely the slave of a hundred disordered and prowling thoughts which were released by the collapse of the authentic devotion to Gloria that had been the chief jailer of his insufficiency.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Inside the taxicab she wept impotent tears. That she had not been happy with Anthony for over a year mattered little. Recently his presence had been no more than what it would awake in her of that memorable June. The Anthony of late, irritable, weak, and poor, could do no less than make her irritable in turn--and bored with everything except the fact that in a highly imaginative and eloquent youth they had come together in an ecstatic revel of emotion. Because of this mutually vivid memory she would have done more for Anthony than for any other human--so when she got into the taxicab she wept passionately, and wanted to call his name aloud.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Food--\" she said with a cheerful laugh. \"Food is what queered the party. We ordered a big supper to be sent up to the room about two o'clock. Alec didn't give the waiter a tip, so I guess the little bastard snitched.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "To most of the presents Anthony was cold. It seemed to him that they would necessitate keeping a chart of the marital status of all their acquaintances during the next half-century. But Gloria exulted in each one, tearing at the tissue-paper and excelsior with the rapaciousness of a dog digging for a bone, breathlessly seizing a ribbon or an edge of metal and finally bringing to light the whole article and holding it up critically, no emotion except rapt interest in her unsmiling face.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Samuel whistled all the way back to his office, but about twelve o'clock he began to see that pathetic, appealing little mouth everywhere--and those brown eyes. He fidgeted when he looked at the clock; he thought of the grill down-stairs where he lunched and the heavy male conversation thereof, and opposed to that picture appeared another; a little table at Taine's with the brown eyes and the mouth a few feet away. A few minutes before twelve-thirty he dashed on his hat and rushed for the cable-car.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "He might have despised himself, for he had certainly taken her under false pretences. I don't mean that he had traded on his phantom millions, but he had deliberately given Daisy a sense of security; he let her believe that he was a person from much the same strata as herself--that he was fully able to take care of her. As a matter of fact, he had no such facilities--he had no comfortable family standing behind him, and he was liable at the whim of an impersonal government to be blown anywhere about the world.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "She nodded but made no answer. Five minutes later as they stood in the hallway she suddenly threw her arms round him.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"--and once,\" Maury was saying, \"Peter Granby and I went into a Turkish bath in Boston, about two o'clock at night. There was no one there but the proprietor, and we jammed him into a closet and locked the door. Then a fella came in and wanted a Turkish bath. Thought we were the rubbers, by golly! Well, we just picked him up and tossed him into the pool with all his clothes on.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Now in my own pocket I have four letters just received concerning 'Heart Talks.' These letters have names signed to them that are familiar in every house-hold in the U. S. A. Listen to this one from Detroit:", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"You're crazy, Nick,\" he said quickly. \"Crazy as hell. I don't know what's the matter with you.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Come closer.\" Whatever he might say Dot was happy now. He cared for her. She had brought him to her side.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "In the gray light he found that it was only five o'clock. He regretted nervously that he had awakened so early--he would appear fagged at the wedding. He envied Gloria who could hide her fatigue with careful pigmentation.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Nothing happened,\" he said wanly. \"I waited, and about four o'clock she came to the window and stood there for a minute and then turned out the light.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Well, Evie, Ahearn has been fooling around with Marx. If those two had combined we'd have been the little fellow, struggling along, picking up smaller orders, hanging back on risks. It's a question of capital, Evie, and 'Ahearn and Marx' would have had the business just like 'Ahearn and Piper' is going to now.\" He paused and coughed and a little cloud of whiskey floated up to her nostrils. \"Tell you the truth, Evie, I've suspected that Ahearn's wife had something to do with it.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "I was relieved too, for that seemed to promise another friend at Gatsby's grave. I didn't want it to be in the papers and draw a sightseeing crowd, so I'd been calling up a few people myself. They were hard to find.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "One day early in July Anthony, returned from an afternoon in New York, called up-stairs to Gloria. Receiving no answer he guessed she was asleep and so went into the pantry for one of the little sandwiches that were always prepared for them. He found Tana seated at the kitchen table before a miscellaneous assortment of odds and ends--cigar-boxes, knives, pencils, the tops of cans, and some scraps of paper covered with elaborate figures and diagrams.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Mighty fine. How's--how's Dangerous Dan McGrew? Sorry, but he's the only Northerner I know much about.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"I guess the truth is I'm not much used to Benediction. Mass is the limit of my religious exertions.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Come on,\" said Amory briskly. \"Let's get out of here. We don't need a valedictory.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Throughout the previous winter one small matter had been a subtle and omnipresent irritant--the question of Gloria's gray fur coat. At that time women enveloped in long squirrel wraps could be seen every few yards along Fifth Avenue. The women were converted to the shape of tops. They seemed porcine and obscene; they resembled kept women in the concealing richness, the feminine animality of the garment. Yet--Gloria wanted a gray squirrel coat.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "It was dawn now on Long Island and we went about opening the rest of the windows downstairs, filling the house with grey-turning, gold-turning light. The shadow of a tree fell abruptly across the dew and ghostly birds began to sing among the blue leaves. There was a slow, pleasant movement in the air, scarcely a wind, promising a cool, lovely day.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"By the way,\" said Rachael half an hour later, as they were leaving, \"can't you come up to dinner to-morrow night? I'm having two awfully sweet officers who are just going overseas. I think we ought to do all we can to make it attractive for them.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Oh, yeah,\" he declared, \"she's here.\" He was unaware that his failure to be cockney was ruining his standing. Amory considered him coldly.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Down the stairs. He skipped two crumbing steps but found another. He was all right now, practically safe; as he neared the bottom he felt a slight boredom. He reached the dining-room --considered the silver--again decided against it.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Again he crumpled the page and tossed it angrily through a tear in the tent wall, realizing simultaneously that he would have to pick it up in the morning. He felt disinclined to try again. He could get no warmth into the lines--only a persistent jealousy and suspicion. Since midsummer these discrepancies in Gloria's correspondence had grown more and more noticeable. At first he had scarcely perceived them.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"No.\" Monsignor shook his head. \"That was a misfortune; this has been a good thing. Whatever worth while comes to you, won't be through the channels you were searching last year.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Unfortunately, a small and precise doctor decided that there was something the matter with Anthony's blood-pressure. He could not conscientiously pass him for an officers' training-camp.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "That had been Burne, dynamically humorous, fundamentally serious. From that root had blossomed the energy that he was now trying to orient with progress....", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"You mean write trash?\" He considered. \"If you mean deliberately injecting a slushy fade-out into each one, I'm not. But I don't suppose I'm being so careful. I'm certainly writing faster and I don't seem to be thinking as much as I used to.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Amory was enjoying college immensely again. The sense of going forward in a direct, determined line had come back; youth was stirring and shaking out a few new feathers. He had even stored enough surplus energy to sally into a new pose.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "As Bernice busied herself with tooth-brush and paste this night she wondered for the hundredth time why she never had any attention when she was away from home. That her family were the wealthiest in Eau Claire; that her mother entertained tremendously, gave little diners for her daughter before all dances and bought her a car of her own to drive round in, never occurred to her as factors in her home-town social success. Like most girls she had been brought up on the warm milk prepared by Annie Fellows Johnston and on novels in which the female was beloved because of certain mysterious womanly qualities, always mentioned but never displayed.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Amory thought how superficial was the recent overlay of his own generation. Aside from a minute shyness, he felt that the old cynical kinship with his mother had not been one bit broken. Yet for the first few days he wandered about the gardens and along the shore in a state of superloneliness, finding a lethargic content in smoking \"Bull\" at the garage with one of the chauffeurs.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Of course!\" he answered angrily. \"Do you think we've gone on spending more than twelve thousand a year without cutting way into our capital?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Oh, no!\" objected Anthony, \"oh, no, Geraldine. You mustn't play the alienist upon the Chevalier. If you feel yourself unable to understand him I won't bring him in. Besides, I should feel a certain uneasiness because of his regrettable reputation.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Later in the afternoon when he returned from the station with the tickets he found her asleep on one of the beds, her arm curled about a black object which he could not at first identify. Coming closer he found it was one of his shoes, not a particularly new one, nor clean one, but her face, tear-stained, was pressed against it, and he understood her ancient and most honorable message. There was almost ecstasy in waking her and seeing her smile at him, shy but well aware of her own nicety of imagination.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Couldn't I come to-night?\" He dared anything in the glory and revelation of that almost whispered \"yes.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "They rode into Princeton as the sun was making colored maps of the sky behind the graduate school, and hurried to the refreshment of a shower that would have to serve in place of sleep. By noon the bright-costumed alumni crowded the streets with their bands and choruses, and in the tents there was great reunion under the orange-and-black banners that curled and strained in the wind. Amory looked long at one house which bore the legend \"Sixty-nine.\" There a few gray-haired men sat and talked quietly while the classes swept by in panorama of life.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "The book hesitated and then suddenly \"went.\" Editions, small at first, then larger, crowded each other week by week. A spokesman of the Salvation Army denounced it as a cynical misrepresentation of all the uplift taking place in the underworld. Clever press-agenting spread the unfounded rumor that \"Gypsy\" Smith was beginning a libel suit because one of the principal characters was a burlesque of himself. It was barred from the public library of Burlington, Iowa, and a Mid-Western columnist announced by innuendo that Richard Caramel was in a sanitarium with delirium tremens.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Why pretend we're not? I hate people who claim to be great aristocrats when they can't even keep up the appearances of it.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"When the day came that was to witness the Chevalier's farewell to the world he was utterly happy. He gave all his Greek books to his landlady, and his sword he sent in a golden sheath to the King of France, and all his mementos of Ireland he gave to the young Huguenot who sold fish in the street where he lived.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"We were until to-day. At present, due to those white bags you see there we're fugitives from justice and if the reward offered for our capture hasn't by this time reached twenty thousand dollars I miss my guess.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "A stout, middle-aged man, with enormous owl-eyed spectacles, was sitting somewhat drunk on the edge of a great table, staring with unsteady concentration at the shelves of books. As we entered he wheeled excitedly around and examined Jordan from head to foot.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"That's studio mail,\" explained the fat man. \"Pictures of the stars who are with 'Films Par Excellence.'\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "She turned her head as there was a light dignified knocking at the front door. I went out and opened it. Gatsby, pale as death, with his hands plunged like weights in his coat pockets, was standing in a puddle of water glaring tragically into my eyes.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "I glanced at Daisy, who was staring terrified between Gatsby and her husband, and at Jordan, who had begun to balance an invisible but absorbing object on the tip of her chin. Then I turned back to Gatsby--and was startled at his expression. He looked--and this is said in all contempt for the babbled slander of his garden--as if he had \"killed a man.\" For a moment the set of his face could be described in just that fantastic way.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "I called Gatsby's house a few minutes later, but the line was busy. I tried four times; finally an exasperated central told me the wire was being kept open for long distance from Detroit. Taking out my timetable, I drew a small circle around the three-fifty train. Then I leaned back in my chair and tried to think. It was just noon.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "His father died quietly and inconspicuously at Thanksgiving. The incongruity of death with either the beauties of Lake Geneva or with his mother's dignified, reticent attitude diverted him, and he looked at the funeral with an amused tolerance. He decided that burial was after all preferable to cremation, and he smiled at his old boyhood choice, slow oxidation in the top of a tree. The day after the ceremony he was amusing himself in the great library by sinking back on a couch in graceful mortuary attitudes, trying to determine whether he would, when his day came, be found with his arms crossed piously over his chest (Monsignor Darcy had once advocated this posture as being the most distinguished), or with his hands clasped behind his head, a more pagan and Byronic attitude.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "There was another silence, while Marjorie considered whether or not convincing her mother was worth the trouble. People over forty can seldom be permanently convinced of anything. At eighteen our convictions are hills from which we look; at forty-five they are caves in which we hide.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"You're a rotten driver,\" I protested. \"Either you ought to be more careful, or you oughtn't to drive at all.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Something in that candle . . . she was leaning forward--in another moment she felt she would go forward toward it--didn't any one see it? .", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Outside, the storm had come up amazingly--the lulls within were filled with the scrape of the tall bushes against the house and the roaring of the rain on the tin roof of the kitchen. The lightning was interminable, letting down thick drips of thunder like pig iron from the heart of a white-hot furnace. Gloria could see that the rain was spitting in at three of the windows--but she could not move to shut them....", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Warren, who had grown up across the street from Marjorie, had long been \"crazy about her.\" Sometimes she seemed to reciprocate his feeling with a faint gratitude, but she had tried him by her infallible test and informed him gravely that she did not love him. Her test was that when she was away from him she forgot him and had affairs with other boys. Warren found this discouraging, especially as Marjorie had been making little trips all summer, and for the first two or three days after each arrival home he saw great heaps of mail on the Harveys' hall table addressed to her in various masculine handwritings. To make matters worse, all during the month of August she had been visited by her cousin Bernice from Eau Claire, and it seemed impossible to see her alone.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "She narrowed her eyes and shivered. Lucille shivered. We all turned and looked around for Gatsby. It was testimony to the romantic speculation he inspired that there were whispers about him from those who had found little that it was necessary to whisper about in this world.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "A.--Becoming really insincere--calling myself \"not such a bad fellow,\" thinking I regretted my lost youth when I only envy the delights of losing it. Youth is like having a big plate of candy. Sentimentalists think they want to be in the pure, simple state they were in before they ate the candy. They don't. They just want the fun of eating it all over again.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"I'm going to fix everything just the way it was before,\" he said, nodding determinedly. \"She'll see.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"All from the Twin Cities.\" He named them off. \"There's Marylyn De Witt--she's pretty, got a car of her own and that's damn convenient; there's Sally Weatherby--she's getting too fat; there's Myra St. Claire, she's an old flame, easy to kiss if you like it--\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Yes. He's been a little crazy, they say, ever since he got his money, four or five months ago. You see, the other fellow, Shuttleworth, the religious fellow, the one that didn't get the money, he locked himself up in a room in a hotel and shot himself--", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Hello, Debris. Want you to meet Mrs. Patch.... Mrs. Patch wants to go into pictures, as I explained to you.... All right, now, where do we go?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"She has two stunts,\" he informed Maury; \"one of them is to get her hair over her eyes some way and then blow it out, and the other is to say 'You cra-a-azy!' when some one makes a remark that's over her head. It fascinates me. I sit there hour after hour, completely intrigued by the maniacal symptoms she finds in my imagination.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"St. Cecelia,\" he cried aloud one day, quite involuntarily, and the people turned and peered, and the priest paused in his sermon and Clara and Amory turned to fiery red.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"You related to Adam J. Patch?\" he inquired of Anthony, emitting two slender strings of smoke from nostrils overwide.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"You see, Tully and I have two rooms with bath between at the Ranier, and he's got to go back to New York. I don't want to have to move. Question is, will you occupy one of the rooms?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"What do they expect for a hundred a week--perpetual motion?\" she grumbled to herself in the wings.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Eleanor hated Maryland passionately. She belonged to the oldest of the old families of Ramilly County and lived in a big, gloomy house with her grandfather. She had been born and brought up in France.... I see I am starting wrong. Let me begin again.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Oh, moderately well. Burne's a damn good talker, and so obviously sincere that you can't get anywhere with him. It's so evident that resigning from his club means so much more to him than preventing it does to us that I felt futile when I argued; finally took a position that was brilliantly neutral. In fact, I believe Burne thought for a while that he'd converted me.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Her sobs lapsed. She drew down a merciful silence from the twilight which filled the room. \"Turn on the lights,\" she pleaded. \"These days seem so short--June seemed--to--have--longer days when I was a little girl.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Who brought you?\" he demanded. \"Or did you just come? I was brought. Most people were brought.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"And the Chevalier O'Keefe, being suspected of suicide, was not buried in consecrated ground, but tumbled into a field near by, where he doubtless improved the quality of the soil for many years afterward. Such was the untimely end of a very brave and gallant gentleman. What do you think, Geraldine?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"A little bit, I think. I can't tell yet. I've only been here an hour. Did I tell you about the books? They're real.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Well, I think they've got their nerve to bring him out here. This isn't a Sailor's Rescue Home!\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"You don't feel depressed, do you, lover? Even when I cry I'm happy here, and I get a sort of strength from it.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "The sense of the enormous panorama of life, never strong in Anthony, had become dim almost to extinction. At long intervals now some incident, some gesture of Gloria's, would take his fancy--but the gray veils had come down in earnest upon him. As he grew older those things faded--after that there was wine.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "It was dark now, and as we dipped under a little bridge I put my arm around Jordan's golden shoulder and drew her toward me and asked her to dinner. Suddenly I wasn't thinking of Daisy and Gatsby any more, but of this clean, hard, limited person, who dealt in universal scepticism, and who leaned back jauntily just within the circle of my arm. A phrase began to beat in my ears with a sort of heady excitement: \"There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy, and the tired.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "But it had been a struggle to keep many of their conversations on the level of discussions. Arguments were fatal to Gloria's disposition. She had all her life been associated either with her mental inferiors or with men who, under the almost hostile intimidation of her beauty, had not dared to contradict her; naturally, then, it irritated her when Anthony emerged from the state in which her pronouncements were an infallible and ultimate decision.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "All the way back she talked haltingly about herself, and Amory's love waned slowly with the moon. At her door they started from habit to kiss good night, but she could not run into his arms, nor were they stretched to meet her as in the week before. For a minute they stood there, hating each other with a bitter sadness. But as Amory had loved himself in Eleanor, so now what he hated was only a mirror. Their poses were strewn about the pale dawn like broken glass.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Well,\" continued Burne, \"you may strike a few poems that are tiresome, but I mean the mass of his work. He's tremendous--like Tolstoi. They both look things in the face, and, somehow, different as they are, stand for somewhat the same things.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Charley smiled pleasantly. He could not know this had been rehearsed. He replied that he didn't know much about bobbed hair. But Bernice was there to tell him.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "They left the car at Asbury and street-car'd to Allenhurst, where they investigated the crowded pavilions for beauty. At four there were refreshments in a lunch-room, and this time they paid an even smaller per cent on the total cost; something about the appearance and savoir-faire of the crowd made the thing go, and they were not pursued.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Horace,\" said Marcia one evening when she met him as usual at eleven, \"you looked like a ghost standing there against the street lights. You losing weight?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Down at Sammy's he found Parker Allison and Pete Lytell sitting alone at a table, drinking whiskey sours. It was just after six o'clock, and Sammy, or Samuele Bendiri, as he had been christened, was sweeping an accumulation of cigarette butts and broken glass into a corner.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "The house itself was of murky material, built in the late nineties; in response to the steadily growing need of small apartments each floor had been thoroughly remodelled and rented individually. Of the four apartments Anthony's, on the second floor, was the most desirable.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "When he awoke, it was with a glad flood of consciousness. The early wind stirred the chintz curtains at the windows and he was idly puzzled not to be in his room at Princeton with his school football picture over the bureau and the Triangle Club on the wall opposite. Then the grandfather's clock in the hall outside struck eight, and the memory of the night before came to him. He was out of bed, dressing, like the wind; he must get out of the house before he saw Isabelle. What had seemed a melancholy happening, now seemed a tiresome anticlimax.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Bloeckman appeared in New York late in March; he had been in England for nearly a year on matters concerned with \"Films Par Excellence.\" The process of general refinement was still in progress--always he dressed a little better, his intonation was mellower, and in his manner there was perceptibly more assurance that the fine things of the world were his by a natural and inalienable right. He called at the apartment, remained only an hour, during which he talked chiefly of the war, and left telling them he was coming again. On his second visit Anthony was not at home, but an absorbed and excited Gloria greeted her husband later in the afternoon.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"No, he's out this evening. Is there any message?\" The intonation was cockney; it reminded him of the rich vocal deferences of Bounds.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Anthony paced the room. \"It's preposterous!\" he declared. \"The very people we take on parties shout the story around as a great joke--and eventually it gets back to us in some such form as this.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "February dripped snow and rain, the cyclonic freshman mid-years passed, and life in 12 Univee continued interesting if not purposeful. Once a day Amory indulged in a club sandwich, cornflakes, and Julienne potatoes at \"Joe's,\" accompanied usually by Kerry or Alec Connage. The latter was a quiet, rather aloof slicker from Hotchkiss, who lived next door and shared the same enforced singleness as Amory, due to the fact that his entire class had gone to Yale. \"Joe's\" was unaesthetic and faintly unsanitary, but a limitless charge account could be opened there, a convenience that Amory appreciated. His father had been experimenting with mining stocks and, in consequence, his allowance, while liberal, was not at all what he had expected.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"I tried a couple of fellows. Couldn't find anybody in. I wish I'd sold that Keats letter like I started to last week.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Don't you think that when even Maury Noble, who was my best friend, won't come to see us it's high time to stop calling people up?\" Tears were standing in his eyes.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Gloria's out,\" she said, with an air of laying down an axiom from which she would proceed to derive results. \"She's dancing somewhere. Gloria goes, goes, goes. I tell her I don't see how she stands it. She dances all afternoon and all night, until I think she's going to wear herself to a shadow.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "As they rumbled on toward camp, Anthony was uneasy lest he should find Dot awaiting him patiently at the station. To his relief he neither saw nor heard anything of her and thinking that were she still in town she would certainly attempt to communicate with him, he concluded that she had gone--whither he neither knew nor cared. He wanted only to return to Gloria--Gloria reborn and wonderfully alive. When eventually he was discharged he left his company on the rear of a great truck with a crowd who had given tolerant, almost sentimental, cheers for their officers, especially for Captain Dunning. The captain, on his part, had addressed them with tears in his eyes as to the pleasure, etc., and the work, etc., and time not wasted, etc., and duty, etc.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "At half past seven, when they had completed the six rounds, Anthony found that his intentions were giving audience to his desires. He was happy and cheerful now--thoroughly enjoying himself. It seemed to him that the story which Pete had just finished telling was unusually and profoundly humorous--and he decided, as he did every day at about this point, that they were \"damn good fellows, by golly!\" who would do a lot more for him than any one else he knew. The pawnshops would remain open until late Saturday nights, and he felt that if he took just one more drink he would attain a gorgeous rose-colored exhilaration.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Say!\" he said fiercely. \"I brought this girl out here and you're butting in!\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Again he waited, leaning against the banister and listening to the confused harmonies of \"Jazz-mad\" which came floating down the stairs. A check-girl near him was singing:", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Beat me!\" he heard her cry. \"Throw me down and beat me, you dirty little coward!\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "There was a disgusted groan from the apple-barrel. Anthony, grown accustomed to the dark, could see plainly the flash of Richard Caramel's yellow eye and the look of resentment on his face as he cried:", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Poor old child. I didn't realize that Benediction'd be a long service for you after your hot trip out here and all.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"But,\" objected Anthony, \"his private physician, being one of the beneficiaries, would testify that he wasn't feeble-minded. And he wasn't. As a matter of fact he probably did just what he intended to with his money--it was perfectly consistent with everything he'd ever done in his life--\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Paying no attention, Evylyn brushed by through the dining-room, catching sight, with a burst of horror, of the big punch-bowl still on the table, the liquid from melted ice in its bottom. She heard steps on the front stairs--it was Milton helping Harold up--and then a mumble: \"Why, Julie's a'righ'.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Harold Piper was thirty-six, nine years older than his wife. He was handsome--with marginal notes: these being eyes that were too close together, and a certain woodenness when his face was in repose. His attitude toward this Gedney matter was typical of all his attitudes. He had told Evylyn that he considered the subject closed and would never reproach her nor allude to it in any form; and he told himself that this was rather a big way of looking at it--that she was not a little impressed. Yet, like all men who are preoccupied with their own broadness, he was exceptionally narrow.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "They spent two evenings getting an exact definition. The slicker was good-looking or clean-looking; he had brains, social brains, that is, and he used all means on the broad path of honesty to get ahead, be popular, admired, and never in trouble. He dressed well, was particularly neat in appearance, and derived his name from the fact that his hair was inevitably worn short, soaked in water or tonic, parted in the middle, and slicked back as the current of fashion dictated. The slickers of that year had adopted tortoise-shell spectacles as badges of their slickerhood, and this made them so easy to recognize that Amory and Rahill never missed one. The slicker seemed distributed through school, always a little wiser and shrewder than his contemporaries, managing some team or other, and keeping his cleverness carefully concealed.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Then the serenity, the content, had become less jubilant, had become, gray--very rarely, with the spur of jealousy or forced separation, the ancient ecstasies returned, the apparent communion of soul and soul, the emotional excitement. It was possible for her to hate Anthony for as much as a full day, to be carelessly incensed at him for as long as a week. Recrimination had displaced affection as an indulgence, almost as an entertainment, and there were nights when they would go to sleep trying to remember who was angry and who should be reserved next morning. And as the second year waned there had entered two new elements. Gloria realized that Anthony had become capable of utter indifference toward her, a temporary indifference, more than half lethargic, but one from which she could no longer stir him by a whispered word, or a certain intimate smile.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Oh, Amory,\" she said despairingly, lifting up a most pathetic face, \"I'll just make my whole neck flame if I rub it. What'll I do?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Healy's they left at twelve and taxied to Bistolary's. There were Axia Marlowe and Phoebe Column, from the Summer Garden show, Fred Sloane and Amory. The evening was so very young that they felt ridiculous with surplus energy, and burst into the cafe like Dionysian revellers.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "But though she recognized an egotist in the settee, she felt none of that usual shutting of doors in her mind which meant clearing ship for action; on the contrary her instinct told her that this man was somehow completely pregnable and quite defenseless. When Ardita defied convention--and of late it had been her chief amusement--it was from an intense desire to be herself, and she felt that this man, on the contrary, was preoccupied with his own defiance.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Then abroad again--to Rome this time, where he dallied with architecture and painting in turn, took up the violin, and wrote some ghastly Italian sonnets, supposedly the ruminations of a thirteenth-century monk on the joys of the contemplative life. It became established among his Harvard intimates that he was in Rome, and those of them who were abroad that year looked him up and discovered with him, on many moonlight excursions, much in the city that was older than the Renaissance or indeed than the republic. Maury Noble, from Philadelphia, for instance, remained two months, and together they realized the peculiar charm of Latin women and had a delightful sense of being very young and free in a civilization that was very old and free. Not a few acquaintances of his grandfather's called on him, and had he so desired he might have been persona grata with the diplomatic set--indeed, he found that his inclinations tended more and more toward conviviality, but that long adolescent aloofness and consequent shyness still dictated to his conduct.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"What if they did!\" she exclaimed as they sought the wide pillared porch. \"Do you think they've left a breath of 1860 here? This has become a thing of 1914.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "And guests--here they had a long argument, both of them trying to be extraordinarily mature and far-sighted. Anthony claimed that they would need people at least every other week-end \"as a sort of change.\" This provoked an involved and extremely sentimental conversation as to whether Anthony did not consider Gloria change enough. Though he assured her that he did, she insisted upon doubting him.... Eventually the conversation assumed its eternal monotone: \"What then?", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "On the last night of his first term, Mr. Margotson, the senior master, sent word to study hall that Amory was to come to his room at nine. Amory suspected that advice was forthcoming, but he determined to be courteous, because this Mr. Margotson had been kindly disposed toward him.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "A.--I think so. I'm not sure. I'm not sure about good and evil at all any more.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Do you think you'll be able to do any work in New York--or do you really intend to work at all?\" This last with soft, almost imperceptible, cynicism.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Myra's eyes became dreamy. What a story this would make to tell Marylyn! Here on the couch with this wonderful-looking boy--the little fire--the sense that they were alone in the great building--", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Then your education's over,\" said Marjorie quickly. \"That's only a bluff of hers. I should think you'd have realized.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "She was immemorial.... Amory wasn't good enough for Clara, Clara of ripply golden hair, but then no man was. Her goodness was above the prosy morals of the husband-seeker, apart from the dull literature of female virtue.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "The stairs came to an end, a doorway approached; he went in and listened to regular breathing. His feet were economical of steps and his body swayed sometimes at stretching as he felt over the bureau, pocketing all articles which held promise--he could not have enumerated them ten seconds afterward. He felt on a chair for possible trousers, found soft garments, women's lingerie. The corners of his mouth smiled mechanically.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Now, Isabelle,\" he interrupted, \"you know it's not that--even suppose it is. We've reached the stage where we either ought to kiss--or--or--nothing. It isn't as if you were refusing on moral grounds.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "The rain gave Amory a feeling of detachment, and the numerous unpleasant aspects of city life without money occurred to him in threatening procession. There was the ghastly, stinking crush of the subway--the car cards thrusting themselves at one, leering out like dull bores who grab your arm with another story; the querulous worry as to whether some one isn't leaning on you; a man deciding not to give his seat to a woman, hating her for it; the woman hating him for not doing it; at worst a squalid phantasmagoria of breath, and old cloth on human bodies and the smells of the food men ate--at best just people--too hot or too cold, tired, worried.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "During the five or ten minutes he waited in the shadow of the fence, there was somehow this fire... that was as near as he could name it afterward. He remembered calling aloud:", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "The car was obligingly drawn up at a curb, and Amory ran for the boardwalk. First, he realized that the sea was blue and that there was an enormous quantity of it, and that it roared and roared--really all the banalities about the ocean that one could realize, but if any one had told him then that these things were banalities, he would have gaped in wonder.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"What's the matter, Amory? Amory's thinking about poetry, about the pretty birds and flowers. I can see it in his eye.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"I can't help it,\" said Horace with a directness she found quite disarming. \"You know I like you.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "But it was due to this furious silence of hers that the gray house materialized from its abstraction, for just beyond Rye he surrendered gloomily to it and re-relinquished the wheel. Mutely he beseeched her and Gloria, instantly cheered, vowed to be more careful. But because a discourteous street-car persisted callously in remaining upon its track Gloria ducked down a side-street--and thereafter that afternoon was never able to find her way back to the Post Road. The street they finally mistook for it lost its Post-Road aspect when it had gone five miles from Cos Cob. Its macadam became gravel, then dirt--moreover, it narrowed and developed a border of maple trees, through which filtered the weltering sun, making its endless experiments with shadow designs upon the long grass.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "As if in answer to his prayers came a flash of lightning and he looked eagerly at her who stood beside him on the soggy haystack, ten feet above the ground. But she had covered her face and he saw nothing but a slender figure, dark, damp, bobbed hair, and the small white hands with the thumbs that bent back like his.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"I was asleep,\" cried Mr. Klipspringer, in a spasm of embarrassment. \"That is, I'd been asleep. Then I got up...\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Yes. I don't mean only money failures, but just sort of--of ineffectual and sad, and--oh, how can I tell you?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "He brought the name out in three long booming triumphancies--pausing for it to produce its magical effect. Then he read two more letters, one from a manufacturer of vacuum cleaners and one from the president of the Great Northern Doily Company.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Warren stared abstractedly at some infinite speck out the window. Then for an instant his eyes rested coldly on Bernice before they turned to Marjorie.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "The Buchanans' house floated suddenly toward us through the dark rustling trees. Tom stopped beside the porch and looked up at the second floor, where two windows bloomed with light among the vines.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Oh!\" Amory gasped in horror. \"She wouldn't think of marrying... that is, not now. I mean the future, you know.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Easter would bore spring, wouldn't she? Easter has her hair braided, wears a tailored suit.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "At her urging he went at one o'clock to the appointed address, where he found himself one of a dense miscellany of men waiting in front of the door. They ranged from a messenger-boy evidently misusing his company's time to an immemorial individual with a gnarled body and a gnarled cane. Some of the men were seedy, with sunken cheeks and puffy pink eyes--others were young; possibly still in high school. After a jostled fifteen minutes during which they all eyed one another with apathetic suspicion there appeared a smart young shepherd clad in a \"waist-line\" suit and wearing the manner of an assistant rector who herded them up-stairs into a large room, which resembled a school-room and contained innumerable desks. Here the prospective salesmen sat down--and again waited.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Sit right down. Have a cigarette or a cigar.\" He walked around the room quickly, ringing bells. \"I'll have something to drink for you in just a minute.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Oh, no,\" he protested, \"let's use the big one. There'll be Ahearn and his wife and you and I and Milton, that's five, and Tom and Jessie, that's seven: and your sister and Joe Ambler, that's nine. You don't know how quick that stuff goes when you make it.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "There were the bells and the continued low blur of auto horns from Fifth Avenue, but his own street was silent and he was safe in here from all the threat of life, for there was his door and the long hall and his guardian bedroom--safe, safe! The arc-light shining into his window seemed for this hour like the moon, only brighter and more beautiful than the moon.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"You see, Mr. Macy,\" continued Dalyrimple, \"I feel I'm wasting time. I want to get started at something. I had several chances about a month ago but they all seem to have--gone----\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "(It seems inevitable that this process is to be gone through, so ANTHONY and GLORIA join in the great moving of tables, piling of chairs, rolling of carpets, and breaking of lamps. When the furniture has been stacked in ugly masses at the sides, there appears a space about eight feet square.)", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "She didn't answer. Angry, and half in love with her, and tremendously sorry, I turned away.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Oh, it doesn't get me. I'm pretty well cloistered, and I suppose books mean more than people to me anyway.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Well, if you've got a decent mind the second has got to be qualified by the first. Any simple soul can delude himself with mental garbage.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Myra pictured an all-night tobacco debauch, with Amory pale and reeling from the effect of nicotined lungs. She gave a little gasp.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "His cigarette, its smoke bordering the thin folds of curtain with rims of faint white spray, glowed on until the clock in St. Anne's down the street struck one with a querulous fashionable beauty. The elevated, half a quiet block away, sounded a rumble of drums--and should he lean from his window he would see the train, like an angry eagle, breasting the dark curve at the corner. He was reminded of a fantastic romance he had lately read in which cities had been bombed from aerial trains, and for a moment he fancied that Washington Square had declared war on Central Park and that this was a north-bound menace loaded with battle and sudden death. But as it passed the illusion faded; it diminished to the faintest of drums--then to a far-away droning eagle.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"That's the secret of Castle Rackrent. Tell your chauffeur to go far away and spend an hour.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"You shouldn't smoke, Amory,\" she whispered. \"Don't you know that?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Oh, I want to get out of here! I'm going back home. Take me home\"----her voice rose to a scream that sent a chill to Harry's heart as he came racing down the next passage--\"to-morrow!\" she cried with delirious, unstrained passion--\"To-morrow! To-morrow!", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Don't be so literal. How should I know? But it sounds as though they ought to play it.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "His speaking voice, a gruff husky tenor, added to the impression of fractiousness he conveyed. There was a touch of paternal contempt in it, even toward people he liked--and there were men at New Haven who had hated his guts.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "All through the summer months Amory and Frog Parker went each week to the Stock Company. Afterward they would stroll home in the balmy air of August night, dreaming along Hennepin and Nicollet Avenues, through the gay crowd. Amory wondered how people could fail to notice that he was a boy marked for glory, and when faces of the throng turned toward him and ambiguous eyes stared into his, he assumed the most romantic of expressions and walked on the air cushions that lie on the asphalts of fourteen.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Margery Lee,\" she read; \"1844-1873. Wasn't she nice? She died when she was twenty-nine. Dear Margery Lee,\" she added softly. \"Can't you see her, Harry?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"I knew a girl,\" said Marcia reminiscently, \"who went on the ten-twenty-thirty when she was sixteen. She was so stuck on herself that she could never say 'sixteen' without putting the 'only' before it. We got to calling her 'Only Jessie.' And she's just where she was when she started--only worse. 'Only' is a bad habit, Omar--it sounds like an alibi.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "A moment later Muriel appeared in a state of elaborate undress and crept toward them. She was in her element: her ebony hair was slicked straight back on her head; her eyes were artificially darkened; she reeked of insistent perfume. She was got up to the best of her ability as a siren, more popularly a \"vamp\"--a picker up and thrower away of men, an unscrupulous and fundamentally unmoved toyer with affections. Something in the exhaustiveness of her attempt fascinated Maury at first sight--a woman with wide hips affecting a panther-like litheness! As they waited the extra three minutes for Gloria, and, by polite assumption, for Rachael, he was unable to take his eyes from her.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Though Lois was very jauntily attired in an expensively appropriate travelling affair, she did not linger to pat out the dust which covered her clothes, but started up the central walk with curious glances at either side. Her face was very eager and expectant, yet she hadn't at all that glorified expression that girls wear when they arrive for a Senior Prom at Princeton or New Haven; still, as there were no senior proms here, perhaps it didn't matter.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Once accustomed to the temperature of the water he relaxed into a state of drowsy content. When he finished his bath he would dress leisurely and walk down Fifth Avenue to the Ritz, where he had an appointment for dinner with his two most frequent companions, Dick Caramel and Maury Noble. Afterward he and Maury were going to the theatre--Caramel would probably trot home and work on his book, which ought to be finished pretty soon.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Now, if he wished, he might laugh. The test was done and he had sustained his will with violence. Let leniency walk in the wake of victory.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "After the sureties of youth there sets in a period of intense and intolerable complexity. With the soda-jerker this period is so short as to be almost negligible. Men higher in the scale hold out longer in the attempt to preserve the ultimate niceties of relationship, to retain \"impractical\" ideas of integrity. But by the late twenties the business has grown too intricate, and what has hitherto been imminent and confusing has become gradually remote and dim. Routine comes down like twilight on a harsh landscape, softening it until it is tolerable.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "The meeting was set for four o'clock, and he was rather surprised at three-thirty when the door opened and McIntyre came in. Samuel could not help respecting the man's attitude, and feeling a bit sorry for him. McIntyre seemed closely related to the prairies, and Samuel had the little flicker of envy that city people feel toward men who live in the open.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "He glared; his growing enjoyment in the conversation was ripped to shreds. She had been irritable and vindictive all day, and it seemed to him that for this moment he hated her hard selfishness. He stared morosely at the fire.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "On this note the diary ended. Her eyes wandered up the page, over the June 8th's of 1912, 1910, 1907. The earliest entry was scrawled in the plump, bulbous hand of a sixteen-year-old girl--it was the name, Bob Lamar, and a word she could not decipher. Then she knew what it was--and, knowing, she found her eyes misty with tears. There in a graying blur was the record of her first kiss, faded as its intimate afternoon, on a rainy veranda seven years before.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Her finger-nails were too long and ornate, polished to a pink and unnatural fever. Her clothes were too tight, too stylish, too vivid, her eyes too roguish, her smile too coy. She was almost pitifully overemphasized from head to foot.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"My name's Marcia Meadow,\" she said emphatically. \"'Member it-- Marcia Meadow. And I won't tell Charlie Moon you were in.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"You would--for about a day. But you do seem to possess a lot of nerve for a flapper.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Why, Kieth,\" she said quickly, \"you know I couldn't have waited a day longer. I saw you when I was five, but of course I didn't remember, and how could I have gone on without practically ever having seen my only brother?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "His voice rose until it was pitched almost at a scream. \"I'll kill you!\" he cried. \"If you don't get out I'll kill you, I'll kill you!\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Well,\" remarked Anthony without inspiration, \"I haven't seen you for a long time.\" Immediately he regretted his words and started to add: \"I didn't know you lived out this way.\" But Bloeckman anticipated him by asking pleasantly:", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Rosalind! Rosalind!\" He poured the words softly into the half-darkness until she seemed to permeate the room; the wet salt breeze filled his hair with moisture, the rim of a moon seared the sky and made the curtains dim and ghostly. He fell asleep.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Do you think I'm particularly happy?\" he continued, ignoring her question. \"Do you think I don't know we're not living as we ought to?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "From the other door, enters ALEC CONNAGE. He looks around quickly and in a huge voice shouts: Mama! There is a chorus of protest from next door and encouraged he starts toward it, but is repelled by another chorus.)", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"I'm sorry I wasn't,\" answered Anthony dryly. When he had departed Anthony hesitated. The fear was gone from his heart, yet he felt that some protest was ethically apropos. Gloria resolved his uncertainty.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "That afternoon the car joined the laundry-bags and Gloria's appetite as one of the trinity of contention. He warned her of railroad tracks; he pointed out approaching automobiles; finally he insisted on taking the wheel and a furious, insulted Gloria sat silently beside him between the towns of Larchmont and Rye.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "ROSALIND: There aren't any. Men don't know how to be really angry or really happy--and the ones that do, go to pieces.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Nonsense!\" he interrupted. \"Put it this way--that I'm in my nineteenth year and you're nineteen. That makes us pretty close--without counting that other ten thousand years I mentioned.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "I am going to Rome with a wonderful dossier and letters of introduction that cover every capital in Europe, and there will be \"no small stir\" when I get there. How I wish you were with me! This sounds like a rather cynical paragraph, not at all the sort of thing that a middle-aged clergyman should write to a youth about to depart for the war; the only excuse is that the middle-aged clergyman is talking to himself. There are deep things in us and you know what they are as well as I do. We have great faith, though yours at present is uncrystallized; we have a terrible honesty that all our sophistry cannot destroy and, above all, a childlike simplicity that keeps us from ever being really malicious.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"The last one was the one I met you at,\" answered the girl, in an alert confident voice. She turned to her companion: \"Wasn't it for you, Lucille?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Pretty good,\" said Allison. He winked at Pete Lytell. \"Too bad you're a married man. We've got some pretty good stuff lined up for about eleven o'clock, when the shows let out. Oh, boy!", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "The man made non-committal noises in his throat and passed on. Amory seated himself on an overturned boat and leaned forward thoughtfully until his chin rested in his hand.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "I didn't want to go to the city. I wasn't worth a decent stroke of work, but it was more than that--I didn't want to leave Gatsby. I missed that train, and then another, before I could get myself away.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"By her low alto! No, by tan! I began thinking about tan. I began to think what color I turned when I made my last exposure about two years ago. I did use to get a pretty good tan.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Their eyes met, and they stared together at each other, alone in space. With an effort she glanced down at the table.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Myra made out the party ahead, had an instant vision of her mother, and then--alas for convention--glanced into the eyes beside. \"Turn down this side street, Richard, and drive straight to the Minnehaha Club!\" she cried through the speaking tube. Amory sank back against the cushions with a sigh of relief.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "To Bernice the next week was a revelation. With the feeling that people really enjoyed looking at her and listening to her came the foundation of self-confidence. Of course there were numerous mistakes at first. She did not know, for instance, that Draycott Deyo was studying for the ministry; she was unaware that he had cut in on her because he thought she was a quiet, reserved girl. Had she known these things she would not have treated him to the line which began \"Hello, Shell Shock!\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "(AMORY with his head sunk in his hands does not move. The life seems suddenly gone out of him.)", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Will I?\" she said in a queer voice that scared him. \"Will I? Watch! I'm going over the cliff!\" And before he could interfere she had turned and was riding breakneck for the end of the plateau.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Blockhead never will dance! I think he has a wooden leg,\" remarked Gloria to the table at large. The three young men started and the gentleman referred to winced perceptibly.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "After a long while he awoke and was conscious that it had grown much colder. He tried to move himself but his muscles refused to function. He was curiously anxious to know the time, but he reached for his watch, only to find the pocket empty. Involuntarily his lips formed an immemorial phrase:", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Tom's getting very profound,\" said Daisy, with an expression of unthoughtful sadness. \"He reads deep books with long words in them. What was that word we--\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "He smiled understandingly--much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced--or seemed to face--the whole eternal world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favour. It understood you just so far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself, and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey. Precisely at that point it vanished--and I was looking at an elegant young roughneck, a year or two over thirty, whose elaborate formality of speech just missed being absurd.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Dear,\" he said. \"Oh, Gloria, darling. It isn't true. I invented it--every word of it.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "The next April Daisy had her little girl, and they went to France for a year. I saw them one spring in Cannes, and later in Deauville, and then they came back to Chicago to settle down. Daisy was popular in Chicago, as you know. They moved with a fast crowd, all of them young and rich and wild, but she came out with an absolutely perfect reputation. Perhaps because she doesn't drink.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"I know I'm not very popular. I don't give big parties. I suppose you've got to make your house into a pigsty in order to have any friends--in the modern world.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "On Thursday, therefore, he walked pensively along the slippery, shovel-scraped sidewalks, and came in sight of Myra's house, on the half-hour after five, a lateness which he fancied his mother would have favored. He waited on the door-step with his eyes nonchalantly half-closed, and planned his entrance with precision. He would cross the floor, not too hastily, to Mrs. St. Claire, and say with exactly the correct modulation:", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"My tan?