What I try to do in this book is to approach the dinner question as a naturalist . . .

"What I try to do in this book is to approach the dinner question as a naturalist might using the long lenses of ecology and anthropology as well as the shorter more intimate lense of personal experience. My premise is that, like every other creature on Earth, humans take part in a food chain and our place in that food chain, or web, determines to a considerable extent what kind of creature we are." . . . M . . . The Omnivore's Dilemma . . . "Introduction" . . .

Designers must know about materiality . . .

"Designers must know about materiality; they must be familiar with how materials can be bent and manipulated to a purpose. But a designer must also know people: how they interact with objects, how they relate to the future state of affairs encapsulated in a designed object, and how they feel . . . To design is to bring about new things in the world." . . . Miguel Sicart . . . Play Matters . . . 87-88 . . .

Mine eyes are made the fools . . .

"Mine eyes are made the fools o’th’other senses, . . ."

. . . William Shakespeare . . . Macbeth . . . (2.1.44-45) . . .

In the seventeenth century, the expression Hocus Pocus . . .

"In the seventeenth century, the expression Hocus Pocus was used in England and on the Continent to describe both a juggler and conjurer and the performance given by him."

. . . Sidney Clarke . . . The Annals of Conjuring, 111 . . . 1924-1928 . . .

There are two men inside the artist, . . .

“There are two men inside the artist, the poet and the craftsman. One is born a poet. One becomes a craftsman.”

. . . Emile Zola . . . letter to Paul Cezanne . . . April 16, 1860 . . .

The world always seems brighter . . .

"The world always seems brighter when you've just made something that wasn't there before"

. . . Neil Gaiman . . . Art Matters, 3 . . . 2018 . . .

Vision is the art . . .

"Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others"

. . . Jonathan Swift . . . Miscellanies, Vol 10, 240 . . . 1742-1749 . . .

I am a living mystery . . .

"Je suis un mystère vivant."

. . . Antonin Artaud . . . Cahiers d'Ivry . . . 1947 . . .

Success and reputation are things that other people decide about you . . .

“Success and reputation are things that other people decide about you, aren’t they? They come or go or live or die in the perceptions of other people. They’re not actually things that you have. So, the experience of being well known isn’t really any different than not being well known. You’re still just you looking out. It’s just how you manage other people's expectations or manage the issues that come from them that are important.”

. . . Darren Brown . . . The Magicians' Podcast with Richard Young . . . Ep 72 (Sept 9, 2016) . . .

a juggler was the description of a performer we now call a conjurer . . .

"Generally speaking, then, from Elizabethan to almost early Victorian times, a juggler was the description of a performer we now call a conjurer, to the absolute exclusion of the latter term."

. . . Sidney W. Clarke . . . Magic Wand . . . Vol. 13, No. 121 (Mar/May 1924), 18-19

To one who has faith, . . .

“To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.”

... Thomas Aquinas . . .

No room . . .

"No room is as fascinating as the locked one."

. . . Gordon Bean and William Goodwin . . . The Penumbra . . . "51 Faces North: Stewart James" . . .

Visual doublethink

"Visual doublethink."

. . . Teller . . . This American Life, "619: The Magic Show . . .

When Arranging a Conjuring Problem . . .

"When arranging a conjuring problem, it is well to remember that it ought to appeal both to the mind and the eye, to old and young, to gallery and orchestra."

. . . Maskelyne and Devant . . . Our Magic . . . 217 . . .

The end of all magic is to feed with mystery . . .

"The end of all magic is to feed with mystery the human mind, which dearly loves mystery."

. . . Harry Kellar . . .

The Magician who shows how slick he is, . . .

"The magician who shows how slick he is, doing flourishes and fancy shuffling and one hand passes, is just as bad as a man who would show his handkerchief balls, pulls, holders and everything else, and then start in and do his show. Anything that attests to the cleverness of the hands should be concealed the same as a fake. The ordinary fellow with the 'clever hands' is in the same class as the fellow who juggles 5 balls, only not so good."

. . . Jarrett Magic and Stagecraft Technical . . . 1936 . . . 167 . . .

Man is born free . . .

"Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains."

. . . Jean-Jacques Rousseau . . . The Social Contract . . .

Art is magic . . .

"Art is magic . . ."

. . . Theodor W. Adorno . . . Minima Moralia: Reflections on a Damaged Life . . . 222 . . .

Those who don't believe in magic will never . . .

"Those who don't believe in magic will never find it."

. . . Roald Dahl . . . The Minpins (1991) . . . 44 . . .

Magic will never die . . .

"Magic will never die so long as children are born."

. . . Karle Germain . . . The Sphinx (1918) . . .

Imaginary gardens with real toads in them.

"imaginary gardens with real toads in them."


. . . Marianne Moore . . . "Poetry" . . .

The most beautiful experience . . .

“The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed.”

. . . Albert Einstein . . . The World as I See It . . . 1934 . . .

Be realists, demand . . .

"Be realists, demand the impossible."

. . . Street graffiti slogan from Mai '68 . . . Political Theory and Praxis . . . ed. Terence Ball . . . 262 . . .

Love, attraction, and desire are mysteries . . .

"Love, attraction, and desire are mysteries for most of us. Magic, as the aesthetic exploration of mystery, touches upon these confusing and wondrous states of being."

. . . Emir Tops . . . The Illusion Papers . . . 20012

The world may or may not be without purpose, . . .

"The world may or may not be without purpose, but it's not totally without some kind of magic."

. . . Aunt Olivia in Magic in the Moonlight . . . 2014 . . . dir. Woody Allen . . .

I'm not an advertiser, I'm news.

"I'm not an advertiser, I'm news."

Harry Houdini . . . "Boston Daily Globe", 22 Septeber 1926 . . . p.5

Cargo cult science

"We've learned from experience that the truth will come out. Other experimenters will repeat your experiment and find out whether you were wrong or right. Nature's phenomena will agree or they'll disagree with your theory. And, although you may gain some temporary fame and excitement, you will not gain a good reputation as a scientist if you haven't tried to be very careful in this kind of work. And it's this type of integrity, this kind of care not to fool yourself, that is missing to a large extent in much of the research in cargo cult science."

Richard P. Feynman . . . "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" . . . 340

My father was always interested in magic and carnival tricks, . . .

"My father was always interested in magic and carnival tricks, and wanting to see how they worked. One of the things he knew about was mindreaders. When he was a little boy, growing up in a small town called Patchogue, in the middle of Long Island, it was announced on advertisements posted all over that a mindreader was coming next Wednesday. The posters said that some respected citizens—the mayor, a judge, a banker—should take a five-dollar bill and hide it somewhere, and when the mindreader came to town, he would find it."

Richard P. Feynman . . . "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" . . . 88

. . . I found hypnosis

". . . I found hypnosis to be a very interesting experience. All the time you're saying to yourself, 'I could do that, but I won't'—which is just another way of saying that you can't."

Richard P. Feynman . . . "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" . . . 68

We used to put on magic shows . . .

"We used to put on magic shows—chemistry magic—for the kids on the block. . . . We did our tricks on a little table, with Bunsen burners at each end going all the time. On the burners we had watch glass plates (flat glass discs) with iodine on them, which made a beautiful purple vapor that went up on each side of the table while the show went on. It was great! We did a lot of tricks, such as turning 'wine' into water, and other chemical color changes. For our finale, we did a trick that used something which we had discovered. I would put my hands (secretly) first into a sink of water, and then into benzine. Then I would 'accidentally' brush by one of the Bunsen burners, and one hand would light up. I'd clap my hands, and both hands would then be burning. (It doesn't hurt because it burns fast and the water keeps it cool.) Then I'd wave my hands, running around yelling, "FIRE! FIRE" and everybody would get all excited. They'd run out of the room, and that was the end of the show!"

