I Found a Penny Today, So Here’s a Thought
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"The trouble with literature is that writers have to be the ones who write it. It's always partial; it's always partisan, and it's always incomplete. When I say that writers have to be the ones to write it, I mean that in order to generate the energy to create a big novel, a big play, an involved poem, one has to be a species of fanatic. You have to think that that is really the only thing worth doing. Otherwise, you can't generate the intensity to do it well. And to that degree, by generating that intensity, you are blinding yourself to what does not fit into some preconceived pattern in your own mind. There's no doubt about that to me, and I think that probably lay behind Plato's prohibition of the artist in society, He was right in the sense that the artist doesn't know what he is doing, to some extent. That is, we pretend, or like to believe, that we are depicting the whole truth of some situation, when as a matter of fact, the whole truth is, by definition, made impossible by the fact that we are obsessed people. I don't know of a first class piece of work written by what I would call, or a psychologist would call, a balanced, adjusted fellow who could easily be, let us say, a good administrator for a complicated social mechanism of some sort. It doesn't work that way. We are not constituted that way; so consequently, to be sure, it will have to be partial. The impulse to do it is obsessive; it always is. One of the fairest, most just writers was Tolstoi, who was, to make it short, quite mad."
—Arthur Miller, “Morality and Modern Drama: Interview with Phillip Gelb” (Death of a Salesman: Text and Criticism, ed. Gerald Weales), via GrandHotelAbyss
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A spirit message from 1935: "Can't think, too dumb, Inspiration won't come, Bad ink, bad pen, Best wishes, Amen."
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To go on remembering and wishing that things were different, from the bittersweet final episode of Dark Shadows.
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Those books you'd read if stranded on a desert island ... keep them on your person at all times, just in case. From Purple Parrot, 1929.
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All you need is...
- a plunger
- a mirror and a good flashlight
- a piece of paper
- a spirit of adventure
- a quart of paint
- one unsuspecting subject
- a sheet you can spread under a tree
- a fertile mind
- desire and a little practice
- a piece of string about four feet long
- a flat playing area
- someone to trust
- a library card
- a bit of imagination and a sewing machine
- a little olive oil and diced garlic
- time
- fifty lucky breaks
- a good lawyer
- a good laugh
[Tidbits gathered through the course of our research. See the remarkable collection, entitled Bullet Lists.]
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"No one should ever read anyone's doctoral dissertation, old or new." —John Pistelli, author of Portraits and Ashes
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Nothing changes until …
- we hit some kind of bottom.
- someone starts to dream.
- a complete power-down of the system.
- the soul changes.
- behaviors change.
- the players pick up the pieces and start a new game.
- the data is artificially changed.
- you actually quit.
- we ask ourselves questions.
- we shine a light on the issue.
- you make your voice heard.
- we get sick of ourselves.
- it’s changed in everyone’s memories.
- it becomes what it is.
- the next version comes out.
- a small cat appears.
[Tidbits gathered through the course of our research. See the remarkable collection, entitled Bullet Lists.]
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These surreal CAPTCHA puzzles! I can't click "verify" without selecting an image, yet they're all not pipes. It's a Catch-22 (er, CAPTCHA-22?) situation. A robot can't be in a Catch-22, so I've proven I'm not a robot, yet I can't submit my proof.
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This makes sense for chapter one: "Short Memories," in I Forgot by Mrs. Frederick Field, 1888.
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Not only does The Book That Casts No Reflection cast no reflection, but it sports a dapper mustache! It's by magician/inventor Gregg Webb, author of the out-of-print Book That Doesn't Exist. Not only do we admire Mr. Webb's book titles, but he hand-letters and profusely illustrates his works (even those that do not exist or no longer don't exist).
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Ghosts come and go, but music and the pleasure of the senses endure forever. From Dark Shadows episode 821.
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Page 106 of 169
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Original Content Copyright © 2025 by Craig Conley. All rights reserved.
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