\" She was puzzled. Her hand rose to her throat, rested there an instant as though the fingers were feeling variants of color.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"We're not going to. I've got a vacation for the first week you're here, and there's a dinner-dance to-night.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "We all looked in silence at Mrs. Wilson, who removed a strand of hair from over her eyes and looked back at us with a brilliant smile. Mr. McKee regarded her intently with his head on one side, and then moved his hand back and forth slowly in front of his face.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "She was dressed to play golf, and I remember thinking she looked like a good illustration, her chin raised a little jauntily, her hair the colour of an autumn leaf, her face the same brown tint as the fingerless glove on her knee. When I had finished she told me without comment that she was engaged to another man. I doubted that, though there were several she could have married at a nod of her head, but I pretended to be surprised. For just a minute I wondered if I wasn't making a mistake, then I thought it all over again quickly and got up to say goodbye.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Wilson had another; Amory had several more. They decided to sit down. At ten o'clock Wilson was displaced by Carling, class of '15. Amory, his head spinning gorgeously, layer upon layer of soft satisfaction setting over the bruised spots of his spirit, was discoursing volubly on the war.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "The drill continued until noon. It consisted of stressing a succession of infinitely remote details, and though Anthony perceived that this was consistent with the logic of war, it none the less irritated him. That the same faulty blood-pressure which would have been indecent in an officer did not interfere with the duties of a private was a preposterous incongruity. Sometimes, after listening to a sustained invective concerned with a dull and, on the face of it, absurd subject known as military \"courtesy,\" he suspected that the dim purpose of the war was to let the regular army officers--men with the mentality and aspirations of schoolboys--have their fling with some real slaughter. He was being grotesquely sacrificed to the twenty-year patience of a Hopkins!", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "She was silent. She turned her face up to him, pale under the wisps and patches of light that trailed in like moonshine through a foliage. Her eyes were gleaming ripples in the white lake of her face; the shadows of her hair bordered the brow with a persuasive unintimate dusk. No love was there, surely; nor the imprint of any love. Her beauty was cool as this damp breeze, as the moist softness of her own lips.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "The sister, Catherine, was a slender, worldly girl of about thirty, with a solid, sticky bob of red hair, and a complexion powdered milky white. Her eyebrows had been plucked and then drawn on again at a more rakish angle, but the efforts of nature toward the restoration of the old alignment gave a blurred air to her face. When she moved about there was an incessant clicking as innumerable pottery bracelets jingled up and down upon her arms. She came in with such a proprietary haste, and looked around so possessively at the furniture that I wondered if she lived here. But when I asked her she laughed immoderately, repeated my question aloud, and told me she lived with a girl friend at a hotel.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"An Oxford man!\" He was incredulous. \"Like hell he is! He wears a pink suit.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Sure I did. I was going to wear it tonight, but it was too big in the bust and had to be altered. It was gas blue with lavender beads. Two hundred and sixty-five dollars.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Good-morning, Fool... Three times a week You hold us helpless while you speak, Teasing our thirsty souls with the Sleek 'yeas' of your philosophy... Well, here we are, your hundred sheep, Tune up, play on, pour forth... we sleep... You are a student, so they say; You hammered out the other day A syllabus, from what we know Of some forgotten folio; You'd sniffled through an era's must, Filling your nostrils up with dust, And then, arising from your knees, Published, in one gigantic sneeze... But here's a neighbor on my right, An Eager Ass, considered bright; Asker of questions.... How he'll stand, With earnest air and fidgy hand, After this hour, telling you He sat all night and burrowed through Your book.... Oh, you'll be coy and he Will simulate precosity, And pedants both, you'll smile and smirk, And leer, and hasten back to work.... 'Twas this day week, sir, you returned A theme of mine, from which I learned (Through various comment on the side Which you had scrawled) that I defied The highest rules of criticism For cheap and careless witticism.... 'Are you quite sure that this could be?' And 'Shaw is no authority!' But Eager Ass, with what he's sent, Plays havoc with your best per cent. Still--still I meet you here and there... When Shakespeare's played you hold a chair, And some defunct, moth-eaten star Enchants the mental prig you are... A radical comes down and shocks The atheistic orthodox? You're representing Common Sense, Mouth open, in the audience.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"You're my whole life, that's all. I'd die for you right now if you said so. I'd get a knife and kill myself. You can't leave me here.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Gloria caught suddenly the intended suggestion of the remark, the atmosphere he was attempting to create. She wanted to laugh--yet she realized that there was nothing to laugh at. She had been enjoying the evening, and she had no desire to go home--at the same time it hurt her pride to be flirted with on just that level.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Oh, no,\" Amory protested. \"He worked too hard for that. I imagine that when he died he was a broken-down man--and the great saints haven't been strong.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "She clung to him but he broke away, and the room seemed to crash about her ears. She heard the pantry-door swing open, a scuffle, the rattle of a tin pan, and in wild despair she rushed into the kitchen and pulled up the gas. Her husband's arm slowly unwound from Gedney's neck, and he stood there very still, first in amazement, then with pain dawning in his face.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Samuel soon saw that the real leader was an early settler named McIntyre, a man of perhaps fifty, gray-haired, clean-shaven, bronzed by forty New Mexico summers, and with those clear steady eye that Texas and New Mexico weather are apt to give. His ranch had not as yet shown oil, but it was in the pool, and if any man hated to lose his land McIntyre did. Every one had rather looked to him at first to avert the big calamity, and he had hunted all over the territory for the legal means with which to do it, but he had failed, and he knew it. He avoided Samuel assiduously, but Samuel was sure that when the day came for the signatures he would appear.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Ten o'clock bumped stuffily into eleven; the hours clogged and caught and slowed down. Amazingly the train halted along the dark countryside, from time to time indulging in short, deceitful movements backward or forward, and whistling harsh paeans into the high October night. Having read his newspaper through, editorials, cartoons, and war-poems, his eye fell on a half-column headed Shakespeareville, Kansas. It seemed that the Shakespeareville Chamber of Commerce had recently held an enthusiastic debate as to whether the American soldiers should be known as \"Sammies\" or \"Battling Christians.\" The thought gagged him.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Yes,\" said Axia, coming in, \"and Amory. I like Amory.\" She sat down beside him and laid her yellow head on his shoulder.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"I don't get it! Repeat that, Mr. Rooney!\" Most of them were so stupid or careless that they wouldn't admit when they didn't understand, and Amory was of the latter. He found it impossible to study conic sections; something in their calm and tantalizing respectability breathing defiantly through Mr. Rooney's fetid parlors distorted their equations into insoluble anagrams. He made a last night's effort with the proverbial wet towel, and then blissfully took the exam, wondering unhappily why all the color and ambition of the spring before had faded out. Somehow, with the defection of Isabelle the idea of undergraduate success had loosed its grasp on his imagination, and he contemplated a possible failure to pass off his condition with equanimity, even though it would arbitrarily mean his removal from the Princetonian board and the slaughter of his chances for the Senior Council.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "I believe that on the first night I went to Gatsby's house I was one of the few guests who had actually been invited. People were not invited--they went there. They got into automobiles which bore them out to Long Island, and somehow they ended up at Gatsby's door. Once there they were introduced by somebody who knew Gatsby, and after that they conducted themselves according to the rules of behaviour associated with an amusement park. Sometimes they came and went without having met Gatsby at all, came for the party with a simplicity of heart that was its own ticket of admission.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "She became conscious of the regular sound of the camera. It worried her. She glanced toward it involuntarily and wondered if she had made up her face correctly. Then, with a definite effort she forced herself to act--and she had never felt that the gestures of her body were so banal, so awkward, so bereft of grace or distinction. She strolled around the office, picking up articles here and there and looking at them inanely.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "He broke off. She watched him inscrutably. He waited for her to agree or disagree, but she did neither.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "A new point of view occurred to me. Suppose Tom found out that Daisy had been driving. He might think he saw a connection in it--he might think anything. I looked at the house; there were two or three bright windows downstairs and the pink glow from Daisy's room on the ground floor.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "His memories of the Boston Society Contralto were nebulous and musical. She was a lady who sang, sang, sang, in the music room of their house on Washington Square--sometimes with guests scattered all about her, the men with their arms folded, balanced breathlessly on the edges of sofas, the women with their hands in their laps, occasionally making little whispers to the men and always clapping very briskly and uttering cooing cries after each song--and often she sang to Anthony alone, in Italian or French or in a strange and terrible dialect which she imagined to be the speech of the Southern negro.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "This last item brought him obvious satisfaction. His day, usually a jelly-like creature, a shapeless, spineless thing, had attained Mesozoic structure. It was marching along surely, even jauntily, toward a climax, as a play should, as a day should. He dreaded the moment when the backbone of the day should be broken, when he should have met the girl at last, talked to her, and then bowed her laughter out the door, returning only to the melancholy dregs in the teacups and the gathering staleness of the uneaten sandwiches.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "The Count Del Monte ate a box of bluing once, but it didn't hurt him. Later, however, he lost his mind and ran madly up the street, bumping into fences, rolling in gutters, and pursuing his eccentric course out of Amory's life. Amory cried on his bed.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Since poor Beatrice died I'll probably have a little money, but very darn little. I can forgive mother almost everything except the fact that in a sudden burst of religiosity toward the end, she left half of what remained to be spent in stained-glass windows and seminary endowments. Mr. Barton, my lawyer, writes me that my thousands are mostly in street railways and that the said Street R. R. s are losing money because of the five-cent fares. Imagine a salary list that gives $350 a month to a man that can't read and write!--yet I believe in it, even though I've seen what was once a sizable fortune melt away between speculation, extravagance, the democratic administration, and the income tax--modern, that's me all over, Mabel.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "They wandered on, mixing in the Broadway crowd, dreaming on the music that eddied out of the cafes. New faces flashed on and off like myriad lights, pale or rouged faces, tired, yet sustained by a weary excitement. Amory watched them in fascination. He was planning his life. He was going to live in New York, and be known at every restaurant and cafe, wearing a dress-suit from early evening to early morning, sleeping away the dull hours of the forenoon.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"I certainly am--why, Anthony!\" This exclamation as she tried to pull away from him and he only tightened his grasp.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Our eyes lifted over the rose-beds and the hot lawn and the weedy refuse of the dog-days alongshore. Slowly the white wings of the boat moved against the blue cool limit of the sky. Ahead lay the scalloped ocean and the abounding blessed isles.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Well,\" said Samuel disapprovingly, \"he ought to be. If you'll allow me I'll see you home.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"I can tell you right now,\" she answered. \"He owned some drugstores, a lot of drugstores. He built them up himself.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Oh... my baby girl, all I had, all I wanted!... Oh, my girl, come back, come back! I need you... need you... we're so pitiful ... just misery we brought each other.... She'll be shut away from me.... I can't see her; I can't be her friend. It's got to be that way--it's got to be--\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "A cheap gold-plated ring with the initials O. S. and the date inside--'03--probably a class-ring from school. Worth a few dollars. Unsalable.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "After cocktails and luncheon at the University Club Anthony felt better. He had run into two men from his class at Harvard, and in contrast to the gray heaviness of their conversation his life assumed color. Both of them were married: one spent his coffee time in sketching an extra-nuptial adventure to the bland and appreciative smiles of the other. Both of them, he thought, were Mr. Gilberts in embryo; the number of their \"yes's\" would have to be quadrupled, their natures crabbed by twenty years--then they would be no more than obsolete and broken machines, pseudo-wise and valueless, nursed to an utter senility by the women they had broken.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "With a furious energy he jumped from the fence, whipped off his coat, and from its black lining cut with his knife a piece about five inches square. He made two holes near its edge and then fixed it on his face, pulling his hat down to hold it in place. It flapped grotesquely and then dampened and clung clung to his forehead and cheeks.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Now this is all I'm going to say to you to-day. To-morrow I want those of you who have thought it over and have read the copy of 'Heart Talks' which will be given to you at the door, to come back to this same room at this same time, then we'll go into the proposition further and I'll explain to you what I've found the principles of success to be. I'm going to make you feel that you and you and you can sell!\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "(In an agony of concentration ANTHONY tries to recall the name. After a struggle of parturition his memory gives up the fragment \"Fred,\" around which he hastily builds the sentence \"Glad you did, Fred!\" Meanwhile the slight hush prefatory to an introduction has fallen upon the company. MAURY, who could help, prefers to look on in malicious enjoyment.)", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "At this point Miss Baker said: \"Absolutely!\" with such suddenness that I started--it was the first word she had uttered since I came into the room. Evidently it surprised her as much as it did me, for she yawned and with a series of rapid, deft movements stood up into the room.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Well, they're growing' like Swedes--Ibsenesque, you know. Very gradually getting gloomy and melancholy. It's these long winters. Ever read Ibsen?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"g--\" He looked up as Tom's broad hand fell sharply on his shoulder. \"What you want, fella?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "He was drafted early in the fall, and the examining doctor made no mention of low blood-pressure. It was all very purposeless and sad when Anthony told Gloria one night that he wanted, above all things, to be killed. But, as always, they were sorry for each other for the wrong things at the wrong times....", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"The funeral's tomorrow,\" I said. \"Three o'clock, here at the house. I wish you'd tell anybody who'd be interested.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Yep. You see baby's due in four months now. Doctor says I ought to have quit dancing two weeks ago.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Oh, that's all right,\" he said carelessly. \"I don't want to put you to any trouble.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "The first was--he saw Gloria. It was a short meeting. Both bowed. Both spoke, yet neither heard the other. But when it was over Anthony read down a column of The Sun three times in succession without understanding a single sentence.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Oh, yes,\" Mrs. Ahearn assured her eagerly. \"He's brainy, Clarence is. Ideas and enthusiasm, you know. Finds out what he wants and then goes and gets it.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "A pause. Then, taking a long breath and straightening his shoulders, he remarked in a determined voice:", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Well, you didn't seem to feel so self-confident to-night. Maybe you're just plain conceited.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Amory was alone--he had escaped from a small enclosure into a great labyrinth. He was where Goethe was when he began \"Faust\"; he was where Conrad was when he wrote \"Almayer's Folly.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Yes,\" she said rather surprised to think of him having known Maury Kebble. Still there was nothing strange about it. \"Well, he and I were talking about sweetness a few weeks ago. Oh, I don't know--I said that a man named Howard--that a man I knew was sweet, and he didn't agree with me, and we began talking about what sweetness in a man was: He kept telling me I meant a sort of soppy softness, but I knew I didn't--yet I didn't know exactly how to put it. I see now.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Almost every night Anthony came to town. It was too cool now for the porch, so her mother surrendered to them the tiny sitting room, with its dozens of cheaply framed chromos, its yard upon yard of decorative fringe, and its thick atmosphere of several decades in the proximity of the kitchen. They would build a fire--then, happily, inexhaustibly, she would go about the business of love. Each evening at ten she would walk with him to the door, her black hair in disarray, her face pale without cosmetics, paler still under the whiteness of the moon. As a rule it would be bright and silver outside; now and then there was a slow warm rain, too indolent, almost, to reach the ground.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "At last Amory had it. He turned over another page and scrawled vigorously for the twenty minutes that was left of the hour. Then he walked up to the desk and deposited a page torn out of his note-book.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Look here, this is a book he had when he was a boy. It just shows you.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "in a white semicircle of letters upon the glass front. The place was inhabited sparsely by three or four bleak and half-frozen night-hawks.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"I'm under no obligations to be. You're not making any attempt to make things different.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "MAURY: Mind if I do? (Yawning as he helps himself from a bottle) What have you been doing since you left college?", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "A change had come over him, and he spoke gravely, and with decision. As we walked across the moonlight gravel to the porch he disposed of the situation in a few brisk phrases.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"You wait here,\" I said. \"I'll see if there's any sign of a commotion.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "The next day was broiling, almost the last, certainly the warmest, of the summer. As my train emerged from the tunnel into sunlight, only the hot whistles of the National Biscuit Company broke the simmering hush at noon. The straw seats of the car hovered on the edge of combustion; the woman next to me perspired delicately for a while into her white shirtwaist, and then, as her newspaper dampened under her fingers, lapsed despairingly into deep heat with a desolate cry. Her pocketbook slapped to the floor.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"I see,\" he agreed gently. \"I see through your precious eyes. You're beautiful now, so I know she must have been.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "The practical thing was to find rooms in the city, but it was a warm season, and I had just left a country of wide lawns and friendly trees, so when a young man at the office suggested that we take a house together in a commuting town, it sounded like a great idea. He found the house, a weather-beaten cardboard bungalow at eighty a month, but at the last minute the firm ordered him to Washington, and I went out to the country alone. I had a dog--at least I had him for a few days until he ran away--and an old Dodge and a Finnish woman, who made my bed and cooked breakfast and muttered Finnish wisdom to herself over the electric stove.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Casey-Jones--mounted to the cab-un Casey-Jones--'th his orders in his hand. Casey-Jones--mounted to the cab-un Took his farewell journey to the prom-ised land.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Leave your name on the desk,\" she said quickly. \"I'll give it to him when he gets back.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "Gloria had taken a strong dislike to the man ever since the day when, returning unexpectedly from the village, she had discovered him reclining on Anthony's bed, puzzling out a newspaper. It was the instinct of all servants to be fond of Anthony and to detest Gloria, and Tana was no exception to the rule. But he was thoroughly afraid of her and made plain his aversion only in his moodier moments by subtly addressing Anthony with remarks intended for her ear:", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"Oh--!\" He had hurt her at last, and he was not too obtuse or too careless to perceive it.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "fitzgerald", "text": "\"You're here with me,\" he said sternly. \"You've been with me all evening.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"You're right,\" Brett said. \"You're terribly right. I always joke people and I haven't a friend in the world. Except Jake here.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "In case it may have any historical value, I am glad to state that I wrote the foregoing chapter in two hours directly on the typewriter, and then went out to lunch with John Dos Passos, whom I consider a very forceful writer, and an exceedingly pleasant fellow besides. This is what is known in the provinces as log-rolling. We lunched on rollmops, Sole Meuniere, Civet de Lievre it la Chez Cocotte, marmelade de pommes, and washed it all down, as we used to say (eh, reader?) with a bottle of Montrachet 1919, with the sole, and a bottle of Hospice de Beaune 1919 apiece with the jugged hare. Mr. Dos Passos, I believe, shared a bottle of Chambertin with me over the marmelade de pommes (Eng., apple sauce).", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"We might go up on the hill,\" Brett said. \"Haven't we had a splendid party?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "The bull lurched with him as he lay on, and seemed to sink; then he was standing clear. He looked at the bull going down slowly over on his side, then suddenly four feet in the air.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"I bought him in Palermo,\" the American lady said. \"We only had an hour ashore and it was Sunday morning. The man wanted to be paid in dollars and I gave him a dollar and a half. He really sings very beautifully.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"That was down by Viareggio,\" Guy said. \"Do you remember what we came to this country for?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Henry knows a thing or two,\" Mr. Borrow said. \"He knows what he's talking about there.\" He laughed a high, cackling laugh. Mr. Shaw, the old pump-maker, blushed.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "The American lady looked and saw the last car. \"I was afraid of that all night,\" she said. \"I have terrific presentiments about things sometimes. I'll never travel on a rapide again at night. There must be other comfortable trains that don't go so fast.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "I heard Brett and Robert Cohn come up the stairs. Cohn said good night outside the door and went on up to his room. I heard Brett go into the room next door. Mike was already in bed. He had come in with me an hour before.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Pinin!\" the adjutant called. Pinin came into the room. \"The major wants you,\" the adjutant said.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "Walcott came over. He was blond with wide shoulders and arms like a heavyweight. He didn't have much legs. Jack stood about half-a-head taller than he did.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"That's the truth,\" Max said. \"You ought to play the races, bright boy.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Here's the pub,\" Mike said. It was the Bar Milano, a small, tough bar where you could get food and where they danced in the back room. We all sat down at a table and ordered a bottle of Fundador. The bar was not full. There was nothing going on.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"I'll rest on the next turn as he goes out,\" he said. \"I feel much better. Then in two or three turns more I will have him.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "He sat down and looked at her across the table. I went out. The hard-eyed people at the bull-fighter table watched me go. It was not pleasant. When I came back and looked in the cafe, twenty minutes later, Brett and Pedro Romero were gone.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Don't get drunk,\" she said. \"Jake, don't get drunk.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "While I had him on, several trout had jumped at the falls. As soon as I baited up and dropped in again I hooked another and brought him in the same way. In a little while I had six. They were all about the same size. I laid them out, side by side, all their heads pointing the same way, and looked at them.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "He went away and came back with the long-handled coffee and milk pots. He poured the milk and coffee. It came out of the long spouts in two streams into the big cup. The waiter nodded his head.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Put you up if you like,\" Red Dog offered. \"What's your tribe?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "Besides, he thought, everything kills everything else in some way. Fishing kills me exactly as it keeps me alive. The boy keeps me alive, he thought. I must not deceive myself too much.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"You can talk,\" Mike said. \"He'd have knocked you out, too. I never saw him hit me. I rather think I saw him just before, and then quite suddenly I was sitting down in the street, and Jake was lying under a table.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "He slid the carcass overboard and looked to see if there was any swirl in the water. But there was only the light of its slow descent. He turned then and placed the two flying fish inside the two fillets of fish and putting his knife back in its sheath, he worked his way slowly back to the bow. His back was bent with the weight of the line across it and he carried the fish in his right hand.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "He shook hands and turned around to the back seat again. The other Basques had been impressed. He sat back comfortably and smiled at me when I turned around to look at the country. But the effort of talking American seemed to have tired him. He did not say anything after that.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "Watching the sunset out over the Petoskey Harbor, the lake now frozen and great blocks of ice jutting up over the breakwater, Scripps strode down the streets of Petoskey to the beanery. He would have liked to ask Yogi Johnson to eat with him, but he didn't dare. Not yet. That would come later. All in good time.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"I say!\" Scripps beckoned to one of the workmen who was sloshing water over a new, raw-looking pump that had just been carried out and stood protestingly in the snow. \"Are they pumps?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"I know. But this is in bottles, Hatuey beer, and I take back the bottles.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Oh, fine,\" Jack said. \"Listen, Hogan. Have you got any liquor?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "The boys at first were very polite about my medals and asked me what I had done to get them. I showed them the papers, which were written in very beautiful language and full of fratellanza and abnegazione, but which really said, with the adjectives removed, that I had been given the medals because I was an American. After that their manner changed a little toward me, although I was their friend against outsiders. I was a friend, but I was never really one of them after they had read the citations, because it had been different with them and they had done very different things to get their medals. I had been wounded, it was true; but we all knew that being wounded, after all, was really an accident.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Tell him we have to go,\" said Guy. \"Tell her we are very ill, and have no money.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"You'd do the same for me,\" Yogi deprecated. After all, perhaps it was true. It was a chance he was taking, He had taken a chance in Paris once. Steve Brodie had taken a chance. Or so they said.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"No. I can stay away another week. I think I'll go to San Sebastian.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "He shipped his oars and brought a small line from under the bow. It had a wire leader and a medium-sized hook and he baited it with one of the sardines. He let it go over the side and then made it fast to a ring bolt in the stern. Then he baited another line and left it coiled in the shade of the bow. He went back to rowing and to watching the long-winged black bird who was working, now, low over the water.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"That little chap would have made a pool-player if he hadn't had a bit of hard luck in the war,\" Red Dog remarked. \"Would you like to have a look about the club?\" He took the check from Bruce, signed it, and Yogi followed him into the next room.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Tell him he is a beautiful boy,\" the lady said. Guy is thirty-eight and takes some pride in the fact that he is taken for a traveling salesman in France. \"You are a beautiful boy,\" I said.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"All right,\" Manuel said. \"If that's the way you feel about it.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"He's such a fine boy,\" said Montoya. \"He ought to stay with his own people. He shouldn't mix in that stuff.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "Suddenly under a street light that swung on its drooping wire above a street corner, casting its light down on the snow, the big Indian stopped. \"Walking no get us nowhere,\" he grunted. \"Walking no good. Let white chief speak. Where we go, white chief?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "He made the fish fast to bow and stern and to the middle thwart. He was so big it was like lashing a much bigger skiff alongside. He cut a piece of line and tied the fish's lower jaw against his bill so his mouth would not open and they would sail as cleanly as possible. Then he stepped the mast and, with the stick that was his gaff and with his boom rigged, the patched sail drew, the boat began to move, and half lying in the stern he sailed south-west.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"They're what you call wise boys,\" Hogan said. \"Don't you know them two?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"It was the first day of my leave. I was walking along the Boulevard Malesherbes. A car passed me and a beautiful woman leaned out. She called to me and I came. She took me to a house, a mansion rather, in a distant part of Paris, and there a very beautiful thing happened to me.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "2nd Soldier--It isn't that that's so bad, as when they first lift 'em [He makes a lifting gesture with his two palms together.] When the weight starts to pull on 'em. That's when it gets 'em.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "He looked across the sea and knew how alone he was now. But he could see the prisms in the deep dark water and the line stretching ahead and the strange undulation of the calm. The clouds were building up now for the trade wind and he looked ahead and saw a flight of wild ducks etching themselves against the sky over the water, then blurring, then etching again and he knew no man was ever alone on the sea.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "They sat on the Terrace and many of the fishermen made fun of the old man and he was not angry. Others, of the older fishermen, looked at him and were sad. But they did not show it and they spoke politely about the current and the depths they had drifted their lines at and the steady good weather and of what they had seen. The successful fishermen of that day were already in and had butchered their marlin out and carried them laid full length across two planks, with two men staggering at the end of each plank, to the fish house where they waited for the ice truck to carry them to the market in Havana. Those who had caught sharks had taken them to the shark factory on the other side of the cove where they were hoisted on a block and tackle, their livers removed, their fins cut off and their hides skinned out and their flesh cut into strips for salting.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Get that well too,\" the boy said. \"Lie down, old man, and I will bring you your clean shirt. And something to eat.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"He's not dead,\" Mike said. \"I know he's not dead. He's just passed out on Anis del Mono.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "The gypsy bent back, drew back his arms, the banderillos pointing at the bull. He called to the bull, stamped one foot. The bull was suspicious. He wanted the man. No more barbs in the shoulder.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "The old man unhooked the fish, rebaited the line with another sardine and tossed it over. Then he worked his way slowly back to the bow. He washed his left hand and wiped it on his trousers. Then he shifted the heavy line from his right hand to his left and washed his right hand in the sea while he watched the sun go into the ocean and the slant of the big cord.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "The bus stopped in front of a posada and many of the passengers got down, and a lot of the baggage was unstrapped from the roof from under the big tarpaulins and lifted down. Bill and I got down and went into the posada. There was a low, dark room with saddles and harness, and hay-forks made of white wood, and clusters of canvas rope-soled shoes and hams and slabs of bacon and white garlics and long sausages hanging from the roof. It was cool and dusky, and we stood in front of a long wooden counter with two women behind it serving drinks. Behind them were shelves stacked with supplies and goods.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"I've kept them out of four fights,\" Edna said. \"You've got to help me.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Fifty lire.\" He spat in the road. \"Your car is dirty and you are dirty too.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "The iridescent bubbles were beautiful. But they were the falsest thing in the sea and the old man loved to see the big sea turtles eating them. The turtles saw them, approached them from the front, then shut their eyes so they were completely carapaced and ate them filaments and all. The old man loved to see the turtles eat them and he loved to walk on them on the beach after a storm and hear them pop when he stepped on them with the horny soles of his feet.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"I'm not tight,\" Mike said. \"Perhaps just a little. I say, Brett, you are a lovely piece.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"White man's beanery got heap fine T-bone steak,\" the tall Indian grunted. \"Take it from red brother.\" The Indians stood a little uncertainly outside the door. The tall Indian turned to Yogi. \"White chief got dollars?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "Scripps O'Neil was thinking about Mandy, the waitress. What a background she must have, that girl! What a fund of anecdotes! A chap could go far with a woman like that to help him! He stroked the little bird that sat on the lunch-counter before him.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"You don't mean it,\" Bill said. \"I should think it would have been grand for the tailor.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"I'm just start ing. I'm go ing to get a lit tle sleep.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Loaned the nigger some clothes and went around with him to try and get his money. Claimed nigger owed them money on account of wrecking hall. Wonder who translated? Was it me?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "Jack stands up and the sweat comes out all over his face. I put the bathrobe around him and he holds himself in with one hand under the bathrobe and goes across the ring. They've picked Walcott up and they're working on him. There're a lot of people in Walcott's corner. Nobody speaks to Jack.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "We sat in the Iruna for a while and had coffee and then took a little walk out to the bull-ring and across the field and under the trees at the edge of the cliff and looked down at the river in the dark, and I turned in early. Bill and Cohn stayed out in the cafe quite late, I believe, because I was asleep when they came in.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "The bird went higher in the air and circled again, his wings motionless. Then he dove suddenly and the old man saw flying fish spurt out of the water and sail desperately over the surface.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "The old man held the line delicately, and softly, with his left hand, unleashed it from the stick. Now he could let it run through his fingers without the fish feeling any tension.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Don't you think that was funny?\" Mike asked. We were all laughing. \"It was. I swear it was. Any rate, my tailor wrote me and wanted the medals back.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"I'll try to get him to work far out,\" the boy said. \"Then if you hook something truly big we can come to your aid.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Poor,\" said Bill. \"Very poor. You can't do it. That's all. You don't understand irony.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"I'll tell you,\" Max said. \"We're going to kill a Swede. Do you know a big Swede named Ole Andreson?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"I could not fail myself and die on a fish like this,\" he said. \"Now that I have him coming so beautifully, God help me endure. I'll say a hundred Our Fathers and a hundred Hail Marys. But I cannot say them now.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "The bull was squared on all four feet to be killed, and Romero killed directly below us. He killed not as he had been forced to by the last bull, but as he wanted to. He profiled directly in front of the bull, drew the sword out of the folds of the muleta and sighted along the blade. The bull watched him. Romero spoke to the bull and tapped one of his feet.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"I saw you out of the window,\" he said. \"Didn't want to interrupt you. What were you doing? Burying your money?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"You ought to go to bed now so that you will be fresh in the morning. I will take the things back to the Terrace.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"And where are you going to be, Robert? It's my own fault, all right. Perfectly my own fault. When I made you get rid of your little secretary on the magazine I ought to have known you'd get rid of me the same way. Jake doesn't know about that.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Not really,\" Brett said. She leaned forward on the barrera. Romero waved his picadors to their places, then stood, his cape against his chest, looking across the ring to where the bull would come out.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"I'm not looking at you. Go on up and see Cohn. He's in bad shape.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "There was smoke from many tall chimneys coming into Marseilles, and the train slowed down and followed one track through many others into the station. The train stayed twenty-five minutes in the station at Marseilles and the American lady bought a copy of the Daily Mail and a half-bottle of Evian water. She walked a little way along the station platform, but she stayed near the steps of the car because at Cannes, where it stopped for twelve minutes, the train had left with no signal of departure and she had only gotten on just in time. The American lady was a little deaf and she was afraid that perhaps signals of departure were given and that she did not hear them.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"What?\" I said. \"You could have read it. It's only dirty from the state of the roads.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Oh, he'd leave us if we blew out,\" I said. \"He wouldn't get his traveling clothes dirty.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"We sure did. We set right there when they started to come in, and they must have just thought we were in the party. One of the waiters said something to us in French, and then they just sent three of them back.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "Outside the villages there were fields with vines. The fields were brown and the vines coarse and thick. The houses were white, and in the streets the men, in their Sunday clothes, were playing bowls. Against the walls of some of the houses there were pear trees, their branches candelabraed against the white walls. The pear trees had been sprayed, and the walls of the houses were stained a metallic blue-green by the spray vapor.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "The bull-fight on the second day was much better than on the first. Brett sat between Mike and me at the barrera, and Bill and Cohn went up above. Romero was the whole show. I do not think Brett saw any other bull-fighter. No one else did either, except the hard-shelled technicians.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "A taxi passed, some one in it waved, then banged for the driver to stop. The taxi backed up to the curb. In it was Brett.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Half fish,\" he said. \"Fish that you were. I am sorry that I went too far out. I ruined us both. But we have killed many sharks, you and I, and ruined many others.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Yes,\" he said. \"Pretty well, sometimes. But I must not let anybody know. It would be very bad, a torero who speaks English.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "It was not nice to watch if you cared anything about the person who was doing it. With the bull who could not see the colors of the capes, or the scarlet flannel of the muleta, Romero had to make the bull consent with his body. He had to get so close that the bull saw his body, and would start for it, and then shift the bull's charge to the flannel and finish out the pass in the classic manner. The Biarritz crowd did not like it They thought Romero was afraid, and that was why he gave that little sidestep each time as he transferred the bull's charge from his own body to the flannel. They preferred Belmonte's imitation of himself or Marcial's imitation of Belmonte.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Sorry. I didn't mean to. I was just trying to give you the facts.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Naturally. But he makes the difference. In the other league, between Brooklyn and Philadelphia I must take Brooklyn. But then I think of Dick Sisler and those great drives in the old park.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"That so?\" asked Scripps. In some ways the pump-factory had hardened him. His speech had become more clipped. More like these hardy Northern workers'. But his mind was the same.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"What a morning!\" Bill said. He mopped off his face. \"My God! what a morning! And here's old Jake.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Yes,\" said the American lady. \"Isn't it lovely? Where did you stop there?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"So long,\" said Ole Andreson. He did not look towards Nick. \"Thanks for coming around.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"I'm all right,\" Jack says. They were right in front of us. The referee looks at John and then he shakes his head.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "My right hand can hold it as long as it is braced, he thought. If it relaxes in sleep my left hand will wake me as the line goes out. It is hard on the right hand. But he is used to punishment. Even if I sleep twenty minutes or a half an hour it is good.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "The old man watched for him to come again but neither shark showed. Then he saw one on the surface swimming in circles. He did not see the fin of the other.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "I sat in the sun and watched the bathers on the beach. They looked very small. After a while I stood up, gripped with my toes on the edge of the raft as it tipped with my weight, and dove cleanly and deeply, to come up through the lightening water, blew the salt water out of my head, and swam slowly and steadily in to shore.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"All right,\" Jack said. He poured himself out another big shot and put water in it. He was lighting up a little.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Bill,\" Edna looked at me. \"Please don't go in again, Bill. They're so stupid.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "We started up the road into the woods. It was a long walk home to Burguete, and it was dark when we came down across the fields to the road, and along the road between the houses of the town, their windows lighted, to the inn.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Oh, yes, he told me all about it last night,\" Bill said. \"He's a great little confider. He said he had a date with Brett at San Sebastian.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Thanks, we'll be in,\" I said. I went back to the small room.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "He stepped out of the snow-drift and approached the window. Behind the window the man worked busily away at his telegrapher's key.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "Just then an old man with long, sunburned hair and beard, and clothes that looked as though they were made of gunny-sacking, came striding up to the bridge. He was carrying a long staff, and he had a kid slung on his back, tied by the four legs, the head hanging down.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Yes, my dear. I have been around very much. I have been around a very great deal.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "There was no cast net and the boy remembered when they had sold it. But they went through this fiction every day. There was no pot of yellow rice and fish and the boy knew this too.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Me too,\" Hogan said. \"I got no kick on him. He's a cold one though.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "Brett was damned good-looking. She wore a slipover jersey sweater and a tweed skirt, and her hair was brushed back like a boy's. She started all that. She was built with curves like the hull of a racing yacht, and you missed none of it with that wool jersey.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "Manuel walked towards him, watching his feet. This was all right. He could do this. He must work to get the bull's head down, so he could go in past the horns and kill him. He did not think about the sword, not about killing the bull.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Hel-lo, Jake,\" he said. \"Hel-lo! Hel-lo! How are you, old lad?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "Scripps going slowly to work in the pump-factory in the mornings. Mrs. Scripps looking out of the window and watching him go up the street. Not much time for reading The Guardian now. Not much time for reading about English politics. Not much time for worrying about the cabinet crises over there in France.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "The lady took my hand. \"You won't stay? You won't ask him to stay?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Isn't that a pub across the way?\" Harris asked. \"Or do my eyes deceive me?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Oh, well. Let it go,\" Brett said. \"It doesn't matter now.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Yes,\" the waitress smiled, the lines in her face not quite so deep now. \"I feel better now.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "We got off with our bags and rod-cases and passed through the dark station and out to the lights and the line of cabs and hotel buses. There, standing with the hotel runners, was Robert Cohn. He did not see us at first. Then he started forward.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "We came into the town on the other side of the plateau, the road slanting up steeply and dustily with shade-trees on both sides, and then levelling out through the new part of town they are building up outside the old walls. We passed the bull-ring, high and white and concrete-looking in the sun, and then came into the big square by a side street and stopped in front of the Hotel Montoya.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"You mustn't misunderstand, Jake, it was absolutely platonic with the secretary. Not even platonic. Nothing at all, really. It was just that she was so nice. And he did that just to please me.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Say,\" he said, \"go up and see Cohn. He's been in a jam, and he's asking for you.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Feel of it,\" Jack says. \"It's soft ain't it? Don't be a hick.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "The two Indians looked at one another. \"White chief heap nice fella,\" observed the big Indian.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "You won't. All right. He stepped close and jammed the sharp peak of the muleta into the bull's damp muzzle.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"You are very nice people,\" he said. He was smoking a cigar again. \"Why don't you get married, you two?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"It's quite all right with me,\" Mike said. \"I'm not embarrassed.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "In the evening was the paseo. For an hour after dinner every one, all the good-looking girls, the officers from the garrison, all the fashionable people of the town, walked in the street on one side of the square while the cafe tables filled with the regular after-dinner crowd.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "His back was as blue as a sword fish's and his belly was silver and his hide was smooth and handsome. He was built as a sword fish except for his huge jaws which were tight shut now as he swam fast, just under the surface with his high dorsal fin knifing through the water without wavering. Inside the closed double lip of his jaws all of his eight rows of teeth were slanted inwards. They were not the ordinary pyramid-shaped teeth of most sharks. They were shaped like a man's fingers when they are crisped like claws.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Want to go for a ride?\" I said. \"Want to ride through the town?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Our committee room,\" Red Dog said. On the walls were framed autographed photographs of Chief Bender, Francis Parkman, D. H. Lawrence, Chief Meyers, Stewart Edward White, Mary Austin, Jim Thorpe, General Custer, Glenn Warner, Mabel Dodge, and a full-length oil painting of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"That's because you never read a book about it. Go on and read a book all full of love affairs with the beautiful shiny black princesses.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Do let's go and eat,\" Brett said. \"I must get a bath.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "The canary chirped and the feathers on his throat stood out, then he dropped his bill and pecked into his feathers again. The train crossed a river and passed through a very carefully tended forest. The train passed through many outside of Paris towns. There were train-cars in the towns and big advertisements for the Belle Jardiniere and Dubonnet and Pernod on the walls toward the train. All that the train passed through looked as though it were before breakfast.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "Yogi was worried. There was something on his mind. It was spring, there was no doubt of that now, and he did not want a woman. He had worried about it a lot lately. There was no question about it.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"The hell with luck,\" the boy said. \"I'll bring the luck with me.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "The shark closed fast astern and when he hit the fish the old man saw his mouth open and his strange eyes and the clicking chop of the teeth as he drove forward in the meat just above the tail. The shark's head was out of water and his back was coming out and the old man could hear the noise of skin and flesh ripping on the big fish when he rammed the harpoon down onto the shark's head at a spot where the line between his eyes intersected with the line that ran straight back from his nose. There were no such lines. There was only the heavy sharp blue head and the big eyes and the clicking, thrusting all-swallowing jaws. But that was the location of the brain and the old man hit it.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Here.\" I put one hand on the small of my back and the other on my chest, where it looked as though the horn must have come through. The waiter nodded his head and swept the crumbs from the table with his cloth.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "He shook his head and walked away, carrying the coffee-pots. Two men were going by in the street. The waiter shouted to them. They were grave-looking. One shook his head.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Muy buenos. Yes, there is a female English. Certainly you can see her if she wishes to see you.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"You've got some good kids,\" Hernandez said. He was very cheerful. He had been on twice before in nocturnals and was beginning to get a following in Madrid. He was happy the fight would start in a few minutes.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "On the next turn, he nearly had him. But again the fish righted himself and swam slowly away.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"That'll depend,\" Max said. \"That's one of those things you never know at the time.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"I know. But if I do it, then it will be nice again if I say things are like white elephants, and you'll like it?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "Scripps O'Neil stood irresolutely before the barber shop. Inside there men were being shaved. Other men, no different, were having their hair cut. Other men sat against the wall in tall chairs and smoked, awaiting their turn in the barber chairs, admiring the paintings hung on the wall, or admiring their own reflections in the long mirror. Should he, Scripps, go in there?", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Perhaps I am drunk. Why aren't you drunk? Why don't you ever get drunk, Robert? You know you didn't have a good time at San Sebastian because none of our friends would invite you on any of the parties. You can't blame them hardly.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Ah can't help it, Massa Red Dog. When I seen Mistah Skunk-Backhouse passin' dem wampums around I jess couldn't stand it no longa. Whad he wan sell a big town like New Yawk foh dem wampums for? Wampums! Take away yoah wampums!\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"I don't know,\" Cohn said. \"I think I'd rather play football again with what I know about handling myself, now.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"I say, you are slow on the up-take,\" she said. I had only sipped my brandy and soda. I took a long drink.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "Brett came up the stairs. I saw she was quite drunk. \"Silly thing to do,\" she said. \"Make an awful row. I say, you weren't asleep, were you?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "Alone, bareheaded, the snow blowing in his hair, he walked down the G. R. & I. railway tracks. It was the coldest night he had ever known. He picked up a dead bird that had frozen and fallen onto the railroad tracks and put it inside his shirt to warm it. The bird nestled close to his warm body and pecked at his chest gratefully.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "Zurito said something to him. Manuel could not hear it. Zurito was speaking to Retana. One of the men in white smiled and handed Retana a pair of scissors. Retana gave them to Zurito.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "One of the Indians was asleep. He had been chewing tobacco, and his mouth was pursed up in sleep. He was leaning on the other Indian's shoulder. The Indian who was awake pointed at the other Indian, who was asleep, and shook his head.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "As the sun set he remembered, to give himself more confidence, the time in the tavern at Casablanca when he had played the hand game with the great negro from Cienfuegos who was the strongest man on the docks. They had gone one day and one night with their elbows on a chalk line on the table and their forearms straight up and their hands gripped tight. Each one was trying to force the other's hand down onto the table. There was much betting and people went in and out of the room under the kerosene lights and he had looked at the arm and hand of the negro and at the negro's face. They changed the referees every four hours after the first eight so that the referees could sleep.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Probably he owes them money\" I said. \"That's what people usually get bitter about.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"No,\" Jack says. \"I'm all through. It's just business.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"I don't know,\" Mike said. \"I'll ask. Where is the drunken comrade?\" he asked in Spanish.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Come on in, Hogan,\" he says. \"We're all going to have a drink.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "I was very drunk. I was drunker than I ever remembered having been. At the hotel I went up-stairs. Brett's door was open. I put my head in the room.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"I wish I could go. We've been looking forward to this fishing all winter.\" He was being sentimental about it. \"But I ought to stay. I really ought. As soon as they come I'll bring them right up.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "Manuel profiled toward the bull, sighting along the dipping blade of the sword. The bull was motionless, seemingly dead on his feet, incapable of another charge.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "The girl brought the drinks and the peasant drank the schnapps. He looked out of the window. The sexton watched him. John had his head forward on the table. He was asleep.