Richard P. Feynman . . . "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" . . . 53-54

Writing and gambling . . .

"Writing and gambling are similar endeavors."

. . . Emir Tops . . . Cards . . . 2015 . . .

There is no language . . .

"There is no language without deceit."

. . . Italo Calvino . . . Invisible Cities . . . 48 . . .

Hiesos Christos, magician of the beautiful, . . .

"Formless spiritual. Father, Word and Holy Breath. Allfather, the heavenly man. Hiesos Kristos, magician of the beautiful, the Logos who suffers in us at every moment. This verily is that. I am the fire upon the altar. I am the sacrificial butter."

. . . James Joyce . . . Ulysses . . . Somewhere after 127 . . .

Pepper's ghost idea . . .

"Is coming! Is coming!! Is coming!!! All heartily welcome. Paying game. Torry and Alexander last year. Polygamy. His wife will put the stopper on that. WHere was that ad some Birmingham firm the luminous crucifix. Our Savior. Wake up in the dead of the night and see him on the wall, hanging. Pepper's ghost idea. Iron nails ran in."

This stream-of-consciousness snippet, from primarily the mind of Mr. Bloom in James Joyce's Ulysses, contains a reference to the nineteenth-century stage illusion "Pepper's Ghost." It's nice to see that magic history makes it into what many consider to be the most important work of modernist fiction.

. . . James Joyce . . . Ulysses . . . 127 . . .

This head, Señor Don Quixote, has been fabricated . . .

"This head, Señor Don Quixote, has been fabricated and made by one of the greatest enchanters and wizards the world has ever seen, a Pole, I believe, and a disciple of the famous Escotillo,* about whom so many marvels are told; he was here in my house, and for a thousand escudos, which I paid him, he fashioned this head, which has the property and virtue of responding to any question spoken into its ear."

*The translator;s note regarding the name Escotillo is of particular interest to magicians: "*Martín de Riquer is certain the reference is to Michael Scot (d. ca. 1232) who studied at Oxford, Bologna, Paris and eventually Toledo, where he learned Arabic, the language from which he translated (or supervised the translation of) many of Aristotle's writings into Latin. Escotillo is the diminutive of Escoto, his name in Spanish. For a variety of reasons, including his interests in astrology, alchemy, and the occult sciences, he was widely known as a magician and soothsayer."

Who was Michael Scot? Is it possible that he ever wrote or translated work on magic as a performing art?

. . . Miguel de Cervantes (Trans. Edith Grossman) . . . Don Quixote . . . 866 . . .

He's a famous puppet master . . .

"He's a famous puppet master who's been traveling the Aragonese side of La Mancha for some time, showing a puppet play about Melisendra being freed by the famous Don Gaiferos, which is one of the best and best-acted histories seen in this part of the kingdom for many years. He also has with him a monkey with the rarest talent ever seen among monkeys or imagined among men, because if he's asked something, he pays attention to what he's asked, then jumps onto his master's shoulders and goes up to his ear and tells him the answer to the question, and then Master Pedro says what it is; he has much more to say about past things than about future ones, and even though he isn't right all othe time, he's not wrong most of the time, so he makes us think he has the devil in his body."

. . . Miguel de Cervantes (Trans. Edith Grossman) . . . Don Quixote . . . 624 . . .

The third, having realized the antiquity of cards, . . .

"The third, having realized the antiquity of cards, which were in use during the time of the Emperor Charlemagne, as one can deduce from the words your grace says Durandarte said when, after that long period of time when Montesinos was talking to him, he awoke and said: 'Have patience and shuffle the deck.'"

. . . Miguel de Cervantes (Trans. Edith Grossman) . . . Don Quixote . . . 615 . . .

'Hold, Señores, hold, for it is not right to take revenge for the offenses that love commits . . .'

"Hold, Señores, hold, for it is not right to take revenge for the offenses that love commits; you should know that love and war are the same, and just as in war it is legitimate and customary to make use of tricks and strategems to conquer the enemy, so in the contests and rivalries of love the lies and falsehoods used to achieve a desired end are considered fair, as long as they do not discredit or dishonor the beloved."

. . . Miguel de Cervantes (Trans. Edith Grossman) . . . Don Quixote . . . 595 . . .

Well then, What shall we say about sacred plays?

"Well then, what shall we say about sacred plays? What a number of false miracles and apocryphal, poorly understood stories they invent, attributing the miracles of one saint to another! And even in their secular plays they dare perform miracles, with no other concern or consideration than thinking that some miracle or stage effect, as they call it, would be a good idea at that point so the ignorant will marvel and come to the theater; all of this is prejudicial to the truth, and damaging to history, and even a discredit to the intelligence of Spaniards, because foreigners, who are punctilious in obeying the rules of drama, think of us as ignorant barbarians, seeing the absurdities and idiocies in the plays we produce."

. . . Miguel de Cervantes (Trans. Edith Grossman) . . . Don Quixote . . . 416-417 . . .

'I always thought they were fabulous monsters!' said the Unicorn. . . .

"'I always thought they were fabulous monsters!' said the Unicorn. 'Is it alive?'
'It can talk,' said Haigha, solemnly.
The Unicorn looked dreamily at Alice, and said 'Talk, child.'
Alice could not help her lips curling up into a smile as she began: 'Do you know, I always thought Unicorns were fabulous monsters, too! I never saw one alive before!'
'Wll, now that we have seen each other,' said the Unicorn, 'if you'll believe in me, I'll believe in you. Is that a bargain?'
'Yes, if you like,' said Alice.

. . . Lewis Carroll . . . Through the Looking Glass . . . 87 . . .

A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic . . .

"What an astonishing thing a book is. It's a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you're inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, an author is speaking clearly and silently inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of distant epochs. Books break the shackles of time. A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic."

. . . Carl Sagan . . . Cosmos (1980) . . . Episode 11 "The Persistence of Memory" . . .

The problems of the magician's ghetto . . .

"The problems of the magician's ghetto were the problems of the Communist movement in India; within the confines of the colony could be found, in miniature, the many divisions and dissensions which racked the Party in the country. Picture Singh, I hasten to add was above it all; the patriarch of the ghetto, he was the possessor of an umbrella whose shade could restore harmony to the squabbling factions; but the disputes which were brought into the shelter of the snake-charmer's umbrella were becoming more and more bitter, as the prestidigitators, the pullers of rabbits from hats, aligned themselves firmly behind Mr. Dange's Moscow-line official C.P.I., which supported Mrs. Gandhi throughout the Emergency; the contortionists, however, began to lean more towards the left and the slanting intricacies of the Chinese-oriented wing. Fire-eaters and sword-swallowers applauded the guerrilla tactics of the Naxalite movement; while mesmerists and wlkers-on-hot-coals espoused Namboodiripad's manifesto (neither Muscovite nor Pekinese) and deplored the Naxalites' violence. There were Trotskyist tendencies amongst card-sharpers, and even a Communism-through-the-ballot-box movement amongst the moderate members of the ventriloquist section. I had entered a milieu in which, while religious and regionalist bigotry were wholly absent, our ancient national gift for fissiparousness had found new outlets. Picture Singh told me, sorrowfully, that during the 1971 general election a bizarre murder had resulted from the quarrel between a Naxalite fire-eater and a Moscow-line conjuror who, incensed by the former's views, had attempted to draw a pistol from his magic hat; but no sooner had the weapon been produced than the supporter of Ho Chi Minh had scorched his opponent to death in a burst of terrifying flame.

