People're a nestful of needs. Dull needs, sharp needs, bottomless-pit needs, flash-in-the-pan needs, needs for things you can't hold, needs for things you can. Adverts know this. Shops know this...I've got what you want! I've got what you want! I've got what you want! But walking...this afternoon, I noticed a new need that's normally so close-up you n ever know it's there. You and your mum need to like each other. Not love, but like.
-David Mitchell, Black Swan Green, pg. 194
Showing posts with label David Mitchell. Show all posts
Showing posts with label David Mitchell. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 14, 2017
Perspectives On Bullies and Bullying and Being Bullied.
Contrary to popular wisdom, bullies are rarely cowards.
Bullies come in various shapes and sizes. Observe yours. Gather intelligence.
Shunning one hopeless battle is not an act of cowardice.
Hankering for security or popularity makes you weak and vulnerable.
Which is worse: Scorn earned by informers? Misery endured by victims?
The brutal may have been molded by a brutality you cannot exceed.
Let guile be your ally.
Respect earned by integrity cannot be lost without your consent.
Don't laugh at what you don't find funny.
Don't support an opinion you don't hold.
The independent befriend the independent.
Adolescence dies in its fourth year. You live to be eighty.
-David Mitchell, Black Swan Green, pg. 212-213
Bullies come in various shapes and sizes. Observe yours. Gather intelligence.
Shunning one hopeless battle is not an act of cowardice.
Hankering for security or popularity makes you weak and vulnerable.
Which is worse: Scorn earned by informers? Misery endured by victims?
The brutal may have been molded by a brutality you cannot exceed.
Let guile be your ally.
Respect earned by integrity cannot be lost without your consent.
Don't laugh at what you don't find funny.
Don't support an opinion you don't hold.
The independent befriend the independent.
Adolescence dies in its fourth year. You live to be eighty.
-David Mitchell, Black Swan Green, pg. 212-213
Hate
Dogs hate foxes. Nazis hate Jews. Hate doesn't need a why. Who or even what is ample.
-David Mitchell, Black Swan Green, pg. 198
-David Mitchell, Black Swan Green, pg. 198
On Poetry
Once a poem's left home it doesn't care about you.
- - -
"Beautiful words ruin your poetry. A touch of beauty enhances a dish, but you throw a hill of it into the pot! No, the palate becomes nauseous. You beleif a poem must be beautiful, or it can have no excellence. Am I right?"
"Sort of"
"Your 'sort of' is annoying. A yes or a not, or a qualification, please. 'Sort of' is an idle loubard, and ignorant vandale. 'Sort of' says 'I am ashamed by clarify and precision.' So we try again. You belief a poem must be beautiful, or it is not a poem. I am right?"
"Yes."
"Yes. Idiots labor in this misconception. Beauty is not excellence. Beauty is distraction, beauty is cosmetics, beauty is ultimately fatigue."
- - -
...the poem is a raid on the inarticulate...Poems who are not written yet, or not written ever, exists here. The realm of the inarticulate. Art fabricated of the inarticulate is beauty. Even if its themes is ugly. Silver moons, thundering seas, cliches of cheese, poison beauty. The amateur thinks his words, his paints, his notes, makes the beauty. But the master knows his words is just the vehicle in who beauty sits. The master knows he does not know what beauty is.
-David Mitchell, Black Swan Green, pg. 146-147.
- - -
"Beautiful words ruin your poetry. A touch of beauty enhances a dish, but you throw a hill of it into the pot! No, the palate becomes nauseous. You beleif a poem must be beautiful, or it can have no excellence. Am I right?"
"Sort of"
"Your 'sort of' is annoying. A yes or a not, or a qualification, please. 'Sort of' is an idle loubard, and ignorant vandale. 'Sort of' says 'I am ashamed by clarify and precision.' So we try again. You belief a poem must be beautiful, or it is not a poem. I am right?"
"Yes."
"Yes. Idiots labor in this misconception. Beauty is not excellence. Beauty is distraction, beauty is cosmetics, beauty is ultimately fatigue."
- - -
...the poem is a raid on the inarticulate...Poems who are not written yet, or not written ever, exists here. The realm of the inarticulate. Art fabricated of the inarticulate is beauty. Even if its themes is ugly. Silver moons, thundering seas, cliches of cheese, poison beauty. The amateur thinks his words, his paints, his notes, makes the beauty. But the master knows his words is just the vehicle in who beauty sits. The master knows he does not know what beauty is.
-David Mitchell, Black Swan Green, pg. 146-147.
Being Right
"...not hurting people is ten...thousand time more...important than being right."
-David Mitchell, Black Swan Green, pg. 118
-David Mitchell, Black Swan Green, pg. 118
On War
War may be an auction for countries. For soldiers it's a lottery.
-David Mitchell, Black Swan Green, pg. 109
-David Mitchell, Black Swan Green, pg. 109
Listening to the Earth
The earth's a door, if you press your ear against it.
-David Mitchell, Black Swan Green, pg. 91
-David Mitchell, Black Swan Green, pg. 91
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