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Stopped at the Crillon. George made me a couple of Jack Roses. George's a great man. Know the secret of his success? Never been daunted.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "He wrote in indelible pencil, tore out the slip, and handed it to me. I read it.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"That's it. I figured if I had just one good pic, I could get away with it.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "It was raining hard when we passed through the suburbs of Genoa, and, even going very slowly behind the tramcars and the motor trucks, liquid mud splashed on to the sidewalks, so that people stepped into the doorways as they saw us coming. In San Pier d'Arena, the industrial suburb outside of Genoa, there is a wide street with two car-tracks and we drove down the centre to avoid sending the mud on to the men going home from work. On our left was the Mediterranean. There was a big sea running and waves broke and the wind blew the spray against the car. A riverbed that, when we had passed, going into Italy, had been wide, stony, and dry, was running brown, and up to the banks.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"I'll see you at the cafe,\" Brett said. \"Thank you, so much, Jake.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"No. I got in wrong.\" He talked in the same flat voice. \"There ain't anything to do. After a while I'll make up my mind to go out.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"No, I can't say I liked it. I think it's a wonderful show.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Come on, fish,\" he said. But the fish did not come. Instead he lay there wallowing now in the seas and the old man pulled the skiff up onto him.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "I finished shaving and put my face down into the bowl and washed it with cold water. Montoya was standing there looking more embarrassed.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Bring us the bill,\" I said. She brought the bill from the old woman and went back and sat at the table. Another girl came in from the kitchen. She walked the length of the room and stood in the doorway.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"All right,\" the gypsy said. His face was serious. He began to think about just what he would do.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "We were all at the hospital every afternoon, and there were different ways of walking across the town through the dusk to the hospital. Two of the ways were alongside canals, but they were long. Always, though, you crossed a bridge across a canal to enter the hospital. There was a choice of three bridges. On one of them a woman sold roasted chestnuts.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Not like this, though,\" Hogan said. \"They'll think he never trained. It gives the farm a black eye.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "The train was in the dark of the Gare de Lyons, and then stopped and porters came up to the windows. I handed bags through the windows, and we were out on the dim longness of the platform, and the American lady put herself in charge of one of three men from Cook's who said: \"Just a moment, madame, and I'll look for your name.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"You don't always tell it the same way, dear,\" Mrs. Scripps remarked to Mandy. There were tears in Mandy's eyes. \"I feel very strongly about Henry James,\" she said.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "1st Soldier--Sure, go on and kid him. But listen while I tell you something. He was pretty good in there today.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Wednesday, I think. Yes, quite. Wednesday. Wonderful how one loses track of the days up here in the mountains.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "I went up-stairs. Bill was in his room standing on the balcony looking out at the square. I stood beside him.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"It isn't the same as fishing, though, is it?\" Bill asked. He liked Harris.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "WILLIAM CAMPBELL had been in a pursuit race with a burlesque show ever since Pittsburgh. In a pursuit race, in bicycle racing, riders start at equal intervals to ride after one another. They ride very fast because the race is usually limited to a short distance and if they slow their riding another rider who maintains his pace will make up the space that separated them equally at the start. As soon as a rider is caught and passed he is out of the race and must get down from his bicycle and leave the track. If none of the riders are caught the winner of the race is the one who has gained the most distance.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "He commenced to say his prayers mechanically. Sometimes he would be so tired that he could not remember the prayer and then he would say them fast so that they would come automatically. Hail Marys are easier to say than Our Fathers, he thought.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "Nick walked barefooted along the path through the meadow below the barn. The path was smooth and the dew was cool on his bare feet. He climbed a fence at the end of the meadow, went down through a ravine, his feet wet in the swamp mud, and then climbed up through the dry beech woods until he saw the lights of the cottage. He climbed over the fence and walked around to the front porch. Through the window he saw his father sitting by the table, reading in the light from the big lamp.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "In the morning it was all over. The fiesta was finished. I woke about nine o'clock, had a bath, dressed, and went down-stairs. The square was empty and there were no people on the streets. A few children were picking up rocket-sticks in the square.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"I know it,\" Cohn said. \"You're really about the best friend I have, Jake.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "I stood by the door. It was just like this that I had come home. Now it was a hot bath that I needed. A deep, hot bath, to lie back in.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "He lay in the stern and steered and watched for the glow to come in the sky. I have half of him, he thought. Maybe I'll have the luck to bring the forward half in. I should have some luck. No, he said.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Nothing,\" I said. We were dancing to the accordion and some one was playing the banjo. It was hot and I felt happy. We passed close to Georgette dancing with another one of them.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "He shook the cape at the bull; there he comes; he sidestepped. Awful close that time. I don't want to work that close to him.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"No, I'd like to get this settled.\" He turned away from me. \"Do you think you amount to something, Cohn? Do you think you belong here among us? People who are out to have a good time? For God's sake don't be so noisy, Cohn!\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Mind you're at the Select around ten. Make him come. Michael will be there.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "I looked across at the table. Pedro Romero smiled. He said something to the other people at his table, and stood up. He came over to our table. I stood up and we shook hands.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Let's see that bottle,\" he said. He pulled the cork, and tipped up the bottle and drank. \"Whew! That makes my eyes ache.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Never going to get tight any more. I say, give a chap a brandy and soda.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"I'm not sore. Senlis is a good place and we can stay at the Grand Cerf and take a hike in the woods and come home.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Oh, darling, don't be difficult. What do you think it's meant to have that damned Jew about, and Mike the way he's acted?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"That peasant,\" the innkeeper said, \"today he brought his wife in to be buried. She died last November.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"The lot the Duke sent me for Sunday will make a scandal,\" he said. \"They're all bad in the legs. What do they say about them at the Cafe?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"That's all right,\" William Campbell said. \"Everybody's got to go.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"I dedicate this bull to you, Mr. President, and to the public of Madrid, the most intelligent and generous in the world,\" was what Manuel was saying. It was a formula. He said it all. It was a little too long for nocturnal use.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"He is two feet longer than the skiff,\" the old man said. The line was going out fast but steadily and the fish was not panicked. The old man was trying with both hands to keep the line just inside of breaking strength. He knew that if he could not slow the fish with a steady pressure the fish could take out all the line and break it.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "He motioned to one of his soldiers, who ran forward and threw a bucket of kerosene on the flames. The flames rose and a great column of smoke went up in the still evening air.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "I wish I could feed the fish, he thought. He is my brother. But I must kill him and keep strong to do it. Slowly and conscientiously he ate all of the wedge-shaped strips of fish.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Hell,\" John said. \"He's never right. I've had him for ten years and he's never been right yet.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"No, he hasn't got any con. He just hasn't got anything inside any more.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "After a while we came out of the mountains, and there were trees along both sides of the road, and a stream and ripe fields of grain, and the road went on, very white and straight ahead, and then lifted to a little rise, and off on the left was a hill with an old castle, with buildings close around it and a field of grain going right up to the walls and shifting in the wind. I was up in front with the driver and I turned around. Robert Cohn was asleep, but Bill looked and nodded his head. Then we crossed a wide plain, and there was a big river off on the right shining in the sun from between the line of trees, and away off you could see the plateau of Pamplona rising out of the plain, and the walls of the city, and the great brown cathedral, and the broken skyline of the other churches. In back of the plateau were the mountains, and every way you looked there were other mountains, and ahead the road stretched out white across the plain going toward Pamplona.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "Just then Montoya came into the room. He started to smile at me, then he saw Pedro Romero with a big glass of cognac in his hand, sitting laughing between me and a woman with bare shoulders, at a table full of drunks. He did not even nod.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Where would you like to go?\" asked the count after dinner. We were the only people left in the restaurant. The two waiters were standing over against the door. They wanted to go home.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "The fish never changed his course nor his direction all that night as far as the man could tell from watching the stars. It was cold after the sun went down and the old man's sweat dried cold on his back and his arms and his old legs. During the day he had taken the sack that covered the bait box and spread it in the sun to dry. After the sun went down he tied it around his neck so that it hung down over his back and he cautiously worked it down under the line that was across his shoulders now. The sack cushioned the line and he had found a way of leaning forward against the bow so that he was almost comfortable.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Yes,\" the old man said. He was holding his glass and thinking of many years ago.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "For an hour the old man had been seeing black spots before his eyes and the sweat salted his eyes and salted the cut over his eye and on his forehead. He was not afraid of the black spots. They were normal at the tension that he was pulling on the line. Twice, though, he had felt faint and dizzy and that had worried him.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "We each had an aguardiente and paid forty centimes for the two drinks. I gave the woman fifty centimes to make a tip, and she gave me back the copper piece, thinking I had misunderstood the price.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "They came. But they did not come as the Mako had come. One turned and went out of sight under the skiff and the old man could feel the skiff shake as he jerked and pulled on the fish. The other watched the old man with his slitted yellow eyes and then came in fast with his half circle of jaws wide to hit the fish where he had already been bitten. The line showed clearly on the top of his brown head and back where the brain joined the spinal cord and the old man drove the knife on the oar into the juncture, withdrew it, and drove it in again into the shark's yellow cat-like eyes.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"I'm awfully glad to meet you,\" Robert said to Bill. \"I've heard so much about you from Jake and I've read your books. Did you get my line, Jake?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Oh,\" said Bill, sucking the drumstick, \"how should we know? We should not question. Our stay on earth is not for long. Let us rejoice and believe and give thanks.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"He is making the far part of his circle now,\" he said. I must hold all I can, he thought. The strain will shorten his circle each time. Perhaps in an hour I will see him. Now I must convince him and then I must kill him.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Fine. I'd like to see the coast. Let's drive down toward Hendaye.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"That's the thing to do. Live out in the country and have a little car.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"It's a lie,\" said Bill. \"I went to Austin Business College with Wayne B. Wheeler. He was class president.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "After a while we heard the train-whistle way off below on the other side of the plateau, and then we saw the headlight coming up the hill. We went inside the station and stood with a crowd of people just back of the gates, and the train came in and stopped, and everybody started coming out through the gates.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "When the fiesta boiled over and toward the bull-ring we went with the crowd. Brett sat at the ringside between Bill and me. Directly below us was the callejon, the passageway between the stands and the red fence of the barrera. Behind us the concrete stands filled solidly. Out in front, beyond the red fence, the sand of the ring was smooth-rolled and yellow.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "She was no better than a slut, that Mandy. Was that the way to do? Was that the thing to do? Go after another woman's man? Come between man and wife?", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"So do I,\" the boy said. \"Now I must get your sardines and mine and your fresh baits. He brings our gear himself. He never wants anyone to carry anything.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "He also drank a cup of shark liver oil each day from the big drum in the shack where many of the fishermen kept their gear. It was there for all fishermen who wanted it. Most fishermen hated the taste. But it was no worse than getting up at the hours that they rose and it was very good against all colds and grippes and it was good for the eyes.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"I was terribly frightened,\" the waitress went on, \"and rang the bell for the management. The concierge came up, and I demanded to know where my mother was.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\" 'No, Gosse. That's God's idea of a flamingo,' Professor Whatsisname said. I wish I could remember his name.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "The shark came in a rush and the old man hit him as he shut his jaws. He hit him solidly and from as high up as he could raise the club. This time he felt the bone at the base of the brain and he hit him again in the same place while the shark tore the meat loose sluggishly and slid down from the fish.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "It was the last day of the fiesta. Outside it was beginning to be cloudy again. The square was full of people and the fireworks experts were making up their set pieces for the night and covering them over with beech branches. Boys were watching. We passed stands of rockets with long bamboo stems.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"It will be your wedding gift,\" the elderly waitress said. Again there were tears shone in her eyes.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "He was asleep when the boy looked in the door in the morning. It was blowing so hard that the drifting-boats would not be going out and the boy had slept late and then come to the old man's shack as he had come each morning. The boy saw that the old man was breathing and then he saw the old man's hands and he started to cry. He went out very quietly to go to bring some coffee and all the way down the road he was crying.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "We left the Hotel Montana. The woman who ran the hotel would not let me pay the bill. The bill had been paid.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"I don't need it, Jack,\" I said. \"I feel all right.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"No, listen, Jake. Brett's gone off with men. But they weren't ever Jews, and they didn't come and hang about afterward.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"They all know each other,\" I said. \"They're only dangerous when they're alone, or only two or three of them together.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "It was going just the way he thought it would. He knew he couldn't beat Walcott. He wasn't strong any more. He was all right though. His money was all right and now he wanted to finish it off right to please himself.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "After they went out of sight a great roar came from the bull-ring. It kept on. Then finally the pop of the rocket that meant the bulls had gotten through the people in the ring and into the corrals. I went back in the room and got into bed. I had been standing on the stone balcony in bare feet.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Didn't I! They said he was awful. They said they oughtn't to let him fight.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"You did not do so badly for something worthless,\" he said to his left hand. \"But there was a moment when I could not find you.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"We're going,\" Brett said. \"We've a date up at Montmartre.\" Dancing, I looked over Brett's shoulder and saw Cohn, standing at the bar, still watching her.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Sure,\" Mandy agreed. \"This story is about when Knut Hamsun was a streetcar conductor in Chicago.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"I wish I had a stone for the knife,\" the old man said after he had checked the lashing on the oar butt. \"I should have brought a stone.\" You should have brought many things, he thought. But you did not bring them, old man. Now is no time to think of what you do not have.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "The little Indian looked up at the sign. It shone in the night outside the frosted windows of the beanery. BEST BY TEST.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"He said Brett was a sadist,\" Mike said. \"Brett's not a sadist. She's just a lovely, healthy wench.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Drink your wine,\" said Brett. \"We've all been around. I dare say Jake here has seen as much as you have.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"I don't say it's right. It is right though for me. God knows, I've never felt such a bitch.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "Now he was facing the bull. Yes, his head was going down a little. He was carrying it lower. That was Zurito.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Good morning,\" he said. \"Letter for you. I stopped at the post and they gave it me with mine.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Listen, my dear. I get more value for my money in old brandy than in any other antiquities.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Alles,\" the peasant repeated to the girl. She put her hand in the pocket of her apron, brought it out full of coins and counted out the change. The peasant went out of the door. As soon as he was gone the innkeeper came into the room again and spoke to the sexton. He sat down at the table.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"You were only going to give me a hundred pounds, weren't you, Robert? But I made him give me two hundred. He's really very generous. Aren't you, Robert?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "I was drinking red wine, and so far behind them that I felt a little uncomfortable about all this shoe-shining. I looked around the room. At the next table was Pedro Romero. He stood up when I nodded, and asked me to come over and meet a friend. His table was beside ours, almost touching.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"I know who they are.\" Bill eyed the monument. \"Gentlemen who invented pharmacy. Don't try and fool me on Paris.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"I would like to go. If I cannot fish with you, I would like to serve in some way.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "He looked straight past me and out through the window. Then he began to cry. \"I am utterly unable to resign myself,\" he said and choked. And then crying, his head up, looking at nothing, carrying himself straight and soldierly, with tears on both his cheeks and biting his lips, he walked past the machines and out of the door.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"It's good to see you, Jake,\" Michael said. \"I'm a little tight you know. Amazing, isn't it? Did you see my nose?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "I cannot be too far out now, he thought. I hope no one has been too worried. There is only the boy to worry, of course. But I am sure he would have confidence. Many of the older fishermen will worry.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "Brett laughed. \"It's wrong of you, Jake. It's an insult to all of us. Look at Frances there, and Jo.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"But you have not slept yet, old man,\" he said aloud. \"It is half a day and a night and now another day and you have not slept. You must devise a way so that you sleep a little if he is quiet and steady. If you do not sleep you might become unclear in the head.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "I wonder what he made that lurch for, he thought. The wire must have slipped on the great hill of his back. Certainly his back cannot feel as badly as mine does. But he cannot pull this skiff forever, no matter how great he is. Now everything is cleared away that might make trouble and I have a big reserve of line; all that a man can ask.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"I'm not joking you,\" the count blew a cloud of smoke. \"You got the most class of anybody I ever seen. You got it. That's all.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"This is the eleventh time my boots have been polished,\" Mike said. \"I say, Bill is an ass.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"You know,\" Mike went on, \"Brett was rather good. She's always rather good. I gave her a fearful hiding about Jews and bull-fighters, and all those sort of people, and do you know what she said: 'Yes. I've had such a hell of a happy life with the British aristocracy!' \"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "His first \"quite\" was directly below us. The three matadors take the bull in turn after each charge he makes at a picador. Belmonte was the first. Marcial was the second. Then came Romero.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "We packed the lunch and two bottles of wine in the rucksack, and Bill put it on. I carried the rod-case and the landing-nets slung over my back. We started up the road and then went across a meadow and found a path that crossed the fields and went toward the woods on the slope of the first hill. We walked across the fields on the sandy path. The fields were rolling and grassy and the grass was short from the sheep grazing.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "The divorce was arranged and Robert Cohn went out to the Coast. In California he fell among literary people and, as he still had a little of the fifty thousand left, in a short time he was backing a review of the Arts. The review commenced publication in Carmel, California, and finished in Provincetown, Massachusetts. By that time Cohn, who had been regarded purely as an angel, and whose name had appeared on the editorial page merely as a member of the advisory board, had become the sole editor. It was his money and he discovered he liked the authority of editing.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Named Harris,\" Bill said. \"Ever know him, Mike? He was in the war, too.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Not half,\" the waitress went on. \"It's rather a strange story. Perhaps it would bore you?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "The man called Yogi Johnson came over from the window. \"Glad to meet you,\" he said. He was a chunky, well-built fellow. One of the sort you see around almost anywhere. He looked as though he had been through things.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "The steer was down now, his neck stretched out, his head twisted, he lay the way he had fallen. Suddenly the bull left off and made for the other steer which had been standing at the far end, his head swinging, watching it all. The steer ran awkwardly and the bull caught him, hooked him lightly in the flank, and then turned away and looked up at the crowd on the walls, his crest of muscle rising. The steer came up to him and made as though to nose at him and the bull hooked perfunctorily. The next time he nosed at the steer and then the two of them trotted over to the other bull.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"I'm not going to see him after lunch until the fight. His people come in and dress him. They're very angry about me, he says.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Quite. They're not really Jews. We just call them Jews. They're Scotsmen, I believe.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"My heart's broken,\" he thought. \"If I feel this way my heart must be broken.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"I'm going to marry him,\" Brett said. \"Funny. I haven't thought about him for a week.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"You're an extraordinarily beautiful girl.\" Mike turned to Bill's friend. \"When did you come here?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"It's not so good in the daytime,\" I said. \"Too hot. By the way, I got the bus tickets.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "The coffee was good and we drank it out of big bowls. The girl brought in a glass dish of raspberry jam.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "We often talked about bulls and bull-fighters. I had stopped at the Montoya for several years. We never talked for very long at a time. It was simply the pleasure of discovering what we each felt. Men would come in from distant towns and before they left Pamplona stop and talk for a few minutes with Montoya about bulls.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Eat? Why didn't you say eat? I thought you just wanted me to get up for fun. Eat? Fine.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "The clouds over the land now rose like mountains and the coast was only a long green line with the gray blue hills behind it. The water was a dark blue now, so dark that it was almost purple. As he looked down into it he saw the red sifting of the plankton in the dark water and the strange light the sun made now. He watched his lines to see them go straight down out of sight into the water and he was happy to see so much plankton because it meant fish. The strange light the sun made in the water, now that the sun was higher, meant good weather and so did the shape of the clouds over the land.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "The road went up a hill and we got into thick woods, and the road kept on climbing. Sometimes it dipped down but rose again steeply. All the time we heard the cattle in the woods. Finally, the road came out on the top of the hills. We were on the top of the height of land that was the highest part of the range of wooded hills we had seen from Burguete.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "The carabineer waved him back with his sword. The man turned without saying anything, and started back up the white road into Spain.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "Outside in the hot brightness of the street Brett looked up at the tree-tops in the wind. The praying had not been much of a success.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Wonderful nigger. Looked like Tiger Flowers, only four times as big. All of a sudden everybody started to throw things. Not me. Nigger'd just knocked local boy down.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"No, why should I? If I know an American girl that lives in Strasbourg what the hell is it to Frances?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "The bull was slower now, Manuel felt. He was bleeding badly. There was a sheen of blood all down his flank.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "The hawks, he thought, that come out to sea to meet them. But he said nothing of this to the bird who could not understand him anyway and who would learn about the hawks soon enough.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"What bloody-fool things people do. Why didn't she go off with some of her own people? Or you?\"--he slurred that over--\"or me? Why not me?\" He looked at his face carefully in the glass, put a big dab of lather on each cheek-bone. \"It's an honest face.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Why, the dancings. Don't you know we've revived them?\" Mrs. Braddocks put in.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Say,\" he said. \"What the hell?\" He was trying to swagger it off.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Well,\" said the drummer, \"that's a mighty fine thing to be. I'm a married man myself.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"So he thinks it's all right,\" Max turned to Al. \"He thinks it's all right. That's a good one.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "At first it seemed to be. Diana learned editorials by John Farrar by heart. Scripps brightened. A little of the old light shining in Scripps's eyes now. Then it died.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "They bowed before the president, and the procession broke up into its component parts. The bullfighters went over to the barrera and changed their heavy mantles for the light fighting capes. The mules went out. The picadors galloped jerkily around the ring, and two rode out the gate they had come in by. The servants swept the sand smooth.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"I know. It was a great mistake. He might have gone with us. Then we would have that for all of our lives.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"One! Two! Three! Four!\" Hogan was counting for them. \"Hello, Jerry,\" he said.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"I misjudged you,\" Harvey said. \"You're not a moron. You're only a case of arrested development.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"It don't make no difference where it was,\" Joe said without turning his head. \"One place is just as good as another to run over a skunk.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"No. It couldn't have been about sliding. But listen, Billy, and I'll tell you a secret. Stick to sheets, Billy. Keep away from women and horses and, and--\" he stopped \"--eagles, Billy.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Oh, no,\" said Bill. \"Don't get sore. Don't get sore at this stage of the trip. How did you ever happen to know this fellow, anyway?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "Nick went into his room, undressed, and got into bed. He heard his father moving around in the living-room. Nick lay in the bed with his face in the pillow.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Sam's gone out,\" George said. \"He'll be back in about half an hour.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "I walked around the harbor under the trees to the casino, and then up one of the cool streets to the Cafe Marinas. There was an orchestra playing inside the cafe and I sat out on the terrace and enjoyed the fresh coolness in the hot day, and had a glass of lemon-juice and shaved ice and then a long whiskey and soda. I sat in front of the Marinas for a long time and read and watched the people, and listened to the music.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Oh, don't!\" Brett said. \"For God's sake, go off somewhere. Can't you see Jake and I want to talk?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Go on to the fight,\" Brett said. \"Mr. Campbell's getting difficult. What are these outbursts of affection, Michael?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "As Fuentes walked forward the bull charged. Fuentes ran across the quarter of a circle as the bull charged and, as he passed running backwards, stopped, swung forward, rose on his toes, arms straight out, and sunk the banderillos straight down into the tight of the big shoulder muscles as the bull missed him.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "It has more nourishment than almost any fish, he thought. At least the kind of strength that I need. Now I have done what I can, he thought. Let him begin to circle and let the fight come.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Will you register, please?\" the clerk says. He looked at the names. \"Number 238, Mister Brennan.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "The old man still had two drinks of water in the bottle and he used half of one after he had eaten the shrimps. The skiff was sailing well considering the handicaps and he steered with the tiller under his arm. He could see the fish and he had only to look at his hands and feel his back against the stern to know that this had truly happened and was not a dream. At one time when he was feeling so badly toward the end, he had thought perhaps it was a dream. Then when he had seen the fish come out of the water and hang motionless in the sky before he fell, he was sure there was some great strangeness and he could not believe it.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"I'll walk in with you,\" Yogi replied. Who were. These Indians? What did they mean to him?", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Oh, what I've told Jake isn't any secret. Everybody will know it soon enough. I only wanted to give Jake a decent version.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Don't you know about that?\" Mike was opening a beer-bottle. He poured the beer into one of the glasses, holding the glass close to the bottle.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"I knew they wouldn't come,\" Robert said. We were going back to the hotel.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"He'd be good, you know,\" Brett said. \"He writes a good letter.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"It was about a little girl in Iowa,\" Diana said. She moved toward him. \"It was about people on the land. It reminded me a little of my own Lake Country.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "I wished Mike would not behave so terribly to Cohn, though. Mike was a bad drunk. Brett was a good drunk. Bill was a good drunk. Cohn was never drunk.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "2nd Soldier--No, come on. We're going to go. Good night, George. Put it on the bill.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "The woods were gone; the road had left the river to climb; the radiator was boiling; the young man looked annoyedly and suspiciously at the steam and rusty water; the engine was grinding, with both Guy's feet on the first-speed pedal, up and up, back and forth, and up, and, finally, out level. The grinding stopped, and in the new quiet there was a great churning bubbling in the radiator. We were at the top of the last range above Spezia and the sea. The road descended with short, barely rounded turns. Our guest hung out on the turns and nearly pulled the top-heavy car over.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"We better have some more beer,\" John said. A girl brought it this time. She smiled as she opened the bottles.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"My dear, I am sure Mr. Barnes has seen a lot. Don't think I don't think so, sir. I have seen a lot, too.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Is it hard to be a telegrapher?\" Scripps asked. He wanted to ask the man outright if this was Petoskey. He did not know this great northern section of America, though, and he wished to be polite.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"I'm ready now,\" the old man said. \"I only needed time to wash.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "We rode in a taxi down to the Palace Hotel, left the bags, arranged for berths on the Sud Express for the night, and went into the bar of the hotel for a cocktail. We sat on high stools at the bar while the barman shook the Martinis in a large nickelled shaker.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Here's your crackers and milk, Diana,\" Mandy said, placing them on the counter. \"Do you want a T-bone, sir?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Here's a taxidermist's,\" Bill said. \"Want to buy anything? Nice stuffed dog?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "Well, Yogi thought, women are gone, perhaps, though I hope not; but I still have my love of horses. He was walking up the steep hill that leads up from the Bear River out onto the Charlevoix road. The road was not really so steep, but it felt steep to Yogi, his legs heavy with the spring. In front of him was a grain and feed store. A team of beautiful horses were hitched in front of the feed store.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"You talk too much, all the same,\" Al said. He came out from the kitchen. The cut-off barrels of the shotgun made a slight bulge under the waist of his too tight-fitting overcoat. He straightened his coat with his gloved hands.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "That seemed to handle it. That was it. Send a girl off with one man. Introduce her to another to go off with him. Now go and bring her back.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"We can do that,\" the boy said. \"But what about the eighty-seven of your great record?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"I'm glad to meet you,\" Yogi said. He felt strangely humiliated. It was growing dark. There was a single line of sunset where the sky and the water met 'way out on Lake Michigan. Yogi watched the narrow line of the sunset grow darker red, thin to a mere slit, and then fade.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"You talk it fine. To hell with talking the language. You don't have to talk to them. Marry them.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"You don't have to laugh,\" Max said to him. \"You don't have to laugh at all, see?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"I don't like it,\" said Al. \"It's sloppy. You talk too much.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Bung-o!\" Brett said. I drank my glass and poured out another. Brett put her hand on my arm.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "Through the night down the frozen road the three walked into Petoskey. They had been silent walking along the frozen road. Their shoes broke the new-formed crusts of ice. Sometimes Yogi Johnson stepped through a thin film of ice into a pool of water. The Indians avoided the pools of water.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Brett wants to go,\" I said to the count. He nodded. \"Does she? That's fine. You take the car.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Where do you get it?\" asked Yogi. \"I have to go to Cheboygan for mine.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"You'll be all right. There's nothing but that horse part that will bother you, and they're only in for a few minutes with each bull. Just don't watch when it's bad.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "Walcott went in. He didn't know what to do either. He never thought Jack could have stood it. Jack put the left in his face. There was such a hell of a lot of yelling going on.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "The bull, with his tongue out, his barrel heaving, was watching the gypsy. He thought he had him now. Back against the red planks. Only a short charge away. The bull watched him.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "We drove out along the coast road. There was the green of the headlands, the white, red-roofed villas, patches of forest, and the ocean very blue with the tide out and the water curling far out along the beach. We drove through Saint Jean de Luz and passed through villages farther down the coast. Back of the rolling country we were going through we saw the mountains we had come over from Pamplona. The road went on ahead.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Hello, Jake. Hello!\" Mike called. \"Come here. I want you to meet my friends. We're all having an hors-d'oeuvre.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "He tried it again and it was the same. So, he thought, and he felt himself going before he started; I will try it once again.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "He felt very tired now and he knew the night would come soon and he tried to think of other things. He thought of the Big Leagues, to him they were the Gran Ligas, and he knew that the Yankees of New York were playing the Tigres of Detroit.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Oh, go to hell,\" Bill said. \"You've been in the war. It was two hours and a half for me.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "She stood holding the glass and I saw Robert Cohn looking at her. He looked a great deal as his compatriot must have looked when he saw the promised land. Cohn, of course, was much younger. But he had that look of eager, deserving expectation.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Don't I know it, darling? Please don't make me feel any worse than I do.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"I hadn't,\" John said. \"Up in the hut I used to think about it a lot.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"There will be bad weather in three or four days,\" he said. \"But not tonight and not tomorrow. Rig now to get some sleep, old man, while the fish is calm and steady.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "Too damn close, Manuel thought. Zurito, leaning on the barrera, spoke rapidly to the gypsy who trotted out towards Manuel with a cape, Zurito pulled his hat down low and looked out across the arena at Manuel.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"See you all later,\" he said. He went out into the night. It seemed the only thing to do. He did it.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"I wish Bill had been here,\" Edna said. \"I'd like to have seen Bill knocked down, too. I've always wanted to see Bill knocked down. He's so big.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "We walked along under the trees that grew out over the river on the Quai d'Orleans side of the island. Across the river were the broken walls of old houses that were being torn down.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Fine. This one is on me,\" Bill said. \"Has Brett any money?\" He turned to Mike.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "Yogi looked back and saw the laughing black face of the Negro framed in the oblong square of light that came through the raised trap-door. Once on the stable floor, Yogi looked around him. He was alone. The straw of the old stable was stiff and frozen under his feet. Where had he been?", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Say, give me another shot of that,\" Manuel said. He had poured the brandy the waiter had slopped over in the saucer into his glass and drank it while they were talking.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "Now I must prepare the nooses and the rope to lash him alongside, he thought. Even if we were two and swamped her to load him and bailed her out, this skiff would never hold him. I must prepare everything, then bring him in and lash him well and step the mast and set sail for home.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"There's the boys that always work for me nights,\" Retana said. \"They're all right.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "Scripps took her arm as they crossed the street. When his hand touched her arm Diana knew it was true. She would never hold him. A group of Indians passed them on the street. Were they laughing at her or was it some tribal jest?", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "Through the glasses I saw Belmonte speak to Romero. Marcial straightened up and dropped his cigarette, and, looking straight ahead, their heads back, their free arms swinging, the three matadors walked out. Behind them came all the procession, opening out, all striding in step, all the capes furled, everybody with free arms swinging, and behind rode the picadors, their pics rising like lances. Behind all came the two trains of mules and the bull-ring servants. The matadors bowed, holding their hats on, before the President's box, and then came over to the barrera below us.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "Max watched the mirror and the clock. The hands of the clock marked seven o'clock, and then five minutes past seven.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Look,\" he said. \"I've just had a message from them at the Grand Hotel that they want Pedro Romero and Marcial Lalanda to come over for coffee to-night after dinner.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "The boy had brought them in a two-decker metal container from the Terrace. The two sets of knives and forks and spoons were in his pocket with a paper napkin wrapped around each set.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "Just then he saw a man-of-war bird with his long black wings circling in the sky ahead of him. He made a quick drop, slanting down on his back-swept wings, and then circled again.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Yes. Go on and laugh,\" said Bill. \"You weren't out with him last night until two o'clock.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Not a jam,\" I said. \"He just told him to go back to town.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"I ain't slept for a week,\" Jack says. \"All night I lay awake and worry my can off. I can't sleep, Jerry. You ain't got an idea what it's like when you can't sleep.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "One of three men who had been sitting on the beds came up and asked us if we spoke French. \"Would you like me to interpret for you? Is there anything you would like to ask Pedro Romero?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Wait till you see if he lays eggs,\" the drummer suggested. Scripps looked into the drummer's eyes. The fellow had voiced his own unspoken thought.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "He tried a pass with the muleta and the bull did not move. Manuel chopped the muleta back and forth in front of the bull. Nothing doing.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "We were sitting now like two strangers. On the right was the Parc Montsouris. The restaurant where they have the pool of live trout and where you can sit and look out over the park was closed and dark. The driver leaned his head around.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "Yogi Johnson stood looking out of the window of a big pump-factory in Michigan. Spring would soon be here. Could it be that what this writing fellow Hutchinson had said, \"If winter comes can spring be far behind?\" would be true again this year? Yogi Johnson wondered. Near Yogi at the next window but one stood Scripps O'Neil, a tall, lean man with a tall, lean face.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "The old man was sweating now but from something else besides the sun. On each calm placid turn the fish made he was gaining line and he was sure that in two turns more he would have a chance to get the harpoon in.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "I sat up, leaned over, found my shoes beside the bed and put them on. I stood up.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"You wouldn't draw,\" Retana said. \"All they want is Litri and Rubito and La Torre. Those kids are good.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "Inside it smelled of fresh tanned leather and hot tar. A man was stencilling completed wine-skins. They hung from the roof in bunches. He took one down, blew it up, screwed the nozzle tight, and then jumped on it", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"I'm sorry he don't feel well,\" the woman said. \"He's an awfully nice man. He was in the ring, you know.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "Every night at the restaurant, she couldn't call it a beanery now--that made a lump come in her throat and made her throat feel hard and choky. Every night at the restaurant now Scripps and Mandy talked together. The girl was trying to take him away. Him, her Scripps. Trying to take him away.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "Jack poured out a couple of drinks. \"Now,\" he said, \"I want to take it slow and easy.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"I didn't see him at all,\" Frank said. \"Pa was down into the road and back up again before I seen a thing. I thought he was killing a snake.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Breeding be damned. Who has any breeding, anyway, except the bulls? Aren't the bulls lovely? Don't you like them, Bill? Why don't you say something, Robert?", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "The gypsy came running along the barrera towards Manuel, taking the applause of the crowd. His vest was ripped where he had not quite cleared the point of the horn. He was happy about it, showing it to the spectators. He made a tour of the ring. Zurito saw him go by, smiling, pointing to his vest.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"It will be dark soon,\" he said. \"Then I should see the glow of Havana. If I am too far to the eastward I will see the lights of one of the new beaches.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "I did not sleep much that night on the Sud Express. In the morning I had breakfast in the dining-car and watched the rock and pine country between Avila and Escorial. I saw the Escorial out of the window, gray and long and cold in the sun, and did not give a damn about it. I saw Madrid come up over the plain, a compact white sky-line on the top of a little cliff away off across the sun-hardened country.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "Then the fish came alive, with his death in him, and rose high out of the water showing all his great length and width and all his power and his beauty. He seemed to hang in the air above the old man in the skiff. Then he fell into the water with a crash that sent spray over the old man and over all of the skiff.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"He's all right. He says some pretty funny things. Last time I had dinner with him we talked about Hoffenheimer. 'The trouble is,' he said, 'he's a garter snapper.' That's not bad.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Tell him I think writing is lousy,\" Bill said. \"Go on, tell him. Tell him I'm ashamed of being a writer.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Santiago,\" the boy said to him as they climbed the bank from where the skiff was hauled up. \"I could go with you again. We've made some money.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "THE hills across the valley of the Ebro were long and white. On this side there was no shade and no trees and the station was between two lines of rails in the sun. Close against the side of the station there was the warm shadow of the building and a curtain, made of strings of bamboo beads, hung across the open door into the bar, to keep out flies. The American and the girl with him sat at a table in the shade, outside the building. It was very hot and the express from Barcelona would come in forty minutes.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "Jack came over, skipping the rope. He was skipping up and down in front of us, forward and back, crossing his arms every third time.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "The old man could hardly breathe now and he felt a strange taste in his mouth. It was coppery and sweet and he was afraid of it for a moment. But there was not much of it.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "I went over to the bed and put my arms around her. She kissed me, and while she kissed me I could feel she was thinking of something else. She was trembling in my arms. She felt very small.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"I owe everybody money,\" Mike said. \"I borrowed a hundred pesetas from Montoya to-night.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "He read on. Our children's children--what of them? Who of them? New means must be discovered to find room for us under the sun. Shall this be done by war or can it be done by peaceful methods?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Utilize a little, brother,\" he handed me the bottle. \"Let us not doubt, brother. Let us not pry into the holy mysteries of the hen-coop with simian fingers. Let us accept on faith and simply say--I want you to join with me in saying--What shall we say, brother?\" He pointed the drumstick at me and went on. \"Let me tell you.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"I won't eat down-stairs with that German head waiter. He was damned snotty when I was getting Mike up-stairs.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "In the morning it was raining. A fog had come over the mountains from the sea. You could not see the tops of the mountains. The plateau was dull and gloomy, and the shapes of the trees and the houses were changed. I walked out beyond the town to look at the weather.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "It was a good morning, there were high white clouds above the mountains. It had rained a little in the night and it was fresh and cool on the plateau, and there was a wonderful view. We all felt good and we felt healthy, and I felt quite friendly to Cohn. You could not be upset about anything on a day like that.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"No,\" said William Campbell. \"I wasn't saying. It must have been a mistake.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"She was in the woods with Frank Washburn. I ran on to them. They were having quite a time.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"No, it wouldn't. That's where you make your big mistake. Because you're not intelligent.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Can't I, though? You stay here. He's mad about me, I tell you.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "We walked down the Boulevard. At the juncture of the Rue Denfert-Rochereau with the Boulevard is a statue of two men in flowing robes.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"It is a bit strong just at the start,\" Brett said. \"There's a dreadful moment for me just when the bull starts for the horse.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"I know a lot,\" William Campbell said. He pulled down the sheet and looked at Mr. Turner. \"I know enough so I don't mind looking at you at all. Do you want to hear what I know?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "We called the waiter, paid, and started to walk through the town. I started off walking with Brett, but Robert Cohn came up and joined her on the other side. The three of us walked along, past the Ayuntamiento with the banners hung from the balcony, down past the market and down past the steep street that led to the bridge across the Arga. There were many people walking to go and see the bulls, and carriages drove down the hill and across the bridge, the drivers, the horses, and the whips rising above the walking people in the street. Across the bridge we turned up a road to the corrals.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "We got into Pamplona late in the afternoon and the bus stopped in front of the Hotel Montoya. Out in the plaza they were stringing electric-light wires to light the plaza for the fiesta. A few kids came up when the bus stopped, and a customs officer for the town made all the people getting down from the bus open their bundles on the sidewalk. We went into the hotel and on the stairs I met Montoya. He shook hands with us, smiling in his embarrassed way.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish. In the first forty days a boy had been with him. But after forty days without a fish the boy's parents had told him that the old man was now definitely and finally salao, which is the worst form of unlucky, and the boy had gone at their orders in another boat which caught three good fish the first week. It made the boy sad to see the old man come in each day with his skiff empty and he always went down to help him carry either the coiled lines or the gaff and harpoon and the sail that was furled around the mast. The sail was patched with flour sacks and, furled, it looked like the flag of permanent defeat.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "We crossed the bridge and walked up the Rue du Cardinal Lemoine. It was steep walking, and we went all the way up to the Place Contrescarpe. The arc-light shone through the leaves of the trees in the square, and underneath the trees was an S bus ready to start. Music came out of the door of the Negre Joyeux. Through the window of the Cafe Aux Amateurs I saw the long zinc bar.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "The sea had risen considerably. But it was a fair-weather breeze and he had to have it to get home.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"There were these bulls coming in,\" Mike said. \"Just ahead of them was the crowd, and some chap tripped and brought the whole lot of them down.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "Manuel took off his cap and the waiter noticed his pigtail pinned forward on his head. He winked at the coffee-boy as he poured out the brandy into the little glass beside Manuel's coffee. The coffee-boy looked at Manuel's pale face curiously.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Yes, about my going to England. Oh, Jake! I forgot to tell you. I'm going to England.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"I'm rather drunk,\" Mike said. \"I think I'll stay rather drunk. This is all awfully amusing, but it's not too pleasant. It's not too pleasant for me.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "Inside the lit salon compartment the porter had pulled down the three beds from inside the wall and prepared them for sleeping. In the night the American lady lay without sleeping because the train was a rapide and went very fast and she was afraid of the speed in the night. The American lady's bed was the one next to the window. The canary from Palermo, a cloth spread over his cage, was out of the draught in the corridor that went into the compartment washroom. There was a blue light outside the compartment, and all night the train went very fast and the American lady lay awake and waited for a wreck.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"You're awfully funny, Harvey,\" Cohn said. \"Some day somebody will push your face in.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "The old man felt faint and sick and he could not see well. But he cleared the harpoon line and let it run slowly through his raw hands and, when he could see, he saw the fish was on his back with his silver belly up. The shaft of the harpoon was projecting at an angle from the fish's shoulder and the sea was discolouring with the red of the blood from his heart. First it was dark as a shoal in the blue water that was more than a mile deep. Then it spread like a cloud.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Oh, I worry,\" Jack says. \"I worry about property I got up in the Bronx, I worry about property I got in Florida. I worry about the kids. I worry about the wife. Sometimes I think about fights.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "I did not see Brett again until she came back from San Sebastian. One card came from her from there. It had a picture of the Concha, and said: \"Darling. Very quiet and healthy. Love to all the chaps.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "Robert Cohn was once middleweight boxing champion of Princeton. Do not think that I am very much impressed by that as a boxing title, but it meant a lot to Cohn. He cared nothing for boxing, in fact he disliked it, but he learned it painfully and thoroughly to counteract the feeling of inferiority and shyness he had felt on being treated as a Jew at Princeton. There was a certain inner comfort in knowing he could knock down anybody who was snooty to him, although, being very shy and a thoroughly nice boy, he never fought except in the gym. He was Spider Kelly's star pupil.