. . . Salman Rushdie . . . Midnight's Children . . . ? . . .

To write a book is to make a Faustian contract in reverse . . .

"To write a book is to make a Faustian contract in reverse. To gain immortality, or at least posterity, you lose, or at least ruin, your actual daily life."

. . . Note that Salman Rushdie had on his desk while writing The Satanic Verses . . . Joseph Anton: A Memoir . . . (?) . . .

The art of writing . . .

"The art of writing is the art of applying the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair"

. . . American Proverb, mid 20th-Century . . .

Airplane travel hurtles us through space and time as if by magic . . .

“Airplane travel hurtles us through space and time as if by magic and would seem to correspond to fantasies of childhood, of omnipotence, rapid shifts of being, ‘miraculous’ moments; it stirs our capacity for dreaming.”

. . . Joyce Carol Oates . . . (The Deseret News 5 July 1995 — “Possible to have 2 homes - or more? For writer, definitely USair Magazine) . . .

We need, all of us, whatever our background, to constantly examine the stories inside which and with which we live . . .

"We need all of us, whatever our background, to constantly examine the stories inside which and with which we live. We all live in stories, so called grand narratives. Nation is a story. Family is a story. Religion is a story. Community is a story. We all live within and with these narratives. And it seems to me that a definition of any living vibrant society is that you constantly question those stories. That you constantly argue about the stories. In fact the arguing never stops. The argument itself is freedom. It’s not that you come to a conclusion about it. And through that argument you change your mind sometimes….And that’s how societies grow. When you can’t retell for yourself the stories of your life then you live in a prison...Somebody else controls the story."

. . . Salman Rushdie . . . Interview with Zepps and Bernstein on Point of Inquiry . . . 27 October 2006

M agic lands lie all around, . . .

M agic lands lie all around,

I nside, outside, underground.

L ooking-glass worlds still abound.

A ll their tales this truth reveals:

N aught but love makes magic real.

. . . Salman Rushdie . . . Luca and the Fire of Life . . . Epigraph . . .

"Innocent Art, secret and cunning Contrivances to delude the Sight; this we call Juggling, Legerdemain or philosophical Delusion."

. . . Daniel Defoe . . . A System of Magic: or, A history of the black art (1727)

No mysteries here or depths; . . .

"No Mysteries here or depths; only surfaces and revelations. Yet to learn the city was to discover that this banal clarity was an illusion. The city was all treachery, all deception, a quick-change, quicksand metropolis, hiding its nature, guarded and secret in spite of all its apparent nakedness."

. . . Salman Rushdie . . . somehow describing Kashmir and Los Angeles at the same time in Shalimar the Clown . . . 5 . . .

Meaning is context-bound, but context is boundless. . . .

"But if we say that meaning is context-bound, then we must add that context is boundless: there is no determining in advance what might count as relevant, what enlarging of context might be able to shift what we regard as the meaning of a text. Meaning is context-bound, but context is boundless."

. . . Jonathan Culler . . . Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction . . . 68 . . .

We dance round and round in a ring . . .

"We dance round and round in a ring and suppose,
But the Secret sits in the middle and knows."

. . . Robert Frost . . . "The Secret Sits" . . .

What we have here, after all, is an institution based on the possibility of saying anything you can imagine. . . .

"What we have here, after all, is an institution based on the possibility of saying anything you can imagine. This is central to what literature is: for any orthodoxy, any belief, any value, a literary work can mock it, parody it, imagine some different and monstrous fiction. From the novels of the Marquis de Sade, which sought to work out what might happen in a world where action followed a nature conceived as unconstrained appetite, to Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses which has caused so much outrage for its use of sacred names and motifs in a context of satire and parody, literature has been the possibility of fictionally exceeding what has previously been thought and written. For anything that seemed to make sense, literature could make it nonsense, go beyond it, transform it in a way that raised the question of its legitimacy and adequacy.

Literature had been the activity of a cultural elite, and it has been what is sometimes called 'cultural capital': learning about literature gives you a stake in culture that may pay off in various ways, helping you fit in with people of higher social status. But literature cannot be reduced to this conservative social function: it is scarcely the purveyor of 'family values' but makes seductive all manner of crimes, from Satan's revolt against God in Milton's Paradise Lost to Raskolinikov's murder of an old woman in Dostoevski's Crime and Punishment. It encourages resistance to capitalist values, to the practicalities of getting and spending. Literature is the noise of culture as well as its information. It is an entropic force as well as cultural capital. It is a writing that calls for a reading and engages readers in problems of meaning.

. . . Jonathan Culler . . . Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction . . . 39-40 . . .

I must be a mermaid . . .

"I must be a mermaid, . . . I have no fear of depths and a great fear of shallow living."

. . . Anaïs Nin . . . The Four-Chambered Heart . . . 249 . . .

There is, of course, here and there on this terrestrial sphere a kind of sequel to love, . . .

"There is, of course, here and there on this terrestrial sphere a kind of sequel to love, in which that covetous longing of two persons for one another has yielded to a new desire and covetousness, to a common, higher thirst for a superior ideal standing above them: but who knows this love? Who has experienced it? Its right name is friendship."

. . . Nietzsche . . . The Joyful Wisdom . . . 32 . . .

Mark Twain once wrote that Lake Tahoe 'would return an Egyptian mummy to its pristine vogor,' . . .

"Mark Twain once wrote that Lake Tahoe 'would return an Egyptian mummy to its pristine vigor,'and even in this hot month of August, the crystalline expanse is chilly with fresh snowmelt after a huge winter."

. . . Jaimal Yogis . . . The Fear Project . . . 47 . . .

There is an old illusion—it is called good and evil . . .

"There is an old illusion—it is called good and evil. Around soothsayers and astrologers has hitherto revolved the orbit of this illusion.

Once did one BELIEVE in soothsayers and astrologers; and THEREFORE did one believe, "Everything is fate: you shall, for you must!"

Then again did one distrust all soothsayers and astrologers; and THEREFORE did one believe,
"Everything is freedom: you can, for you will it."

O my brethren, concerning the stars and the future there has hitherto been only illusion,
and not knowledge; and THEREFORE concerning good and evil there has hitherto been only illusion and not knowledge!"

. . . Nietzsche . . . Thus Spoke Zarathustra . . . 229-230 . . .

My main goal is to fascinate the audience into thinking that they are dreaming, . . .

"My main goal is to fascinate the audience into thinking that they are dreaming, even if this is only for a few seconds. ... I am not interested in intellectual speculations whereby the audience is questioning how it is done, or to have their admiration ... I only care about how to reach the audience and how to captivate them."

. . . Juan Tamariz . . . "Exactly the Same with a Difference" . . . Genii Magazine, Vol. 65, Issue 10, p.61 . . .

One loves ultimately one's desires, . . .

"One loves ultimately one's desires, not the thing desired."

. . . Friedrich Nietzsche . . . Beyond Good and Evil . . . Apophthegm #175 . . .

In intercourse with scholars and artists one readily makes mistakes . . .

"In intercourse with scholars and artists one readily makes mistakes of opposite kinds: in a remarkable scholar one not infrequently finds a mediocre man; and often, even in a mediocre artist, one finds a very remarkable man."

