Excerpts
Paragraphs I Admire So Much I Can’t Believe I Get To Type Them Out (4): Lynne Tillman
Some of the acts I’ve committed have been illegal. When I was five, I stole candy inadvertently from the candy store several blocks from my house, on a main road, in the suburb where I grew up, because its sign said, Take One, and later I stole lipstick from the town five and dime, and then shoplifted clothes from department stores, packing a skirt into the voluminous shoulder of a ratty fur coat, and purchased small amounts of cocaine, all relatively mild infractions of the law. Other people, who have scant education, less economic or skin privilege, might have been arrested, convicted, and sent upstate for the same relatively harmless but illegal acts, and other people have records against them that are public, so that anyone can find out what these people have done wrong, and while I have no record of crimes against property or person, nothing that would show up on police blotters or computers, nothing that I am aware of, or that might hurt me, though I am not aware of everything that might hurt me, I have committed illegal acts that have gone undetected, but I know what I have done, and I know what was wrong and illegal. Legally, I am sane.
* from American Genius, pg. 42
** (I could pick literally almost any graph from this book and feel just as happy sharing it. In my top 20 books of all time, I think. Just too fucking good.)
Tags: american genius, lynne tillman
One sentence, fifteen commas. What was I saying before about the death of prose style? Still it is only ‘American’ genius, so we best not set our standards too high.
One sentence, fifteen commas. What was I saying before about the death of prose style? Still it is only ‘American’ genius, so we best not set our standards too high.
yah, f’real, fuck commas man, i feel ya
yah, f’real, fuck commas man, i feel ya
Ok, I’m going to have to win here. And in order to do so i am going to throw all my political anticapitalist values out the window and turn to amazon as my weapon of choice.
Fuck the comma, the semicolon is god, especially when used by pierre Guyotat:
http://www.amazon.com/Eden-Modern-Classics/dp/1840680636
click look inside
people are weird
This graph is great. I look forward to reading this one. Also, on commas: I have trouble with them. I tend to want to render every desired sonic pause as a comma. It’s a dangerous game. But, hey man, this graph works. NO RULES.
people are weird
This graph is great. I look forward to reading this one. Also, on commas: I have trouble with them. I tend to want to render every desired sonic pause as a comma. It’s a dangerous game. But, hey man, this graph works. NO RULES.
This graph is great. I look forward to reading this one. Also, on commas: I have trouble with them. I tend to want to render every desired sonic pause as a comma. It’s a dangerous game. But, hey man, this graph works. NO RULES.
This graph is great. I look forward to reading this one. Also, on commas: I have trouble with them. I tend to want to render every desired sonic pause as a comma. It’s a dangerous game. But, hey man, this graph works. NO RULES.
The French love their punctuation porn. Guyotat, and Celine with the ellipses.
The French love their punctuation porn. Guyotat, and Celine with the ellipses.
it occurs to me this excerpt might feel missing something out of the context of the narrator’s speech patterns. you really have to read the book. it’s hypnotizing.
it occurs to me this excerpt might feel missing something out of the context of the narrator’s speech patterns. you really have to read the book. it’s hypnotizing.
It kinda makes me think of Woolf, or Beckett. More Beckett i think. I like Beckett. I might read it.
Saw her read from American Genius in Providence a while back. She read these complex sentences very quickly, much quicker than I could read them to myself, which really colored my re-reading of the novel. The voice is on the verge of being manic, but she controls the associations in a way that the reader accepts as logical (academic) in spite of their delivery and the context of their delivery.
Read also No Lease on Life…the main chracter’s internal processes caused physical discomfort, but there were lots and lots of very bad jokes for relief (just like life).
Saw her read from American Genius in Providence a while back. She read these complex sentences very quickly, much quicker than I could read them to myself, which really colored my re-reading of the novel. The voice is on the verge of being manic, but she controls the associations in a way that the reader accepts as logical (academic) in spite of their delivery and the context of their delivery.
Read also No Lease on Life…the main chracter’s internal processes caused physical discomfort, but there were lots and lots of very bad jokes for relief (just like life).
Are you sure that’s not Meryl Streep just playing a writer?
Are you sure that’s not Meryl Streep just playing a writer?
Hey Blake,
Now you gotta tell us the rest of your top twenty of all time!
Hey Blake,
Now you gotta tell us the rest of your top twenty of all time!
hm. that list is still hypothetical. i see if i can give it a try…
hm. that list is still hypothetical. i see if i can give it a try…
The only piece of punctuation that keeps it real is the interrobang.
The only piece of punctuation that keeps it real is the interrobang.
I hear you. Seems to me that any kind of “best of” list is an unending work-in-progress.
I hear you. Seems to me that any kind of “best of” list is an unending work-in-progress.
Nice. Paragraph highlights include: “voluminous shoulder of a ratty fur coat,” “less economic or skin privilege,” and the last sentence. Ka-boom, yeah.
Nice. Paragraph highlights include: “voluminous shoulder of a ratty fur coat,” “less economic or skin privilege,” and the last sentence. Ka-boom, yeah.
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