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"They're woods Indians,\" he explained apologetically. \"We're most of us town Indians here.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"I'm going over to the hotel,\" I said. Then I heard them talking about me.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Galanos,\" he said aloud. He had seen the second fin now coming up behind the first and had identified them as shovel-nosed sharks by the brown, triangular fin and the sweeping movements of the tail. They had the scent and were excited and in the stupidity of their great hunger they were losing and finding the scent in their excitement. But they were closing all the time.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Good night, Nick,\" Joe Garner called. \"Aren't you going to stay and eat?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "Then he started to sock. His face looked awful all the time. He started to sock with his hands low down by his side, swinging at Walcott. Walcott covered up and Jack was swinging wild at Walcott's head. Then he swung the left and it hit Walcott in the groin and the right hit Walcott right bang where he'd hit Jack.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"I'm a little tight, you know. I wouldn't ask you like this if I weren't. You're sure you don't mind?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "He could not see the fish's jumps but only heard the breaking of the ocean and the heavy splash as he fell. The speed of the line was cutting his hands badly but he had always known this would happen and he tried to keep the cutting across the calloused parts and not let the line slip into the palm nor cut the fingers.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Go on,\" said Scripps. \"If you had ever been as hard up for plots as I have been!\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"I told you he was one of us. Didn't I?\" Brett turned to me. \"I love you, count. You're a darling.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"I say. Really you don't know how much it means. I've not had much fun since the war.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"With me now,\" Jack said, \"it don't make any difference where I am. You can't have an idea what it's like.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "We stopped in the road and watched the sexton shoveling in the new earth. A peasant with a black beard and high leather boots stood beside the grave. The sexton stopped shoveling and straightened his back. The peasant in the high boots took the spade from the sexton and went on filling in the grave--spreading the earth evenly as a man spreading manure in a garden. In the bright May morning the grave-filling looked unreal.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"I assure you, sir,\" the count put his hand on my arm. \"It never does a man any good. Most of the time it costs you money.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"I'm not worried about how I'll stand it. I'm only afraid I may be bored,\" Cohn said.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "The tuna, the fishermen called all the fish of that species tuna and only distinguished among them by their proper names when they came to sell them or to trade them for baits, were down again. The sun was hot now and the old man felt it on the back of his neck and felt the sweat trickle down his back as he rowed.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "Going down the dark streets to the hotel we saw the sky-rockets going up in the square. Down the side streets that led to the square we saw the square solid with people, those in the centre all dancing.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "But if I had, and could have lashed it to an oar butt, what a weapon. Then we might have fought them together. What will you do now if they come in the night? What can you do?", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "Yogi Johnson walking down the silent street with his arm around the little Indian's shoulder. The big Indian walking along beside them. The cold night. The shuttered houses of the town. The little Indian, who has lost his artificial arm.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "Manuel, running again towards the bull, wiped his bloody face with his handkerchief. He had not seen Zurito. Where was Zurito?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "I got up and went to the balcony and looked out at the dancing in the square. The world was not wheeling any more. It was just very clear and bright, and inclined to blur at the edges. I washed, brushed my hair. I looked strange to myself in the glass, and went down-stairs to the dining-room.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "His choice had been to stay in the deep dark water far out beyond all snares and traps and treacheries. My choice was to go there to find him beyond all people. Beyond all people in the world. Now we are joined together and have been since noon. And no one to help either one of us.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"He made me sweat,\" said Romero. He wiped off his face. The sword-handler handed him the water-jug. Romero wiped his lips. It hurt him to drink out of the jug.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Better sellem Salvation Army, anyway,\" grunts the tall Indian. \"White chief need new clothes, anyhow, when spring comes.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "I went down-stairs and out the door and took a walk around through the arcades around the square. It was still raining. I looked in at the Iruna for the gang and they were not there, so I walked on around the square and back to the hotel. They were eating dinner in the down-stairs dining-room.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "Now I will rest an hour more and feel that he is solid and steady before I move back to the stern to do the work and make the decision. In the meantime I can see how he acts and if he shows any changes. The oars are a good trick; but it has reached the time to play for safety. He is much fish still and I saw that the hook was in the corner of his mouth and he has kept his mouth tight shut. The punishment of the hook is nothing.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Oh, yes. My dear wolf. Every time I take a drink he goes outside the room. He can't stand alcohol. The poor little fellow.\" He moved his tongue round and round on the sheet.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"I can't help it. I'm a goner now, anyway. Don't you see the difference?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "We left the floor and I took my coat off a hanger on the wall and put it on. Brett stood by the bar. Cohn was talking to her. I stopped at the bar and asked them for an envelope. The patronne found one.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "But I must think, he thought. Because it is all I have left. That and baseball. I wonder how the great DiMaggio would have liked the way I hit him in the brain? It was no great thing, he thought.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"He's nervous and crabby,\" I said. \"He's a good fellow, Soldier.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "Ah, these English. They travelled all over the face of the globe. They were not content to remain in their little island. Strange Nordics, obsessed with their dream of empire.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "Scripps knew it was the factory. They weren't going to fool him on that. He walked up to the door. There was a sign on it:", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "After about thirty minutes or so Hogan and I went upstairs. We knocked on Jack's door. They were talking inside the room.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "When he woke there was someone sitting across the table from him. It was a big man with a heavy brown face like an Indian. He had been sitting there some time. He had waved the waiter away and sat reading the paper and occasionally looking down at Manuel, asleep, his head on the table. He read the paper laboriously forming the words with his lips as he read.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Come on,\" Yogi said. \"I better get you started or the foreman will be on my tail.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"I'll pic him, kid,\" Zurito spat on the sand. \"I'll make him jump out of the ring.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "He let the line slip through his fingers while he reached down with his left hand and made fast the free end of the two reserve coils to the loop of the two reserve coils of the next line. Now he was ready. He had three forty-fathom coils of line in reserve now, as well as the coil he was using.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "There are two dining-rooms in the Montoya. One is up-stairs on the second floor and looks out on the square. The other is down one floor below the level of the square and has a door that opens on the back street that the bulls pass along when they run through the streets early in the morning on their way to the ring. It is always cool in the down-stairs dining-room and we had a very good lunch. The first meal in Spain was always a shock with the hors d'oeuvres, an egg course, two meat courses, vegetables, salad, and dessert and fruit.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "Aficion means passion. An aficionado is one who is passionate about the bull-fights. All the good bull-fighters stayed at Montoya's hotel; that is, those with aficion stayed there. The commercial bull-fighters stayed once, perhaps, and then did not come back. The good ones came each year.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"You know Robert is going to get material for a new book. Aren't you, Robert? That's why he's leaving me. He's decided I don't film well. You see, he was so busy all the time that we were living together, writing on this book, that he doesn't remember anything about us.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "He went down the stairs and out of the door into the hot brightness of the street. It was very hot in the street and the light on the white buildings was sudden and hard on his eyes. He walked down the shady side of the steep street toward the Puerta del Sol. The shade felt solid and cool as running water. The heat came suddenly as he crossed the intersecting streets.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "IT was hot coming down into the valley even in the early morning. The sun melted the snow from the skis we were carrying and dried the wood. It was spring in the valley but the sun was very hot. We came along the road into Galtur carrying our skis and rucksacks. As we passed the churchyard a burial was just over.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Chief Running Skunk-Backwards has some of that wampum. Would you like to see it?\" Red Dog asked.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Sure,\" said Harvey. \"It doesn't make any difference to me. You don't mean anything to me.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "The road came out from the shadow of the woods into the hot sun. Ahead was a river-valley. Beyond the river was a steep hill. There was a field of buckwheat on the hill. We saw a white house under some trees on the hillside.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Listen, Robert, dear. Let me tell you something. You won't mind, will you? Don't have scenes with your young ladies. Try not to.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "I looked through the glasses and saw the three matadors. Romero was in the centre, Belmonte on his left, Marcial on his right. Back of them were their people, and behind the banderilleros, back in the passageway and in the open space of the corral, I saw the picadors. Romero was wearing a black suit. His tricornered hat was low down over his eyes.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"If you stand in with Retana in this town, you're a made man,\" the tall waiter said. \"If you aren't in with him, you might just as well go out and shoot yourself.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"What kind of a hand is that,\" he said. \"Cramp then if you want. Make yourself into a claw. It will do you no good.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "The three of them striding along the frozen streets of Petoskey. Going somewhere now. En route. Huysmans wrote that. It would be interesting to read French.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Nor that isn't good for me,\" she said. \"I know. Could we have another beer?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"How did you sleep old man?\" the boy asked. He was waking up now although it was still hard for him to leave his sleep.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "Then the line would not come in any more and he held it until he saw the drops jumping from it in the sun. Then it started out and the old man knelt down and let it go grudgingly back into the dark water.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "We ate at a restaurant in a side street off the square. They were all men eating in the restaurant. It was full of smoke and drinking and singing. The food was good and so was the wine. We did not talk much.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "But he seems calm, he thought, and following his plan. But what is his plan, he thought. And what is mine? Mine I must improvise to his because of his great size. If he will jump I can kill him.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Paris is a fine town all right,\" said the count. \"But I guess you have pretty big doings yourself over in London.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"I'm going back to Mike.\" I could feel her crying as I held her close. \"He's so damned nice and he's so awful. He's my sort of thing.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Listen, Jerry.\" Jack put down the glass. \"I'm not drunk now, see? You know what I'm betting on him? Fifty grand.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Age is my alarm clock,\" the old man said. \"Why do old men wake so early? Is it to have one longer day?\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "He did not need a compass to tell him where south-west was. He only needed the feel of the trade wind and the drawing of the sail. I better put a small line out with a spoon on it and try and get something to eat and drink for the moisture. But he could not find a spoon and his sardines were rotten. So he hooked a patch of yellow gulf weed with the gaff as they passed and shook it so that the small shrimps that were in it fell onto the planking of the skiff.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "Walcott came up to Jack looking at him. Jack stuck the left hand at him. Walcott just shook his head. He backed Jack up against the ropes, measured him and then hooked the left very light to the side of Jack's head and socked the right into the body as hard as he could sock, just as low as he could get it. He must have hit him five inches below the belt.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Give me bacon and eggs,\" said the other man. He was about the same size as Al. Their faces were different, but they were dressed like twins. Both wore overcoats too tight for them. They sat leaning forward, their elbows on the counter.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"What's the trouble?\" Scripps turned in irritation. Perhaps, after all, he was sorry for her. He wondered.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "If the boy were here he could rub it for me and loosen it down from the forearm, he thought. But it will loosen up.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "Manuel was facing the bull again, the muleta held low and to the left. The bull's head was down as he watched the muleta.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"She wanted us to go down in the ring, too,\" Bill said. \"She likes action.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "We went out to walk around under the arcade to the Cafe Iruna for coffee. Cohn said he was going over and get a shave.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "He was sore all day. We didn't do any work. Jack just moved around a little to loosen up. He shadow-boxed a few rounds. He didn't even look good doing that.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Go on,\" Scripps said. \"You must never stop, Mandy. You are my woman now.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "Later when it began to get dark, I walked around the harbor and out along the promenade, and finally back to the hotel for supper. There was a bicycle-race on, the Tour du Pays Basque, and the riders were stopping that night in San Sebastian. In the dining-room, at one side, there was a long table of bicycle-riders, eating with their trainers and managers. They were all French and Belgians, and paid close attention to their meal, but they were having a good time. At the head of the table were two good-looking French girls, with much Rue du Faubourg Montmartre chic.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "Manuel looked back. Retana was sitting forward looking at some papers. Manuel pulled the door tight until it clicked.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"I've been cleaning out the basement, dear,\" my mother said from the porch. She was standing there smiling, to meet him. My father looked at the fire and kicked at something. Then he leaned over and picked something out of the ashes. \"Get a rake, Nick,\" he said to me.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "I figured that all out once, and for six months I never slept with the electric light off. That was another bright idea. To hell with women, anyway. To hell with you, Brett Ashley.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"The Keeley,\" William Campbell said. \"It isn't far from London.\" He shut his eyes and opened them, moving the eyelashes against the sheet. \"I just love sheets,\" he said. He looked at Mr. Turner.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"I do. Remember him perfectly. Look, Jake, we'll come down the night of the 25th. Brett can't get up in the morning.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"Yes, dear,\" Scripps agreed. He felt vaguely mistrustful of himself. Something, somewhere was stirring inside of him. He looked at the waitress called Mandy, standing robust and vigorously lovely in her newly starched white apron. He watched her hands, healthy, calm, capable hands, doing the duties of her waitresshood.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "Billy Campbell caressed the sheet with his lips and his tongue. \"Dear sheet,\" he said. \"I can kiss this sheet and see right through it at the same time.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"I'll take it,\" Cohn said. \"Good. You remember it, Jake. Fifty pesetas.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "Bill went off with Cohn. Cohn's face was sallow. Mike went on talking. I sat and listened for a while. Brett looked disgusted.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "Wine-seller--I'll tell you, gentlemen, I wasn't out there. It's a thing I haven't taken any interest in.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "Oh, the dirty bastards! Dirty bastards! Oh, the lousy, dirty bastards! He kicked into a cushion as he ran.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "It goes along like that for three rounds more. They don't talk any. They're working all the time. We worked over Jack plenty too, in between the rounds. He don't look good at all but he never does much work in the ring.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"They're very short,\" said Pedro Romero. \"Very, very short. Still, they aren't bananas.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "He shut his eyes. I went out of the room and turned the door to quietly. Bill was in my room reading the paper.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "I never used to realize it, I guess. I try and play it along and just not make trouble for people. Probably I never would have had any trouble if I hadn't run into Brett when they shipped me to England. I suppose she only wanted what she couldn't have. Well, people were that way.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "The old man had seen many great fish. He had seen many that weighed more than a thousand pounds and he had caught two of that size in his life, but never alone. Now alone, and out of sight of land, he was fast to the biggest fish that he had ever seen and bigger than he had ever heard of, and his left hand was still as tight as the gripped claws of an eagle.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"It's a remarkable place, though,\" Harris said. \"I wouldn't not have seen it. I'd been intending coming up each day.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "Manuel lay back. They had put something over his face. It was all familiar. He inhaled deeply. He felt very tired.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "Upstairs, apart in a separate room, two old men were working. Yogi opened the door. One of the old men looked over his steel spectacles and frowned.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "Scripps O'Neil opened the door and went into the beanery. The elderly waitress got up from the chair where she had been reading the overseas edition of The Manchester Guardian, and put the paper and her steelrimmed spectacles on top of the cash register.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "\"More than that when I come in, kid,\" Walcott says. \"I'm going to go and eat now.\"", "category": "author" }, { "style": "hemingway", "text": "Here he comes. Whoosh! Manuel turned as the bull came and raised the muleta so that it passed over the bull's horns and swept down his broad back from head to tail. The bull had gone clean up in the air with the charge. Manuel had not moved.", "category": "author" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "Booksfree, which makes its home in a 3,000-square-foot Vienna warehouse next to a pizza-delivery joint and several industrial outfits, is run by unlikely entrepreneurs in a hostile economy. Its founders, W. Douglas Ross and Andrew E. Bilinski, at 60 and 54, respectively, are a generation older than the twentysomethings who rode the Internet boom to its peak three years ago. Booksfree, which came late to the online commerce scene, is one of the few remaining survivors.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "Snyder added that brainstorming already has begun for next year's festival. She thinks it will surpass the success that the little library in Stuart found this weekend.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "Christopher Ross, the State Department's special coordinator for public diplomacy, has advocated reviving official cultural programs abroad as a \"cost-effective investment to ensure U. S. national security\" and a way to combat \"the skewed, negative and unrepresentative\" image of America that he says most people of the world absorb through mass culture and communications. Yet even some of the authors expressed mixed feelings about just how effective such cultural exposure would ultimately prove.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "By his late 20s, he was writing \"tons of\" short stories. But none of them were intended for publication.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "Foltz flirted with a couple of obvious ideas. In Ranch, the \"Kinkster\" - a hip, irreverent private eye - works on three cases which he catalogs as \"Moe,\" \"Curly\" and \"Larry,\" so Foltz considered an image of the Three Stooges. \"But we would have had to go to a lot of trouble to get the rights to an image,\" he says, \"and the cover would have made it look like a Three Stooges book.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "Reviewing books is not a particularly well-paid form of journalism and it takes time. A book of any more ambition than a thriller can't be read for review at a rate of more than 40, or at most 60, pages an hour. Some books are only 120-pages long and can comfortably be digested in a couple of hours. Others, though, are 400, or 600 pages, or, in some dreadful instances, even more, and they can easily take days to get through.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "Rowling's four Harry Potter titles have sold an estimated 192 million copies worldwide, and the books have been published in at least 55 languages. The first two books have been adapted into hit movies and a fifth book in the series is due in bookstores June 21.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "Book club meetings tend to be informal affairs. Friends agree to read a book and then gather at somebody's house to discuss it over lunch.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "\"The department does recognize Mr. Lamb's service to the agency as a volunteer. He has provided females at the York facility with an educational as well as a positive therapeutic experience,\" she said.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "\"Bough\" was a hard sell. Publishers praised my style, but were repelled by the subject matter. Finally, three years after submission, the manuscript was accepted. Violating everyone's expectations, including my publisher's, the book won the Edgar and the Anthony awards and became a word-of-mouth best seller.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "Two of her favourite examples are the settings evoked by Raymond Chandler and James Lee Burke. Chandler remade Los Angeles to suit his fictional purposes in his Philip Marlowe series, she contends, while Burke's prose is so potent you can \"smell\" Dave Robicheaux's Louisiana. With writers of this quality, place is not just part of the narrative, it is a character.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "A BIZARRE PHENOMENON first observed in the 1940s became a crime-fiction epidemic by the 1990s. Famous entertainers, athletes, and presidential relatives began sitting down at the typewriter to bang out mystery novels.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "usinfo.state.gov/products/pubs/writers ). \"We do not provide that address to U. S. citizens,\" Mr. Clack said, adding, \"Technology has made a law obsolete, but the law lives on.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "After Such Knowledge, What Forgiveness? My Encounters With Kurdistan", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "Mr. Block, too, was at work on a stand-alone in the summer of 2001. \"Small Town\" was to be a big, multiple-viewpoint tale of New York. In part because of the attacks, he stopped writing for nine months. \"The hundred pages I'd written reflected a pre-9/11 city, which was utterly changed,\" he said. \"My immediate reaction was that I was just done with the book altogether.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "\"People started linking the site on their 'blogs , their web logs,\" says Barry. \"And they would talk about their nation and how it was doing.\" About 1,000 virtual nations sprang up within two weeks", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "In a French vegetarian cookbook with an inscription from its author, Maa Charpentier, I encountered Monsieur Hitler vgtarien. And I found hints of Hitler the future mass murderer in a 1932 technical treatise on chemical warfare that explores the varying qualities of poison gas, from chlorine to prussic acid (Blausure). The latter was produced commercially as Zyklon B, which would be notorious for its use in the Nazi extermination camps.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "Random House tumbled on the secret of perennial sales in the 1960s and 1970s when Truman Capote's slender and sentimental \"A Christmas Memory\" continued to fly off the shelves year after year. \"The Christmas Box\" by Richard Paul Evans has returned annually like wild mistletoe since it was published in the mid-1990s. (But that's a case of an obscure writer happening upon bestsellerdom, not a bestselling author setting out to conquer the world.)", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "\"It gets harder. When you acquire a certain reputation, people expect to enjoy your books, and you don't want to disappoint them. Yes, I worry about repeating myself. But each character is so distinctive that I don't think that will happen.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "Writers such as George Washington Cable and Thomas Nelson Page groped about for a regional voice. Using already-weary cultural cliches and lots of down-home di'lec, these men and other three-name wonders including Ruth McEnery Stuart, John Esten Cooke and Joel Chandler Harris spewed out stories about Southerners' peculiar ways of living and thinking and speaking.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "With weekly deadlines, writers of New York-themed television shows like \"Law and Order\" were forced to start dealing with Sept. 11 long ago. But because of the slow pace of publishing, the first New York mysteries written (or revised) post-attack are just starting to appear, among them \"The Bone Vault,\" the fifth in Linda Fairstein's Alexandra Cooper series; \"Small Town,\" by Lawrence Block, author of the Matthew Scudder series; and Evan Hunter's latest 87th Precinct novel, \"Fat Ollie's Book,\" written under the pen name Ed McBain.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "He came to crime fiction after a literary meander worthy of one of his own subplots, through Muriel Spark's The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Spark's novel, set in a private girls' school, is about the proper refined Edinburgh -- an Edinburgh that Rankin feels never existed. Although Stevenson located his classic novel in London, he was really writing about Edinburgh, Rankin says, through the character of Jekyll, a repressed man riddled with heinous urges.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "By JENNIFER 8. LEE", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "\"I don't think there's anyone in this room who grew up without fairies, magic and angels in their imaginary world,\" said Fleetwood, who is British. \"They aren't bad. They aren't serving as a banner for an anti-Christian ideology.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "One thinks back to 1997 when Charles Frazier's \"Cold Mountain\" (Atlantic Monthly Press) and Arthur Golden's \"Memoirs of a Geisha\" (Alfred A. Knopf), both first novels, were publishing's propellants. People read them and rushed for their computers to try their hand.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "Specializes in Californiana, Mark Twain and the West, and offers rare and out-of-print editions. Hours: noon to 5 p.m. Friday through Monday. (530) 265- 0241.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "\"Lost in a Good Book\" teams up our heroine with Miss Havisham, the jilted-at-the-altar spinster of Dickens' \"Great Expectations.\" Now that Thursday is married and pregnant, Goliath, the corporation that owns nearly everything, has spirited off her husband to parts unknown. Meanwhile, an unidentifiable sludge threatens to engulf all life on Earth.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "Mr. Kirshbaum said: \"Publishers will be more careful when courting major authors. There will be some tempering of advances going forward. There are limits to what can be sold, and if agents realize there has to be some reality in terms of advances, that would be valuable. It's a nice thought.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "Last summer, Michael left for China, \"from whence he'll come back, no doubt, with another language under his belt,\" his sister observed at the time. He stayed with a non-English-speaking family and studied Mandarin. Such monkish immersion is no doubt elemental to his success, and to his comfortable obscurity.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "The third son of an Oxford don in economics who rose to executive directorship of the Bank of England, brother of a member of Parliament and two academics - including his younger sister - Jasper Fforde never bothered with a college education. He joined the circus that is the movie industry.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "\"It's not a question of saying 'we need to find half a dozen chick lit books and let's fill that slot,\" he said. \"What they're saying is 'is this book brilliant and do we feel passionate about it?'... They want to publish books, not genres.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "\"For instance,\" he said of John McWhorter, whose interview will air Feb. 23, \"we didn't do his big book ('Losing the Race: Self-Sabotage in the Black America') back in 2000. I don't remember why. But he's a player now, and let's find out what he thinks. This book ('Authentically Black: Essays for the Black Silent Majority') allows us to do that.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "If these are the perils of the system, why have a death penalty? Many people would answer that executions deter others from committing murder, but I found no evidence that convinced me. For example, Illinois, which has a death penalty, has a higher murder rate than the neighboring state of Michigan, which has no capital punishment but roughly the same racial makeup, income levels, and population distribution between cities and rural areas. In fact, in the last decade the murder rate in states without the death penalty has remained consistently lower than in the states that have had executions. Surveys of criminologists and police chiefs show that substantial majorities of both groups doubt that the death penalty significantly reduces the number of homicides.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "Clark mentions 'work obviously rushed or clichd, novels that were clever ideas not properly seen through, awful self-consciousness, and particularly, novels that could happily have seen a few more drafts. I don't think we came away with a very positive view of editing.' Jack finds it hard to avoid the conclusion that much publishing works on the slot machine principle: 'If you put out enough, you'll eventually come up with three oranges.'", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "A. I'm fed up with the subject of southern writing. Northern writing, too, for that matter.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "SHE wound up restricting \"Down Under the Manhattan Bridge\" to the New York of October 2001, complete with garbage trucks used as barricades and surreally polite New Yorkers. The book will be published this fall.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "The Illinois State Police investigated Dugan's admissions about the Nicarico murder and accumulated a mass of corroborating detail. Dugan was not at work the day the girl disappeared, and a church secretary, working a few blocks from the Nicarico home, recalled a conversation with him. A tire print found where Jeanine's body was deposited matched the tires that had been on Dugan's car. He knew many details about the crime that had never been publicly revealed, including information about the interior of the Nicarico home and the blindfold applied to Jeanine.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "Lamb is the author of \"She's Come Undone\" and \"I Know This Much Is True,\" both selections of Winfrey's book club. He began volunteering at York, the state's only all-female prison, in July 1999. He initially intended to hold one session. Two years later, he and the women had secured a publishing contract for their project.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "The dynamics in the room aren't anywhere near the scale of the war over words in, say, Bhutan, where the Dzongkha Development Commission of the Royal Government is finalizing a new grammar, and devising an entire new dictionary, in hopes of defending the Himalayan country's traditional language from outside influences. Tej K. Bhatia, a professor of languages and linguistics at Syracuse University, explains that the mountain folk are in for an uphill battle: Successes among state-mandated languages have been spotty.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "Ellen Pall is the author of the New York-based Nine Muses Mysteries series. The second, \"Slightly Abridged,\" will be published in April by St. Martin's Minotaur.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "For Donald Westlake, the answer is: You can't and you can. Mr. Westlake's comic criminal mastermind, the perennially luckless New York burglar John Dortmunder, is one of the fortunate few who will never know the planes hit.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "Finally, those nights have paid off, and Ms. Bauman has become one of those few writers whose labors see daylight. Next month, her first book, a collection of stories titled \"Beautiful Girls,'' will be published by MacAdam/Cage, a small San Francisco firm. The stories have been nearly 10 years in the making, a period in which Ms. Bauman has sacrificed much of her social and financial life.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "Bilinski and Ross say their biggest competitors are other online book sites, which sell rather than rent books, and local libraries, which don't deliver. Consumer retail books are a $13 billion business, according to the American Booksellers Association, so there's plenty of room for growth.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "Most of the clubs Tunstall has visited have been local, but not all. She's traveled to Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Virginia to discuss her work with readers.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "E. R. Frank, America: A Novel (A Richard Jackson Book/Atheneum Books for Young Readers)", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "Hobson points out the ever-increasingly multicultural complexion of the South. \"There's been an influx of Caribbean and Mexican and Asian voices,\" he says. \"It's not just a black and white thing anymore.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "A supply officer is reading \"Uncle Tom's Cabin.\" An artillery spotter is working his way through Chaucer's \"The Canterbury Tales.\" So far, he's finished \"The Miller's Tale.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "These stores offer children's classics, novels, books on Scotland and Californiana and Western Americana. Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday, noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. (530) 265-2216.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "Admittedly, some of the Nevada City-Grass Valley bookstores are teeny. Nine of them are in one co-op building in Grass Valley called Booktown Books. In fact, when informed that she lived in a book town, the bartender in a downtown hotel looked puzzled. \"There are a lot of funky little bookstores here,\" she allowed.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "As such it could be of tremendous value to entertainment companies or retailers. Google is quiet about what if any plans it has for commercializing its vast store of query information. \"There is tremendous opportunity with this data,\" Mr. Silverstein said. \"The challenge is defining what we want to do.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "3. GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING, by Tracy Chevalier (Plume, $13, 0452282152) \"A young servant is asked to model for Vermeer against the wishes of the artist's wife and family. You'll find intrigue, jealousy, and an extraordinary look into the life and work of the artist from the young woman's point of view.\" --Donna DeLacy, Portrait of a Bookstore, Studio City, CA", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "WASHINGTON - He asked what S&M sex is. He asked who Abraham Lincoln was. He asked Jimmy Carter to analyze his role as a father. He asks why authors dedicate their books to the people they did; where they write; what their parents think of the book. When Brian Lamb sits down with an author for an hour on C-SPAN's \"Booknotes,\" as he has weekly since 1989, the conversation has one point:", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "In the early 1970s, an unsolicited poem arrived in the Chicago office of Poetry, a small, influential but typically financially strapped literary magazine. It was from a Mrs. Guernsey Van Riper Jr. of Indianapolis.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "In the last generation, nonfiction accounts of police work and prosecution have emphasized the compromises that are necessary to keep the system running. If prosecutors couldn't offer plea bargains, the court system would collapse; if the police had no informers, they would never be able to make arrests. Pelecanos's world is full of these expedient departures from the theoretical clarity of the law, without falling into outright cynicism about the base motives of the police.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "HC: I'd like to steal your question to Jan Burke from last month. What would you like to see more of, and less of, in crime writing these days?", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "Also Nominated: BLOOD JUNCTION, by Caroline Carver (Orion); THE KILLING KIND, by John Connolly (Hodder & Stoughton); DIALOGUES OF THE DEAD, by Reginald Hill (HarperCollins); DEATH IN HOLY ORDERS, by P. D. James", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "That's not quite true. We can do several things. One is to accept the limitations of the much-derided filters and use them anyway. The government argues, convincingly, that when libraries use the filters, ''They are simply declining to put on their computer screens the same content they have traditionally excluded from their bookshelves.'' A second possibility is the so-called ''Boston solution,'' adopted several years ago in Copley Square by the nation's oldest public library.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "After the war, he submitted a movie script to Selznick titled \"Suddenly It's Spring.\" The producer bought it and gave it a new title, which Sheldon thought was terrible. \"The Bachelor and the Bobbysoxer\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "_New York City, starting in October, reduced service at 67 of its 85 branches to five days a week, from mostly six; its 2003 budget was cut $16.2 million, or 14 percent, spokeswoman Nancy Donner said. The cuts came despite a 7 percent rise in attendance since September 2001.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "I hope PBS continues to rerun Mr. Roger's Neighborhood for a very long time. Even better, I hope at some point someone sees fit to release Mr. Roger's Neighborhood in a DVD archive for a very low price so that Fred Roger's legacy can be passed on within and between families for as long as possible.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "The pair served together in the Army Air Corps during World War II, yet found time to turn out scripts for such Broadway shows as \"The Merry Widow,\" \"Jackpot\" and \"Dream With Music.\" Sheldon later won a Tony for the Gwen Verdon hit \"Redhead.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "Not necessarily true. Several days ago Random House Inc. astonished book professionals with the announcement that its seven book divisions had this year published 103 first novels or first short-story collections. A company record. Random House Inc.? Wasn't that the behemoth many in the business felt would be the most risk averse after its conglomeration in 1998?", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "But a less publicized, equally brutal killing at about the same time and on the same turf was even more representative of the world Pelecanos has created. In mid-October, a 36-year-old Baltimore woman and her five children were burned to death when their house was firebombed, allegedly by a 21-year-old drug dealer. The mother had been trying for months to get the dealer out of her neighborhood. She had called the police dozens of times to complain. Before the authorities could do anything effective, the drug dealer did.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "None of them are chains, and the booksellers work together. They have a common newsletter and gladly refer customers to one another, as two side-by- side used-book stores may not have a single title in common. \"A book scout can hit a lot of shops without having to go a lot of miles,\" said Stollery. Ames Bookstore, with more than 300,000 volumes sprawling over five storefronts, is considered one of the best used-book stores in the state.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "When Jeana Davis at Washington-Lee makes an assignment, she directs students to Web sites they might not know about but that she has already approved. If students want to use another site, they must win Davis's approval.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "Sheldon holds up two folders half-filled with sheets of paper, the novel so far. \"When I'm finished, I'll have seven of these folders totally filled,\" he says. The first draft will go through a dozen rewrites. Some writers hate rewrites, not Sheldon, \"because every time I rewrite, the book gets better,\" he says.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "The problem is no longer plagiarism of huge downloaded blocks of text -- software can detect that now, when a teacher enters a few lines of a paper. The concern is the Internet itself.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "Over the years, the NorCal East Bay chapter of Mystery Readers International has had many \"At Homes\" -- intimate evenings with favorite mystery writers. We've hosted Anne Perry, Lawrence Block, Sue Grafton, Elizabeth George, Janet LaPierre, Sharan Newman, Laurie King, Rochelle Krich, Carolyn Hart, James Ellroy, Steven Saylor, Janet Evanovich, Eddie Muller, Taffy Cannon, and many others.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "So in a book year with little excitements, when even the sales of some brand name authors are slipping a bit, first fiction provided some energy and juice. One of the few enduring buzz books of 2002 was Alice Sebold's first novel, the best-selling \"Lovely Bones\" (Little, Brown), which is still buzzing along. Mr. Pietsch, its publisher, said, \"It's been a banner year for first novels, and `Lovely Bones' will fuel that for a few years to come.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "The 1,200 volumes that survived the \"duping out\" joined the rare-book collection on the third floor of the Jefferson Building, where they were unceremoniously identified by a large cardboard signdangling on a string from a ceiling pipethat read, \"Hitler Library. This bay only. Please replace books to proper location.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "\"Lost Light\" is B-level Bosch, but it has been an instant hit. Almost all the books mentioned here have turned up on at least one best-seller list, just as Mr. Coben's and Mr. Kellerman's latest are apt to do. In cases like Mr. Parker's, this is merely the writerly equivalent of having a hit television series (which he already has, via Spenser). For Mr. Brown, the more relevant model may just be \"Titanic.\" And for Mr. Lehane \"Shutter Island\" is liable to have the staying power of \"The Sixth Sense.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "The Net has a kind of magical quality that leads younger students to say to librarians such as Block, \"It has to be true. If it weren't true, they wouldn't let it be there.\" Says Block, \"I have to tell them there is no 'they.' \"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "_In suburban Detroit, the Berkley Public Library plans to cut hours and lay off its children's librarian, a 14-year veteran. \"In 20 years I've never had to cut library hours,\" said director Celia Morse said. \"To cut them twice in one year is particularly painful.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "Lights out is strictly enforced after sunset. To deter attackers, no lights are permitted outside tents and are allowed inside only if the window flaps are securely fastened. Flares attached to trip wires are positioned around the camp to warn of intruders. Some have been set off by wild dogs, leading to a swift and armed response from the \"react squad.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "The interview room is not unlike a confessional. It's a small space - about 12 feet square - that holds two chairs, a small table and some cameras that are manipulated from the control booth. The walls are wrapped in black velvet, and no one else is there except Lamb and his guest.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "Ransom also broke with collecting orthodoxy by buying not just books and manuscripts but anything at all that belonged to the writers, cultural figures and others who interested him. This impulse brought in baubles like Anne Sexton's typewriter and Carson McCullers's cigarette lighter.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "Knopf plans to bring out a hardback edition of the first novel in Paolini's planned \"Inheritance Trilogy\" next September. Sales of the self-published paperback will be discontinued in the next few weeks.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "This is not some far-out Orwellian scenario. It is what will happen to your personal freedom in the next few weeks if John Poindexter gets the unprecedented power he seeks.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "It is attitudes like yours that continually besmirch extremely knowledgeable and skillful paraprofessionals, simply because they haven't earned that magical piece of paper with \"MLS\" stamped on it. Having a degree does not ensure superior customer service, and conversely being non-degreed does not indicate inferior service.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "Here's an excerpt from a chapter called \"Uncle Floyd Has a Fit\" in Flagg's new novel, \"Standing in the Rainbow\": \"Two days after Christmas,\" she writes, \"the phone rang. Betty Raye, walking by, picked up and to her surprise it was her mother. Minnie Oatman was on the other end, calling long-distance from the office of the Talladega, Alabama, Primitive Baptist Church and she was hysterical.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "Rather than compete for antique works with well-established libraries in Eastern cities and Europe, Ransom decided to focus on the contemporary age. Armed with multimillion-dollar budgets provided by the state and a few private donors, he and his successors plunged into the literary market with abandon. They bought entire collections as well as individual archives.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "Ghostwriting is a time-honored practice, and most readers surely realize that movie stars and baseball players have help with their memoirs--just as all politicians these days have help with their speeches, campaign literature, and policy statements. But the dissemination of novels that are ghostwritten seems somehow more blatantly deceptive and ethically questionable.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "This year, nearly all of the leading Oscar contenders were inspired by books, from J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers to Gangs of New York, Martin Scorsese's movie based on Herbert Asbury's 1928 collection of stories.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "What? Never heard of it?", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "Their Web work turned up contradictions, errors and extraneous material. Nora Flynn, exploring the female Talmudic scholar Beruriah, noted in class that the scholarly article talked about Beruriah as a late invention, a composite of several women scholars. Web sources that she found through the popular search engine Google referred to Beruriah as one woman, she said.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "Nevada City is, in fact, officially a book town. The term comes from a European idea for reviving little villages by concentrating booksellers there. This notion was dreamed up by an Englishman named John Booth in 1961 in Hay-on- Wye in Wales, when he inherited a castle and turned it into a used-book store. Then he bought up the rest of the town's buildings and turned them into bookstores, too. Today, the hamlet has more than 30 bookshops, which draw half a million visitors each year.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "People smile at Jane Juska. There she is, on a rainy afternoon at the Gramercy Tavern in her cheerful red jacket, white hair tucked behind her ears, blue eyes bright behind her bifocals. \"I'm agog at the forsythia,\" she exclaimed, marveling at the enormous arrangements. At 70, she seems to be what she is, a proud new grandma enjoying a day on the town. Though she clutched her lower back periodically", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "It starts with the list of books that will be published in coming months - hundreds of biographies, historical accounts and books on public policy issues. Distributed by Publishers Weekly, a book industry publication, it's \"Booknotes' \" soup stock, but plenty of other ingredients make up the stew ladled out to viewers each week.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "It's good business to cater to book clubs, said Borders spokeswoman Emily Swan. \"They've just exploded, so we try to keep their books in stock when we know about them.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "\"I got an idea that was so introspective, it entered the character's mind. I didn't know how to do that in a dramatic form. So I gave up. But it was so strong in my mind that I came back to it. That was my first book, 'The Naked Face,' about a psychiatrist whom someone was going to murder.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "8. ANGLE OF REPOSE, by Wallace Stegner (Penguin, $13.95, 014016930X) \"This book epitomizes the difference in viewpoints in America between East and West 150 years ago. A young New Englander marries a mining engineer and settles in a small town in Colorado. This Pulitzer Prize-winning novel raises age-old questions about how free women are to lead their own lives and what happens to marriage when partners cannot compromise.\" --Carla Cohen, Politics & Prose, Washington, DC", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "NEW YORK - Two former U. S. poet laureates criticized the White House on Thursday for postponing a literary symposium it believed would be politicized. Stanley Kunitz and Rita Dove characterized the decision as an example of the Bush administration's hostility to dissenting or creative voices.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "A. Would you ask John Cheever if he regarded himself as a northeastern writer?", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "He carries a beat-up, coverless paperback copy of the book around with him; it's seen so much wear that the rubber band holding it together has begun to cut the yellowed pages in half. And much of the documentary is bound by a rubber band: the director's enthusiasm. (At 128 minutes running time, it has to be, although the version I saw at Slamdance was 140 minutes.)", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "Curtis Bunn, 41, is a sports reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution who writes novels on the side. He's promoted his work at more than two dozen book club meetings and found them so invigorating that, in August, he'll hold a conference in Atlanta for readers and writers of black literature.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "The American Booksellers Association announced their shortlist for the 2003 Book Sense Book of the Year Awards. The nominees for adult books are - Adult Fiction:", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "Williams himself described his experience with the authorities as \"frustrating,\" saying, \"[The police] did nothing beyond entering data in their system and calling us if they got any 'hits' from other law enforcement agencies. If a Congressman's girlfriend goes missing, however, dozens of detectives are called in. Ordinary people get very little active help.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "Peter Blauner was a year into his fifth thriller, set in the New York suburbs. But the tale wasn't coming together. \"There was this feeling of dread hovering in the background that didn't seem justified,\" he said.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "Some of the anthology's authors, paid $2,499 by the government, praise the freedoms they enjoy in the United States, but the collection by no means presents an uncritical picture of the United States. Julia Alvarez, a novelist and poet who moved from the Dominican Republic when she was young, writes that America is not \"free of problems or inequalities or even hypocrisies.\" Robert Olen Butler says that the United States, though `built on the preservation of the rights of minorities, has sometimes been slow to apply those rights fully.\" Michael Chabon tells of crime and racial unrest in his hometown, Columbia, Md.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "\"I've finished the first draft of the autobiography, and I'll be turning the novel in by June,\" he reports. \"Then I'll go to work on a rewrite of the autobiography. Meanwhile, I'm doing research for the 'Miracles' book.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "The 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary is considered the most comprehensive reference for the English language. The company's two-volume Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (SOED), released last fall, saw fit to include 3,500 new words by using its \"5 by 5 by 5\" rule: five examples in five printed sources over five years.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "Or so they would have us believe. In truth, nearly every one of those celebrities made a deal through an agent or book packager, collected a nice advance for the use of the name, and left to a professional ghostwriter all the actual writing.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "Hitler's selective readingor nonreadingof the pseudo-theological texts in his library makes those books he did read, and especially those in which he left marginalia, all the more significant. Here is where the Hitler Library is most useful. In the Fichte volumes given to him by Riefenstahl, I encountered a veritable blizzard of underlines, question marks, exclamation points, and marginal strikes that sweeps across a hundred printed pages of dense theological prose. Where Fichte peeled away the spiritual trappings of the Holy Trinity, positing the Father as \"a natural universal force,\" the Son as the \"physical embodiment of this force,\" and the Holy Ghost as an expression of the \"light of reason,\" Hitler not only underlined the entire passage but placed a thick vertical line in the margin, and added an exclamation point for good measure.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "The hardcover edition became a cult hit, but hardly a best seller. But when the government began talking about some of the possible restrictions that the homeland security process might place on liberty, people began reading a lot more into what is essentially a novel within a word game.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "\"Connecticut does have cost-of-incarceration legislation in place. How this legislation will impact the money received by these offenders will be determined by our legal counsel,\" said Christina Polce, a department spokeswoman.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "Book reviewers always have one question, at the point of accepting a commission: \"How long is it?\" They are not hoping, as buyers of mass-market fiction usually are, that it's a really good substantial read. They are praying that the book is not too long.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "In the author's photograph on the dust jacket of the 1972 novel \"The Stones of Summer,\" Dow Mossman is lean and rangy with a defiant mustache and a look of conviction. The producer and director Mark Moskowitz has, by comparison, friendlier facial hair but an ingratiating and determined manner: he's going to find Mr. Mossman. It's what his film \"Stone Reader\" is all about: the director's search for a writer whose single work is still a touchstone in his life.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "The third one, published in 1987, is KNOTS AND CROSSES, and is the first in the popular Inspector John Rebus series. It's interesting to note that he did not consider KNOTS AND CROSSES a crime novel until he found the book in the mystery section of a bookstore and the Crime Writers' Association asked him if he wanted to join. At the time he wrote the book he was heavily into the literary theory of semiotics and deconstruction and he saw literature as being a puzzle or game between the reader and the author, but not a mystery. The book was not well-received and Rankin abandoned Rebus to write THE WATCHMAN (1990), a spy novel.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "\"Cars aren't free, neither are apartments or food,\" says Greco. \"We live in a free market economy. Yes, books are important and play a unique role in the culture. But that doesn't mean they have to be free. Or cheap.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "That was the birth of Nollop, a fictional island town off the coast of Charleston, S. C. The town was named for Nevin Nollop, who is credited with coining the phrase \"The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog,\" a sentence that uses all the letters in the alphabet.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "Folks used to agree on a lot. That there was such a thing as Southern literature, for instance.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "SOMETHING will be missing when Joseph Turow's book about families and the Internet is published by M. I. T. Press next spring: The capital I that usually begins the word \"Internet.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "A settlement was reached two years ago with the company now known as Concord EFS. The company agreed that it would not dun people who used the word, which meant that \"Internet\" now belongs to everybody, Mr. Kahn said.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "Caryle Murphy, a Washington Post reporter whose book on Islam was featured Nov. 2, said Lamb's interviewing technique appears chaotic, \"but it lends a surprise factor that a lot of people find interesting. ... You just wish there were more interviewers like him.