. . . Friedrich Nietzsche . . . Beyond Good and Evil . . . Apophthegm #137 . . .

It occurred to me while I was doing House of Games . . .

"It occurred to me while I was doing House of Games that the difficulty of making the movie was exactly the same difficulty the confidence man has. For the confidence man it is depriving the victim of her money; for me it is misleading the audience sufficiently so they feel pleased when they find out they’ve been misled, tricking them so that every step is logical, and at the end they’ve defeated themselves. So, the process of magic and the process of confidence games, and to a certain extent the process of drama, are all processes of autosuggestion. They cause the audience to autosuggest themselves in a way that seems perfectly logical but is actually false."

. . . David Mamet . . . "David Mamet: The Art of Theatre XI" . . . Paris Review 39, no 142 (Spring 1997): 53-74 . . .

A kiss is a lovely trick . . .

"A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous."

. . . Ingrid Bergman . . . [IBHB] 1970 February 9, Owosso Argus-Press, Boyle’s Mail by Hal Boyle, [Associated Press], Quote Page 11, Column 1, Owosso, Michigan. (Google News Archive) . . .

A good coincidence . . .

"A good coincidence is like a good magic trick. When you see one, a struggle ensues — instantaneously — between the thrill of the apparent miracle and the urge to debunk it."

. . . Sarah Koenig . . . This American Life Episode #489: No Coincidence, No Story! . . . 00:48:51 . . .

In all storytelling . . .

"In all storytelling, the more fascinating the fictions—scientists call them theories—the more sense the facts make. As though to underline this, our English word 'fact' comes from the same root as 'fiction;' both mean 'something made up.'"

. . . Ted Chamberlin . . . If This is Your Land, Where Are Your Stories? . . . 138 . . .

The sea, once it casts its spell . . .

"The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever."

. . . Jacques Couseau . . . Life and Death in a Coral Sea . . . 13 . . .

Life should be lived on the edge of life. . . .

"Life should be lived on the edge of life. You have to exercise rebellion: to refuse to tape yourself to rules, to refuse your own success, to refuse to repeat yourself, to see every day, every year, every idea as a true challenge - and then you are going to live your life on a tightrope."

. . . Philippe Petit . . . Man on Wire . . . (2008) . . .

. . . Freedom from hate, unconditionally; . . .

"PRES. RICHARD NIXON: 'The President of the United States of America awards this Presidential Medal of Freedom to Edward Kennedy Ellington. Edward Kennedy Ellington, pianist, composer, and orchestra leader, has long enhanced American music with his unique style, his intelligence, his impeccable taste. For more than 40 years he has helped to expand the frontiers of jazz, while at the same time retaining in his music the individuality and freedom of expression that are the soul of jazz. In the royalty of American music, no man swings more or stands higher than the Duke.'

MR. ELLINGTON: Thank you very much, Mr. President. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.

This is the Presidential Medal of Freedom. And the word "freedom" is one, coincidentally, that we are using at the moment in our sacred concert.

And, of course, we speak of freedom of expression and we speak of freedom generally as being something very sweet and fat and things like that. In the end when we get down to the payoff, what we actually say is that we would like very much to mention the four major freedoms that my friend and writing-and-arranging composer, Billy Strayhorn, lived by and enjoyed.

That was freedom from hate, unconditionally; freedom from self-pity; freedom from fear of possibly doing something that may help someone else more than it would him; and freedom from the kind of pride that could make a man feel that he is better than his brother."

. . . Duke Ellington (upon receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom award on 29 April 1969) . . . Jazz . . . dir. Ken Burns . . .

There is a sexual force . . .

"There is a sexual force that comes with the mastering of a skill. It is a sense of supernatural, supersensual power and fulfillment — a dose of the superhuman."

. . . Emir Tops . . . The Illusion Papers . . . 2012 . . .

Even a single note . . .

"Even a single note can swing."

. . . Count Bassie . . . Jazz (2000) . . . Narr. Keith David. Dir: Ken Burns . . .

. . . a tall, intense young musician who arrived in Oklahoma City sometime in 1929 and who, . . ."

" . . . a tall, intense young musician who arrived in Oklahoma City sometime in 1929 and who, with his heavy white sweater, blue stocking cap and up-and-outthrust silver saxophone, left absolutely no reed player and few young players of any instrument unstirred by the wild, excitingly original flights of his imagination. Who else but Lester Young, who with his battered horn upset the entire Negro section of the town."

. . . Ralph Ellison . . . "The Charlie Christian Story" . . . Shadow and Act . . . 236 . . .

I go so far . . .

"I go so far as to think that you own the universe.
I will bring you happy flowers from the mountains, bluebells, dark hazels, and rustic baskets of kises.
I want
to do with you what spring does with the cherry trees."

. . . Pablo Neruda . . . "Every Day You Play" . . . Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair . . . 55 . . .

"No one who, like me, conjures up the most evil of those half-tamed demons that inhabit the human breast, and seeks to wrestle with them, can expect to come through the struggle unscathed."

. . . Sigmund Freud . . . Dora : An Analysis of a Case of Hysteria (1905) . . . in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud: case of hysteria, Three essays on sexuality, and other works . . . 109 . . .

Normal is an illusion. . . .

"Normal is an illusion. What is normal to the spider is chaos to the fly."

. . . Morticia Addams . . . the Addams Family . . .

You essence from all slumber-bringing flowers, . . .

"You essence from all slumber-bringing flowers,
You extract of all subtly fatal powers,
Bare to your master your enticing heart!"

. . . Goethe . . . Faust (translated by W. Kaufman) . . . 117 . . .

I have, alas, studied philosophy, . . .

"I have, alas, studied philosophy,
Jurisprudence and medicine, too,
And, worst of all, theology
With keen endeavor, through and through—
And here I am, for all my lore,
The wretched fool I was before.
Called Master of Arts, and Doctor to boot,
For ten years almost I confute
And up and down, wherever it goes,
I drag my students by the nose—
And see that for all our science and art
We can know nothing. It burns my heart.
Of course, I am smarter than all the shysters,
The doctors, and teachers, and scribes, and
Christers;
No scruple nor doubt could make me ill,
I am not afraid of the Devil or hell—
But therefore I also lack all delight,
Do not fancy that I know anything right,
Do not fancy that I could teach or assert
What would better mankind or what might
convert.
I also have neither money nor treasures,
Nor worldly honors or earthly pleasures;
No dog would want to live longer this way!
Hence I have yielded to magic to see
Whether the spirit's mouth and might
Would bring some mysteries to light,
That I need not with work and woe
Go on to say what I don't know;
That I might see what secret force
Hides in the world and rules its course.
Envisage the creative blazes
Instead of rummaging in phrases.

. . . Goethe . . . Faust (translated by W. Kaufman) . . . 94-95 . . .

If a man could pass through Paradise in a dream . . .

"If a man could pass through Paradise in a dream, and have a flower presented to him as a pledge that his soul had really been there, and if he found that flower in his hand when he awake — Aye! and what then?"

. . . Samuel Taylor Coleridge . . . "Anima Poetæ: From the Unpublished Note-books of Samuel Taylor Coleridge" (1895) . . . ed. Ernest Hartley Coleridge . . . 282 . . .

Language is courage . . .

"Language is courage: the ability to conceive a thought, to speak it, and by so doing to make it true."

. . . Salmon Rushdie . . . The Satanic Verses . . . 295 . . .

