Reading theory, like reading poetry, is exhilarating.
In this case, the Internet, as bad a source it can be, is great for seeing if certain people use certain phrases. Like does anybody literally say “Dreams follow the mouth?”
This idea that the Communist legacy is only one of misery and death is a remnant of the Cold War that the Left must abandon.
My imagined Gaza was real to me.
I am always on my way somewhere. I have never reached my destination.
I was attracted to the argument in the book that, even in the 1950s, cultural radicals like the Beats and white-collar executives (company men or “organization men”), were actually brothers under the skin. They both shared a cynical belief that role-playing and reputation were all that mattered.
The story is the language. If you can locate a difference between a story and the language it’s told in, something is wrong.
The reason that people care about books is because they influence, and sometimes they influence you like an actual life.
I like to work with this kind of cluster of references that mirror each other.
All of it is meaningless, but all of it is interesting.