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "When that happens, Lamb said, \"you get an understanding about the person, and you then can decide whether you want to go buy their book. And if you want to buy their book, you have a dimension that you don't get from (other sources).", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "The Reading Group Suggestions 76 was a great idea from stores, and many, many thanks to all those who gave so much help throughout the nomination process! It's our hope that this 76 will extend the reach of the program into the backlist and also provide you an effective new resource to market to all those great book buyers in reading groups. Stores will be receiving copies of the 2003 - 2004 Reading Group Suggestions 76 in the April white box.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "As it was in the beginning, Southern literature nowadays is American literature. And, on occasion, vice versa. Something is gained by the passing of a \"Southern literature\": Most books by and about Southerners are no longer treated as curiosities. They are judged as American works.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "Lamb and the rest of the \"Booknotes\" team read book reviews, visit bookstores, listen to what their friends say, note the prize-nominated books, flip through the books that arrive in the mail. And of course, Doebele said, there's the lobbying from publishing houses and authors' press agents.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "As Fforde's competence and confidence grew, one story grew so fat that it became a novel. Even in this maiden effort, a police procedural, his fantasy- based imagination fed off other writers' characters.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "\"I thought, well, they obviously don't know what they're missing,\" Fforde says. \"I have a sort of arrogant, stubborn streak that keeps me going when people say no.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "Just as there are conventions about putting real people in fiction -- you can't ignore the historical record by changing known biographical facts such as death and birthdates -- there are unwritten rules about how you use geographical locations. Writers who violate them risk destroying their imaginary pact with readers. A writer such as Rankin has Rebus drinking in an actual pub and walking down real streets so that readers who know Edinburgh can identify landmarks and visualize themselves in the same setting. Then, based on that reality, the writer creates a fictitious but convincing crime scene.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "The foundation charges publishers $100 for each book submitted, double the fee for the Pulitzer Prizes. Morgan Entrekin, president of Grove/Atlantic Press, said judges he has known over the years have \"always taken the job pretty seriously, although they obviously have to make some quick decisions.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "In 1972 Moskowitz was inspired by a book review in The New York Times to read \"The Stones of Summer,\" a first novel by an author who disappeared, never to be seen or read again. He put the book down, but the fate of its vanished author haunted him and ultimately led to a documentary as quest.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "Then there are those like Dennis Lehane, whose last book was so good that his new one seems long-awaited, even if \"Mystic River\" established his stature only two years ago. Now suddenly there is Dan Brown's dazzling \"Da Vinci Code,\" the erudition-laced wild card that arrived out of nowhere and went straight to the head of the class.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "As a psychologist I attempted to construct rules about human behavior. As a novelist I'm obsessed by the exceptions.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "Not that long ago, Meikle continues, a person who wrote a book was assumed to be an authority. \"Now, when anybody can have a Web site on any topic, then everybody is an expert, which means nobody is.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "Books seem to have been the gift of choice for Hitler on virtually every occasion. The Hitler Library contains scores of books bearing inscriptions for Christmas, his birthday, and other festive occasions. A book titled Death and Immortality in the World View of Indo-Germanic Thinkers is inscribed for Hitler by the SS chief Heinrich Himmler on the occasion of \"Julfest 1938\"Nazi circumlocution for Christmas. I also discovered books from the controversial filmmaker Leni Riefenstahltwo on the Berlin Olympics and an eight-volume set of the complete works of the nineteenth-century German philosopher Johann Gottlieb Fichte in a rare first edition. Given that Hitler had charged Riefenstahl with filming the Olympic Games, the presence of the first two volumes was understandable; the Fichte was more puzzling.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "Ian Rankin makes no bones about the fact that Edinburgh is an essential character in his bestselling series of police procedurals about dyspeptic and cynical Detective Inspector John Rebus. In Toronto on a 24-hour junket for Book Expo Canada last month, the dark-haired Scottish writer took time out from book signings to chat about his own connections with Edinburgh. \"I started writing the books because I wanted to make sense of Edinburgh,\" he said candidly, over a glass of water -- unlike his creation Rebus, who never seems to say anything without a double whisky to hand.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "Lehane doesn't have much time for the high/low debate that has created two opposing literary camps over the last 40 years. \"You can't separate characterwhich is what the higher set championsand plotwhich is what the other side defends. They are both in service to each other,\" he says with a hint of exasperation. \"If you go to any great work of art, you talk about plot all day and then you talk about character all day. Just give me a well-written book.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "Rachel Seiffert, 31: first novel, The Dark Room, comprises three stories about Germany, from 1920 till now. A huge subject expressed convincingly", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "\"You can learn to say 'sex' in a lot of different languages by looking at the logs,\" said Craig Silverstein, director of technology at Google. (To keep Live Query G-rated, Google filters out sex-related searches, though less successfully with foreign languages.)", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "In 2000 Philipp Gassert and Daniel Mattern reached a similar conclusion. Beginning in 1995 Gassert, an assistant professor of history at the University of Heidelberg, and Mattern, the senior editor at the German Historical Institute, in Washington, D. C., systematically reviewed every volume in the collection. In the spring of 2001 Greenwood Press published the results of their research, The Hitler Library, a 550-page bibliography that lists each book alphabetically, with its author, page count, and call number. Also included are transcriptions of all handwritten dedications, some brief descriptions of marginalia, and an indication of which books contain the Fhrer's bookplatean eagle, a swastika, and oak branches between the words EX LIBRIS and ADOLF HITLER.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "Sound like a throwback to the bleak days of hard-line dictatorships of the Eastern Europe's Iron Curtain? Or perhaps the return of a despotic-ruled Cambodia?", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "3. Atonement by Ian McEwan (Doubleday, $26). McEwan, who won the Booker Prize in 1998 for Amsterdam, infuses his slyly graceful Atonement with energy. Its historic sweep from 1935 to 1999 uncovers betrayal, guilt and redemption. It is a provocative engagement of the senses, an adroit management of grand themes, grand schemes and grand resolutions.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "Apparently Percy was not just speaking for himself. Since 1985, most books written by Southerners and/or set in the South can be boiled down to: American stories with a Southern accent, such as Smith's, and the local-color variety, such as Anne Rivers Siddons and anything by Fannie Flagg.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "The proliferation of personal web sites and Blogs as well as the ease of writing and editing with word processing have caused more people to regard themselves as potential authors, believes Jenkins. \"We're in an information-oriented society and technology today allows people to share their ideas easily and quickly with a wider audience than anyone could have imagined a decade ago.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "story, they can stay for the next one and hear it again. Besides, its good training for those little girls who want to grow up just like mommy!", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "And that lack of local company persists. For all her enterprise, on most days she still lives a solitary life. So does she feel cheated by her search, in the end? She hooted her no.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "HC: The old Batman TV show, the one with Adam West and Burt Ward. Who was your favorite villain and why? (If you didn't watch the show, you can skip this question but hang your head in shame).", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "Poe, who is best known for poems and horror stories such as The Raven and The Telltale Heart, died in Baltimore at the age of 40 after collapsing, delirious, in a tavern. The circumstances of his death remain unclear: some researchers have blamed a fever, while others point to the late stages of alcoholism or to rabies.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "Fforde laughs, replying that their presence at Oxford actually made it easier for him to skip out on the family tradition. \"One of them was at Brasenose [one of the university's oldest and most prestigious colleges] by that time, so I'm sure that more than made up for my absence.\" (All of his siblings went on to earn doctorates.)", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "This time I outlined meticulously, dreamed about my characters, gave myself headaches nailing down the twists and turns of my story. Confidentiality remained sacrosanct, and I took pains to avoid exploiting real patients. Instead I stretched the \"what if?\" and concocted a tale of perversity, deceit and multiple murder set in the third world colony where I live", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "The book festival commenced Friday at the Blake Library in Stuart with a much-anticipated lecture by crime fiction author Elmore Leonard. It ends today at 7 p.m. with a performance of \"The Tender Nights of F. Scott Fitzgerald.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "\"I didn't want to think, `What if I never had sex with a man again?' \" Ms. Juska recalled of her decision to place the ad. \"I didn't want to just sit there and think, `Wouldn't it be nice, if?' \"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "Nevada City -- \"It took me almost a year to discover I'd moved to a writer's idea of heaven,\" said poet Molly Fisk, who moved from Stinson Beach seven years ago when she fell in love. \"Even though I'm extremely small potatoes in the writing world, when I step out onto Broad Street headed for the store to buy a lightbulb, people smile and wave and ask what I'm working on.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "But what's taken a huge bite out of America's book budget is the rise of the trade paperback, those larger paperbacks of better quality that can now be found occupying prime real estate on tables at the front of bookstores. Since the 1980s, publishers have increasingly kept their backlist in trade paperback, and used this format to publish the paperback versions of books that don't have a mass-market appeal or million-copy sales potential, such as more-literary or specialized titles. Right now the price of most trade paperbacks hovers between $12 and $16, although nonfiction titles often cost more. (For example, this week's No. 1 New York Times bestseller, \"John Adams,\" by David McCullough, costs $18.95, which makes you wonder how soon trade paperbacks will begin to regularly creep past the $20 barrier.)", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "THAT was the important fight, according to Mr. Kahn. \"Whether you use a cap I or little I\" hardly matters, he said.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "James Ellroy and Raymond Chandler are two of Rankin's favorite authors, and their influence is reflected in his writing. THE BLACK BOOK parallels much of Ellroy's work with an oppressive darkness cast by an all-consuming blanket of corruption, crime, and graft. There is a sense of the world gone terribly wrong. But whereas in Ellroy's work the degeneracy generally touches everyone and everything, Rebus is the unflinching and noble knight in tarnished armor, a modern day protg to Chandler's Marlowe. Rankin has done a fine job of breathing new life into the old clich of the lone crusader struggling against the world in order to expose the truth and invoke justice.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "\"If I have understood well the intentions of Harry Potter's author, they help children to see the difference between good and evil,\" said Fleetwood. \"And she is very clear on this.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "Seattle's libraries were forced to close for two weeks. Denver doubled its late fees. And Sunday book browsing is out in Erie, Pa.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "\"I never write about any restaurant in the world unless I have had a cup of coffee in that restaurant,\" he declares. \"I have been to 90 countries, and everywhere Alexandra and I go, we do research. I take notes and she takes photographs.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "Cooperman says this is not necessarily a good thing for students. They \"assume everyone is a liar.\" Shallow thinking is one result, he says. Another is the unwillingness among some students to take a strong position themselves lest they be battered by classmates for their ideas.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "Before the cold war ended, the United States often sent orchestras, dance troupes and other artists abroad to infiltrate Communist societies culturally. Writers like John Updike, Kurt Vonnegut, Edward Albee and E. L. Doctorow gave government-sponsored readings in Eastern Europe that used literature on behalf of American interests.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "He's the model of a man of books: short-sleeve shirts, glasses, slight stoop, a pensive air. \"The Web is designed for the masses,\" he says. \"It never presents students with classically constructed arguments, just facts and pictures.\" Many students today will advance an argument, he continues, then find themselves unable to make it convincingly. \"Is that a function of the Web, or being inundated with information, or the way we're educating them in general?\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "Jim Milliot of Publishers Weekly says of the trend, \"This is brand new.\" Certain children's books, such as \"The Night Before Christmas,\" have always fared well. And other books, particularly classroom favorites like \"The Catcher in the Rye,\" ping onto the bestseller charts around the same time each year.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "A month before its release, the latest book by best-selling author Wally Lamb is already sparking a discussion. But this time the conversation is not taking place on the Oprah Winfrey Show.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "\"Everything was the fault of the smog. If the canary wouldn't sing, if the milkman was late, if the Pekinese had fleas, if an old coot in a starched collar had a heart attack on the way to church, that was the smog.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "\"Day after day I saw movies with glamorous sets and beautiful people, and I was living in one room at the YMCA and making less than $17 a week,\" he recalls. \"Finally I said, `That's what I want to do: I want to write for Hollywood.'\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "Then he nudged Steven Jones, a communications professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago and president of the Association of Internet Researchers. Mr. Jones was cool to the idea, until he looked at copies of Scientific American from the late 19th century, and noticed that words for new technologies, like Phonograph, were often uppercased.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog5546", "text": "Look, for example, at the new memoir by the veteran ghostwriter Donald Bain, who has written, under his name or others, some eighty books. In \"Every Midget Has an Uncle Sam Costume,\" Bain entertainingly describes his experiences as an officer in charge of censoring American Armed Forces Television in Saudi Arabia, as a jazz musician, and as an airline public-relations flack in a happier and more free-wheeling era of air travel.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "The headphones tilt and slide off her head \"Get away from me,\" taking it personally while the truck rolls slow enough to keep her pace, harsh and heavy words issuing forth \"you're a mark, we're not supposed to talk.\" She stops suddenly, an equally estimating eye fixed on Ryan \"What'd he want you messed up for anyway. You have a little too much fun in the Boom Boom room?\" On second thought, this really isn't the time. Resorting to duck and cover, Penny tries to keep moving through the crowd.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "\"Ow.\" Is reiterated.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "You walk out of the cave, your eyes adjusting to the bright sunlight. Entering the grasses of the field, you walk for a ways, until you have reached the highest peak. Rolling Fields", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Cally looks at Viktor.. \"how about it? Want to join us on this?", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "He puts a fresh cigarette between his lips. \"Now, the matter of who gets to lead, well, I know I don't want to be in charge. It's easier for me to exist on the edge of this technopoly and use the same patterns and symbols that have repeated throughout human civilization to advance my own understanding of what it is to be Awakened. That, in the end, is a more fruitful and *far* less frustrating task than trying to get the great mass of fools in this world to think.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Keene gestures broadly. \"Of course. That paradigm would be part of this patchwork quilt of paradigms under this mindset.\" He puffs on his cigarette. \"Do you believe that we, as the Nine Traditions, would be able to handle power over the world on that scale without resorting to the tactics the Technocracy has used?\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "\"Don't s'spect as how the reception's very good here,\" the young punk comments off-handedly. Then, briefly, she looks up, expression quickly sinking. \"Dolley. Tarp. They're back in the cave, on account of I couldn't move them through the fucking water, which itself is on account of no one wants to take the time to magick up a sidewalk.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Hiro isn't even looking at Hana; he's now staring up at the proffered cigarette, and pawing at it in an attempt to secure it for himself. He's not quick on the uptake at the moment.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Jane pauses in her passage to the bar to glance around at the language students, then returns to her passage to the bar. Jesse shakes his head no. He says, in Enochian, \"Don't trust a one of them.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "member that had matter 2. Rats.'. //.etro: Penny rolls \"awareness+perception\" at diff 8", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Jonah notes down the members of Team Ether, then moves to the next seat. \"Next is this Seat, the Seat of Forces. As I am only a temporary representative, I shall turn to Miss Jones for input.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Italians have an exuberance for food not matched by many. Carefully and lovingly prepared, it's elevated to the same level as lovemaking and religion - and Italians know how to eat and savor their food. Meals in Italy can begin at noon and sometimes find people still gathered around the table at six in the evening, lingering through the last course of pastry, wine and conversation. Their philosophy is, if you eat well, you feel well - and if you feel well, all's well with the world.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Jesse, on his stool, turns lazily to the door as it opens. Compton's bulk, encased though it may be in a parka, is given a nod and a tug of his hat brim. Then, when the porcine satellite orbits out of eclipse, Jesse snorts. Beer is spat, and his choke is mostly laugh, though a halfhearted attempt is made, mostly for decorum's sake, to turn its end into a cough.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Abel sits back down and pulls his sun symbol on it's chain out from under his shirt, then lets is hang again. Siomen pulls out Cally's recording device and turns it on with a smile. he keeps an eye on Geero.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Pobble nods silently, falling into step right behind you in a slightly annoying way. Not purposefully annoying, just coinkydink. \"Lead on Peachy.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Penny retches, dry heaves and shrugs off Clairance's hand. She flinches, presses herself forward to the car and twists away. \"Told you to lemme'lone man,\" spittle dropping off her chin in a long spidery vein. \"JESus mary and joseph,\" stubbing her toe on a garbage can, she doesn't seem to notice \"you can't go where I'm goin'and anyway you got no\" her tone of voice angrier, swallowing whole truckloads of bile (both real and imagined) \"BUSiness at a FUNEral for a body you never met so just fuck.off.and.die.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Keene is sitting on the floor, shoes off, jacket hung up neatly, smoking one of his usual cigarettes. He is watching `The Shining' on free cable, which acts as an idle distraction.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Alyx leans over to Hiro as he returns to his decks, wondering curiously. \"Who is this 'Pobble' person?\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Compton looks to Penny, \"That sounded like a yes to me.\" he says handing the bagle over. Did we mention that Compton smells like a dumpster? Long story, but he does.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Jess enters what's left of the Council Chambers by way of the ruined doorway. Jess has arrived.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "They should have outside seating; a place where people talk, enjoy a lull, leave change, move on. As it happens, as it so often is the case, the interior mimicks the exterior - very little traffic, warm and pleasant. Certain dialogues exist on certain levels but it's white noise. Impossible to zero in on one particular conversation, insane to discern the nuance of laungages. There's only so much french you can listen to until it becomes a boring nasal drone.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "The drugs numb the rage. Keene, instead of muttering, merely chuckles: he proceeds to follow the exact path he took with Hiro earlier to get into the realm, down to every last pause or hiccup in pace. Ultimately, he passes through the two columns that are actually germane to the lock sequence, reaches the back door, and opens it up -- crossing over into another dimension.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Standingwater goes back to his beer. Mmmmm... Beer.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Keene smokes, head in his hands. It takes him a while to reconstruct his thought patterns to address this new self-inflicted disaster. He lifts his head, ashing his cigarette, and looks at Daisy flatly. \"So,\" he says. \"Why?\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "The slight cut Comps opened up on the bridge of Chase's nose, closes like a fleshy ziplock bag about a few seconds after impact. It leave the faintest of lines, though a few drops of blood still splatter his cheek and upper lip.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Penny nods a few times \"On the jacket, yes.\" She tucks another bottle into the box and starts shifting glass around, moving plastic mix-bottles into the groupings. \"We're ah,\" eyes shifted to the ceiling, to the right, back to you \"yes. We're like that. Throw parties, do some really high-ener..\" The flow of information", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Owen merely sighs at the turmoil, apparently unmoved by the incident at the door. Looking both sullen and bored, he summons the barkeep to settle his bill. Apparently calling it a night, the large man rises from the bar...vacating a valuable seat in the over-crowded bar.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "This building is a moderate sized light industrial shop. The walls of this two-story building are well-made with cinder blocks and steel beams. There are no windows on the ground level, but a ring of soaped windows circle the building on the second level.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Still waiting for a light, she starts studying faces. Chase to Compton. Compton to Pobble. Pobble to Hepzibah. \"The fuck is going on here, someone sell us out again?\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Keene snorts back a giggling fit, willing the unbidden laughter down so he can take a swig from his flask. He doesn't offer it to Hiro until /after/ he says: \"Achem, achem, quote. When we work magic, we are imposing our hopes onto reality. Not desires, not whims, not even Will, but hopes. I fucking shit you not, she said this.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "\"They're fucking you about,\" Hiro murmurs, matter-of-factly. He still shadows the doorway; eyes flicking sideways to Abel as he materializes beside him, then back to Penny, to Alex. \"Cough it up, man. He doesn't belong here.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "\"I was looking for a salon. Ladynails,\" she explains carefully in drawn out words, the last syllable lifted upwards in questioning \"that around here? I had an early appointment.\" Penny positions herself back into the doorway of a closed shop, serves as a kind of umbrella.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "slightly darker then that of most born Canadians. When he moves, it is with a", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Kasui looks up as Hana enters, bowing her head to the woman in greeting from where she sits preparing to take notes at the seat of Mind. \"It is good to see you again, Kawakami-san. It has been quite a while.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "'Ecoterrorism' catches Alex's ear as he nears the campfire. His head turns a little in the direction of the two men, probably a side ways glance in their direction from behind the shades.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Keene sits in silence. He internalizes his frustration; he's good at it.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "For a total of 0 success(es). //.etro: Pobble rolls \"arete\" at diff 7", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "He can't hear nuffin'. Mark is far too busy trying to look innocuous to be listening to talk about magick markers and the 80s, stuffing change into", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Penny wasn't looking at the gesturing Ryan; she was concentrating on her phone. It was only the after-image, the missing motion of a stopped hand that catches her wide eyed and staring. Blue, gloveless hands refold inside the jacket as she tucks away her phone and approaches the truck.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "When he speaks, you detect an upper crust British accent. It's clear that he's 'not from around here' as he seems slightly unfamilliar with routine American customs.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Chase has arrived. Chase enters the conservatory Chase has left.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "John Smith comes in off the street following the rich aroma of coffee. John Smith has arrived. John Smith wanders in, rubbing his hands together to fight off the effects of the cold morning air. John Smith makes his way to the front counter and looks up at the menu, then back to the cashier, \"Uh.. nope.. still just the regular.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Mick nods \"Sure thing dude, hop in?\" he eyes the brother and says \"Let ol' boy get to gettin?\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "It's a gorgeous sight, the brilliant yellows and greens of freshly sprouted grasses waving in the wind, rolling hills stretching off as far as the eye can see. Pure, golden sunlight pours forth from the never-setting sun standing at twelve o'clock high, bringing a mild, pleasant warmth to the vast expanse of land. Puffy white clouds dart through the sky, sometimes fast, sometimes languid and slow, always casting their cool shadows across the land.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Isobel smiles as she spots a rather unusual and indeed amazing sight, even in Dublin not many have pink hair. She observes for another moment and then loosing interest takes another sip. Just glad to relax Anupra read your description.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "\"Fuck man,\" Compton says exasperated, \"You sound like Alyx, with all your black and white (makes a 'quotation mark motion with his hands) 'obvious' rules to living a better lifestyle...\" he pauses, raises the poorly obfuscated bottle and takes a belt, when he talks again surprisingly sounds more coherent, \"Quite frankly, I'm shocked that so many of the enlightened have such a narrow focus on the possible. Perhaps some drink, or shoot, or fuck around to live... What is above so below, and thus some must mirror the opposite to society around them. What is bad is good.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "He picks back up his cigarette. \"So where's the Benedict?\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "The floor burns with the fire of Penny's love for Dave. Sticky black muck is clumped about, in hair and on sleeping faces. One can only hope that the noise will draw Keene from his extended sitting, unless he's fallen down the hole..", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Ryan gives Ted a slight frown before he says, \"She looks cold.\" He then gazes at the woman who has approached and asks, \"It's a bit late to be wandering the winter streets, isn't it? Can I give you a ride somewhere, madam?\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "legitimate reasons to be here at night. To the north and west is the heart of", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "know what the woman's saying. She motions for Mary to stand close to", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "The great marble table seems to be carved from a single piece of stone. Polished and pristine, the table stands as if it had stood here for an eternity, its circle unbroken and complete. Each seat surrounding it is spaced evenly, as if meticulous care has been given toward seeking this state of equality.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "the black smoke finally dissipates as the personal ceremony ends . Cally looks up.. \"I told you.. Create an endangered animal, release and imprint it to the building location of Hyperion.. the Red tape of trying to move said animal will give us months to move the Node.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "[OOC] Penny snarks her soda. shit. [OOC] Penny snarfs, too. dang.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Keene is standing by a stolen television set with a VCR on top of it. The screen is inexplicably glowing blue, probably because the tape has fully rewound and is not playing. A short distance away is Pobble's cardboard box, which is closed up snugly.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "--------------------------------------------------------------------------- Compton............. Dirty old man. Height: 1.8m Weight: 67 kg. Age: 69", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Compton sloshes up the street all sodden from lying in it. Grinning like a fucking idiot.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "It is the three-story mall that seems to beckon people from all sorts of financial incomes into the area. Its large parking lot is available for plenty of room for shoppers to fill up their vehicles with its goods and empty their pockets in one easy day. Various crosswalks and shopping centers have sprung up surrounding the mall's center of fame, seeking to draw consumers to their market as well and indeed, succeeding.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "John Smith starts slightly at the larger woman's exclaimation. He seems much more awake now.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Escalus pages: Did I answer you? Announcement: Pericles shouts, \"Anyone interested the broken commands at the", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "\"Old man,\" a whine, a warning. \"It's not for me, I mean if I could just ask one'a them it'd be easier than staring at this thing all day.\" But that's what she does. Penny stares this way, that way. She looks up, she looks down; fixated on some central point of origin.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Standingwater opens the padded door and enters the pub. Standingwater has arrived.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Alexandre's eyes narrow as he watches; he looks towards Daisy, looks towards Penny, gaze shifting between them. The cup in his left hand shifts slightly, he returns to looking at the screen, but he keeps the same suspicious look.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "feeling of danger that some large dock areas exude. Toronto is spared the", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Laurie heads down the sidewalk, grumbling at the weather. She steps aside for teh woman with the coffee. Mmmm... coffee. Note to self. Get coffee.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Tom leaves a generous tip for the waitstaff on his table, and stoops to grasp the once-fallen, now-righted briefcase. The two have much in common -- the universe is a swarm of symbolic relationships and occulted meanings. With a clearer mind and an easier step, he walks back out into the luxuriously warm night to do things unguessed at.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Escalus pages: You can try it again. Long distance to Escalus: Penny dances. //.etro: Penny rolls \"3\" privately to Escalus at diff 5.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Penny stumbles backwards and catches the bagel in the eye \"Ow, shit! Hey! Fuck, that fucking little ..what the fuck, Comp?\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "To the right of the entrance is a modest bathroom that is sparkling clean. This room has two queen-sized beds separated by a few feet, with plenty of blankets and large fluffy pillows. Inside the second drawer of the nightstand that sits between the beds is a copy of Gideon's Bible. Across from the nightstand on the far wall is a TV that offers hours of cable entertainment. A note near the TV remote reminds you that pay-per-view adult movies will be added to your bill.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Siomen just sits quietly, playing with Geero on his lap, geero still tucked away in the backpack. Seat of Matter never contested.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "cigarette from between her fingers, using it to light his own. \"Ms. A,\" he states,", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Jonah glances to Alex as he enters, then looks over to Chase. \"Mr. Kettle, unless you have an immediate opinion on the current matter, I will excuse you so that you may speak with Mr. Hess.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "pomegranate stain; applied shadows of gold and brown around green eyes. A", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "For those that haven't seen her in the past two weeks, her condition -- already questionable -- continues to deteriorate. Heavy bags hang underneath her dishwater-coloured eyes; her skin hangs like rags over bones. Catabolism has eaten her down to her core.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "At your table Acheson says \"Bergen-Belsen was a concentration camp during the Second World War. It was part of the Final Solution.\" He raises his eyebrows at Daisy's statement. \"I do not know anything about that. I do know that the Construct located there hosted Dr. Rudolph Zauberman and his pet nightmare, Projekt Ubermensch.\"\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Whales, dolphins, and humans are the only mammals with salt-water secreting ducts at the corners of the eye. They say that humans evolved into whales and dolphins -- they spent so much time in warm, seasonable water that they went native, they evolved to fit it, they left the whole poisonous clusterfuck of human interaction for the embrace of the seas where a whole other show was going on, involving poetry, love, and brotherhood. That's what they say.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "top most part of a black tattoo is visible just above his color. The rest of", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "have a clean up in aisle four. Vulture spits the top of the box at the downed kid before he strides off after Penny. A couple of strong steps helps him catch up to the overloaded woman and her dragon horde of breakfast stuffs. Munching loudly on Tony's flakes the birdman swallows before offering a,", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "She means it. The shadows underneath her eyes are deep and bruise-coloured.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Penny mutters to Daisy, \"... no... looking,... does... in... direction. That... gesture... passingly... the... a... comraderie... them.... cigarette... lips,... the... stressing to her... impolite and obvious... you slice... down... smoke,... connection... and... starts to... she... motherfucker...\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Dave the Monkey, perhaps empathically picking up on Pobble's thinking mutters 'Blah blah blah blah..'. This at Connelly's statement.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Dave hops forward now that the box has stopped moving and sits on the edge, tapping his giant (relatively) cigar once more. \"I would 'ave to suggest that it was probably nothin' nice there luv.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Devros soon takes his eyes from the ranting beggar in the corner, his gaze drifting to the pool table, an exciting spot to peep at, as always. The bartender returns a few moments later, handing Dev a bottle of beer. \"Thanks. Put that to my tab..\", he calls, coming a few steps closer to the table, not making the fact he's overhearing the chat very subtle.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Tal hmms quietly, \"What about Casa Loma? Is it possible to move the gate somewhere inside it? It should not be impossible to bypass the security on such a large structure. There is quite a bit of tourist traffic in and out of it and its in downtown. We may not be able to have total control over the building, but if we are going to gain resources from New England, it shouldn't be too difficult to gain rooms as a 'historical society' or the like.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Cassius pages: Oi! Long distance to Cassius: Penny is looking for James. Feel like witnessing a spirit roll to send some out a'huntin' for me?", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Hana lazily looks over her shoulder, already narrow Asian eyes narrowing half a stop more. Her lips suddenly form a pearl-showing smile and, as if she's biting off the words-- She says something short in a language you don't understand.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "\"Fuckin' A,\" she says proudly, hitting the 'play' button on the VCR. \"It works.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Compton pockets the Polaroid, and gets up witha grunt of effort from the all too small chair for his big ass and trundles off to the loo to see what Penny's up to this time. \"Huh?\" is his response to your ooglings. The googles still on his mellon regardless.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "For a botch! Mary pages: Doh? :) Long distance to Mary: Penny hahs. Penny thinks you're lying when you say 'of course not' ...now a botch on that idea? I might be a little overbearing for a few minutes ;)", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Following shortly behind is Daisy, who, in the interest of disguising herself as 'not a line worker', has painted her lips anoxic blue, her face death-white, and her eyelids bruise-black. This does not prevent her acne scars from showing through.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "A flashed V of index and middle fingers in Jesse's direction -- that's just too much -- and Hiro taps a cigarette out of the pack, offering it between the same two. \"Keene cheated,\" is his explanation -- for what? -- as he slumps onto a barstool. \"Nobody said we were allowed to cheat.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Rhiamon has reconnected. Rhiamon has partially disconnected.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "\"There ya go.\" Compton says in coda of Jesses explaination.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "ears. Another glance toward the people and the fence, sticking to her side of", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Penny arches a brow, the left one, the one that can be seen. She says, in Enochian, \"Daze, y'ever get the feeling you're just not being heard?\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "measure is just under two meters with a slight paunch to his stocky frame. He", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Keene closes the door, locks it up securely, then turns to watch the box fly across the room. He works a cigarette out of his breast pocket, puts it between his lips, and lights it with his Masonic Zippo as the carnage invariably begins. \"See, that's the thing,\" he says. \"I deal with enough *human* stupidity that protecting Familiars from the fallout of their actions just doesn't fit the bill. Excuse me.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Coming to a stop at the primary intersection, Pigboy weasels his way out of the crowd of people waiting for the crosswalk signal to change; swerving towards the olive-drab traffic control box. He pauses to stare blankly at the archeologic strata of stickers and tags: retrieving a cigarette from behind his ear, and lighting it with a quick flash of a bic lighter.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "\"The Gnostics turned invisible and dissapeared.\" He shrugs. \"Prisons are built with stones of Law, Brothels with bricks of Religion. It's all the same game, they just trade hats offstage.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Pobble turns away from the wall, eyes full of tears and heads over to find somewhere to sit. One finger seems to be clawing at his palms, causing a faint trail of blood droplets to form in his wake.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "James steps through the Wrought Iron Gate and out into the street. James has arrived.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "abuse is as much a draw as it is obvious. It's there in her eyes - give it a", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Shahai arrives from the west. Shahai has arrived.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "\"I need to powder my nose,\" mumbles Hiro, getting to his feet. He leaves his cigarettes -- and Compton's drink -- and ambles off towards the restroom.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "\"I doubt Sum Phewl Kapow,\" strange to hear Hiro make racially derogatory language of the breed -- he's at least part slant. Then again, beyond a certain diffusive point, racial identity pretty much ceases to mean anything. \"...cares much if we're doping candy kids up on cat tranquilizers.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "As if on cue, Penthesilia looks over her shoulder at the man walking in through the doors. Penthesilia turns back to Penny, and mumbles softly \"Yeah. Well. Thanks, anyhow.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "\"No you don't.\" Compton reply's in a depressed Eyore kind of way and he's off.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "The main hall of Novus Valnastium is a wide, stone area, with arching buttresses and columns framing windows that stream with bright, comfortable light. Several circles of chairs and old-fashioned divans and davenports are scattered around the room, conversational areas if you will, and a center hearth flickers with a warm, comfortable flame. A set of stairs on the left leads up to a balcony that rings the area, several doors leading off it, and great double doors lead forward and to the left, right, and behind you. Two armored figures, silent as the grave, flank the doors ahead of you, as well as two others flanking the doors to the rear, which lead back out onto the open plains.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "\"Very true.\" Pobble seems intrigued, musing quietly as he studies you. It's maybe one of those awkward silences, although the blue haired chemist doesn't look awkward. He steeples his hands in his lap, the beat of his fingertips tapping in counterpoint to the rapping of boot on table leg.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "\"I'm just comin' down off of somethin'. It's ... not so good.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "front of it. Behind the bar is a long mural of a naked woman, sprawled out on", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Talking, partly to himself, the bartender, and perhaps partly to the Holy Father as well, he says: \"Since it's Sunday, I'll /only/ drink myself stupid. Promise.\" With a wink and a gulp, his bourbon disappears.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Alex begins down the hill and toward the Ruins. Alex has left.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Connelly ums...\"If I tell you, are you going to report it to Daisy? And if she knows...is she just going to take all you guys out to try and take the thing out before anyone can do anything about it?\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Penny takes a subway bound for college. You board the subway for COLLEGE. Subway - College Station You enter the lobby area of the Holiday Inn. Holiday Inn(#2848RnAJ) You enter the apartment.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Hiro holds his hands out, so the drizzling rain might cleanse the filth from them. He power-walks behind Cash: a slum Jesus in nutjob clothes, offering his revolting boon to the heavens. \"Who the fuck is Erin Vale?\" he demands of the dime-bag cowboy, as whatever is coating his hands begins to liquify in the rain. This does not make the spectacle more attractive; his fingertips now drift with a material the consistency and colour of something you find under your elderly aunt's sink.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "In the corner of the room, where Alex's computer system has been setup, is his gang. They appear to be working on something on one of the computers, but when people enter the lab they look up. The sight of Penny's gun has them all on their feet in an instance. However, they take no action, but probably only because Alex holds a hand up to stop them as he enters the lab.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Penny nods a few more times \"Should ask Pobs. He might have some floating around,\" cash, she means. \"T'care, Abel. See you later,\" she says with limited enthusiasm or none at all.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Taliesin smiles to Abel, \"That's wonderful.\" He winks, \"I was hoping you would do something like that when faced with her being sent away. She'll be in good hands, and I'm sure we'll be able to arrange for you to visit.\" He looks around, \"As for the party. I'll miss the guy, I really will.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Penny says \"Okay. Thank you. This was excellent.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Alexandre shakes his head slightly, \"Some drink, but we're not always babbling drunk. Some of us have sex, but we don't hump everything that moves. And really, you just showed that you're desire to mirror the opposite is just some mid-life crisis reason to do whatever you wanted to do anyway.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "At your table \"We gotta speak with the others. You understand that. If you can give me a voicemail drop I can leave our decision at...\" Hiro trails off, crushing his half-smoked GPC out on the table. \"We won't turn it over, even if we decide to assist, you understand. If we find it -- and I think I have an idea what you're referring to -- we'll want to destroy it.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "For a botch! Compton lowers the goggles over his eyes as he realizes what Penny is up to by the glyphics she's scrawled around the door. Standing firmly in front of the prepared portal he opens the door and gazes beyond.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Hana offers a quiet greeting, though. \"Hi Alex..\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "There's a moment where Chase is watching the feed. And the next, well, he's just not there anymore. But, the door at the top the stairs is opened somehow, and promptly closed.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "\"Ya can raid the continental breakfast bar on the way up.\" Compton offers, moving none too quickly himself, \"This whole Days thing just fucks me up. Not good with roles... not good with responsibility. Someday one of you are going to give me the shit, and I'm gonna fuck it up, I tell ya.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "It's true, Vulture is more interested in a healthy breakfast than whatever someone may be throwing up in the bathroom - or whatever. He pools milk into the bottom of his bowl, watching it slips and slide all over the flakes, \"Drown, y'lil' bastards... drown...\" Yup, cause it's mentally stable to talk to your cereal, \"Y'd think that Lewis Carroll woulda come up with more've a concept than this..\" Evidently the carrion bird still thinks he's in some sort of wacky land of make believe. Before he takes his first spoonful of his soggy flakes he pops a couple of pills into his mouth and swallows, \"They know who you are,\" He sings to himself, \"There know who you are...\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "bit, foreign. The brown man isn't hip. This allows for a brief inventory check. Pat", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Of cource there's probably enough psycho-actives airating from her table mates, that nothing can be assumed at this point. Compton frowns and crosses his arms again, and mutters somthing akin to an appology to Jesse for manhandling him. As much fun as that sounds, it rarely is.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "\"The Ironteeth have only been working against us... the Traditions for a couple hundred years,\"Alex states,\"And in that time they have continuously been pushing the Traditions back. Sooner or later the Traditions are going to be pushed up against the wall and crushed, if they do not do something about it.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "..and the small plastic garbage pail from bathroom. Penny's hand flops around for it's edge, picks it up some and lifts her head. An awful, heavy rattle passes for breath from her too slow to be normal. The blankets are kicked off suddenly, no longer trapped in the tangle, she sits upright and retches into the pastic-liner, coughing out in breaks of three. Senseless babble errupts from some deeper region, Penny's voice hoarse.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Wild-eyed, Hiro manages to stumble while sitting down. This takes a great deal of doing. He retches until all that remains is dry heaves, and manages -- somehow -- to get off the stool and remain on his feet. \"Hrrr,\" he complains, audibly, before stumbling off towards the exit; cigarette still in hand.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Chase says, \"Listen, I gotta... I gotta go see this chica that's supposed ta come round my digs. You fuckers wanna join us? Got weed, got blow...\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "In the pocket, an open plastic bag. In the open plastic bag, an anonymous powder. Thumb goes in pocket, thumbnail (a rather unorthodox cokenail, but the only one she can't maneuver to bite down effectively) comes out with a loose payload of upper, and goes to Daisy's nose. She inhales sharply.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Between calloused thumb and forefinger Compton starts to roll the first of the two cigarettes above the foil. Slowly and gently emptying the contents. When he's done with this he starts again with the second cigarette and when finished places the two empty shells carefully aside.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Abel shakes his head to Pob. \"'Fraid not, but, like, thanks for the offer. I gave all that up when I first left 'Frisco.\" It doesn't look like he has fond memories of that part of his life.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Tal asks gently, \"Um, you guys wouldn't be disagreeing out of habit, would you?\" He smiles at Compton, slightly amused.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Her stance, her posture is a challenge to the building itself. \"We can't leave him here. Not with these cowards. They do him wrong.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "\"Yeah, I saw. They taped it from the Hummer.\" he murmers at Keene, still staring at Connelly.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Penny ashes to the floor, arm still extended ignoring the smoke \"Oh come on,\" smothering a first response \"It isn't a question, Chase.. \" looking from right to left \"..we'll be restoring things to their natural order.\" Tightly fisted, Penny ashes again and looks to the tabletop for a drink that isn't there yet. Nothing but wet rings and other people's napkins. \"Simple.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Jesse shakes his head no, leaning against the table again and waiting for his turn. He lights a fresh cigarette, eyeing his beer where it sits n the corner, and thinks about the distance to it.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Taliesin enters the Hall from the Library. Taliesin has arrived.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "fence posts. Cranes his neck a little, to see what's going on. Then, he draws", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "(Directed into the phone) Pobble says \"I just rolled in to be honest guv, and I'm facking lost as all shit. Its like a bloody maze around here.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Tal clears his throat softly, \"The Invisible College is represented by Ms. Inscrutable in the Seat of Spirit, Magister.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "\"And what /is/ your job here?\" Alyx inquires dryly, stood behind the pair. \"If it's about the site, I could probably tell you a /bit/.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Hana's growing bored with things, and tired as well. Tilting her head back she rubs her neck and looks up at the ceiling, if there is one.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Standingwater peers moodily off toward the cave. Probably debating whether he should go back for his pack or not.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Amano shrugs up his shoulders, baffled, his fingertips tap-taping on bartop like nervous spiders as he inches away and twist 'round to face them. Hell no, it ain't his place, He winces for the girl's sake, if she doesn't have the sense to do so herself.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "-- and Hiro remains just a few feet behind her, keeping pace. His record bag creaks and jangles with his movement, the heavy load thumping against his back.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Jim walks north along Parliament to Wellesley. Jim has left.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "\"Alright..\" says the guard suspciously. He obviously doesn't get paid enough to give a shit about whatever seems to be going on here and turns and heads along on his rounds.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Announcement: Silvius shouts, The peace of the afternoon is shattered suddenly as an explosion rips through the downtown area. The source of the explosion seems to be in the area of Parliament and College E. The blast can be felt for blocks in each direction, and heard for miles. Power flickers and goes out in the neighboring buildings, and car alarms ring through the afternoon air.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Smoked down to the filter already, she goes \"So?\" laying down a coin on the edge \"let's go.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "At your table Compton says \"That's yer man? Right on. We gotta get a crew together and go collect this shit.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "somethin' up', you'd be thinkin'. \"Can I seet weet ju'?\" Fingers uncoil towards the", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "\"I said a Technomancers way of 'life',\" Alex clarifies,\"Not the authoritive Technocratic establishment.\" \"Did not happen that way in Sydney, only nine years ago,\"Alex comments in response to Standingwaters statement.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Rhiamon shakes her head, \"No thanks. I work in language. Don't like it smothered..", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Keene finishes off his cigarette as Pobble talks. He doesn't so much as flinch as Pobble falls down; this is pretty normal by Keene's standards. The suited man does, however, walk over and offer his hand to Pobble to help the dress-wearing gentleman back to his feet. \"I kind of like indoor plumbing, myself.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Aaron blinks at Cathy and gets up from the tbar with his drink. He smiles, 'Sorry , love...can't stand beer..'", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "spilt beer. The bar runs the length of the far wall much like a saloon in an old", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Cally hmms.. \"dunno if I can, but.. I's sure like to try and be assistance./. this been oked with Jonah? the removal of tia I mean?", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Compton scambles up to his feet, using Penny as leverage, \"Geezus girl. Make tracks\" he orders, at the time the best he can do towards fulfilling his role as Sunday.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "You say, \"Caffine is the new religion, and the opium for the masses. This place is an opium den, just with fucking pompus Italian words of things like LARGE!\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "silence of two people left at the bar together ensues. Nether know each other for", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Millia arrives from the south. Millia has arrived.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Compton nods again; closing his eyes, and rolls his hand over a few times, motioning to carry on. \"A someone not breathing would probably alarm you too, but that doesn't mean it's not normal\" he says in a brief moment of clarity, \"Tell your stories.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Keene is considerably less hostile than Pobble. Openly, anyway.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Abel looks over at Compton's excuse to leave and quirks an eyebrow. Then turns to Tal.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "\"You didn't call it.\" Jesse picks up a pill, looks at it, and grins at Compton. \"That's a penalty. One for me.\" He swallows the pill.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "His hair seems somewhat unruly in the wind, and emits a tinkling as the glass components hit each other. The hat flips over and rolls off to the side, repositioning itself face down and causing the card to fall out and dance along the sand.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Viktor sighs and says, \"Staying and living are two different things. I /could/ stay there, but I don't feel welcome if I make it my home for more than a few nights. Besides, it's not my home. It won't ever be.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Pobble nods slowly. So does the Monkey, before it pulls the last hot breath from its cigar and tosses it, nudging Pobble in the thigh to stamp it.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Alex stops just before he sits, his head turning slightly in Chase's direction at the snap of his fingers. A frown creases his brow and he pauses, definantly it would seem, before following Chase, casually, into the other chamber.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Abel shakes his head. \"Marcus wouldn't do anything like that. He knows some of us don't do that stuff and would never force it on them unknowingly.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "***A scene with Jesse and myself, and a random assortment of supporting charcaters. Didn't really go anywhere, but Jesse had some good psycho-babble, and I got to mock Starbucks which I HATE in RL. One of the worst things the States has infected Canada with. I hope the spread of Tim Hortons evens the score.***", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Millia takes Abel's hand smiling using it as a balance as she sits down with the group, \"May the One's peace be with you as well. Interesting topic of discussion today.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "The cigar still smoulders. Right on the Holiday Inn carpet.