To be illusive . . .

"To be illusive is to be Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream; to be elusive is to be Houdini in The Water Torture Cell."

. . . Emir Tops . . . The Illusion Papers . . . 2012 . . .

When you notice a cat . . .

"When you notice a cat in profound meditation
The reason, I tell you, is always the same:
His mind is engaged in a rapt contemplation
Of the thought
Of the thought
Of the thought
Of his name

His ineffable effable effanineffable
Deep and inscrutable singular name"

. . . T.S. Eliot . . . "The Naming of Cats" . . .

Wild to be Wreckage Forever

"Drunk on the wind in my mouth,
Wringing the handlebar for speed,
Wild to be wreckage forever."

. . . James Dickey . . . "Cherrylog Road" . . . final lines . . .

"‎'Autocorrect' is, quite possibly, a new error-based dialect."

. . . Emir Tops . . . "Supposedly Smartphone Linguistics" (Delivered at the 15th annual Futurological Congress in January 2013) . . .

Time has transfigured them into / Untruth. . . .

"Time has transfigured them into
Untruth. The stone fidelity
They hardly meant has come to be
Their final blazon, and to prove
Our almost-instinct almost true:
What will survive of us is love."

. . . Philip Larkin . . . "An Arundel Tomb" . . . Collected Poems . . .

If this be magic . . .

"If this be magic, let it be an art / Lawful as eating."

. . . Shakespeare . . . The Winter's Tale . . . Leontes's reaction to a statue of his dead wife coming to life . . .

There is no why . . .

"There is no why. . . . When I see three oranges, I juggle; when I see two towers, I walk."

. . . Philippe Petit . . . Man on Wire . . . (2008) . . .

Infinity is a place . . .

"Infinity is a place where things happen that don't"

. . . Ted Chamberlin . . . If This is Your Land, Where Are Your Stories . . . ( ) . . .

All that we see or seem . . .

"All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream."

. . . Edgar Allan Poe . . . "A Dream Within A Dream" (1849) . . .

We understand our own traditions of performance . . .

"We understand our own traditions of performance less well than we think."

. . . Ted Chamberlin . . . If This Is Your Land, Where Are Your Stories . . . 22 . . .

Style makes a difficult action into a graceful gesture . . .

"Style makes a difficult action into a graceful gesture [...]. Style is to be courageous without disorder, to give necessity the appearance of freedom."

. . . Roland Barthes . . . What is Sport? . . . Trans. Richard Howard. . . .

Another turtle. . . .

"One time, it was in Prince Rupert I think, a young girl in the audience asked about the turtle and the earth. If the earth was on the back of a turtle, what was below the turtle? Another turtle, the storyteller told her. And below that turtle? Another turtle. And below that? Another turtle.

The girl began to laugh, enjoying the game, I imagine. So how many turtles are there? she wanted to know [sic]. The storyteller shrugged. No one knows for sure, he told her, but it's turtles all the way down."

. . . Thomas King . . . The Truth About Stories . . . (1-2) . . .

. . . do the thing that you would like to do for about ten years and you'll be fine.

“A few years ago, I did a talk at a University. I can’t remember which one . . . Oh, yeah, Yale. And one student asked me ‘What was your backup plan?’ And I said: ‘A backup plan is the first step towards failure!’ . . . ‘So, . . . Don’t have a backup plan just do the thing that you would like to do for about ten years and you’ll be fine. It’s true. Whatever your interest, no matter how weird or unattainable or far off it seems – it’s not. It’s completely possible and even likely if you just consistently work at it.”

. . . Eugene Mirman . . . Commencement Speech at Hampshire College . . . 20 May 2012 . . .

Our situation as artists is . . .

"Our situation as artists is that we have all this work that was done before we came along. We have the opportunity to do work now. I would not present things from the past, but I would approach them as materials available to something else which we were going to do now. They could enter, in terms of collage, into any play."

. . . "Interview with John Cage" (1985) . . . (with thoughts of Chuck Mee's wonderful magical plays in mind) . . . (Thanks to NC for pointing this one out) . . .

You always won . . .

"You always won every time you placed a bet
You're still damn good
No one's gotten to you yet
Every time they were sure they had you caught
You were quicker than they thought
You'd just turn your back and walk

You always said
The cards will never do you wrong
The trick you said
Was never play the game too long
A gambler's share
The only risk that you would take
The only loss you could forsake
The only bluff you couldn't fake

And you're still the same
I caught up with you yesterday
Moving game to game
No one standing in your way
Turning on the charm
Long enough to get you by
You're still the same
You still aim high

There you stood
Everybody watched you play
I just turned and walked away
I had nothing left to say
'Cause you're still the same
You're still the same
Moving game to game
Some things never change
You're still the same"

. . . Bob Seger . . . "Still the Same" . . . Stranger in Town (1978) . . .

Were you scared? . . .

"Gil: Were you scared?"

Hemingway: Of what?

Gil: Of getting killed.

Hemingway: You'll never write well if you fear dying. (pause) Do you?

Gil: Yeah, I do. I'd say it's probably, well, maybe my greatest fear actually.

Hemingway: Well, it's something that all men before you have done; something all men will do.

Gil: I know, I know . . .

Hemingway: Have you ever made love to a truly great woman?

Gil: Actually, my fiancée is pretty sexy.

Hemingway: And when you make love to her you feel true and beautiful passion and you, for at least that moment, lose your fear of death?

Gil: No. That doesn't happen.

Hemingway: I believe that love that is true and real creates a respite from death. All cowardice comes from not loving or not loving well, which is the same thing. And when the man who is brave and true looks death squarely in the face like some rhino hunters I know or Belmonte, who is truly brave, it is because they love with sufficient passion to push death out of their minds. Until it returns, as it does to all men. And then you must make really good love again. Think about it.”

. . . Midnight in Paris (2011) . . . Written and Directed by Woody Allen . . .

I don't think that people accept the fact . . .

"I don't think that people accept the fact that life doesn't make sense. I think it makes people terribly uncomfortable. It seems like religion and myth were invented against that, trying to make sense out of it."

David Lynch . . . My Love Affair with David Lynch and Peachy Like Nietzsche: Dark Clown Porn Snuff for Terrorists and Gorefiends (2005) by Jason Rogers . . . 7

And why cannot a man live without these losses? . . .

"And why cannot a man live without these losses?
Why had the birch wood and the pine forest both been cut
down? Why is the common pasture unused? Why do
people do exactly what they ought not to do? Why did
he all his life scream, roar, clench his fists, insult his wife?
For what imaginable purpose did he frighten and insult
the Jew? Why, indeed, do people prevent one another from living
in peace? All these are also losses! Terrible losses! If
it were not for hatred and malice people would draw from
one another incalculable profits."

. . .

"In the morning he rose with an effort and went to the
hospital. The same Maksim Nikolaich ordered him to bind
his head with a cold compress, and gave him powders; and
by the expression of his face, and by his tone Yakov saw
that it was a bad business, and that no powders would make
it any better. But upon his way home he reflected that
from death at least there would be one profit; it would
no longer be necessary to eat, to drink, to pay taxes, or to
injure others; and as a man lies in his grave not one year,
but hundreds and thousands of years, the profit was enormous.
The life of man was, in short, a loss, and only his
death a profit. Yet this consideration, though entirely
just, was offensive and bitter; for why in this world is it
so ordered that life, which is given to a man only once,
passes by without profit?"

. . . Anton Chekhov . . . "Rothschild's Fiddle" . . .