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Kasui carefully flows in her gyrating swirl of liquid motion so that she has positioned herself to form a third point of a triangle with Millia and Jess. There is no doubt now that she is simply watching and moving her body in a manner reminiscent of theirs, even if with far less skill and experience in doing so. It remains, simply, that she is someone who knows her own body well , though, and as her limbs and body smoothly ripple through the waves of music that crash over ad through her, the primal feel of connectivity to the sound itself is no small thing. All throughout this her thigh-length tresses, now loose and free at their maximum length, fail and sway about her in a an almost counter-dance, like liquid midnight encircling her.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Carrying a satchel made of the same rough material as his overalls, Hiro enters the financial district on foot: joining the throngs of workers milling about during their lunch break. His own eyes are concealed behind opaque Unibomber shades -- a measure to conceal his own condition, evidenced by his dime-sized pupils. The shiteating grin, however, is more difficult to obfuscate.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Standingwater glances briefly at the electrical gear. \"I'm wondering how she got through the conservatory without attracting attention.\" Alyx seems to have almost entirely dozed off in the grass, her pair of dice still clutched against her chest.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Cally smiles.. \"well I'm not quite an adept on the paranormal world but.. I do have more then a slight knowledge.. \" she looks up at Standingwater. \"so how about it? Can you use us?", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "He wears a loose fitting green t-shirt, and a relatively new pair of stonewashed levi's. On his feet are a pair of well worn blue Nike's, and from time to time you can catch a glimpse of his socks, which are a dark green. On his right hand ring finger is a silver ring, engraved in a celtic knot pattern, and around his neck is a braided silver chain that disappears in to the collar of his shirt.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "It was Pobble that convinced Daisy to write her resume in 16-point Bookman Gothic, but it was Daisy who turned off the spell checker, 'on account of it don't work right'. She's carrying a sheaf of half-crumpled resumes under her arm. The first entry reads '2006-2007 Superviser: McDonalds.'", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Penny tilts her head, staring. She slams the door fast and starts scrubbing at the writing on the frame with a toothbrush. Toothpaste smell festers in the air; minty fresh.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "You travel along the streambed, against the current. Slowly, you ascend the slopes and crags of the cave, until eventually a pillar of light lances through the darkness. Cavern Entrance", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Still narrating to Devros, Penny watches the balls roll and knock into eachother \"And then you tell me 'I don't know if I really feel like playing now' and then I kinda give you this look and wait for a light and I ask 'So why is it I should bring cash?' And you say..\" leaving the opening there.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Like a memory set adrift like bit of wood upon a stream, memories of a time long ago yet seemingly just beyond reach, Kasui flows into view clad like somone straight from the Meiji. Her voluminous oceanic blue hakama sway like waves about her legs as her zori-sandaled feet barely make a whisper upon the grass. The long topknot of a samurai flows down her back in an almost noble fasion as those midnight tresses ripple like liquid midnight. Left hand resting lightly upon th epommel of her clansword she pauses at the sight ahead of her and tilts he rhead to the side in abject curiosity...", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "\"Blah blah blah,\" Lori answers, taking the zippo so she can light up the smoke. Afterwards she hands the flame back across to you. Two on a match is okay. \"The whole world is full of secrets.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "All Keene wanted was a rationale. He is remarkably permissive of this kind of behavior just so long as some sort of justification is given for it. Wonton, rampant destruction for its own sake is intolerable; wonton, rampant destruction for some Fight Club-style end is slightly more acceptable.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Alex pauses a moment to consider Jess' question, covering the pause with a drink of his beer. \"Pretty good,\" he finally says in response, Busy...\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "At your table Hiro keeps his eye on the street as he speaks, watching the occasional car cruise past outside. Probably on the lookout for black sedans. \"You haven't said what you want, yet,\" he points out, quietly.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "line-ups get huge and the hot dog venders get wealthy. On the northwest corner", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "The phone is picked up at the far end. Keene says \"Hotline.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Penny moves away from the door, and Pobble glances up towards it. The lines of vision and motion fail to cross in the brief second that the man leaves his writing and he looks back down and continues the scrawl. A hand reaches absently towards the beer. As he grasps it, he lets go and twists his book about, writing something quickly across the top line. A small red stain is left on the cool condensing caraffe.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Jesse laughs, and leaves the cigarette in his mouth long enough to snag the strap of his satchel and sling it skidding across the carpet to gently thud against the bathroom door. \"Who was the kid?\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Alex enters what's left of the Council Chambers by way of the ruined doorway. Alex has arrived. Abel gets a blank look on his face at the mention of external alchemy, then seems to understand and settles back into his place. Alex steps into the council chambers, pausing just inside the door, to take a moment to look around....", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Tal enters what's left of the Council Chambers by way of the ruined doorway. Tal has arrived.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Compton flinches with the sudden outburst so close to his abused head. His mellon wobbles in its precarious pearch on his shoulders, and he looks up at the woman standing on his foot, \"Fuck... Penny.\" he says after a second of recognition kicks in, \"Shhhhhh.\" is all he can say in after thought.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Jim arrives from the north. Jim has arrived.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Alex shakes his head and turns to head in the direction of the ruins as well, since that is where he was going when he stopped to join the conversation. \"No plan is fool-proof. But if we only act on fool-proof plans then we will never do anything.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Cally sighs softly.. \"Jamaia.. Playing Devil's advocate.. how would a endangered creature, discovered during construction be reacted to? What would be the outcome, and most importantly how long would there be a delay in construction?", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "She comes down the stairs slower than the last time, does a kind of slide-cling thing along the wall. Sounds different; canvas on painted foundation. Looks different, too, in her bright red trenchcoat. Penny half-jumps the last few steps.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "It's all on Penny, the energy, the resonance. This is clearly a meditation and you know she'll be here for hours. Another facet of the fasting, perhaps. She's made this little spot, the shroud and all part of a temporary domain. By touching it, the plastic, you can sense her presence and know if you stay there that your will could be subverted to her own.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Isaac shoves through the crowd himself and looks upon the scene. Since there are no police around, he takes a quick scan for damages... and then begins talking to people that seem to have had property damaged, especially cars....", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Jonah nods. \"Very well.\" He glances about to the rest of the people. \"Are there any other Cabals not represented by a Seat at present?\" The glance falls on Keene and Compton, \"The Invisible College?\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Penny exhales, sighs really, like this is work or this isn't fun or there's something Chase is missing. Fingernails tip into the ashes and just the smooth click and sudden butane-smell seem to take the edges off her. Soft crackle at the far end, she keeps the lighter open and ducks it somewhere down and to the left.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Jim grins and a belly laugh issues from his throat. \"Women. I don't even bother trying any more. Take what you can get, and enjoy it man, looks like you could use some joy.\" Jim looks at Isaac's wounds, but leaves the question unasked.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Penny looks down her nose at Tiziano, glasses slipping a little bit further while Compton tries to interject \"Listen, you're getting a life-lesson little boy. Right fucking now,\" the build-up to this next bit bracketed by a pregnant pause and some half-hearted finger-pointing \"Don't *ever* waste good drugs on the non-paying.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Keene smiles thinly, and seems about to fire off a riposte' when Standingwater distracts him. \"Mecca Pharmecuticals? How much is known about the place?\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Antigone shakes her head a bit, a waitress dropping off a beer for the woman. She takes a long pull, then settles back more fimrly in her chair.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "\"Dude,\" the young punk girl stage-whispers, peering at Hiro over the gold frames of her aviator glasses, \"use your ... whazzitcalled ... craft name. They eat that shit up. And ask him about my petition.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Abel says, \"We're only engaged... I don't have a place to live yet... or a job that will pay enough... but... but The One willing IFYA will happen and then I'll have a bit more of something to offer her.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "//.etro: Escalus will be joining your location. Escalus has arrived.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Standingwater gives the arrow a twirl and slips it back into the quiver. \"Ah. Medicine has to work fast these days, what with the new and interesting ways people are finding to kill themselves.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Alyx eyes Jesse bemusedly. \"I can think of worse fates than to be sung to death by a mermaid,\" she observes, head cocking to the side slightly. \"And it serves you right for shooting up in a place where caffine rules supreme. There's only room for /one/ drug in this here cafe,\" she adds, the latter comment spoken in a western-style cowboy's accent.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Griswold shakes his head. \"Nah, sorry. I don't.\" he says, before looking around. \"It's a little cold out, are you off to somewhere?\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Griswold recoils a step at this change of tone, his eyes widen and he automatically holds up his large hand with palms facing you. \"Sorry, you just looked cold...\" he says, looking over you once more.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Allen's hand falls back to his side as he gives Charice one more appraising look, lips still curled into an amused little grin. The two stand off down the sidewalk a bit from the Whiskey Saigon. \"Could be fun to try, but I'll pass on payin'.\" he says, dark eyes glittering with amusement.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "The hapless mass that is Hiro is not something she shies away from but that look on her face, that mask of a halfsmile. That charicature of horrified and forgetful glee straps itself across her entire body in a posture of absolute agony when he gets a hold of her.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "\"Fine, fuck, just trying to kill the days we're waiting for mr level fucking seventeen half-elf illusionist to show up.\" Hiro crumples the post-it note up as he abandons McJobette, hurling the scrap of paper into the garbage. Hopefully Gabriel won't take notice. \"We've been here like fifteen minutes.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Taliesin nods slowly, \"Very well. I will have the body ready for the Invisible College to take care of in short order. If you would let me know who you're sending the implant to as well, so I can make sure they receive it, and so the others will know what's going on. I would appreciate that as well.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Alex ... doesn't do much of anything. Reacting to the purpose (or dictated) governmental organization in neither word or action.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Marcus steps back out to the main hall. Marcus has left. Alyx steps back out to the main hall. Alyx has left.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Jesse leaves an apartment. Jesse has arrived.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "\"So, Smitty, what's all this about who wrote what where and why?\" Jesse grins over his coffee, his splayed boot reeling itself in slowly, until its heel is hooked on the lip of his chair's seat, offering his elbow a comfortable perch on the resultingly raised knee.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Pobble flashes a plastic over-charmed smile at Connelly, and offers a finger waggle wave to the other two. \"Sorry girls, I diddn't mean to interrupt anything. Dave an I were just 'avin a walks.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "His clothing is a bit odd, perhaps he's an entertainer or a hotel waiter. He's wearing black trousers, black dress shoes, a fitted violet waistcoat and a deep red cravat. The sleeves of his Victorian collared amd starched white shirt are rolled up exposing his muscular forearms. A diamond stickpin holds his cravat in place, and the chain of a gold pocketwatch dangles from his waistcoat pocket.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "\"Yeah well no specifics onna phone, right? Where an' when?\" Hiro asks the phone, gesturing at Daisy for a cigarette.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "\"Good. Because it's on my list of things to do before I die.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "You journey up one of the trails to the quiet park area. Centre Island - Island Park(#1262RnJ)", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "BANG bang bang taptaptaptap tap.. tap. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Sounds like metal", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "There's a harsh exhalation of breath between clenched teeth at the stumbling junkie's approach and the barrel of the gun starts to rise. Yet, the motion is far too late as the junkie moves past the barrel's end and places him within inches of the gansta. There's a sharp pain that prompts eyes to widen in shock to accompany the wet tearing sound of flesh and tissue giving way before force. The junkie's fingers slip past the boundary of skin in a spray of blood.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Alyx winks at Jesse. \"Alive and seeking blood?\" she quips, gesturing to her coffee, before blowing Compton a kiss. It must be one of those random-impulse things. \"You?\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "At least not yet there isn't. Penny and Hiro watch Daisy sweat the microphone along with everybody else. There isn't a smiling face in the house, no uncomfortable fidgiting or throat-clearing either. This is not your average group of afterhours kids - they're seasoned professionals.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Taliesin sings a few bars under his breath and the pangs of hunger and deprivation fade into memory. He smiles, \"No need to suffer like that any longer, Ms. Ante.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Jonah chuckles as he puts his things away. \"I am unfortunately a very busy old man. I will try, but I cannot guarantee anything.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Keene sits in front of the fire for a while. Then, after kicking some dirt onto it to put it out, he steps off and heads back towards the real world. Such as it is. \"Ta.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Jonah passes a nod to Hana, then seems to note down her presence in the log. Lowering his hand, Alex doesn't bother to rise. \"From your description, it sounds like all the members of either council will have to be present to be able to actually get anything done....\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Cally shakes her head.. \"Just one.. I also sent you a letter a while back about the possibility of setting up a school, where we can exchange skills and training as well as culture so we can learn more of each other.,.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "been repaved, to the delight of motorists driving through the city. Even the", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Hiro paged Hana with 'Uh, Hiro just came back from slamming a couple caps of heroin, and you just startled the shit out of him He's going to be very sick. How do you want to handle this?'.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Dr Steve looks down with an attempt at a silencing glare, ruined by the barely suppressed mirth. \"This is the same spider that managed to unawaken that bird right?\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Jennifer watches the signs and then shakes her head. \"No, I tend to avoid anything affecting my sense of the now, to dangerous these days.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Hiro scuffs at the sidewalk with the toe of his sneaker, frowning into the glare of neon and halogen. He's come to a dead stop in the middle of the sidewalk, squinting up at some seedy dive's stand. \"Why don't you just get a job as a waitress or somethin'?\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Jacob stands and leaves a table near the serving counter. Jacob has departed. Jacob read your description.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Guard frowns. \"If I go into the other room and find it trashed, then don't find anything, you will allow me to search you and your room, eh?\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Empty lots and undeveloped plots of useless land fill this intersection. Old, largely-abandoned factories are set up along the streetside. Development here ceased long ago, apparently. Two major homeless shelters operate in this area, given its rather cheap real-estate value. The area is mostly populated by homeless people, junkies and whores, though the occasional employee of the few operating companies in this area might be seen driving through... generally rapidly.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Penny puffs, the cigarette bobbing around as she talks \"Do we have a time limit? I mean like.. before it fucks shit up permanently? ..not just me with the getting sick and all..\" Each draw turns her a different shade of green; some side-effect of Doctor Compton's Spiritual Hangover Cure-all. \"I mean you're right.. outside of some stupid bait and switch tricks I can't do shit, god I don't think I could get anywhere near there again without getting ill. We need to pow-wow.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "A chemical tang hangs in the air: one of Hiro's cigarettes is giving off a strange aroma, and he doesn't seem to notice. Both get plucked from his mouth in unison; he leans forward to go into assvision mode as Akiko strides off towards the exit.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Harrison chuckles, nodding in response to your comment about the alarms. \"I suspected as much. I was in the process of calculating the likely location through the labyrinth you have set up here.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Paksenarrion coughs and stands up from leaning against the wall, speaking clearly, \"I am well and equally versed in those spheres..\" Pointing to the Spirit Chair she continues \"As well as that sphere. I would be the first to offer my help with that.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "She takes up a lookout position. This largely involves her sitting on her toolbox and smoking a cigarette, nervously working her fingernails into the heels of her hands.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "The main hall of Novus Valnastium is a wide, stone area, with arching buttresses and columns framing windows that stream with bright, comfortable light. Several circles of chairs and old-fashioned divans and davenports are scattered around the room, conversational areas if you will, and a center hearth flickers with a warm, comfortable flame. A set of stairs on the left leads up to a balcony that rings the area, several doors leading off it, and great double doors lead forward and to the left, right, and behind you. Two armored figures, silent as the grave, flank the doors ahead of you, as well as two others flanking the doors to the rear, which lead back out onto the open plains.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Jonah looks to Alyx, smiling. \"Miss Davian.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "\"Nobody's botherin' to bug these shitholes,\" answers Hiro, coming to a stop just behind your left shoulder. He hits his cigarette, the precognitive emphysemic wheeze of smoke sucked through a filter. \"We do a map point block and a half away, use one of the kids -- bring them in a few at a time. No big groups.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Penny moves like she might put her head back down on the pillow. Her hands slide around, searching for something in the wrinkled mass of cotton and fleece. She pulls out a pair of cargos and a t-shirt \"So should I get dressed or what? You think we can do anything tonight?\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "This room is mostly empty, even more vast in some ways than the hall outside. Only three things mar its granite perfection; an immense marble table at the head of the room with nine chairs, each marked with a single Sphere glyph, an intricately inscribed Certamen circle in the center of the room, and perhaps forty seats at the back of the room, for observers and audience. A single door to the left glows a soft gold.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Leaning back on the rear legs of his chair, his feet on the back of the chair in front of him, Alex could be asleep for all anyone could know. But then again, this is the same attention that he has given all of the meetings so far and rarely seems to miss anything.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "\"Park't at the corner, Pobs,\" he requests. \"I wanna get this shit on tape.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "and the man lets out a sigh as he exhales that first sweet drag. \"I'm not heading anyplace", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Eddie looks over to Hiro. A sip of cheap booze fills the void between them. \"Pal a", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "\"Somthing?\" Compton asks skeptically, and scowells at the photo as if willing it to just give up to goods and save him the hassell. \"Will take a while.\" he adds defending his technical skills with a expectation buffer. \"What are we looking for?\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Compton reaches up and scrathes beneith his mullet, \"Idea. There's the big Sony on the east side. All electronics. Easy to do.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "\"Evenin' awl.\" he murmers in a sterotyped british policeman manner.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "smog-puffing derelict. Several paneled pillars rise from warped wooden planks", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "As you reach the peak of one of the highest hills, you are able to survey the land as the scent of life washes over you. Almost ninety degrees from the hill with the huge, gaping hole, and far off into the distance there is a massive forest, several deer darting into the trees as you spot it, as if sensing your discerning eye. Immediately opposite it is a large body of water, from which the cave stream flows. Ninety degrees from it, directly opposite the cavern entrance, there rest the ruins of a large stone complex, resting atop another hill, one lone tower being all that remains of the once-majestic structure.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "There is a window that overlooks the parking lot on the far side, next to a table with two chairs. Behind the table is the room environmental unit built into the wall, giving you control of the heat and air conditioning.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Jonah guestures to Tal, who currently occupies the Seat of Prime. \"Starting with the Seat of Prime, we shall go 'round the table, collecting the names of Cabals and their members. If you are not a part of a cabal, please pass until we return to you.\" He looks to Tal, expectantly.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "He puts his flask back into his jacket, producing a cigarette from his breast pocket. Keene lights up with a cheap plastic lighter he bought at Cracker Barrel, taking a few puffs on the coffin nail, while considering this new wrinkle in the situation.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "respond.'.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Aaron, for those recently arriving, is lounging in the Gallery with his head back and his eyes closed. He did not look up when Chase spoke, but simply spoke his mind and remained in place", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "You say, \"The trouble is the reception. Messages stop coming in clear,\" she sighs, slouching toward the longneck nearest her until she realizes there's the coat. The stupid coat enforcing consequential restriction of movement. \"and he thinks he can take it back but it has to /want/\" to punctuate, to underline that she tears her left arm out of the sleeve, \"to leave. And it doesn't.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "the dominant mall subculture, White Trash. You can't turn your head without", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Jane glances at her watch, and sighs. \"Still, however delightful it is to wander through the garden of bright images, are we not distracting your mind from other, more important, matters?\" And with that, she drains her cup, places it on the counter, and starts towards the door.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "\"Weird ain't it.\" He puts the paper parcel in his mouth, gripping it against the wind in his teeth as he retrives a small device from a pocket. A block with a pair of deep grooves, one of which is mostly filled with a silver tube.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Alex shakes his head and turns to head in the direction of the ruins as well, since that is where he was going when he stopped to join the conversation. \"No plan is fool-proof. But if we only act on fool-proof plans then we will never do anything.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "\"The lips of the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, are the lips of Anpu,\" the chorus intones as one doctor inserts a metal appliance into the President's mouth. The inebriated doctor stands aside as the other attendants wind it open. \"The teeth of the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, are the teeth of Serqet.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Twin rust-colored cargo containers stained with graffiti[4] scrawl flank the loft's dominant space -- the wide expanse of open lucite[5] floor -- in a broad 'V'. Fat bundles of zip-tied cables pipe electricity and data down to and up from the consoles which dominate a raised platform atop each container: the left bearing slimline turntables and mixer, the right a complex array of patchwork electronics and monitors.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Abel opens the two double doors leading out to the plains, leaving to enter the plains beyond. Abel has left. Rhiamon opens the two double doors leading out to the plains, leaving to enter the plains beyond. Rhiamon has left.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Petruchio pages: Ok... t#5, roll to me. //.etro: Penny rolls \"arete\" privately to Petruchio at diff 5.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Quietly then \"..fuck, Chase\" and Penny's on her ass a few steps from the bottom, the stairs proving too difficult for her feet to navigate. She makes a big deal out of checking the soles of her sneakers, unwinding some odd variety of a/v cable from her ankles. With her other hand she pushed off the headphones that are still blaring some drum&bass.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "And Penny, taking Compton by the elbow, moves between the mounds of snow and crap back to the sidewalk. Penny is not smiling. Penny doesn't seem to be affected by this calming sensation, says loud enough to be overheard by any passer-by \"Y'like it when little girls pound on you, hey old man?\" and she turns an unflinching eye over her shoulder to Hana \"Those're booby-trapped, chiquita\" and keeps walking with Compton under her umbrella. She hails a cab and ushers him in.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "\"Well it's ah very homey.\" \"Yes.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "The guys grumbling in the corner have quieted a little and one coughs nervously under his breath. \"Man, leave the lady alone.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Daisy's brows knit up and her lips start to move slowly. It's obvious that she only vaguely understands the language that Penny was speaking in. After a moment, she sort of nods, shrugs, and mumbles, \"Thanks, Aaron. I mean it. But I gotta go.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Jacob watches her for a moment longer then shrugs his shoulder, \"I can't make you say anything, but the offer stands if you change your mind. The relief might be worth it to you.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Hiro comes in from the street. Hiro has arrived.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Kasui wanders up the hill to the peak, from the cave beyond. Kasui has arrived.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Ted Reeves looks at Ryan and shakes his head, \"Hey cop, I'll go drink a beer with you. My brother has his eyes on other things right now.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Jesse has left. Jesse enters an apartment.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Compton nods, squinting as a particularly hard gale of wind blows snow in to his face, \"Alright. Thanks.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Hennessey pulls out behind the sedan. Well, at last, traffic's moving.. Hennessey walks west along Bloor to University. Hennessey has left.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "\"Is he still angry at being trapped?\" he asks in a faint warbling tone.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "As Kasui crests the hill, Daisy, Keene, Connelly, Standingwater, and Alyx are gathered around a television plugged into the grass. The television is turned on.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "You go up the stairs. From Derelict Home - Main Room, Penny comes up the stairs. Derelict Home - Main Room You leave the derelict house. Chinatown Side Street", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Seemingly amused by Dave's antics, Taliesin offers Niko a slight smile, \"I'm sure I can handle things just fine.\" He stands patiently waiting for the members of the Invisible College to proceed him into the library.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Darke nods a bit. \"Works for me...\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Alexandre raises his cup in the air, whispers something to himself, then drinks the little bit quickly. He lowers his hand, looks around himself, then smiles slightly. He then manuevers out of the crowd he's found himself in.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Abel shakes his head to clear it and stands. \"Like I think I need to go and do some thinking about what you guys are talking about.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "\"Comp?\" knowing he's tuned her out for the better part of the rant \"Daze said she's bringin'home dinner later. Come out, wanna show you.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "\"You don't even know who we're fighting, do you,\" Daisy says. Her tone is as bitter as dust. Leaving her stolen television, she walks walks off toward the ruins. Daisy begins down the hill and toward the Ruins. Daisy has left.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Sunday evening, just past Eight, and Jesse is circling the pool table, frowning in concentration. Judging by the sparse clientele, he's just running the table by himself. Judging by the trail of empty longnecks, he's been at it for a while.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Jonah glances up, to Compton. \"Charade, Mr. Compton?\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "In the back of the bar, Penny continues to add nothing but haze to the atmosphere, her cigarette in an ashtray. The loss of interest is mutual, in a moment it will snuff itself out, ash and a lack of oxygen overtaking the tiny orange ember. It will happen most likely in the same minute she chooses to answer the phone she left on top of the table next to the ashtray. She watches it vibrate on the table in its holder, shuttling back and forth like a demented mexican jumping bean.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Thursday Feb 6th. Hooray.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Ted Reeves is riding shotgun with his head out the window smelling the air. Hurrah!", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Standingwater gives his knife a toss and slips it back into his boot. \"I'm curious now, of course. But then I don't know the guy.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Maybe it's the hour and maybe she has a bullseye on her somewhere - some invisible 'tag' sign on her back; whatever it is, it's attracting all the wrong attention and suddenly there's some acne-faced kid standing there. Wall-eyed and grinning like he's at the spring formal getting up the nerve to ask her something. Did he think she was gesturing at him? Lidded, Penny pulls herself together and rasps \"What?\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "\"Shut up, fucker. Only really stupid pieces of shit just up and offer prime shit like that!\" The words are uttered with the sharp taint of rage that is followed by a quick step that draws the gansta even closer to the junkie. The gun is lifted in a sharp gesture as the rant is continued, \"Any last words, bitch? Like an offer to suck my dick, you fucking homo?\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "\"This place's a buzzkill,\" agrees Hiro, freeing himself from the counter's gravitational pull with a carefully placed elbow. \"I'm gonna go watch the golden girls.\" With that, Hiro begins to totter off towards the door.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "\"She did this fucked up children's show .. fairy tale movies.. I think she had a total break after this movie.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Hiro steps aside to make room for Daisy, his thumb held down on a cut-out button on his console. The kids near the front of the venue are getting to their feet, dusting gold-dust from their gargantuan pants. His expression is, perhaps, less neutral - more on the side of grm.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "\"Yeah, run it back,\" the suited Hermetic says. \"Hopefully Chase comes by; I think this is up his alley.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "admirable state of trim. Decent cheekbones, straightand thin nose, reasonably", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "the jacket, bundle's there. Pat the front pant-leg pocket, keys. Taking stock. Dude", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "From afar, Millia wants to do a lifescan on Penny, to see where she is hurt. Millia pages: Would you like me to contact staff, or would you let me roll it to you? You paged Millia with 'You can roll but I'll tell you - she's got a wound in her abdomen.'.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "place. Bright light shines from the glass domed ceiling, casting dazzling", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Keene walks out of the Realm, not too soggy for his efforts. He looks somewhat mentally drained from the endeavor. He heads over to a bench and sits down, gesturing for the spliff to come his way once he's settled in.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "James walks in to the grove from the direction of the clear lake. He stops next to one of the thirteen trees, and tries to take in what is going on.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "As if just now realizing his hands are full of sharpies, Hiro stuffs them away into a pocket of his labcoat; following suit with a set of keys. The cigarette, then, is plucked from between his lips; ashed on the ground.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "\"What up, holmes? Bit far from home?\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Tiziano is on the verge of ordering the strike. He seems to think better of it falling into a deep depression instead. The anger fades away from his eyes falling on the offering basket Compton dropped on his way out. The offering seems to apease the boy.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "She just might not've heard your question, taken to whining at a closed door. Best to bet Penny needs to be asked twice while she's distracted \"HellooOoo..\" kicks at the door again.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "\"Let's go get you some breakfast.\" Compton adds, in a pale attempt at making up for dragging you out here.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Rai sits cross-legged in front of a statue of the Indian God Hanuman, and nearby Cash leans against a statue of Buddha. The boy gives the older man a disappointed look, though gets distracted by the sparklers in the statue's stomach going out. \"Perhaps placing them in the rain was not wise,\" he opines quietly.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Jonah makes his way to the double doors, \"Good day, everyone.\" With that, he leaves.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Alyx twitches, visibly startled at something behind her. She drops to a crouch, looking wary, albeit still with a glaze to her eyes. Then she seems to shrug it off, wavering as she straightens again, beginning to wobble her way towards the ruined keep. \"T- thanks, Janey, Jamaia.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Jonah watches Keene, as if that were not the exact answer he was looking for. He speaks, to clarify, \"Who is the leader of the Invisible College?\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "\"Wha' ju' wan'?\" Eddie's accent is unmistakably Hispanic. His southward trek doesn't waver, no. If there's to be any sort of conversation here, it's to be a mobile one.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Viktor watches silently, but confused at the purpose of all this. He looks around at all the people near him.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "\"Motherfucking shit eating god damn ...\", she begins, then breaks off. \"... oi, Keene. Is the Frozen North run on 110 or 220 volts?\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Jesse shakes his head no. \"One, I think it's bad to pull the same stunt twice, two it's monday which is my day which means, uh... I forget, but it had something to do with the water. And three, I think we should make Hiro dress in drag because it's his fucking week to be Judy and he hasn't left his room once.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Takoda looks over to Tex, nodding to the man in gratitude, before he leans back down again, into the car. \"Sir, sir, can you hear me? Emergancy services are on their way sir, you're gonna be alright...\" He meanwhile shines his flashlight around inside the car, looking for any passangers, or any signs of mischief.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Pobble nods vigourously, streching his legs back out as he sucks the last of the cigarette. Reaching up at this opposite angle, he plucks the last of the blue meanie from Daisy's fingers and hands it off to the pawing Hiro. \"Indeed we are.\" His smile widens, \"How on earth did you guess?\" it continues to widen, until threatening to split his face before realizing its overstepped its bounds and relaxing.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Pobble adds almost as an afterthought. \"I on the other hand, have forgiven you for being a copper and trying to kill me.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Compton is sobering fast, although the bottle makes a few more trips to his lips between comments. He's not pleased. What could be mistaken for righteous anger seems to be building in him, of course unless you knew him and then would think such a thing is not only unlikely, but damn near impossible.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Jim grins. \"Well, I know some guys. They deal in parts, and the like.\" The way Jim says that word, \"parts\", implies some sort of illicit aspect of the subject.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "After hauling Penny to her feet, Compton undoes one strap fo the bag, and pulls a large Saporo can out. This thing is a canon of a beer can. At least 4 liters with a screw on cap and a large handle on one side to facillitate ease of drinking, and with a grimiace he thrusts it towards Penny, \"There. Brekkie.\" he adds.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Pointed at already. Typical.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "herself down, pocket to pocket and jacket to jeans. No dice, the fates must be", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Penny stops there, a few feet from Tiziano and kinda stares \"Uu..uu.uhm. Kid listen, we're uh.. we're gonna GO. Now, okay?\" Edges that way, to the far wall giving Compton a 'what the fuck' look.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Compton lowers his arms, and toys with his crushed cup on their table. Letting Jesse tell it how it is. Jane says, \"And the Bulgars, and the Gnostics?\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "\"Blue. Thing,\" Daisy says. Obviously, she's on some kind of coherent speech inhibitors.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Penny reaches over, ashes the cigarette - her hand on yours - and takes it to the corner of her mouth. Dragging long, she exhales with a rattling cough \"Should get a screen up in there so they can't see ..\" pausing to look up the block \"..everything.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Over to the overworked. Eddie steps to the plate, stuffing away funny colored", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Kasui practically skips over to the purse, a glow of intensity about her that brings a glint to her eyes of purest enjoyment. Pulling forth a pair of glow-sticks she, in a way, follows both the example of the other two girls and does something similar to Kaze as she seamlessly blends the motions of the stringed glowsticks into her simple, primal, gyrations. The air around her HUMS as she whips the sticks around wit the control of someone who has trained close-combat weapons for the better portion of their lives yet with the abandon of someone who is simply letting go in a rare and much-needed expression of something deep within. Spirals and circles wrap and overlap, and there is no use of magick to aid it. Natural hand-eye coordination and trained reflexes make it seem as though she is literally encased in an aura of glowing light from the speed with which she whips the lights about her body.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "He reaches into his little baggy, hidden under his dress and pulls out a syringe. It seems to be loaded with a thick goo. He crouches back down and forces the stuff out onto an oversized blade of grass.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Marcus starts to drift through the music, his moves slow, even through the quick beat. He flows more like water than flesh, legs, arms, and body all coordinating to carry him across and through the old Certamen circle, kicking up age-old dust under his shoes. Eyes closed, he seems to allow the music pass through him and guide him forward. Slowly, his motions begin to stretch and blur, literally, as if he were moving in slow-motion through the beat. Perhaps he really is..", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Compton nods, still huffing a little, he shambles over to a nearby Coors can and helps himself. Good for what ails ya. \"Thanks.\" he says with some surprise, \" Lil cunt was fast though. I never even got a chance to do anything.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "sidewalk. The mist hangs low and ponderous, very still, and it doesn't seem to", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "One of the kids leaves the crowd; approaching Hiro as he slips a pair of headphones around his neck. Pig-boy leans forward to accept a plastic cup -- half-full of beer -- with two hands; giving Abel a sidelong look. \"Don't sweat it, Abel. Just watch.\" He thumbs the microphone off, and turns to face the television.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Pobble nods slowly. So does the Monkey, before it pulls the last hot breath from its cigar and tosses it, nudging Pobble in the thigh to stamp it.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Ryan sighs as he withdraws a cellphone from a trenchcoat pocket. He, of course, keeps after Penny, red trenchcoat swirling dramatically about him as he dodges passerbyers rather deftly. \"Listen, madam, if you do not stop I will be forced to call an ambulance and possibly the police as your safety outweighs any dislike that you may bear for me afterwards.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Something falls from the man's left non-smoking hand. A small capsule, bouncing in the lull of the tide before it gets swept out, a needle's point flashing in the starlight before being pulled into a wave.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "\"Place is a dump,\" nodding up across the street towards the bar \"they let in anybody.\" She steps out toward the street and looks for that elusive early-morning cab. Everyone else is taking the subway; she looks that way, too, dismissing it with \"Eva has the map.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Siomen looks at Abel \"well think about it, most religions were not even born until Christianity was converted to English, mostly because the common man had never the choice to follow anything else. When Christianity was Latin, the common man listened to this priest and went, ok, i don't understand what he is saying, what he must be saying is right since God is who he follows. They followed because they believed what they were listening too was the correct path, Even if to them it was gibberish. When they actully converted it to English or Latin became a more common language to the populace, religions were born because people finally had a choice.. no i don't want to follow christianity because now i understand that i don't agree with the views\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "\"And I'm not interested.\" Looking around for help from those guys isn't an option, so she smiles flat and tight, brows raised to further her point. Adjusting the grip on her beer bottle, Penny's fist a white-knuckled range around the brown glass.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Keene sounds moderately bored. \"Again? I thought he really liked thinking he was a fish.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Standingwater heads down the hill and follows the stream toward the lake in the distance. Standingwater has left.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "It is larger than most warehouses on the block. Standing tall and preeminent in its domain you are faced with clerestory windows and a set of large doors. They are opened only for for tractor trailers and large panel vans to load and unload their shipping. There is a side door which allows for individual traffic without all the effort required to open the much larger sliding doors.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Rhiamon nods to Alexandre. \"Jane's not going to make it, but I bear her sigil..\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Daisy takes the scissors. Daisy holds the scissors. Daisy is obviously trying to puzzle out what you said just a moment ago in Enochian, and not doing so well. If you can read lips, you can see her going through the rather arbitrary declinations of the word 'nowhere'.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "\"So you're just going to let your Avatar say when and when you can't act, is that it?\" asks Keene, ashing his cigarette again. \"You'll just sit there and take it, even when you want to act, because your Avatar -- a part of /you/, something that is ultimately /your/ spirit -- says to do this or not do that.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Cassius pages: Ok. Specifically the picture shows what appears to be a large spacecraft. The name on the side reads: ACTIUM. I'll let Escalus know that you were looking.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "\"That reminds me, who do the Realm's Guardians answer to?\" _________________________", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "\"S'huge,\" Daisy comments. \"Hope the Nodes aren't here in Toronto.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Connelly ums...\"If I tell you, are you going to report it to Daisy? And if she knows...is she just going to take all you guys out to try and take the thing out before anyone can do anything about it?\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "At your table Penny does pause. She looks out the window and then back to the tabletop \"I do know,\" emphasis on the know part \"Didn't mean to startle you or nothin' it's just it's my turn to be the mu-uh-manager of our kitchen this week.\" She knows what she's talking about - you might not, but she isn't overly concerned about making sense. Outwardly. \"So.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Moments later comes the former statue-on-the-hill that was Penny. In her hands is a large gun and in her wake is Hiro armed only, somewhat impotently, with sharpie markers. She is making great strides across the hall toward the council chambers, offering the troops no quarter moving onward.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Alexandre replies, \"You probably aren't getting the point because you're drunk and can't tell here from there.\" He shakes his head slightly, then says, \"So when will you finally drink yourself to death? Is that your point?\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "As Tex barks at the crowd, Tom dutifully withdraws. Either shame or common sense (or, perhaps, both) prevails in getting him to take his eyes away from the whole reprehensible, compelling, disheartening scene. He paces the outskirts of the crowd, hugging foreign beers to his chest, scanning the faces of his fellow onlookers, eyes burning, alight; a penetrating gaze.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Alex smirks glancing over to Standingwater. \"Yeah... He has been working on that for months now,\"he comments with a slight shake of his head,\"I wonder what will happen first... The Construct is completed or the Portal gets moved.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Tom enters from the street. Tom has arrived.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Currently he is wearing a pair of clean khacki cargo pants and a black long sleeve T-shirt. Over the black he is wearing a grey, short-sleeve T-shirt with a picture of a penny on the back of it. He wears brown, mid-cut hiking shoes. Around his neck, on a thin chain, hangs a small, stylized sun symbol.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "\"Hi.\" Flat and cranky; sounds like a busy kitchen behind the voice \"Pobble thinks he's god.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "\"Needs a leash,\" said with none of Penny's usual venom and bile where the monkey's concerned; she's pretty fucking calm right about now. \"..s'much of a genius Steve is, he hasn't been able to make one what that monkey can't get out of. Lost him once in Bel Air... that was a fucking trip..\" trip.. hahaha, Penny's laughter mostly swallowed.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Chase looks back to Penny, speaking with a mouthful. \"Wha' 'ou thin' 'bout that chi' 'epsy, eh?\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "The room is lit by a multitude of dim fires which rest in recessed pits along the walls. Here and there, candelabras stand, adding additional light to the chamber through their infinitely burning candles.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Keene turns his head to seemingly look at something else away from Daisy and Connelly -- rolling his eyes at Connelly's comments. It's not hard to imagine why: the standpoint of most Hermetics is that nature, like anything else, is to be smacked into submission rather than coexisted with. He /does/ manage to keep the most direct way of saying this to himself for the sake of propriety. For a few seconds.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Penny sticks the flashlight in the back pocket of her jeans and starts walking off, hands shoved in her pockets. She shuffles slowly, zipping up her jacket and raising the hood, blending easily into the crowd. The further away from the fence, the better is Penny's theory. Just a few more steps and she's warming her hands over a pharmaceutical-bin fire pit, handing the can of beer off to the nearest body.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "She blinked and then he was gone. \"Damn.\" Penny lowers the gun to her left and edges up the stairs, right shoulder first. Still dripping in splotches across the floor and steps, her blood mingles with the dirt and grime underfoot. One step at a time, Penny gets about halfway up and retrains the gun on the door.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "At some point, Hiro is there shadowing the doorway: record bag over a shoulder -- bulging, no doubt, with assorted and sundry substances which are in no way records -- and hands balled up in his labcoat's pockets. A cigarette hangs from the corner of his mouth, trailing greyish smoke.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Guard says, \"Uh, hey, excuse me, eh? I'm not done talking with you folks.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Only the fitness freaks and partykids are up at this hour. Figure Penny fits into the latter group, trudging through the lobby toward the hallway. Her coat slung over one shoulder on two fingers, she's smoking something filtered. The greasy twenty-something behind the desk gives her a look, unwelcome but he can't do anything about a paying guest. Penny yawns in a big way, arms stretched out and everything, ashes where a vaccuum's just been run and trolls toward the continental breakfast alcove.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "This area is temporarially a DAYZONE. The party is taking place starting at IC dawn. Those of you with broadband and winamp can tune in:", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "\"God has a great ass. God can also eat me.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Alyx nnghs. \"Anyone got paper 'n a pen?\" she inquires, sitting up groggily. \"Something I need t'do before I collapse. I'll forget otherwise.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Abel nods to Penny. \"Evening. I assume you're getting ready for the goodbye to Chase tomorrow?\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "There's not a chance the guy that got up from the table near Penny's is going to make it to the door before he collapses; been here since 4 by the stink of him and as he collapses into Alexander he grins, goofing \"Hey g'lookin'..\" and hiccups before passing out on the floor. Common enough for this bar that nobody really turns. Common enough that it doesn't phase Penny. She's just watching the phone. And then it stops ringing, lopsides itself on the far side of the ashtray and everything's back to normal.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Red spraypaint stains grey sidewalk. It's a symbol everybody understands: a hex nut surrounded by a circle. A slash through the circle.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Lori mumbles, \"...or a really keen smack habit.\" She's at least halfway teasing you. \"No offense, but I'm blaming the smack.\" Her fingers snake out to snag a mozarella stick which she promptly dunks in marinara.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Alex leans back against the table, looking over to Connelly. \"I suppose that depends on what you idea of 'safe' is...\" he comments.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "********************************************************************** Penny skinrides Compton at this point. Sad thing is she gets more XP for Comp in one scene than I have. Bitch.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Tom sits without art or technique in an elegantly carved oak chair perilously close to the secret friend whose name he's never known, the girl who has always been here and yet who he has always been unaware of. He puts the briefcase down carelessly - as a result, it topples with a loudish bang - he doesn't even start. He just opens the front of his jacket and slumps, giving himself over to a hyperfocused study of the rose on his table, vibrant and full.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Ryan nods to Millia, motioning toward the now empty passenger's seat as he says with a sly smirk, \"Hop on in. You're lucky, Ted usually doesn't give up the shotgun position without a duel.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Isaac takes another gulp of beer and then dismounts from the stool. He leaves a couple of dollars on the bar and says, \"Take care of yourself.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Jet looks around at Rhiamon's voice and smiles brilliantly! \"Rhia, dahling, so good to see you.\" She heads over toward the Seat of Forces, with a cheery wave for Aaron along the way.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Penny pats the floor \"C'mere,\" the lazy flop of her hand, the boneless gesture of a drug coming on strong \"Come sit with me. Why is she on a barge? I haven't seen that girl in months. What happened?\" She tries to do that thing with her hand again, but only moves her shoulder and elbow - needs the hand to keep her upright.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "\"Free and Easy.\" repeats Dave, smirking in a way that only a monkey can. \"You Twat.\" it adds.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "he extracts the digit; wedging it back into his labcoat pocket. Not much movement;", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Connelly nods...\"Unfortunately, that is true...that is why the Virtual Adepts and Etherites are two of the most important traditions...because they are able to clowly counter the work of science from the Technocracy, with the same subtley the Technocrats used against us. You should not be trying to tear things down...you should be trying to find away to show to the sleepers that live *CAN* be better, more fulfilling by stepping beyond their technological conveniences...", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "\"Look, it's easy to prove,\" Daisy says to Abel, as though explaining simple math to a child. The joint wobbles between her fingers and nearly falls into the pile of cigarettes at her feet. She's nodding as though she agrees. After a moment, she begins in on the explanation:", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Alexandre shifts where he stands next to Rhiamon. Then, he sits down on the ground next to her, crossing his legs. Might be a while.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Mary's also looking serious, wariness and curiosity flaring through her expression as she talks to Penny, leaning forward a little, hands resting on an open sketchpad. The page has only a few lines drawn on it, nothing concrete, and the pencil has been dropped, to lay forgotten next to the pad.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "This chamber used to be vast, even more so than the remains of the hall outside. Amidst all the rubble marring its ancient perfection is an almost perfectly preserved marble table at the head with nine preserved chairs, each with a single, golden Sphere glyph; the remains of what used to be a perfect certamen circle in the center; and the wooden remains of many chairs, now nothing but rotted sticks and boards. A single door and the chamber beyond still stands to the left, glowing a soft gold.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Four in the afternoon on a Monday. The jobless are just waking up and fiending for the first installment of the day's long infusions of precious caffeine. Jesse lets the door swing shut behind him, drifting into the brasserie and glancing about the midafternoon loafers and layabouts. On seeing Compton, he raises a lazy hand, responding to the wave with a peace sign, then gesturing for a cigarette. \"...abiding?\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "All things form a perfect circle, if viewed at a certain resolution. As above, so below.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Compton blinks! Okay, that took him a little off guard, \"Jesus honey? You for real?\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "The flailing limbs and smart remarks give her pause and she stops following. Her expression is not so much defeated or sad... no, it is something more along the lines of disappointed realization. The way one looks when told that their ex-lover is sleeping with their ex-best friend. She turns a little toward the morning traffic and tilts her long neck awkwardly to peer up at a streetlamp. The pour of unnatural light causes her to look ghastly pale.