There are no hard distinctions between what is real . . .

"There are no hard distinctions between what is real and what is unreal, nor between what is true and what is false. A thing is not necessarily either true or false; it can be both true and false."

. . . Harold Pinter . . . "Writing for the Theatre" in Complete Works Vol.1 . . . (11) . . .

P.S. Pinter also references this line at the beginning of his Nobel Prize speech in 2005.

For what one lacks access to from experience . . .

"For what one lacks access to from experience one will have no ear."

. . . Nietzsche . . . Ecce Homo . . . 261 . . .

The play [Corneille's The Liar] is partly a social satire about how lies work . . .

"The play [Corneille's The Liar] is partly a social satire about how lies work within a society, within love, how lies are woven into the fabric of things. It shows how lies can feed love and actually create happiness. But my own personal view is that the play is a wonderful hymn to the artistic. In the same way that Shakespeare's The Tempest uses magic to talk about art, this play uses lying to talk about art. Because, basically, every artist is in some sense a liar, creating truth out of fiction. And in the end, the liar gets exactly what he wants by telling lies."

. . . David Ives . . . interviewed by Mervyn Rothstein . . . 17 April 2010 . . . "David Ives Adapts Corneille's The Liar in DC" . . .

and Just like magic . . .

"and Just like magic / as the curtain tOuches the floor / one of them disappears totallY from view leaving the other all alone / in front of the Curtain / at that momEnt the telephone rings"

. . . John Cage . . . James Joyce, Marcel Duchamp, Erik Satie: An Alphabet (1983) . . .

1. When a distinguished but elderly scientist . . .

"1. When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong."

. . . Arthur C. Clarke . . . "Hazards of Prophecy: The Failure of Imagination" in Profiles of the Future (1962) . . .

2. The only way of discovering the limits of the possible . . .

"2. The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible."

. . . Arthur C. Clarke . . . "Hazards of Prophecy: The Failure of Imagination" in Profiles of the Future (1962) . . .

3. Any sufficiently advanced technology . . .

"3. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

. . . Arthur C. Clarke . . . "Hazards of Prophecy: The Failure of Imagination" in Profiles of the Future (1962) . . .

The scene contains . . .

"'The scene contains the act.'"

. . . Kenneth Burke . . . A Grammar of Motives . . . page 3 . . .

As I pick up my thought now . . .

"As I pick up my thought now I already know that it is going to slip through my fingers. Its very nature is to evade being caught."

. . . John Cage . . . "Rhythm Etc." . . . 1966 . . .

The film experience resembles a fun house attraction, . . .

"The film experience resembles a fun house attraction, a wild ride, the itinerary of which is calculated in advance but is unknown by the spectator. By spurts and stops, twists and roller coaster plunges, we are taken through a dark passage, alert and anxious, yet confident we shall return satisfied and unharmed."

. . . Dudley Andrew . . . Concepts in Film Theory . . . 144 . . .

If something is boring after two minutes, try it for four. . . ."

"If something is boring after two minutes, try it for four. If still boring, then eight. Then sixteen. Then thirty-two. Eventually one discovers that it is not boring at all."

. . . John Cage . . . "Grace and Clarity" . . . (1944) . . .

We live in a time I think not of mainstream, . . .

"We live in a time I think not of mainstream, but of many streams, or even, if you insist upon a river of time, that we have come to a delta, maybe even beyond delta to an ocean which is going back to the skies."

. . . John Cage . . . KPFA Radio (1992) . . .

I'll let you be in my dreams if I can be in yours, . . .

"Well, now time passed and now it seems
Everybody’s having them dreams.
Everybody sees themselves walkin’ around with no one else.
Half of the people can be part right all of the time,
Some of the people can be all right part of the time.
But all the people can’t be all right all the time
I think Abraham Lincoln said that.
'I’ll let you be in my dreams if I can be in yours,'
I said that."

Version two:

In the English performance recorded in Don't Look Back (1967), Dylan adapts his own verse brilliantly:

"'Some of the people can be half-right part of the time,
All of the people can be part-right some of the time,
Half the people can be part -right all of the time,
But all of the people can't be all right all of the time.'
T.S. Eliot said that.
'I'll let you be in my dream if I can be in your dream,'
I said that."

. . . Bob Dylan . . . "Talkin' World War III Blues . . . Freewheelin' Bob Dylan . . .

The first person who, . . .

"The first person who, having enclosed a plot of land, took it into his head to say this is mine and found people simple enough to believe him was the true founder of civil society. What crimes, wars, murders, what miseries and horrors would the human race have been spared, had some one pulled up the stakes or filled in the ditch and cried out to his fellow men: 'Do not listen to this imposter. You are lost if you forget that the fruits of the earth belong to all and the earth to no one!'"

. . . Jean-Jacques Rousseau . . . On the Origins of Inequality . . . First line of Part II . . .

A strange and seeing time . . .

"A strange and seeing time, the front steps of sleep."

. . . John Steinbeck . . . The Winter of Our Discontent . . . 267 . . .

Ars est . . .

"'Ars est celare artem.'"

"Artfulness is to conceal art." This should be the Latin motto on the coat of arms for my future Royal Conservatory of Magic.

. . . John Steinbeck . . . The Winter of Our Discontent . . . 159 . . .

The intent to wound raises rage. . . .

"The intent to wound raises rage. I could feel the fever rise in me. Ugly, desperate words moved up like venom. I felt a sour hatefulness.
'Mary said, 'Look! There it goes! Did you see it?'
'Where? What?'
'Went right past the tree there and into our yard.'
'What was it, Mary? Tell me! What did you see?'
In the dusk I saw her smile, that incredible female smile. It is called wisdom but it isn't that but rather an understanding that makes wisdom unnecessary.
'You didn't see anything, Mary.'
'I saw a quarrel--but it got away.'
I put my arm about her and turned her. 'Let's go around the block before we go in.'
We strolled in the tunnel of the night and we didn't speak again, or need to."

. . . John Steinbeck . . . The Winter of Our Discontent . . . 129 . . .

What a frightening thing is the human, . . .

"What a frightening thing is the human, a mass of gauges and dials and registers, and we can read only a few and those perhaps not accurately."

. . . John Steinbeck . . . The Winter of Our Discontent . . . 88 . . .

When she had gone up to the bathroom, . . .

"When she had gone up to the bathroom, I put my note to her in my pocket. And I still didn't know. Does anyone ever know even the outer fringe of another? What are you like in there? Mary--do you hear? Who are you in there?"

. . . John Steinbeck . . . The Winter of Our Discontent . . . 59 . . .

A structure is like a piece of furniture, . . .

"A structure is like a piece of furniture, whereas a process is like the weather. In the case of a table, the beginning and end of the whole and each of its parts are known. In the case of weather, though we notice changes in it, we have no clear knowledge of its beginning or ending. At a given moment, we are when we are. The nowmoment."

John Cage ... The Future of Music (1974) ... (?)

Henri the painter was not French . . .

"Henri the painter was not French and his name was not Henri. Also he was not really a painter. Henri had so steeped himself in stories of the Left Bank in Paris that he lived there although he had never been there. Feverishly he followed in periodicals the Dadaist movements and schisms, the strangely feminine jealousies and religiousness, the obscurantisms of the forming and breaking of schools. Regularly he revolted against outworn techniques and materials. One season he threw out perspective. Another year he abandoned red, even as the mother of purple. Finally he gave up paint entirely. It is not known whether Henry was a good painter or not for he threw himself so violently into movements that he had very little time left for painting of any kind."