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Chase missed the passing spectral train that was the copper girl. Though he did catch the 'hey', and for a beat his red gaze peels from Vulture. But there's a cigarette to finish, and the last drink of this round. \"If we depended on wacki broads ta keep 'r runnin' round, she woulda stopped first bloody day of the month.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Micah strolls across the street, jaywalking. He dances through the traffic rather gracefully, comming on over to observe the Constable and the Citizin interacting. Micah is a devout Libertarian, and he would hate to see any abuses of power.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "The packet of cigarettes was set down on the bar; Hiro offhandedly swats them down to Compton. \"Why the hell are we in this shithole, anyway?\" he asks.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Penny holds the gun. Safety on. Finger threaded through the trigger and around the handle. Little click.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Abel wanders up the hill to the peak, from the cave beyond. Abel has arrived.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "As you reach the peak of one of the highest hills, you are able to survey the land as the scent of life washes over you. Almost ninety degrees from the hill with the huge, gaping hole, and far off into the distance there is a massive forest, several deer darting into the trees as you spot it, as if sensing your discerning eye. Immediately opposite it is a large body of water, from which the cave stream flows. Ninety degrees from it, directly opposite the cavern entrance, there rests Novus Valnastium, a large stone complex resting atop another hill, one lone tower stretching into the sky above.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Connelly looks at Abel, and shakes her head, No... Not one for partying around mostly people I do not know.... If I were to party.. I would rather have a number of friends there....if that makes sense..\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "\"Til death do us start,\" a cup pressed into Penny's hand out of a thin circle of writhing limbs. She drinks long, her cup fuller than it should be, holding Daisy or holding to Daisy.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Jacob walks out into the busy world leaving the rich aroma of Starbucks behind. Jacob has left. You have just received a +recc from Jacob.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Standingwater pinches the bridge of his sizable nose. \"No point in preaching at her, Jane. She's the type to do it again just to spite you. And though I don't approve of the method, I do applaude the fact that she got out and actually did something. Unlike most of the worthless sacks of shit around here who are too busy fucking or whining to be bothered with accomplishing something.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "The blacklight highlights in her hair, not quite washed out after the last of Kid Sinister's parties, glitter green-gold. The orange and violet and shock-blue buttons on her backpack shine like spotlights. The horn-rims of her glasses glitter with spatters of day-glo orange. Even the spent glowstick dangling from her bag sputters back to life, shining green.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Abruptly this monologue changes. She lets go of the phone and tugs out another cigarette from the depth of a pocket. Doesn't light it, tucks it behind her ear. \"Got a feeling they just don't know. They don't know a lot.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "\"Shudup Jes. You talk too much.\" he says flatly.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Cadence half watches Hiro and Daisy out of the corner of her eye, but replies to Jake, \"I know. I should have spoken with you about it more. I apologize.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Daisy's box contains exactly three things, in fore-to-aft order: a portable speaker (left), one (1) Walkman containing a mix tape courtesy of Hiro, and a portable speaker (right). The latter bears a Ramones sticker, which is the sum total of Daisy's contribution to this idea.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "OOC> Alexandre must crash. Neat stuff. Bye! Alexandre goes home. Alexandre has left.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "\"Riiiiight,\" Daisy says flatly. The expression fades from anger into trademark inscrutability. \"I'll tell you what: I'll see what I can do, but I got to get together the entire College. There ain't no way I'm gonna do freelancing without my homies.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "\"HmmMmMM,\" Hiro spits out, like he's really pleased, interested, fascinated. So much so he crumples the wrapper up and drops it -- complete with overflow ketchup and a couple onion bits -- into Penny's bag. The one she got from that really expensive store. The stuff that's all silky and wrapped in tissue paper. \"You're Mike,\" he accuses.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Penny unhooks the curtain allowing Tal to leave. She stands there a moment, looking over her shoulder. \"It'll do.\" She hangs back and waits a moment, watching the blue light start to flicker across the crowd.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "A rustling then. Of loose fabric. She reappears, tying on a sheet. Horribly emaciated, a lone survivor of some civil unrest. \"Okay?\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "There is a window that overlooks the parking lot on the far side, next to a table with two chairs. Behind the table is the room environmental unit built into the wall, giving you control of the heat and air conditioning.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Of course, there's Penny. Strikingly gaunt and towheaded against the muted mauves. Headphones on her table, jacket slung back across the chair. Scarves of steam rise up from the cup of tea in front of her, a little to the left. Threading her fingers together, she watches Tom-the-antithesis-of-calm with her head canted.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Connelly sighs, and stands up,\"Well.... I see you are young, still motivated by anger rather understanding... Tell, Miss Incrutable, do you have any family you care about? For your sake, I hope the answer is no...because... I have seen first hand what it is like to lose and almost lose someone you care about to terrorism.....", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Old, largely-abandoned factories are set up along the streetside. Development", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Pobble's smile is small and secret, out of view of Lori with her head rested down, formed around the pulling of the last drag on the cigarette. An arm is extended, keeping his back against the booth to stub the butt. Back in his lap, fingertips fidget against the gloves that half cover his hands. \"What's so bad to think about?\" he coaxes softly, sounding concerned.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Alyx shakes her head. \"No....no I think...sleep and company on it's own is fine,\" she sighs, keeling over onto her side and curling up snug.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Compton is lying in the street now, yelling at the tiny girl. Calling her very nasty things and he too is soaked through with a fresh gouge in his forehead. Some sort of papers in hand, Penny gets out of a cab at the corner of Parliament and Front streets bidding the cabbie a cheerful thanks-and-goodbye as she opens up a huge umbrella. There's an incredibly strange air about the woman - happy as a pig in shit.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "The phone makes noises. Like someone pressing buttons repeatedly but in a pattern. Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "bar chairs. Along the wall across from the bar are a few booths. In one", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "[Ed Note: This, of course, is not what I asked for. But hey..]", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Jonah looks satisfied, now that the names come out. He notes them down on paper, briefly, and looks up once more. \"Any other Cabals not mentioned? If not, we shall begin taking the names of those interested in being part of this Chantry who are not part of a Cabal.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Abel is sitting in the Gallery, watching the ruins rebuild themselves curiously. Aaron sits next to him.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Mary steps over close to Catherine, and turns and looks up again, at the sky once more.. she ccan still see it out here, at least, though perhaps not as well. Of course, what 'it' is may be hard to determine.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Isobel looks over as she spots Isaac and just nods. calling to him \"I caught a cab\" then she begins to move through the crowd.. wanting to hear what the coppers had to say", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "There is a certain instinctive response to gunfire, one you don't see in movies. The hard-asses never cringe at the report, at the explosion of cordite, the sharp sound of a bullet ricocheting off of stone, or the zip as it passes through the air.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "\"Neurolinguistic,\" it's amazing Hiro gets that word off, \"programming?\" The question has a hopeful slant to it; he probably wants someone to rant at about 'deep structures'. Daisy thought those were subterranean houses. The blue meanie is nearly decimated, now, anyway; he passes it off to Pobble.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Rhiamon smiles wryly, \"A lot of poeple are saying that. It was kinda we grabbed people who were there..\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "pair of brown leather docksiders. When outside, he wears a large black wool", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "arch any further but it does. She smiles, too, miming Mary's gesture. Penny", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Pobble stands at the edge of the clearing, looking.. well, disgruntled may be a good word for it. Next to him is a 4x4x4' cardboard box that is attached to him by a sturdy peice of string. Atop the box, is a monkey. Its a monkey in a suit, with a cigar, hanging off the edge of the box and hitting the side of it with his feet.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Alex enters the Laboratory from the Main Hall. Alex has arrived.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "You enter the lobby area of the Holiday Inn. Holiday Inn(#2848RnAJ)", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Kaze nods in turn and rises, \"I am Shinketsu Kaze bani Akashic Brotherhood, leader of the Dharma's Tear Cabal.\" he says and takes his seat once more.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Jess smiles brightly to Keene \"Hi.\" she replies as she steps a bit closer to Abel.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "You say, \"Is that who..\" Maybe it's the shoes, but she wobbles and puts her hand on Jesse's arm suddenly, catches herself. \"Don't let him touch you with it,\" a not-whisper. \"Don't go in the bathroom. He keeps it there.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Standingwater shakes his head and sets the beer aside. \"I think I got it all.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Bacon and whiskey, fine company. Even if Hiro isn't a white chic. The awkward", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "\"Huh?\" asks Hiro, the first words he's mumbled since his untimely arrival. He stares blankly in Keene's direction, as if trying to puzzle out his demeanor, and thereby gain insight on the garbled combination of syllables he's distantly managed to make out. \"You want some, or summat?\" he asks, waving the spliff vaguely as he falls into step -- automatically -- beside the teflon-skinned PR flak.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "The man steps back quickly as the locks slip into place on the door as he tries it. His hand slips under his shirt at the back of his pants and pulls out a large handgun, possibly a Desert Eagle or similar. He moves to the side of the door slowly, as if expecting someone to emerge from the door. He makes no other motion, and glances at the other feeds shows that the man seems to be alone.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Jennifer chuckles a little watching now \"Chill man... you will get your caffiene fix. Though I must admit even italians aren't this obnoxious", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Imogen pages: I know some of this will be some OOC info, but here's what's happened from me thusfar Imogen pages: The dismal rain begins to fall from the sky as twilight approaches the city. Within the Shadowlands the terrain is even more bleak as it's tainted with the effects of Oblivion. Through the streets, dreary looking Quick travel as through burdened by the weight of the world on their backs.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Drawing a large hand from the parka's pocket he points westwards, \"Over t-ther by tha u-university.\" he shivers throught the words. \"G-got directions wrong.\" Compton continues to explain, obviously relived that you at least understand him.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Siomen watches in amazement at the scene. all this noise, burning, smoke... and now some fighting. He just shakes his head slightly in wonder.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Jonah looks over to Compton, curiously, while still watching and counting. \"Do you mind if I ask why the Invisible College does not support this?\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Jesse reels faintly, rolling his neck back as though with the force of Akiko's words. His brow furrows, his lips twitching as they sound Akiko's speech out, repeating it to himself, as his shoulders rise and fall, nodding with the rhythm of the phrases. Then he grins, and shakes his head no.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Jake leans against the counter, \"I'm trying to figure out what's the truth of the matter... and the deeper I look, the worse it looks.\" He sighs.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "The phone is muffled for a minute, a waitress in the background taking Penny's order. Bourbon. One of those nights.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "The rage only grows as another step is taken and brows draw together. Lips pull back from teeth far from the color of white in a bitter snarl. \"Get on your knees, fucker.\" The hand is lifted slightly to direct the barrel towards the ground as the phrase is repeated with a harsh jabbing motion, \"On your knees!\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Compton shuffles forward and throws a right aiming to beak Chase on the nose. Pretty good form.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "And on down the line goes the cigarette, Daisy's second cigarette, to Hiro. It slips between the Asian kid's fingers without a word, and she turns back to Penny, chevrons of concern having already formed across her brow.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "\"Oi, 'ets Nazi beer anyway. You don't want that,\" friendly-like, now.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "It's an intercom voice. You know from previous visits that the whole house is wired, all patched into the underground sanctum. \"Tits. 'S open...\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Abel whispers to Aaron, \"... I've... too... hasn't...\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Aftermath... So, I diddn't see any of the sabbat poses but I thought I'd leave 'em in for humor value.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Lori watches you unblinkingly from across the table as you dissect her and try to take her apart and put her back together again. She's fairly used to that kind of thing, but the silence starts getting to her after a while. \"What? What're you thinkin?\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Hiro goes abrubtly and pointedly silent, neither meeting Jonah's gaze nor fixing it upon Jesyca. His attention, instead, drifts off into an idle middle distance; he retracts his hand from his bag, zipping it quietly shut.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Jesse moves pretty fast for .. well for him. He's gone off the block and caught a cab back across town. Penny would do something similar except for her heels. They make the walking slow going, painful to watch her stick in the pavement cracks, narrowly missing sidewalk grates, shaking the odd piece of garbage from underfoot.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Keene walks back to the desk and sits down, putting his hands on his knees. \"We do,\" he says. \"I don't know if it's even too late or not, but we have to do something.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "\"I've heard. I ain't touching it.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "A spoon full of cocaine and Cheerios hovers near Chase's lips. Red eyes look down to his seated guest. \"Wha... No.\" He shakes his head and eats.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Taliesin comes to a halt when Niko addresses him, \"An Adept of Ars Anime? No, I'm afraid not. I've been focusing my studies on the sphere of Prime lately. Why what do you need a Life adept for?\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "\"Television's better'n some alternatives, is all I'm saying.\" Jesse grunts his agreement when Compton re-emerges. \"Yeah. The fuck did happen?\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "[OUT THERE IN THE WAREHOUSE] Alexandre remains in the back, then makes his way towards the front. He accepts a plastic cup that's passed to him, peers at its contents. Sniffs it. Wrinkles his nose, then steps back slightly from the ravers. His left hand, with the cup, drops to his side as he waits.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Alyx slips in quietly behind those who've also come a bit late, walking silently across to the Seat of Entropy and settling into it. Gloved hands settle on the tabletop and she listens to the speakers, trying to get a feel for what's being said.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "on it's heels. She looks past you for a moment at Jacob, an eyebrow arching.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "occasional knife stroked its surface with violence. The felt has so many pills", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "contrast to your first impression of the mall. The patrons are all well", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Sound creeps in at the lower edge of perception; a wash of incomprehensible female vocals, the decibel level of a television in the next room. A beat, irregular and surreal, vibrates at a level more felt than heard.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Catherine You step off the street and into the vacant lot. Catherine has left.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Apparently several minutes later, Daisy reappears, half out of frame, eating a McDonalds cheeseburger in the back of a moving van. The camera is focused out the window. Time passes. All hell breaks loose.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Compton mutters to Keene, \"... don't think he... what...\" You whisper \"Slow going, don't think he gives a rat's ass what we do.\" to Keene.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Jonah shakes his head, \"No. It will be possible to hold a meeting, but only if that signifigant majority is met. As long as at least two-thirds of the members are present, meetings shall be held. In cases of less than two-thirds yet not less than half, a Council Moderator may hold a meeting and cast a vote, then subsequently send missing Council members a declaration of the vote, explaining the topic and allowing them to cast their vote directly to the Moderator and one other, with the results declared at the next meeting.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Alexandre watches you for a few moments, watching you get riled up. Doesn't say anything for a few more moments, then says, \"I suggested you lay down. You chose to insult me. If you could mistake that for love, you are more drunk than I thought.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "beyond. Novus Valnastium -- Workspace", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Pobble smirks, \"From what I gather you're having a hard time of that so it can't be that simple.\" He shrugs, lazily leaning back against the booth. \"I'm not assuming anything, that always spoils the surprises.\" His finger curls around the stem of the glass, wrist resting on the edge of the table.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "beverages. The crowded dance floor in the middle of the bar is always full of", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Total cost? Fifty-five dollars.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Jonah just ignores this, noting down what he must, then moving on. \"Last at the table is the Seat of Entropy.\" He looks up to Miss Davian.\" -\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Nonchalantly, Penny observes of the door hitting Akiko's ass on the way out \"Well that was ..fun.\" A puss a sour turn, a drop in the corner of her mouth where there was the curbed mark of a grin just a moment ago. To her collegues she sighs, flicks a butt off to the side and gestures for another \"What the fuck are we /doing/ here?\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "> Yeow!\" Compton screams, \"Fucker bit me!\" as he sits back holding his tender mit.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Sacha walks in. It's been a loong time since he's been seen around here. Not since almost getting into another fight with some random person over shit and other shit. The tattooed man heads towards the bar nodding to the bartender looking for familiar faces.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "It's a pleasant walk from Union Station and the lake is gorgeous. Tom is back in Toronto after his prolonged absence fighting the good fight on the island of Rhodes where against some incredible Globalization-Struggle-Rioting backdrop he did do ferocious battle against some hidden conspiracy of Nazi financiers/media conglomerate owners wherein he defeated, once more, the excesses of the foul advertising industry coupled with the unthinking excesses of global money-power, in so doing, vindicating the righteous power of the mass media to do good and righteous service to the global citizens of Starship Earth...", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Penny thumbs off Daisy's microphone before she drops it and feedbacks the whole sound system. When it does fall, it goes unnoticed kicked underfoot with other empty cups. The swaying masses start moving faster and faster syncing up and out of time with the beats-per-second thumping out across the warehouse.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Alexander opens the padded door and enters the pub. Alexander has arrived.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "A shadow of a shadow, Penny's form diminshes. Moving toward the vanishing point between the tall grasses and the crater's edge, not even her path remains - swaying reeds that part and bend so easily snap back to their own form.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "cameras in my.. nose. You fuckers won't take me.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "tan suffered in the desert, a tan that is beginning to peel away. Dead white", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "Keene gets a feeling of imminent doom. Such a feeling is common whenever Pobble starts talking about what Keene has broadly categorized as `British Isles issues' in his presence. This is, unfortunately, one of the areas where his immense powers of persuasion simply find no purchase. Not that he hasn't *tried*...", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "floor itself is scuffed and worn bare from all the dancing feet. Everyone in", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog11518", "text": "For a total of 0 success(es). Antigone arches a brow at Seth, leaning slightly back in her chair as the pair contiunes to speak. She gestures absently toward him with her empty beer, and then looks about for the bartender.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog25872", "text": "Afterwards, walked to bus stop w/ Mike and Dan, and then headed home. Stopped at the park to play ball w/ Dominik and Ryan for a bit. Wow I'm horrible still haha.....plus I was starving lol. So played for about.....20 minutes or so then headed home.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog25872", "text": "lol jokes. But yeah we started breaking that down, then we went into more detail about if grill was an exponent like the following:", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog25872", "text": "Oh yes and I have yet to discover another talent of mine. The water noise I can make w/ my mouth *for those that know what I mean* I can make it hitting the top of my head. Works sometimes. At other times it just hurts *ow.*", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog25872", "text": "Oh yeah during the game I got a phone call from Mike...... They were at the UCC. Great. Right when I leave they arrive. I would later find out that when I got", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog25872", "text": "Then programming. spent 50 minutes making ONE IMAGE! I TRULY DESPISE *hate is a bit harsh* ADOBE ELEMENTS! JUST BUY PHOTOSHOP YA CHEAP SCHOOL! Well at least I finished it.....and now I gotta work on the rest of my stupid Hyperstudio project.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog25872", "text": "Final descision: Can't go to Semi. And It's Marcello's Birthday.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog25872", "text": "there does let you forsee the future... I mean even in the Bible Joseph did with the famine in Egypt back in the book of Genesis. Well we got to the public school finally.....and warmed up....", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog25872", "text": "And now I go. Bye.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog25872", "text": "Now I'm gonna sleep.....tomorrow I have to study at 9 @ library. Cya. And of course do my science exam.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog25872", "text": "yes.......probably biggest blonde moment on this vacation lol. Amazed it happened in the aftermath of TC. Also sadly Josh was the one that explained it and he's been livin' the least amount of time in London and knows more than Gavin lol.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog25872", "text": "WEST BEATS EAST! And I am very sleep deprived.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog25872", "text": "I never knew that snowboards worked as well as it did today with Candle Wax. I spent around 40 mins cleaning and waxing my board.....then scrounged around for my snowboarding stuff. It actually took me almost two hours to be able to find everything. In the end I made it to Marcello's house around 4ish or so. While at home though I drummed for a bit, watched TV, surfed internet....then left.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog25872", "text": "Not too exciting....but on Saturday i'll have a blog for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. So yeah that will have to be summarized lol. But yeah. I'm kinda lazy today so this is my blog. *Poink*", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog25872", "text": "Hehe kinda funny.....yeah I bet you recognize that slogan.... Sprite? Now ring a bell? Well yeah I was watching that commercial yesterday....and something pretty funny just popped in my head....the slogan can almost seem to fit for Christianity haha.....", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog25872", "text": "time spent in different cell division phases. Oh yeah and a few multi choice too, but wasn't too worried about that. And now to english.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog25872", "text": "Well when I got home...... I drummed for an hour then watched TV. Then slept.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog25872", "text": "ONE MORE WEEK TILL HUNTSVILLE! YAY! And a month or so until TC", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog25872", "text": "Well yeah today was pretty short. From 5-7 it was SC. Then eating. And Now I go do h/w.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog25872", "text": "Anyways............got home and went straight to bed. So friggin tired these last few days.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog25872", "text": "OK.....well after TC 2004....you know....especially this year as I had mentioned before I feel re-dedicated and refreshed. God already showed me so much this week. I'll basically go straight into the whole \"Spiritual Hat-Trick\" in a moment.....but today was just so spiritually amazing. No wait....correction that this WEEK has just been.....so powerful. I was gonna say weird but earlier when I was talkin' to my dad he used the word \"powerful,\" which I find MUCH more appropriate.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog25872", "text": "So yeah just made it into history on time. One of the guidance councellors came in and talked about how basically the descisions we make this year affect us a lot. Could almost screw your life over. Great message.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog25872", "text": "But yeah it is upsetting how everyone had so much hope *I mean even I had thought they'd have a chance of finding her* but after today...that candle flame has just burned out. May her spirit be with the God Almighty now.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog25872", "text": "And Now I'm home. Typing, SC.....and now haircut ^_^. So people for now I'm out. Later =P.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog25872", "text": "This morning was really retarted. Mr. Clark decided that he'd move band from Wednesday to Monday.........wow and after watching some of the all star game *where the west beat east* and washing the dishes from yesterday having people over.......i was just a WEE bit tired. So yeah band was pretty boring.....played songs and stuff. Mr. Clark passed around this piece of paper for us to put down our snowboarding/skiing skills. That was basically it I was VERY tired.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog25872", "text": "YAY! I got to the place around 3, and picked it up. Boxes for these things are so small compared to CRT ones. It was like a briefcase. Well anyways yeah after that I got home.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog25872", "text": "I WAS going to wake up at 9 and practice piano for 2 hours to cram in some time so my teacher wouldn't kill me, but I decided to hit the snooze button and wake up at 10. Smart=P. Well anyways I ended up playing for an hour and 5 minutes, then ate some pizza *nutritious breakfast eh?,* Jason then called me and I told him to come over at 1, and then headed for piano lessons.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog25872", "text": "First off I'm surprised at the hits I've got from my Huntsville blog. Turns out people do look at my site when something exciting happens in my life =P. It went up almost 150 from before the post....that was pretty interesting to see. And apparently lots of people from school read my amazingly amazing blog =P. I told you guys the blog would be", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog25872", "text": "When I got home today..... Ugh shoveling the stupid snow. Well that kileld bout 30 mins, then came in and ate some stuff. Mmmmmm..........peanut butter sandwhich.............dunno why but I've got hooked on that stuff lately. Well yah after that I kinda napped for a bit.....got really bored.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog25872", "text": "to home to eat. Oh yeah on a side note.....bumped into Paul Nielsen today. Weird.....never expected to see anyone from London. Crazy how I saw him in a city of 5,000,000+ people. Said our heys then kinda left, since I think he was catching a train and I was trying to run back to Gavin Josh and Dave.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog25872", "text": "You can tell when I start to run out of blog titles lol. Coming up with titles like ONLY THIS AMOUNT OF TIME LEFT UNTIL THIS HAPPENS! But anyways........it won't stop me from blogging about my day =P. So Start reading!", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog25872", "text": "Anyways...... I'm getting terribly lazy about writing emails.......well the memories of 2003 and well the first 4 days of 2004 where there was no school will be in my head for a while.......obviously not forever I mean seriously my long term memory isn't even good enough to remember that \"But how the heck can I remember the times tables?\" Write more tomorrow. *Ponk*", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog25872", "text": "Well the crews eliminated did get bumper stickers lol. The First place Cash prize was 130 and 2nd was 50. There were also prizes for hats n' T-shirts. Steve got a hat. Lucky Kid.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog25872", "text": "Same for science. All I remember is some lab testing acceleration.....and then spent 40 minutes chatting about random stuff. Oh yeah Rhoden sang the element song since Mr. Curphey got pissed off at him.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog25872", "text": "BORING. ROMEO AND JULIET=BORING. And to after school.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog25872", "text": "Oh yeah today I really felt the crapiness of Fido phones. I was outside w/ reception and for some reason I couldn't Call ANYONE. Anyways back to the day......", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog25872", "text": "10k handy so no. Anyways after playing some DDR, and watching some white kid suck at it lol I got a ride from Jason to my house.....where I'd find out I'm the only one home. Not much to do at 10pm though.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog25872", "text": "-Came home around 5 -Slept till 7 -Did stuff -Shoveled driveway from 8-9:30 -Ate -Did last 10% of driveway end (Stupid packing snow) -Practiced Trombone -Now I sleep. Bye.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog25872", "text": "Well since my music exam wasn't until 2, I slept in till 11. Actually originally my plan was to sleep until 9 and practice but screw that I thought, which I now regret. I ate, played a wee", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog25872", "text": "tomorrow and I don't wanna fall asleep on my way down the bunny hill. Cya.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog25872", "text": "But yeah now I'm sitting here, blogging, and doin h/w. Gotta sleep for tomorrow. Tired. Cya.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog25872", "text": "HUNTSVILLE WAS AWESOME!HYPE SLEEPOVER WAS AWESOME! WATCHING HAMMOND SUFFER ON THE SKI SLOPES WAS AWESOME!", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog25872", "text": "*Insert Birthday song here.* Yeah it was nice to have a day of eating.... I mean honestly, what could beat a day of worship @ church, class w/ Brian, NFL street, Wendy's B-day, 50 pounds of meat AND the NBA All-Star game?! All that except game 7 of Stanley Cup finals maybe =P. But it was a really packed day....so packed I forgot lunch and my afternoon nap I was planning...being delayed and omitted by NFL street. Good reason at least.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog25872", "text": "Well our plan to wake up at 10 kinda got scrapped when no one cared about the alarm clock and headed straight for bed for another hour. So yeah nothing from there till then =P.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog25872", "text": "Well I'm out. Later.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog25872", "text": "GETTING MY LCD MONITOR!!!!!^_^", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog25872", "text": "I thought I'd head back to the room though....since I was kinda tired.... I decided to play some DDR while waiting for Thompson since he was there too getting stuff for skating. Well I decided to stay there for a bit afterwards though since Lindsay and her posse kinda invaded my room lol. So we ended up playing some PS2, DDR mostly, and then chatted for a bit. I seem to be the only person in Gr.10 music that understands the game lol. Well maybe if I stop by Masonville I'll be able to play sometime^_^.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog25872", "text": "\"Everyone put an X @ da beginnin of ur name to pay respect to Cecillia Zhang whos body was found in a Missisauga Ravine earlier yesterday morning. Pass this on to every1 on your list\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog25872", "text": "Hehe......well my plan to blog earlier yesterday was pretty stupid. I now remember why I don't blog until my whole day has passed hehe. Well I'm first gonna blog about what happened yesterday AFTER my blog post went up.....as one of the weirdest things ever came up. Well not weird exactly.....but more of like....cool actually...", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog25872", "text": "Well yeah now I'm home....nothin' much happened as you can see today. Well least my bio presentation went well. I seem to pray a lot more than before now though ever since my Gr. 10 year started....and so far it's been doing", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog25872", "text": "Image is Nothing... Thirst is everything. Obey your Thirst", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog25872", "text": "Before I say anything else, I'm happy to see people blogging again! I mean during the school weeks, it was sometimes a bore at night....which is almost perfect", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog25872", "text": "After coming back from that canvassing....... I went to drum for a bit.... Hmm since one of my toms is broken decided to do a new drum layout. instead of 5-piece I do 4-piece set. Snare, tom, floor tom, and bass. So far....it's not bad. In fact I kinda like it ^_^", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog25872", "text": "After he left.....well dat was basically the end of my day.......played some SC, and now im gonna sleep. Geez blogs take so much time....and also so much brainpower to think.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog25872", "text": "Lunch........crammed for bio w/ Tehm, Rachel and Underhill. Circulatory system is VERY retarted, especially when you have Ms. Wiener as a teacher. She's more useless than the textbook put it that way. Anyways yeah we crammed for the whole lunch which was only 45 minutes since its Early Dismissal today. So now....time for..........", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog25872", "text": "TEST! Weather test. So dumb, but at least it was open book. I got most of the stuff done in a bout 30 mins or so, really short test. After that our class then watched a video on El Nino the hurricane.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog25872", "text": "Science......notes notes and more notes. Fake quiz on first day...which was really lame of Mr. Curphey to do. HA HE'S LAME AND THAT'S LAME......shut up.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog25872", "text": "So now....... I must go. But before that............. Hmmm....... To go to the DDR competition? Or not? HMMMMMMM.......................... I'll decide later =P. Cya.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog25872", "text": "YAY LUNCH! Today I finally convinced Mophead *Thompson* and Nate to go to Jasper's. Unfortunately Thompson hates it already cuz he got the same thing I got", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog25872", "text": "So what am I going to do now? Might go do something w/ Paul and Colin later, or just mope around here....waiting for what tomorrow has to offer for me hehe. *Yawn* Maybe I'll go sleep.....this week has been one LONG week.....and sleep looks VERY tempting hehe. Later.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog25872", "text": "Yes....the workshop that I ended up in somehow was #19 which is a two day track. \"Give me Oil in my Lamp\" is the title, and basically the workshop was to help us put our Christian lives back on track, which I really needed. Heh funny though.....didn't think I'd know anyone until I started passing out books that I noticed someone:", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "\"It was like the last time... I mean like last year...\" she said, letting out another smoky exhale, \"But I know if I let it happen again, it will be the end of me.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": ".. Today, I welcomed the first snowfall in Ponderland with open arms. I am sure many people out there who live in this city is cursing and longing for summer already. Well... Just as I longed for this day for almost a year.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "The earliest memory that I possess regarding my childhood is me polishing my nails. For some reason, it was not opposed by my parents who probably thought that it was a childish caprice on my part. Yet, I somehow remember that my father took me out while I still had that polish on my tiny nails and visiting the studio of his actor friend who was really famous in Ponderland during 70s. The caption I have from that visit is me sitting on my dad's lap and the guy telling me something about my nails. I really can't make out what is it, though.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "\"Mm.. hello young lady\" was the awaited response followed by a smile that said \"since you are in this building and casual enough to fight with your hair in the middle of the first floor then I should know you but I so not\". I was extremely used to his utterly temporal memory so we went over this every time and could never took a step further than the introduction. Usually, I am an elder's beloved... so as long as they can still spread their World War I reminiscences and/or wear hats with matching gloves. When we first moved in with my Granny, he continuously mistook me for the ex beauty queen living at # 12 whose pre-menopausal craze lead her to wear skin tight tops with stretch jeans. Needless to say I wasn't feeling complimented.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "A vision of impending doom which may not be the reality. The card of sleepless nights.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "\"Fine fine... mmm... yeah.\" Glad to hear that you are still so exhaustingly monosyllabic at times also.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "It was I who had entered the dark waters at first place and stirring them with my subconscious seduction, caused a whirlpool which sucked both myself and Gambit in as it drifted us half drowned into different directions. I rarely saw him throughout the seemingly freewheeling days and lonesome nights. The house where he had disclosed his most genuine feelings to me looked so corrupted now as I passed it by a few times each and every day. Whether it was simply hormones or not, my intuition told me you could only remain strangers if you slept with someone once.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "Wrong, love.. He endures the pain of living in the middle of nowhere for the bliss of living in a triplex.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "The second myth of Aura is the one I truly love, indeed. According to some, Aura is the Goddess of the morning breeze. A corresponding myth describes her as being the daughter of Boreas (North Wind). Some say she is the daughter of Aiolus, King of Winds. She is often depicted riding upon a flying Swan.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "\"What about tomorrow?\" My entire being rioted and held up a banner that went \"Life is precious!\" then again, something in his voice sounded so sincere, so regretfully naive and undergoing", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "Cupping my cheeks with both hands, my dad posed a proud smile as he looked into my eyes, \"You are a very beautiful girl, you know.\" Taking a step back, he narrowed his eyes and nodded to nail his statement; a vague attempt to shift my mood as the gesture implied that he meant what he had said. I smiled slightly and turned around to keep on stuffing my bag with all the unnecessarities of feminine baggage as if what mattered to me the most at the moment was making sure I had my lip gloss and cleenex with me. Sighing, he turned around and uttered a, \"Well I guess you're unaware of that, though.\" before stepping out and leaving a me with a you-bet expression behind.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "As a favored son of Helios, he was a man of courtesy and composure. But his past wound made him close his mind. But he becomes to change through lots of experience as a leader of the 7th squad.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "After an enjoyable 30 minutes, I wished them both good luck, went back to my translation while they headed for the airport. I was to meet Angel in a few hours and we were going to have a \"roof session\" so I didn't have enough time to finish the translation. Hell with it! I was distracted, anyway.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "\"I was turned down gracefully. Anyway, are you or aren't you getting it?\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "...whereas someone else in my shoes would have drooled a pool in front of her and let him know about it. I mean yes that is not a way to hit off a conversation with someone, anyway but mine is not, either.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "It was too hard not to cry right there, right then. However both of us knew that a tear would mean his victory in this game that I had started a year ago. \"I don't like being silent.\" I said.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "I closed my eyes slightly then re-opened them to see the shadow of Gambit sitting on the sand a little away. \"Yes\" I said weakly before exhaling the smoke \"Some things change.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "-On Friday, I guess. Why?", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "\"No more the lost childhood, younghood! No more keeping your chin up because you", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "R E L A X !?!?", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "It was so much more than I could ever imagine that I hugged him, cried in his arms some more and inhaled his scent deep as I wetted his skin with my teardrops. I was feeling exhausted because of the sudden burden lift over my shoulders so he dropped me back home, stroke my cheek slightly before I got out of the car, closed the door and watched him drive back.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "\"Hello, Miles.\" I mumbled, my shame for being ashamed in the first place giving way to ruefulness this time. \"What was it?\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "\"Hello in there. Hello\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "~... imagined that I would find myself lost in 19th century London once again, wearing \"a simple bonnet in pale grey and a loose woolen dress in the same color, a lace fichu lying over\" my \"shoulders and tied in a knot over\" my \"bosom\" while filling the shoes of Maria Clementi, a mute opera singer, this time? The fog-clad streets and the loom wafting in the Winter air outside complementing my miserable efforts to be able to speak again as the", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "I was still amazed by this all and asked about the details of the business as we went on having lunch. Then we switched to gossiping about acquaintances and he cracked me up with his recent Japanese horror film experience. Somehow, I then found myself talking about my online diary and how it was selected as one of", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "\"It was my pleasure.\", I said (which was an understatement on my part when my gratitude for his presence in my life was considered) and turned away when he hesitantly if not shyly said, \"Would you.... again?\" I looked at him over my shoulder, nodded and slipped my hands into my jacket pockets when he restarted the song...", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "Estell still has a good heart and her involvement with the terrorist group is done in good intentions for her home country. Estell even becomes an adoptive mother-figure to a lost boy named Tristan.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "Unbeter's memory is then transferred into an object he had (known as an Emblem, an Emblem takes many forms, and, in the story, you see it as Calintz' necklace as well as Juclecia's held adorment), which then transferrs into Tristan. Young Tristan's persona becomes foggy, in the confusion he runs away from the scene, and then passes out. Helios Ryuad Rune Sirat (The King of Sirat and Tristan's real grandfather on his mother's side) who witnesses the incident, takes him under his wing, and raises him as his own son. Helios has a liking towards Tristan's amazing sword skills and wants him to succeed him as King of Sirat.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "Since my mother passed away on December 23rd, 1993, New Year Eves still give me a sense of nostalgia somewhat. Not a miserable state of the mind since pain subsides in time. That and human beings do get used to anything and everything. What remains is a minute or so of sad smile accompanied by a distant stare as the sorrowful anniversaries arrive. Then you return to the present with the speed of light and proceed.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "He, who is oddly dressed like his nickname, was famous to everybody as the leader of Scaramouch. Known that he comes from the slums, he was badly antipathetic toward the nobles. People say that he came to Schwarz under a certain secret contract by taking advantage of his weak points..", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "\"Why is it that every time we meet I find myself underslept, wavering between a cup of tea and a bottle of foundation?\" I murmured as I laid my umbrella on the elegant table alongside my bag.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "\"Right. I see you're fine\", she sipped her filtered coffee and flipped a blonde lock over her shoulder.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "HS: Te hee. We do a moustache too? *shakes a spray paint can* Suits the theme... whaddaya thing?", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "\"Same. I was leading an anti-social life if you believe that.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "I think I was a girl but I couldn't talk about it to anyone. If my father heard about it, he might have had another stroke and died... and God forbid if my mother heard about it. She would probably turn back to those violent days and beat me to death...", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "...and unfortunately they almost always took the easiest path. They abandoned.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "Hell no, Gambit! Feel sorry about this all you want. Pity turns me on!", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "Life goes on for the both of them... The adjustability of the human psyche runs to aid. Except during those times when a time of the year or a moment carries along a memory which has a special meaning just for these two arrives.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "I woke up with dried tears on my cheeks as I despised every second of misery I had been going through within my unconscious. Deep inside, I was stuffed with more tears to come yet I gulped them down no matter how much I needed to spill those offspring of personal sadness upon my pillow. Every single one of those drops is priceless since I, with a clear conscious, can say that I have never ever shed", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "Somewhere out there there must be a boy for this girl Could be anywhere Could be next door or the other side of the world. Call up my radio, give them my number Tell them to put it out on the air! There must be someone, There must be someone like me sitting lonely as a boat out there.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "Effect: People rushed into the bathroom screaming .:. I rushed out of the bathroom screaming.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "I will not be as bold as to stand up and say \"I don't trust in anyone who works in an environment that needs antiseptics\" but it is close. Very close. I saw doctors misdiagnose my mother THRICE which led to mistreatment which led to her death.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "welcome me?... and that for the very first time, not giving a damn to how it would seem, I stood under it, my face raised towards the darkened sky and let the raindrops wash away the imbroglio between the Fates and I as I undid my drenched hair so that it fell tangled all over my face. Having made certain that no charted territory of my skin was left unrained, I went back inside trembling as I changed. I knew that no towel could dry the wetness or warm the afterchill.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "\"So how was life this last year?\" he asked after I lit my cigarette with his lighter.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "(PS: That was some confession which can potentially be used against me in the future by my friends, you know.*sighs*)", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "I am not that Polyanna enough to think that there are people out there who have never talked behind me. That include my friends, just acquaintances, those who just know about my past but never knew the real me etc. I lived in the form of a boy for 22 years and then stood up and altered everything about me altogether. That fact alone is trash material for anyone who wishes to improvise on it. Then again, I seriously don't think that the outcome of even such idiocy could reach the degree I eavesdropped today.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "That night the gang's plans were to go out clubbing and instead of sitting alone at home and worrying myself to the bone, I got ready and headed to the beach before everyone else. Sighing, I leaned against the garden walls of a villa on the shore and lit up a cigarette. It was a most serene night accompanied by a crescent moon alongside the rhythmic symphony of the waves breaking with a crescendo and retreating with a decrescendo.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "Then fate decides to challenge this togetherness and sets the best friends apart geographically. One remains behind and the other crosses cities, a continent, then an ocean and lands on the other side of the globe while the other waves her goodbye and tries to stand on her ground in her absence.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "Not only it was reasonable but it was actually very sensible and kind which should have meant something very special to me. But oh no!... Per usual, I was lost in my own maze of totally unrelated thoughts and was screwing up my system with unnecessary mental drama. Yet, this moment of enlightenment seemed a little too late since, by the look of it, he was already in the fling list of more than a few, enjoying and laughing the night away. It was just the right time for an alien invasion so that I could leave the scene without drawing attention to bury myself in shame and self-pity.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "Little Red Riding Hood \" for me and me only and demanded you told it to me every night when I was a child. You were the one who tried to run to my side when I got attacked on the way home by a purse-snatcher and luckily escaped with only a swollen scratch on my cheek. Everyone else blamed me for being on the streets at 9 pm and thought that I \"deserved it\" and that it would be a lesson for me while I shivered with fear and was crying uncontrollably and heard your faint voice said, \"I will go and see if she needs anything\" (But dad stopped you, didn't he? And you came into my Cocoon first thing in the morning... you hugged me so tight and cried as you touched the wound on my face... and you moaned \"How could they do it to you, my baby?!\").", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "And as I sat there on the bed, clad in my bathrobe, plugging my ears, trying to be as deafened as possible towards the rage that was growing in the living room, I missed you, Grandmother. You who was always degraded and ignored by those that you gave yourself to.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "I have been feeling exhaustingly sick these last two days.. I woke up suddenly early Monday morning and could barely have time to make it to the bathroom to throw my dinner up. It was nearing 5 am, all dark and nothing was audible apart from my uncle's snoring (storming). I felt thankful for it since I didn't want to wake anyone up so I sat there on the ground, randomly effected by a reflexive cramp which caused me to double over in pain and retch. Having left anything but bile to deliver into the toilet, I leaned my forehead on the edge of the bath tub and waited for the palpitations to subside...", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "Mrs. Rose was bringing my cake in the meantime and saying, \"Ah what a lovely sight, darling. Old friends coming together again. You know what is the best?\" She placed the plate on the table and sighed, \"The fact that thousands of things change yet some things always remain the same. Memories of good-old times are one of them.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "She moaned and raised, sitting cross-legged on the sand. Taking a handful, she let the particles flow between her fingers, \"I wish I could sneak into his mind... No not even that! I wish I could just take a peek.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "Millers are ready my delicious other. Your unavailability does not mean you are absent from my side. Thus, my longing has nothing to with grief. Just like every year, I will be double celebrating the coming day...", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "Hanging up, I leaned over and rest my forehead on the table, totally forgetting about the conversation while doing so. I don't know how I fell asleep there but I jerked with the touch of a hand on my shoulder, \"What are you doing here?\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "Who do you think you are to patronize my life!?", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "As my life was gaining momentum, my relationship with my family (ie. Granmother and dad) was going down the hill. My father had never supported my extreme zealousy for center stage and although he saw my talent, he believed that all I had was a fertile land which needed to be cultivated. He drew the line once by going, \"Whatever you sing, I don't care. If it's music you're after, you should have chosen conservatory instead of an academic degree.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "Casserole. Your drum roll. Your trompe l'oeil", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "\"Oh.. I see... well how are you then?\" That really wasn't a very skillful attempt of continuity but I hadn't used up my forbearance just yet.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "\"I know, beautiful. I know.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "\"Oh well...\" she retorted and literally fell down next to me, her chest heaving either from the best of physical exercises, ie. sandwalking, she had been through or from the anxiety that engulfed her. I waited for a moment so that partial calmness is recaptured before clearing my throat.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "Trembling hands found the pills... clumsily, she took out one... dropped it... took another out... no two out... she swallowed them dry. The hands on her neck strangled her. The voice in her head started resounding... Resounding across a possible defeat now that she received a chemical back up in the war.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "The sound of boiling tea running over from the edges of the pot and hissing against the cookstone called me back to the \"actual\" reality. Washing the tea cups and picking them up with one hand while I carried the tea pot with the other, I headed back towards the dining room (where my father sleeps on a sofa) and placed them on the table before I turned around and went out to fetch the rest of the breakfast from the fridge. When I returned, my father was drying his face with his towel hanging from the back of a chair. We sat silently and I didn't hear him talking to me until he raised his voice a little, asking me, \"What's the matter beautiful?\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "...and such courage is so rare a find (especially in such a good looking form) that it is worth admiration. Nevertheless, they are never single. So the fluids are halted midway, the line is drawn after the initial, impulsive reaction subsides, a friendly, safe smile is placed on the lips and the background theme that goes,", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "Anyway, as I stepped inside the house everyone gave this big, wild, surprised cheer that I was expecting them to give and yes it was caused deliberately on my part to make the owner of the house see how adorable a friend I was and how pathetic it would be to loose someone like me altogether (When I'm game, I'm game to the bone. I do what it takes to trigger all the right strings).", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "HS II: And GOOGLE, honey GOOGLE! -adding the ads- We don't rank you first at search results for nothing, do we, love?", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "I got dressed with shaky legs while I experienced the first striking fear which disabled me from keeping my calm. I curled up under covers, wettening my pillow all the while, and sobbed the afternoon away until I fell asleep.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "Excess emotionality. Not recommended for people with low EQ levels and/or patience. Be warned and read at your own risk.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "\"... I'm sorry.. I just...\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "Softly we finished and people around us started clapping, cheering while I saw many, tossing coins into his box... I smiled to him, took my purse out and was going to do the same when he reached over and stopped me. His wrinkled eyes were sparkling when he said with a coarse voice, \"Don't.... You gave me the best of tithes already.