. . . John Steinbeck . . . Cannery Row (1945) . . . (122)

The tide goes out imperceptibly. . . .

"The tide goes out imperceptibly. The boulders show and seem to rise up and the ocean recedes leaving little pools, leaving wet weed and moss and sponge, iridescence and brown and blue and China red. On the bottoms lie the incredible refuse of the sea, shells broken and chipped and bits of skeleton, claws, the whole sea bottom a fantastic cemetery on which the living scamper and scramble."

. . . John Steinbeck . . . Cannery Row (1945) . . . (99)

How can the poem and the stink and the grating noise . . ."

"How can the poem and the stink and the grating noise -- the quality of light, the tone, the habit and the dream -- be set down alive? When you collect marine animals there are certain flat worms so delicate that they are almost impossible to capture whole, for they break and tatter under the touch. You must let them ooze and crawl of their own will onto a knife blade and then lift them gently into your bottle of sea water. And perhaps that might be the way to write this book -- to open the page and to let the stories crawl in by themselves."

. . . John Steinbeck . . . Cannery Row (1945) . . . (2)

They thought it was cool . . .

"They thought it was cool to burn crosses in your front lawn as they hung you from trees in your backyard. / They thought it was cool to leave you thirsty and strand -- Katrina. / He thought it was cool to carry a gun in his classroom and open fire, Virginia Tech, Columbine. / Stop the violence. / They thought it was cool to tear down the projects and put up million dollar condos. / Gentrification. / They think its cool to stand on the block hiding product in their socks, making quick dime-bag dollars. / They think its cool to to ride down on you in blue and white unmarked cars, bustin you upside yo head. / Freeze. / 'Cause the problem is we think its cool too. / Check your ingredients, before you overdose, on the cool."

. . . Ayesha Jaco . . . on Lupe Fiasco's album,"The Cool" . . . Track 1 . . .

... and suddenly everyone become the best version of themselves

"'Wouldn't it be kind of cool,' he said, 'if time stopped right now?'
'How do you mean, if time stopped?'
'Like this. I was in England once, taking my father to see my grandmother, who was dying of emphysema. So, one morning we were on a train headed from London to wherever, when suddenly the train stopped with our car halfway inside a tunnel, and then the conductor turned off the train and an announcement came on that we were to observe two minutes of silence, and everyone went still and looked at their laps, even the soccer hooligans and their cellphones -- and it was like the universe had suddenly turned itself off and the world was almost holy, like life was suddenly religious, but good religious, and suddenly everyone became the best version of themselves."

. . . Douglas Coupland . . . Player One . . . page 20 . . . 2010

It should be more to the purpose of the magician . . .

"It should be more to the purpose of the magician that the mind of the spectator be deceived than his eye; but the modern prestidigitator does not seem to realize this important distinction"

. . . T. Nelson Downs . . . The Art of Magic . . . (13)

Drama, like conjuring, is . . .

"Drama, like conjuring, is an art of illusion. A play does not take place on the stage but in the minds of the spectators."

. . . Henning Nelms . . . Magic and Showmanship . . . (2)

17. Omit needless words

"Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell."

. . . William Strunk Jr. . . . The Elements of Style . . . (23) . . .

You hand in your ticket

"You hand in your ticket
And you go watch the geek
Who immediately walks up to you
When he hears you speak
And says, "How does it feel
To be such a freak?"
And you say, "Impossible"
As he hands you a bone

Because something is happening here
But you don't know what it is
Do you, Mister Jones?

...

You've been with the professors
And they've all liked your looks
With great lawyers you have
Discussed lepers and crooks
You've been through all of
F. Scott Fitzgerald's books
You're very well read
It's well known

Because something is happening here
But you don't know what it is
Do you, Mister Jones?

Well, the sword swallower, he comes up to you
And then he kneels
He crosses himself
And then he clicks his high heels
And without further notice
He asks you how it feels
And he says, "Here is your throat back
Thanks for the loan"

Because something is happening here
But you don't know what it is
Do you, Mister Jones?"

. . . Bob Dylan . . . "Ballad of a Thin Man" . . . Highway 61 Revisited . . .

Habits look not only backward but also forward . . .

"Habits look not only backward but also forward. . . . 'We may think
of habits as means, waiting, like tools in a box, to be used by
conscious resolve,' John Dewey wrote. 'But they are something more
than that. They are active means, means that project themselves,
energetic and dominating ways of acting.' Habits are living practice,
the site of creation and innovation."

. . . Hardt and Negri . . . Multitude . . . 197 . . .

The ship is . . .

“The ship is the hetertopia par excellence. In civilizations without boats, dreams dry up, espionage takes the place of adventure, and the police take the place of pirates” (27).

. . . Michel Foucault . . . "Of Other Spaces" . . . Diacritics (1986): 22-27 . . .

We all act . . .

"We all act better than we know how."

. . . Erving Goffman . . . The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life . . . (74)

The Conjuror Collects

"The conjurer collects his poor belongings –
the colored handkerchief, the magic rope,
the double-bottomed rhymes, the cage, the song.
You tell him of the passes you detect.
The mystery remains intact."

. . . Vladimir Nabokov . . . “An evening of Russian poetry,” The New Yorker, March 3, 1945, (23) . . .

Three transformations of the spirit . . .

"Three transformations of the spirit I name for you: how the spirit becomes a camel, and the camel a lion, and the lion at last a child."

. . . Friedrich Nietzsche . . . THUS SPOKE ZARATHUSTRA . . . (23)

Trace and Aura . . .

"The trace is appearance of a nearness, however far removed the thing that left it behind may be. The aura is appearance of a distance, however close the thing that calls it forth. In the trace, we gain possession of the thing; in the aura, it takes possession of us."

. . . Walter Benjamin . . . THE ARCADES PROJECT . . . (447)

When I don't practice for a month, the audience . . .

"The brilliant pianist, Arthur Rubinstein, told the story of an enthusiastic admirer who once said to him, 'Maestro, I would give my life to play like you do!'
'I already did,' replied Rubenstein.
To a close personal friend, Rubenstein said, 'When I don't practice for a month, the audience notices. When I don't practice for a week, my friends notice and when I don't practice for two days, my wife notices."

. . . René Lavand (quoting Arthur Rubinstein) . . . MAGIC FROM THE SOUL . . . (61)

A deck of cards is like a fragile bird; . . .

"A deck of cards is like a fragile bird; if you squeeze it too hard, you will kill it, and if you let it go, it will fly away."

. . . René Lavand (and many others) . . . MAGIC FROM THE SOUL . . . (49)

Written kisses don't reach their destination, . . .

"Written kisses don't reach their destination, rather they are drunk on the way by the ghosts. It is on this ample nourishment that they multiply so enormously. Humanity senses this and fights against it and in order to eliminate as far as possible the ghostly element between people and to create natural communication, the peace of souls, it has invented the railway, the motor car, the aeroplane. But it's no longer any help, these are evidently inventions being made at the moment of crashing. The opposing side is so much calmer and stronger; after the postal service it has invented the telegraph, the telephone, the wireless. The spirits won't starve, but we will perish."

. . . Franz Kafka to Milena Jesenska . . .