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "He was cute. Really cute. If only seemingly mature guys my age could be as open as he was and he was not as open all the time. It really hurt to retort a, \"Like you did for more than a year.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "*She waits for that move in vain while the guy finds herself a girl and thinks, \"Alright so I didn't say goodbye to the other one. I can go back to her if things go awry or if one day I change my mind and focus on/give a second chance to her.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "She usually shouts and laughs at older people, so some say she is pretentious, but this imposing attitude comes from her past experience. Ruchielu is the name she received after she was adopted to the Deskralda family but she prefers 'Chelsea'.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "Another thing that fits today's title is a thing I did again. I have been a member of", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "Frowning slightly, I halted at the corner to enable the violinist to start my day, accordingly. Maybe I was late... maybe he was early... for all I received were the hurried footsteps of wintered pedestrians and the sound of cold wind urging me onwards to pursue my day and leave moments of dramatic longings be...", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "Love spread all over me, I went into the bathroom and started combing my hair while my mind was still somewhere between ceiling-to-floor silk curtains and golden taps with matching lavatory bowls. When I turned back to the moment, I was left with an inevitably aching scalp. Making a face, I sprayed an adequate amount of Burberry Classic inside the elbows and behind the ears.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "*If that wasn't enough (very impressed by a comment in Bridget's Diary) I decided that not reading the original book before seeing a movie adaptation is a sin. Thus, I am trying to finish Return of the King day in day out. Last night, I thought I saw a hobbit peeking at me as I took a shower. Sad, really.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "\"Well well, lovedy. You are fighting, in vain. Why the fighting, anyway? Can't you see how easy it is to take a little step sideways? Can't you see how everything will come to an end smoothly if you let one foot slip from that thin rope you have been walking on?\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "Taking that problem aside, I asked myself if a daughter can rely upon her father on such compliments anyway After all, it's his casual paternal tripping to see me forever as a youngster (which helps at times when one nears 30) and beautiful. I have concerns about my outlook as much as every female and being the perfectionist I am, unless one day I manage to stop the traffic as I gracefully pass the street, I will never be totally convinced that I am a good looking human being unless after those rare moments when I am pampered by a facial or straight out of the hairdresser or all waxed up and ready to show off those legs with a micro skirt.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "Overall: 2 out of 5, ie. Failed!", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "It takes a lot of time to be best friends.... years of laughter sharing, tear shedding, misunderstanding and chilling out together. Also countless hours of video games, movies, conversing, cooking, searching, giggling, gossiping, singing, drinking, writing, reading, experiencing, experimenting, loosing, winning, searching hope, finding hope, getting angry with hope, killing hope, pitying then resurrecting hope, looking for what to do with hope, deciding not to do anything with hope but end up doing everything together.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "My self-awareness degree has always been very high and I know that for me, singing and being a part of the stage or in front of the camera were never due to one form of narcissm or another. It was something rooted much deeper, a la the craving to be appreciated, to be welcomed, to be confirmed and to be accepted via a genuine part of myself.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "...for nothing can save me from your ablaze... from the deepest shallows of your incarcerating embrace that reaches me through the depths of these nocturnal sheets... Hearing my call, you arouse from the crystalline dew of intimacy... sending all the right sprays to the shore of an aspirated dream... in your veiled quiteness... disavowing resistance in this sanctum disguised as a mythical sequence.. within this carnal beat,", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "*8 days and I'm still not smoking. The thing is, it really seems I managed to quit this time.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "And I was told this and took a second look at them to enable missing pieces to complete the puzzle just as it was our turn on stage. I still remember the roar of the applause lucidly... the unnatural heat caused by various spotlights... the first note of \"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "When Avarel arrived and the warm up was done, he examined a pile of sheets indifferently and came up with a \"What were we to do today?\" Thinking he darn knew what was in line and was just faking this attitude deliberately, I sighed slightly and craved for shoving that apathy in his face as soon as possible. A baritone raised his voice going, \"Long Train Running!\" and Avarel nodded as if he'd just remembered... \"So..\" he began turning to me \"Shall we?\" He pointed everyone to take their seats and pointed with a grin at the podium the piano was upon.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "I saw a sparkle of amusement in her eyes while we heard the \"Aura!\" of Mrs. Rose chiming among the walls as she was approaching us.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "And just as I reached my early teens, my father had his first heart attack. Being only 11, I was now facing the fact that life was not all about endurance. He survived the attack yet the seed of fear was buried in my soul already.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30102", "text": "*Looking at a few other diaries, I feel so ashamed. Everyone seem so globally aware and responsible. Saddam Hussein's capture is the talk of the day but here I am trying to plot my way into my present in a horribly prolonged sense.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "I do want to introduce the concept of varying amounts of calories over the course of the week or month. Something the person said on the website is that it doesn't make a difference what you eat in a single meal. It makes a difference what you eat over 21 days. So that's another good reason to not freak out at one or two days over the goal calories. As long as you get back on, it probably does better in the long run.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "It's half as much as the food I ate during the entire day. Third, the alcohol is increasing my carbs with the wrong kind, namely sugar, instead of fiber.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "We're planning on doing the kitchen floor today. That will be a huge amount of work, but I'm really looking forward to it. Bucko is less enthusiastic", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "7:40 p.m. Delicious dinner -- shrimp on lettuce salad, with mango and cherry tomatoes, and a side of sliced cucumber and radish and one of steamed carrots.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "I don't know. Just one of those things. At any rate, it's a pleasant place to be, so I can't complain, and I had only two vodka and sodas, so my total yesterday was 2137. Not good, but not a major, diet-ruining excess either (I shoot for between 1300 and 1800).", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "I want to address an open letter to people who drive dangerously. Let me first define what dangerous driving is: driving too fast for conditions, driving significantly faster than the posted speed limit, weaving in and out of traffic, running red lights or stop signs, making unsignalled lane changes and turns, passing in no-passing zones, tailgating, and throwing your car in reverse and shooting out of your parking space before you bother to look in the rear view mirror.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "This is my account of our 20th anniversary trip to Tahiti. I always keep a diary during our major trips, because writing it down once and then later transcribing it fixes it in my memory so much better. I was also trying to track my food and exercise, at the beginning, but soon gave that up. I don't know that this will be interesting to anyone else, but help yourselves.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "3:54 p.m. Doing really well today.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "That was more work than my usual 60-minute workout, which is exactly the results I was hoping for. It took me an hour and a half to set the machine up.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "I don't think I can, or want to, eat significantly less than I'm doing now. However, I might be able to trim a little bit and also increase my exercise.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "When I try to diet, I usually only last about a day. If that long. But I can do this for a week. If I know that at the end of the week, I can eat whatever I want, I'll be able to do it. It's like when I was quitting smoking, sometimes the only thing that kept me going was the thought of When this is all over, I will reward myself by having a cigarette.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "If I run into something special, something specific to that place, then I'll eat it. I'm not going to deprive myself or miss out. But if there's a choice of fruit or fried eggs for breakfast, then I'll take the fruit.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "Maybe I'll even pack up some stuff in the storage boxes. It could happen.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "I'm planning on grocery shopping today, and will probably allow myself a small amount of chocolate. Maybe not the almonds, because they're so high in calories, but a little handful of something. I'll get lots more fruit and vegetables, hopefully some shrimp, and be back on track.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "During the diet, how do they absorb enough nutrients? Contrary to popular myth, you can't survive indefinitely on fat stores. Doesn't such rapid weight loss put as much, or more, stress on the body as being fat?", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "Sure that's unbalanced, but what the heck. That's how I do everything: drop everything else and focus on only the one thing. So it might not be normal, but it's normal for ME.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "Those two items cut my original estimates almost in half. So this is great news.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "So I've been thinking I won't have much problem keeping on track in Tahiti. This is just too important to me to jeopardize for something transitory. I can have a wonderful time there without overeating. It's not a necessary part of the experience.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "Had a little bit of a panic lying in bed this morning - realized there wasn't anything for my lunch!!", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "Dotty called me at 10 p.m. to ask about Photoshop and it woke me out of a very deep sleep. Yeah, love to play helpdesk", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "Before anyone says anything to me about the huge amount I drank yesterday, I want to say two things: 1) I know. I KNOW. 2) at least it was over many hours. All the wine was in the afternoon.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "They were slightly snug but not unwearable. You know what that means. It means I'm probably a size 22 now, or very close to it.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "I went to bed early, so even getting up at The Crack, I still got 7 hours of sleep. Took half a melatonin, I think maybe I need to take an entire one for it to be effective. I did manage to not eat anything else yesterday, for an astounding 1022 calories. THAT's not going to happen very often, but I'm glad to get a super-low-cal day to compensate for all the high-cal ones.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "Bucko ate the other two. So at least it's out of our lives now and we can move on. It will be hard for me to have a low-cal day with such a bad start, but at least I will be getting LOTS of exercise today and need the sustenance.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "I'm more patient with this than before. Something I've been saying for years -- if it just works, I can put up with anything. And this seems to be working. Yes, I'd like it to be faster, but it IS working, so fine.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "I hate that place terrifically and want to get out, but I can't deny the convenience of the paycheck. The large paycheck.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "I spent the afternoon at Daisy's, and planned to allow myself some leeway in the junk food department. When we shopped for snacks at Wal-Mart, everything was so ridiculously high in calories, I just couldn't do it.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "10:37 a.m. Well. I did weights, gliding, and yoga, for a total of 60 minutes. That sounds pretty good.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "6:35 p.m. I need to make a little note to myself here, and I need to read it and BELIEVE it tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. This is the second day in a row that I've had fish with soy sauce. It's salty.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "Which describes Dr. Phil quite well. But, you have to accept help wherever you can find it.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "Now I am truly starving, and will have a banana for a snackie. And more water. More more more.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "Something about filming an aerobics video on a beach in Israel, while our house was being secretly made over by a team of television producers. And then about surfing. We can see by that I've been watching too much TV. My back hurts this morning, I'm so stiff I could hardly walk down the stairs.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "We're going food shopping this morning, which is good. I need to replenish the tomato juice and vegetable sitch.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "I'm sure I've cut 500 calories a day from my diet. Maybe even more, on a day-by-day basis.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "Hee hee. Just looked at my recommended weight on the calorie control council page. 115 pounds.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "That is how many calories I need a day to support life. And, as always, the numbers don't make sense.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "Since the difference between maintaining weight and losing a pound is 500 calories, I can then figure that to lose TWO pounds a week, I should eat 1102 calories a day. And I am way over that!", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "I'm a little dehydrated, plus it's filling. Stopped at Wal-Mart and bought another pair of jeans (size 26) and a light sweater.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "Feeling much better. Had a lovely lunch of lettuce salad with chicken and artichoke hearts, also delicious. Am treating myself to a small vodka. A sipping vodka. Yeah, I fell off the wagon already.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "A couple glasses is plenty. I'm pretty much ignoring the concept of Drinking Night. It was a good idea, but it ended up making me drink more.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "I even drank less than I wanted to, in order to keep the calories down. Excellent.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "And I apologize for that slip into self-loathing. The only thing I hate more than hating myself is when I fail to hate the hating. Yeah, I hate that.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "I'm just feeling a bit under from the lack of sleep, and I need to get out to the museum a little early because of the potential snow. Yes, and this is minutes after I wrote that I don't let myself off the hook with exercise. Hee. But I want points for putting in my 10 minutes when I really really really don't feel like doing it.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "I thought \"No one else is watching you do this, no one is thinking how stupid and sheeplike you are. This is private and you can be as silly as necessary.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "5:09 p.m. Just finished the daily conference call. What a pain.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "Then I must be underestimating something. Well, no I used the numbers right from the book and the labels. OK, I'll increase my estimate of how much olive oil I used. And the artichokes. And still, only 1,061.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "I was a bit worried about eating my lunch at 9:30 in the morning, but apparently it tided me over quite well. Found an interesting neighborhood today, must show Bucko this weekend.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "I didn't glide over the weekend, and I think I missed it. According to the glider computer, I burned almost 500 calories. I wonder how accurate that stuff is?", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "So that way I know that I'm not totally fucked up and unique. On Mr. Ointy she says something about starting to feel guilty about wanting to eat food, even when she doesn't eat it.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "For anyone who doesn't know - Bucko and I are going to Tahiti, Huahine, and Bora Bora for ten days for our 20th anniversary. We leave tomorrow.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "7:48 a.m. Now it's sleet. Whatever.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "No, it's right. 4 large shrimp are 22 calories. That's 5.5 calories each, so for 15 it's 82.5 calories. Excellent.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "I haven't had anything sweet (except for apples) for two weeks! In the same self-congratulatory vein, I spread that Quiznoids sandwich over three meals, instead of my customary two. AND didn't eat the chips.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "So it's not like they're GOOD for you, but if I have an uncontrollable sweets craving, it would be better to treat it this way than go get an entire Lindt bar. Looks like Lowe's, Food Dog, Kroger, Harris Teeter, and Wal-Mart all carry them.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "I've been obsessing and freaking out over my daily totals, even when they are well within the oppw range. I feel like my eating is out of control, even when I don't actually eat anything, because I WANT to eat so much. THAT is what I don't like about dieting - it's an eating disorder.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "When I go to a shooting range, I have agreed to abide by their rules. And every person at that range has the right to expect everyone else to follow those rules. All of our safety depends on it. When you get in your car, you have made a legally binding, written contract with ME (and the rest of society) that you are going to abide by the rules.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "I will have to keep busier today, somehow. And if I need to eat, I will eat. But I'll eat good food, not crap. That's a winning plan. Yesterday was also hard because Bucko was on the computer all day.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "The rock-like Puritan work ethic of strength and vitality and self-worth through labor and personal fortitude, or the wallowing in sybaritic excesses flavored with New Age-ish wisps of self-care and mindful soul activity? And can I also point out that whenever I hear the phrase \"self-care,\" I think of either a) the ability to cleanse one's personal regions adequately after using the toilet, or b) probably masturbation.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "I will try to have a small lunch, and eat a lot of celery, pickles, etc. All the no-cal food. But still, I want to congratulate myself on gliding this afternoon. That's a big change from my life six months ago.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "I just hate to do it, I'm so horrified by how I look, I don't want an explicit visual record of it. Without sucking my stomach in. Without hiding behind something in the foreground. Gah.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "I think I've already plateaued. I'm not making any more progress with the Measurement Pants.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "I know one of my danger points is boredom, and another will be eating in restaurants. We both love restaurants, and the food is so rich and the portions are huge.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "I'm not sure how to estimate the calories burned. I'm going to say 200 for a half hour until I come up with better numbers.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "I've cut my portions down by a third. I've all but eliminated between-meal snacks. I've cut my breakfast calories in half.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "I just don't like making those kind of associations with food. Food is neutral, in moral terms. It is more or less nutritious, more or less tasty than another food, but that's it. So I'm a little undecided. I just want my subconscious to decide something like: \"I enjoy having two or three drinks maybe twice a week, or once a week, but more than that is not enjoyable and therefore I have no desire to do it.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "2:58 p.m. Yay, Daisy came to visit. I had three bloody marys. Yes, I know that's a lot. However, it happened at lunch time, so later when I'm lamenting about how much I drank today, we must all remember that it happened over a period of about ten hours.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "Things are a little tight around here, and a little scary. Tomorrow my goal is to get that letter written!", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "I'm planning on not gliding today. Or lifting weights. Or anything cardio.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "Gross. I hate work.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "I suppose some people might not consider that a lot, but I have never spent that much on mere shoes before. Heck, I have never spent that much on CLOTHES before. THEN I went to Target and bought TWO little nighties for vacation, and a new suitcase. $68. Then I made myself go home before I spent more.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "Last week was not bad, the numbers came out better than I expected each day. But I'm slacking a little bit with the exercise. I'll work on that this week, but off to a bad start today with my glider buried in the dining room and no where to put it -- the house is still torn apart.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "Now that I'm this far into it, it doesn't seem difficult. Yeah, I know it's incredible to even say that, but I suppose with most endeavors, getting started is the hardest part.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "Not sure what I've been doing today, piddling around I guess. I painted the wall in the garage, which will look much neater.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "Probably a little boredom too, from being house bound. Damn, I hope I've shown some significant weight loss this week, because I need something to keep my spirits up.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "12:24 p.m. Well, I had quite the wonderful morning. Finally went to the Wide Shoe Warehouse, and every single shoe in there fit me. I had to limit myself to four pairs -- three for vacation and one exercise shoe. It was WONDERFUL. Oh yeah, and I spent $230.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "Yesterday turned out better than I thought it would. I may even be estimating a little high on the drinks.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "I'm starting to get a little tired of soup for breakfast, so I'm cruising through my journal looking for something with about the same calories that would be enough food, and I can't find anything. The soup is a really good value. It's filling, for being so much water.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "Packed a little. Had a snack of lettuce salad, and I'm trying not to eat more. I'm a bit peckish, but I have to stop the habit of snacking every time I'm hungry.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "Just did 30 minutes on the glider and I'm exhausted!!", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "I think I might be allergic to alcohol. Heh.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "Definitely have to crank this up, I am not going to be patient enough for oppw. Damn wine!", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "I've gotten back to my routine pretty quickly, but I don't feel ensconced in it yet. It feels almost like at the beginning, when I was very tentative about the whole thing.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "the genre. These are the kind where people say \"WHAT? You haven't seen such-and-such???\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "If I'm going to have that many useless carbs, then I want it in the form of alcohol. Which I also had.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "Curry and thyme. Perfect.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "perfect. However, each has something a little special: a great performance, or a fascinating plot, or a particularly good scene.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "I have The Last Picture Show left -- yeah, that'll be great! Not!", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "I know I'm only drinking 3-4 glasses now. And in a random note: removing the skin from the chicken is definitely worth it.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "OK, so here is Monday, Day 1 of embracing the idea that maybe I'm eating too much. Oh, how I hate that idea, but blah blah blah, get over it.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "I'm going to move this over to the PC again today. Bah.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "I might do the yoga tape, which I am miserable at. Baby steps.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "Tonight, sushi tuna and chicken caesar salad, which should end up very light also. Hopefully that will keep the week reasonable.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "M. M. Kaye", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "Surely starting a moderate diet and exercise program will do more for their overall health, starting immediately, than a surgical solution that actually jeopardizes their health for some period of time (not sure how long recovery period is). At any rate, there's no way I'm even remotely interested in WLS, and I fit the criteria for getting it. Do you people realize I need to lose 152 pounds to fit my so-called normal weight?", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "Well. Let me focus on some good things today.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "Second, I ate too much broccoli at lunch, and now my stomach hurts. Like seriously.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "Thank god I didn't go for the girl scout cookies. I was planning on allowing myself two, but when I saw the calorie counts, I put them right in the freezer, and I will put them right into Bucko's car, and tell him to take them away and never bring them back.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "I'm toying with the idea of putting this diary in reverse order. Most recent entry at the top of the page. I don't know, it's a trade-off.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "I guess I want to sort of be a little hippie woman, puttering around my house nude, growing herbs, and making art. Ah.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "I wasn't able to quit until I really bought into it. I used all the silly little psychological tricks and silly inspirational gimmicks I could.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "Thinking of that Oprah weight-loss show yesterday. One of the things she said was, you have to want to do what it takes to lose weight. We know you want to lose weight, that's not the question, but do you want to do the things that will make you lose weight?", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "But belly dance uses natural, female movements, so it's not hard to figure out. Hard to DO, yes, but not hard to figure out.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "Most women gain in their butts, which does not pose the health risk of stomach fat, which is partly why women live longer. But me? Oh no.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "Reading a website that gives examples of food portions as common household objects. Like a half cup of broccoli is a lightbulb size.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "My hip still hurts, that's bad news. I'm afraid it might be in the joint and not the muscle.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "I just put the ribs in the oven. They are big ass pieces of meat, and I think I'd better have just one. Uncooked, a single rib weighs about .95 pound. Of course, there's a bone in there, but I don't know how much that accounts for. I'd better be conservative.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "I can't get away from my journal today, it's my lifeline. But I can't seem to get any interest or enthusiasm for doing anything. I'm so listless recently. Doldrums.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "Just put some chicken in the oven so I will have lunch today. As always, a lot of drinking on Drinking Night.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "Since we had raw fish and soup for dinner, the calorie count was very low, even with the drinks we had. Awesome.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "I need to get ready at 9:00, so better make up my mind soon. I'm watching Gods and Monsters and it's boring as hell, that's not helping. I must remember to rent more exciting movies for exercising. Nothing too subtle or intellectual.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "At this point, I now KNOW that I'm losing weight, so maybe I don't need the Pretend Chart to convince myself that it's happening. Maybe it makes sense to continue recording my calories, but stop recording the pretend weight.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "I don't understand some of the online food diaries I saw; all they eat are pre-packaged frozen meals. I guess because it's easy, and it's easy to track because the numbers are all there for you, but it's such unattractive food, to me.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "In Wal-Mart and the wine store I really had to resist the temptation to get some chocolate. And when I got home, the cheese in the frig was tempting. When I put the chicken in the oven tonight I really wanted to keep the skin. I even told myself I could have ONE skin, but at the last minute I managed to throw it away.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "Well. Since this week's numbers suck so bad, I will start with the positive things first.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "At first I ordered these in descending order of preference or impact, but found I couldn't really do it that way. It's too often a matter of apples and oranges. However, there are some books that had a truly significant impact on my life, that caused me to think differently, to live differently. Frequently, these are books I read when I was quite young (9 or 10 years old; I had a \"college level\" reading ability since second grade and read adult books from about 8 years old on), and they had enormous influence on my values and aspirations. I've marked these with an asterisk, and I still think they are wonderful stories, but be warned that a couple of them are very cheesy indeed.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "Cleaning out the closet upstairs. What a mess!", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "9:58 a.m. Did 10 minures on the SensibleGym, and 10 minutes step. It's not enough, I will have to work in something else this afternoon. Right now I'm trying to determine if I have work today, and if so, whether I need to go into the office to do it. If not, this would probably be a good day to call the temp place, wouldn't it?", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "I couldn't help snacking tonight, but limited myself to three ritz crackers. If I can stop here, it will be fine, I'm still only at 1596.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "4. In a more concrete aspect, I am drinking a lot of water and exercising much more consistently. Longer workouts, harder workouts. I have always tended to cheat on exercise because I hate it, much more than I ever cheated on food, and this time I'm not letting myself off the hook.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "I mean, I can eat whatever I want, that's not the issue. The point is that it's useless to record my food if I'm not accurate. I don't have any problem with eating the crackers, but I can't let myself get into that kind of thinking with this journal, because then whose journal is it? Some fictional person who sounds like me a lot of the time.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "I'm going to make sure I'm really careful about my estimates. I mean, I have been, I have been consistently estimating large, and I don't think there is any significant amount of food I've left out. I'm sure I've missed a condiment here and there, although not many, because I've been scrupulous in charting this. But I was watching Oprah today, and she said something interesting about keeping to a diet/plan: she said \"Don't do it if you're going to lie to yourself. Because you know you're lying, and you feel just like someone else does when you lie to them.\"", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "Bucko has off from work today for ML King Day, which is nice, but I'll have to move over the PC with my journal. Which I don't like. He knows I have this journal, because the name of the file is \"MarlaSecretDiaryBuckoKeepOut.doc,\" but I don't think he knows what it's about at all. Although maybe he has figured it out recently, since I run in here after every meal and type furiously for five or ten minutes. Ah well, it's a better hobby than bingeing and purging.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "3:44 p.m. I have drank 8 glasses of water. That is 96 ounces of water. 3 quarts.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "I need to go at least a month to see if it's working. Then I can reconsider whether it's worth continuing at the same level, whether I need to reduce further, or whether it makes more sense to ditch the plan.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "I didn't want to, it's such a tiny amount (32 calories) and I was thinking along the lines of \"oh, I can let myself have this just this once,\" but quickly came to my senses and nixed that. What the hell am I thinking, let myself have this one?", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "12:43 p.m. Yes, that was a good plan.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "It means I've lost AT LEAST ten pounds. Maybe even fifteen.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "I would so love to think that I've lost 15 pounds. Hee hee.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "And that's okay as far as it goes, but I think it opened the doors for mindless snacking to occur. There's been too many times lately when I just want to sit around and eat. And eat. And eat.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "8:54 a.m. 40 minutes on the glider. Rubber legs. Feeling a little down about my chances -- watched the Dr. Phil show and saw all the people who had lost 60 and 80 pounds, and feeling like it will never happen for me.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "There's nothing on until 10, when Ellen comes on, but that's too late in the morning to exercise. Breaks up the day too much.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "Drinking my last glass of water for the day. I got most of it in early, and then forgot about it in the afternoon.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "Oh boy, one more day to go in week one! I'm at 9,607 calories right now; 12,614 to lose oppw; 9,121 to lose tppw. So unless I go completely crazy tomorrow, I should have lost ONE POUND this week!", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "When I tried on the Measurement Pants this morning, I ALMOST decided to wear them today. Yes, I'm that close. They're still too tight across my lower stomach, but if I wore a long shirt they'd be OK. I decided not to because I didn't want to stretch them out and thus lose their Measuring properties.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "Maybe I can use that as a yardstick also, because I'm pretty sure I used to pull on them harder to get them closed. So that will be another minor measurement milestone: at the end of Week Three, I could button my regular jeans without pulling hard.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "It's possible that I can lose weight. It can really happen. Who would have thought?? Color me smug.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "It was really the orange juice that killed me - I knew I shouldn't drink it, but the pizza was so spicy I needed something. Damn, that stuff is killer - 110 calories in one glass.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "Ah, there's another nice measurement -- if I can fit back into my original wedding and engagement rings. OK, those will be the Measurement Rings. Haven't fit into those in YEARS.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "6:39 p.m. Just saw an atoll!!!!!", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "Not sure what I'm going to do today. I've done all the wallpaper removal I can do without help.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "That's the drawback to the Flying Saucer -- they haven't any decent food. You can get oversalted, overpriced bar munchies and that's about it. So anyway I'm not feeling too bad this morning, considering. My calorie count for the day wasn't overwhelming, either, considering there was beer. 4 beers.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "A nice fresh week. Hoping it will go better than last week. I barely managed a save on Sunday to stay under oppw.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "That would be nice. So get to work, stupid subconscious.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "Daisy said the scale was accurate. Can you believe it?", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "3:10 p.m. I picked up a little sushi dish at the supermarket on the way home from stupid work, and it was delicious. It's cold and gray out, but fortunately no snow. I am glad to be home and cozy. Daisy sent me an email so now I am happy.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "Although recently I've been spacing my meals out more. That is, I eat a little something for lunch, and another little something an hour later for lunch part 2.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "On the other hand, this ancient version of Word is pretty streamlined, and it isn't cumbersome to work with the file. And I like being able to search for previous calories. We'll see.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "This journal is what's enabling me to keep this up. The only thing is, I'm spending so much time on it I can't do anything else.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "I went to bed too early, brought on by too much wine, and so I woke up around 2 a.m. I probably could have gone back to sleep sooner, but I got involved in watching a South Park Behind the Scenes show on VH-1, and I was awake until about 3:15.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "I've never seen anyone stupid enough to argue with these rules or try to defy the rangemaster. See, we all understand that we're handling potentially deadly weapons, and we need to KNOW what the other people are doing. Their behavior has to be predictable to all of us. Because we could KILL someone if we fuck up.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "9:28 a.m. Finished 50 minutes on the glider. Just couldn't quite do 60, it was too tedious and I wasn't doing a strong workout.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "7:45 p.m. Okay, DOUBLE points to me.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "I hope it's OK I'm calling this a diet. It's not really, you can see by my charts [offline] that I'm eating a reasonable amount of food, and a great variety of it.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "9:00 a.m. Did 50 minutes of gliding. For some reason I don't seem able to do an hour recently. Possibly I'm just letting myself off the hook. At any rate, any exercise is good.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "Good for me. Didn't do any glider, but I think I'll get plenty of exercise today - we're planning on cutting down the last tree this afternoon. Fun fun fun.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "I figure we can have that shrimp salad again for dinner, because I've got all the pieces for it. Shrimp, lettuce, tomatoes, mangoes.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "If all this stuff was in a big ass bonus room that you didn't see from the rest of the house, then it wouldn't matter. I'd just build floor-to-ceiling shelves and be done with it.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "11:23 a.m. I'm cooking chicken in anticipation of power failure, and the smell is driving me wild. I'm starving!", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "My first goal will be to lose 10% of my bodyweight. That's the Weight Watchers plan. I think I weigh 260 right now, so I want to lose 26 pounds, and thus weight 234.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "11:30 a.m. Back to the hotel for sunscreen, and for me to rest my feet, which ache abominably. I wore my new sandals, and of course am getting blisters. So I'm sitting here with my feet up, wrapped in cool washcloths (the water doesn't get actually COLD here), looking at the fabulous view and writing this.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "blog30407", "text": "I know I won't be able to get to the store tomorrow, the roads are still so bad. We have enough food for another day or two, but we're out of fresh stuff and really yummy stuff. Well, I'm not going to beat myself up for it, my huge binge today was much less than it would have been a month ago. So, three crackers and an extra drumstick, BFD. That's a pretty well-controlled binge.", "category": "blog" }, { "style": "h", "text": "Complicating the situation even further, providing care often proves to be costly and difficult for many reasons, some of which are further discussed below.", "category": "amt" }, { "style": "h", "text": "Restriction of services, waiting periods, and whether or not to subsidize premiums for the poor to expand equity are all issues that need to be considered and planned for in developing any new insurance scheme. Pay for performance is being utilized by more health systems these days for good reason.", "category": "amt" }, { "style": "h", "text": "In these sorts of situations, many steps the country might have taken forward can be done away with simply due to the lack of adequate supplies. In terms of supply security and logistics, conflict affects vaccine and drug supplies in multiple ways.", "category": "amt" }, { "style": "h", "text": "In 2000, the UN accepted responsibility for not doing enough to prevent the 1994 genocide. In response, and to ensure an appropriate response in the future, the international community developed the Sphere minimum standards for healthcare in emergency situations.", "category": "amt" }, { "style": "h", "text": "Some logistical issues include the targeting of NGOs and other suppliers due to their perceived government and UN ties, disruption of supply routes by armed forces, raids and attacks, and problems transporting supplies due to terrain.", "category": "amt" }, { "style": "h", "text": "Due to the various high costs and issues described above, many schemes will likely find themselves unable to pay for all utilized services at some point after this. If the government has also been a stakeholder in the development process, they might be able to subsidize the insurance scheme or provide some funding to keep the organization running. If not, in many cases, the insurance scheme may find itself unable to continue running.", "category": "amt" }, { "style": "h", "text": "Threat/Vulnerability Assessment - Here, an in-depth assessment of the host, the agent, and the environment is carried out to analyze what attributes (for example, vaccination prevalence, recent epidemics, or access to safe water) might increase the risk of an epidemic among the displaced. Risk Assessment - Likelihood and magnitude of disease outbreaks are calculated and interventions are prioritized based on cost, availability of supplies, and so on. Even with this framework in place, however, the recent Cholera epidemic in Haiti shows that there is still work to be done in preventing disease outbreaks in IDP communities. Part of the issue is the lack of availability of sufficient funding and access, both of which will be discussed further.", "category": "amt" }, { "style": "h", "text": "However, if there is an inequality due to consumer preferences (for example, increased utilization by the poor because they need healthcare services more), this is an inequality that does not indicate inequity. As can be noted in the above example, inequality may not always be in favor of the rich.", "category": "amt" }, { "style": "h", "text": "Healthcare funding is largely done on the community level, with federal funding being doled out and the implementation and management of those funds left on the community level. It has been shown that many of the poorer districts have seen their healthcare grants increase, but have not had the ability to increase services due to the infrastructure. In addition, the majority of the payment mechanisms in Indonesia are fee-for-service, with some capitated payments thrown in.", "category": "amt" }, { "style": "h", "text": "Any improvements to a country's health information system, while expensive up-front, will make provider monitoring much easier later on. It is recommended that Namibia set up a national health information system before implementing a pay for performance model. In addition, the desired outcomes and targets must be decided upon, which is much easier said than done.", "category": "amt" }, { "style": "h", "text": "When looking at health systems which rely on out-of-pocket spending, equity is usually affected, with co-payments and premiums affecting access by the poorest citizens more so than the richest. Another example of vertical equity concerns healthcare financing. Financing the system via income taxes, say, is considered a vertically equitable financing mechanism, as the amount contributed is directly proportionate to a citizen's income. Sales taxes, on the other hand, would be a larger burden on the poor than the rich, and as such is not vertically equitable.", "category": "amt" }, { "style": "h", "text": "Healthcare services to internally displaced people has not improved to the same level as services for refugees. There are a number of reasons for this. IDPs generally don't have a \"hub\" similar to a refugee camp, for example, that would facilitate healthcare service provision.", "category": "amt" }, { "style": "h", "text": "Prioritizing Health Services - People have access to health services that are prioritized to address the main causes of excess mortality and morbidity. Communicable Disease Prevention - People have access to information and services that are designed to prevent the communicable diseases that contribute most significantly to excess morbidity and mortality. Outbreak Detection and Response - Outbreaks are prepared for, detected, investigated and controlled in a timely and effective manner. As of 2005, the number of IDPs in the world was estimated to be 25 million, with another 120 million adversely affected by conflict though not officially displaced.", "category": "amt" }, { "style": "h", "text": "Increased risk of epidemics - With over 65% of outbreaks of international importance originating in conflict settings. Increased duration of epidemics - Due to delays in detection, poor access to healthcare and drugs. Rapid emergence of drug resistance - Due to disruption of treatment and poor compliance and the use of outdated or inappropriate drugs regimens. Emerging diseases (Marburg & Ebola) and eradication projects (Guinea Worm & polio) both pose their own threats.", "category": "amt" }, { "style": "pp", "text": "The Waldorf method encourages a broad curriculum. Teachers are encouraged to explore new topics and allow themselves to be guided by the exploration of the students. This type of teaching encourages learning for the sake of learning, instead of for the sake of passing an exam or scoring well on grading rubrics. There are no grades given in a Waldorf elementary school.", "category": "amt" }, { "style": "pp", "text": "Top-down processing in this example might help you identify the object as a black box rather than a box-shaped hole in the white background. Once information is processed to a degree, an attention filter decides how important the signal is and which cognitive processes it should be made available to. For example, although your brain processes every blade of grass when you look down at your shoes, a healthy attention filter prevents you from noticing them individually. In contrast, you might pick out your name, even when spoken in a noisy room. There are many stages of processing, and the results of processing are modulated by attention repeatedly.", "category": "amt" }, { "style": "pp", "text": "Parents looking for direct instruction materials and programs should look into the Hooked on Phonics series and other related products. Critics argue that direct instruction is nothing but canned teaching with little room for the personalization of lesson plans. To these critics, schools that require direct instruction are handcuffing their best teachers and providing a crutch to their worst ones. This argument fails to address the fact that good teachers will be successful with any lesson plans, including direct instruction. The effectiveness of direct instruction is supported by substantial research, but there are some recent longitudinal studies which raise doubts about its effectiveness.", "category": "amt" }, { "style": "pp", "text": "For example, a common station in a Montessori classroom will have a bucket of Lego blocks and several pictures of simple objects like an apple or a house, which the children can build if they want. Other stations might have books, crayons, a xylophone, or other engaging activities. The whole idea behind the Montessori classroom is allowing children to learn through playing.", "category": "amt" }, { "style": "pp", "text": "A tell-tale sign of a tactile learner is drawing or doodling during class. Tactile learners often work skillfully with their hands to make or repair things. They often prefer to stand while working.", "category": "amt" }, { "style": "pp", "text": "The first occurs between birth and age six. This stage represents the time when infants, toddlers, and children acquire language and begin to experience the world for the first time. It includes the development of the ego, where the child begins to first differentiate between self and other. The second stage occurs between the ages of six and twelve, during which children begin to develop the capacity for independent thought and abstract reasoning.", "category": "amt" }, { "style": "pp", "text": "In order for the brain to process information, it must first be stored. There are multiple types of memory, including sensory, working, and long-term. First, information is encoded. There are types of encoding specific to each type of sensory stimuli.", "category": "amt" }, { "style": "pp", "text": "Direct instruction is a theory of education which posits that the most effective way to teach is by explicit, guided instructions. This method of teaching directly contrasts other styles of teaching, which might be more passive or encourage exploration. It is a very common teaching strategy, relying on strict lesson plans and lectures with little or no room for variation. Direct instruction does not include activities like discussion, recitation, seminars, workshops, case studies, or internships.", "category": "amt" }, { "style": "pp", "text": "These technicians monitor the brain's activity during sleep by attaching electrodes to the scalp. A machine, called an electroencephalograph (EEG), records the brain activity during sleep. Other tests monitor eye activity and can provide additional information about REM sleep. There are five stages of sleep.", "category": "amt" }, { "style": "pp", "text": "32% of people report that they sometimes dream in color and only 7.7% of people report that they never dream in color. That means over 92% of people report that they dream in color. Since no one can, at the time of this writing, read your dreams, all of this information is self-reported by survey. People all over the world tend to dream of the same things.", "category": "amt" }, { "style": "pp", "text": "For nearly a hundred years, IQ was the standard by which we measured the relative intelligence of people. A paradigm shift occurred when studies in the 1980s by Howard Gardner showed that EQ is a better predictor of success than IQ. The responsible handling of emotions leads to fewer incidences of acting out and bad behavior and lowers incidences of violence, depression, and low motivation.", "category": "amt" }, { "style": "pp", "text": "According to specialists, emotional learning starts at home at an early age. By being attentive to your young child's emotional needs, you can find opportunities to teach emotional learning in your day-to-day life. An easy way to begin is by discussing moods and asking questions like \"What makes you angry?\" It's important to teach children that emotions are normal, but that they should be able to regulate them.", "category": "amt" }, { "style": "pp", "text": "Finally, the experimenter selects a statistical equation to tell him different things about the data, like whether or not his hypothesis is true! Brain research in neurobiology laboratories consists of imaging techniques like x-rays, PET scans, MRIs, fMRIs and, in some cases, particularly in animals, angiography.", "category": "amt" }, { "style": "pp", "text": "Instead, social skills should be taught like any other part of the curriculum, with lessons as part of the daily schedule. Parents, how can you help your children improve their emotional intelligence?", "category": "amt" }, { "style": "pp", "text": "According to psychologists and education specialists, there are three prevalent learning styles. If you want to discover what types of learner you (or your students) are, ask yourself, if you wanted to paint a room, how much paint do you need? Visual learners like to see charts, diagrams, overhead transparencies, handouts, videos, worksheets, and examples.", "category": "amt" }, { "style": "pp", "text": "We are not aware of these stages while we sleep. When we wake, we often do not remember our dreams. We rely on machines like the electroencephalograph (EEG) to offer scientists clues about the stages of sleep. Prior to the Internet, financial accounts were kept at a local branch.", "category": "amt" }, { "style": "pp", "text": "According to the theory, there are eight types of intelligences. Each type is partially or completely independent of each other. For instance, though it stands to reason that a highly capable musical performer is likely to have a higher than average IQ, researchers hypothesize that this is not a foregone conclusion. The following table illustrates the different types of intelligences described in the original research.", "category": "amt" }, { "style": "qq", "text": "Educational provision across the colonies was similarly diverse. When the British took over German East Africa (Tanganyika) in 1919, they found a large population of educated and literate Africans. German educational efforts in Kamerun and other colonies were also praised by contemporary authors. The situation in South West Africa (present-day Namibia) presented a stark contrast.", "category": "amt" }, { "style": "qq", "text": "To supply their favored nationalist movements with weapons, the Soviet Union and United States together had spent more than $1 billion. With the MPLA now in control of the government, UNITA continued to fight guerilla warfare in the Angolan bush, although with only limited support from the US and South Africa where new administrations partially withdrew from the conflict. By 1983 his army had reached the large diamond fields of northeastern Angola. Diamonds would become a major source of revenue for UNITA, bringing in enough money to make the organization less dependent on foreign support.", "category": "amt" }, { "style": "qq", "text": "In Samoa white settlement was mainly limited to the capital, Apia, and native traditions were more generally respected.", "category": "amt" }, { "style": "qq", "text": "The United States and later China provided monetary and material support to the FNLA and under the regime of Joseph Mobutu (later Mobutu Sese Seko), Zaire would send its own troops into Angola to bolster the FNLA's ranks. Due to differences in ideology and ethnic composition the MPLA and FNLA were unable to unite against the Portuguese and fought each other nearly as much as their common enemy. A third group, UNITA, was founded by Jonas Savimbi in 1966.", "category": "amt" }, { "style": "qq", "text": "This paper seeks to expand the discussion by identifying these factors and paying particular attention to new research on the attitudes of settlers and colonial authorities to native Africans. There is a wealth of literature dealing with education in the German colonial empire specifically. Most of these sources are in German and were written in the early twentieth century, during or shortly after the period of German colonial rule. The aim of early works was primarily to describe the features of educational systems in these colonies.", "category": "amt" }, { "style": "qq", "text": "Rather than continue Von Francois' goal of exterminating the Witbooi, Leutwein formed an alliance with them and gave them special privileges. This marked a major shift in native policy. During this period the Witbooi were depicted as noble savages and attempts were made to promote and preserve their culture. The Witbooi were given a significant reservation and a degree of political autonomy.", "category": "amt" }, { "style": "qq", "text": "Settlers blocked attempts to improve native education and continued to exploit the indigenous population. Meanwhile Leutwein's own passive policy of appropriation would contribute to his downfall in the events of 1904. In the second week of January 1904, the Ovaherero rose up against the Germans in a series of spontaneous and possibly coordinated attacks on European farms and military posts.", "category": "amt" }, { "style": "qq", "text": "New attempts to start plantations and agricultural settlements in the interior mostly failed, but a greater number of Portuguese settlers, mainly impoverished peasants, immigrated to the colony, settling primarily in the cities along the coast. As the number of whites in the cities increased, they began to displace the mesticos, and new restrictions were placed on bureaucratic positions. By the 1920s the old Afro-Portuguese elite had mostly lost its prominent place it had occupied during the nineteenth century.", "category": "amt" }, { "style": "qq", "text": "Government in Germany was still dominated by landed nobles, though members of the educated middle class were starting to occupy prestigious positions. By pursuing relatively liberal policies towards the natives, Leutwein was able to distinguish himself from his aristocratic predecessor, Von Francois.", "category": "amt" }, { "style": "qq", "text": "A much smaller and more concentrated population was easier for them to manage and influence than the large nomadic groups present before the war. These final steps of settler domination in the colony led to the full development of the educational system as earlier described, one in which Africans were trained to be a proletariat occupying only the lowest rungs of the labor market and for the benefit of the settler population. An account of European perceptions of native groups in South West Africa and their relation to colonial native policy in general provides a useful background for understanding German education policy in the colony.", "category": "amt" }, { "style": "qq", "text": "The different opportunities for educated Africans in the two colonies manifest themselves in their respective educational systems, which differed greatly in size, composition, and scope. East Africa boasted 984 schools for natives in 1911, including 80 government schools, compared with only 88 total in South West Africa, all run by missionaries.", "category": "amt" }, { "style": "qq", "text": "Later writings in English expanded the discourse through comparative studies of education in the various German colonies and more detailed analyses of specific aspects of education. These studies illustrated significant differences in the educational systems of different colonies. The most prominent work to explicitly address the topic of this paper is Cohen's study of education in South West Africa and East Africa.", "category": "amt" }, { "style": "qq", "text": "In the north the FNLA began a major offensive, their ranks bolstered by hired western mercenaries and Zairian soldiers and artillery. The CIA and China also provided the FNLA with generous military aid in the form of money and arms. The MPLA continued to receive arms shipments from the Soviet Union and in May recruited the fiercely anti-Mobutu Katangese rebels who had previously served the Portuguese as counterinsurgency troops. The FNLA offensive reached the outskirts of Luanda, but was stopped by the arrival of 1,500 Cuban soldiers and additional Soviet weapons in August.", "category": "amt" } ]