*Comment: Half of me hates this twisted idea -- that "les bises" and "los besos" that I send in letters and emails are cocktails for the netherworld. I didn't want to write this quote down at first, because I didn't want its pessimism to damper the sentiments of affection I send to loved ones abroad. But I gave in. There is another half of me -- the spirit half? -- that cannot resist Kafka's thoughts; they are dark and delicious. Part of me loves imagining the existence of this spirit world and its presence in between our lines of communication. Echoes, after-images, ink smudges . . . are these traces left by the breakings and enterings of love-hungry ghosts?

A legend is very much like an illusion, . . .

"A legend is very much like an illusion, more interesting and invariably more attractive than reality. It represents what might be rather than what is, and demands only the suspension of disbelief. Like an illusion, it is less an alternative to reality than a short break from it, a two-week holiday in Paradise after several hard months in the real world. We have always needed legends, and they have always provided that escape route: cords have always risen into the air, providing access to the heavens; the dead have always been resurrected, symbolising the survival of the human spirit. . . . The rise of the Indian rope trick is a victory of imagination over reality."

. . . Peter Lamoont . . . The Rise of the Indian Rope Trick: How a Spectacular Hoax Became History . . . 232 . . .

We were, without knowing it, . . .

"We were, without knowing it, in a theatre."

. . . Borges . . . "When Fiction Lives in Fiction" in SELECTED NON-FICTIONS . . . (161) . . . regarding Corneille's L'ILLUSION COMIQUE . . .

Allow the material to "speak back" . . .

"The slogan, then, is: allow the material to 'speak back.'"

. . . Mieke Bal . . . GUIDELINES FOR WRITING A PHD THESIS . . . (22) . . .

Sator arepo tenet opera rotas . . .

"
SATOR
AREPO
TENET
OPERA
ROTAS
"

"The sower Arepo holds the wheels with difficulty."

. . . Palindromic charm from Pompeii . . . 1 CE . . .

. . . Craig Conley . . . "Spell Check" in CABINET (Summer 2007 issue 26 MAGIC) . . .

Dipped in the wisdom . . .

"Dipped in the wisdom of our ancestors, words pluck strings reaching far through time."

. . . Blain Bovee . . .

Isn't there inherent in magic a criticism . . .

"Isn't there inherent in magic a criticism of worldviews that rely on quick and simple quantification (scientific method, capitalist-commodity logic, laws and behaviour, normative values) that are accepted and triumph on the sheer authority and legitimacy that come with being able to measure. Doesn't magic call for a re-examination of these values, casting deep shadows of doubt on those rationalistic frames, and urging, inciting, and infecting us with its force--casting us towards a face-to-face confrontation with a vast, infinitely dark, continually recreated, and immeasurable world?"

. . . Marcin Kedzior . . . from MANHATTAN, DANCE, MAGIC . . .

Except for magicians . . .

"Except for magicians, deceivers have no general theory of how to cheat. This holds true even for the long tradition of military deception planning."


. . . CHEATING . . . 1982 . . . J. Barton Bowyer . . . (70) . . .

Deception is a universal, . . .

". . . deception is a universal, a branch of applied psychology that transcends time and culture."

. . . CHEATING . . . 1982 . . . J. Barton Bowyer . . . (47)

The need to cheat arises out of the nature of power. . . .

"The need to cheat arises out of the nature of power. Power is the ability to set priorities that may be economic, social, military, or political. In fact, political power is the ability to allocate priorities among these other forms of power. Power is based on brute force, threats of force, persuasion, authority, charisma, deception, or any combination of these. Two of these components of power stand in a peculiar relationship to each other, a reciprocal relationship in which one tends to balance the other. Plutarch expressed this by means of the symbols of the lion and the fox. If we lack the strength of the lion, we can make up for this deficiency by using the cunning of the fox. Machiavelli described this relationship in detail, emphasizing 'force' versus 'fraud.' Hobbes agreed. The question is one of brute force versus dissembling, cunning, guile, fraud--in short, force versus deception.

The principle of force versus deception applies at all levels of human organization."


. . . CHEATING . . . 1982 . . . J. Barton Bowyer . . . (3-4)

They're like little aliens . . .

"They're like little aliens,
dropped here,
naked,
no money,
nothing."

. . . "Alyssa" on children . . . Int. by Dan Savage . . . from the THIS AMERICAN LIFE EPISODE "How To Talk To Kids" . . . 54:38 . . .

This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly . . . .

"This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force."

. . . Dorothy Parker . . . as quoted in THE ALGONQUIN WITS . . . Ed. Robert E. Drennan . . .

. . . (the specific novel in question was Ayn Rand's ATLAS SHRUGGED . . .

One CAN'T believe impossible things. . . .

 "Alice laughed.  'There's no use trying,' she said: 'one CAN'T
believe impossible things.'

 'I daresay you haven't had much practice,' said the Queen.
'When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day.
Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things
before breakfast."


. . . Lewis Carroll . . . Through The Looking Glass . . .

On finirait par devenir fou, . . .

"On finirait par devenir fou, ou par mourir, si on ne pouvait pas pleurer"


. . . Guy de Maupassant . . .

La moindre chose . . .

"La moindre chose contient un peu d'inconnu. Trouvons-le."


. . . Guy de Maupassant . . .

One can't go on for long . . .

"One can't go on for long with one's eyes fixed on the stars and one's heart abandoned to the waves. You need the well-built bridge of a ship."



. . . Eugenio Barba . . . "The Third Theatre: a Legacy from Us to Ourselves" . . . Trans. Christopher Cairns . . . page 9 . . .

How many dawns, chill . . .

"How many dawns, chill from his rippling rest
The seagull's wings shall dip and pivot him,"


. . . Hart Crane . . . the first line of his poem: "To Brooklyn Bridge" . . .

One shadow . . .

"One shadow, after all, is not equal to another."


. . . Tommy Wonder . . . "Getting the Mis Out of Misdirection" . . . THE BOOKS OF WONDER (vol. 1) . . . page 31 . . . 1996 . . .

And God said to Moses . . .

"And God said to Moses:

"Moses, come forth."

And Moses came fifth.

And it cost God $250 bucks."


-- An old gambling joke

You can fool all of the people . . .

"You can fool all of the people some of the time."


. . . . Abraham Lincoln . . .

With the truth, one cannot live . . . .

"With the truth, one cannot live. To be able to live one needs illusions . . . This constantly effective process of self-deceiving, pretending and blundering, is no psychopathological mechanism, but the essence of reality."


. . . Otto Rank . . . TRUTH AND REALITY . . . ? . . .

Essentially, cheating, or deception is . . .

"Essentially, cheating, or deception is the advantageous distortion of perceived reality."


J. Barton Boywer (a pseudonym) . . . CHEATING:
DECEPTION IN WAR & MAGIC, GAMES & SPORTS, SEX & RELIGION, BUSINESS & CON GAMES, POLITICS & ESPIONAGE, ART & SCIENCE . . . 1982 . . . page 47 . . .

Dopo il fatto . . .

"Dopo il fatto, il consiglio non vale."


. . . Italian proverb . . . ("After the fact, advice is worthless") . . .

Look dear, we all steal ideas . . .

"Look dear, we all steal ideas. But in the end we are judged by who we stole them from and what we did with them."

. . . Martha Graham . . . in a Globe and Mail Interview with John Fraser . . . 1970s . . .

Desk job? Is that all you can see in it? . . .

"The job I'm talking about takes brains and integrity. It takes more guts than there is in 50 salesmen. It's the hottest job in the business...Desk job? Is that all you can see in it? Just a hard chair to park your pants on from 9 to 5, huh? Just a pile of papers to shuffle around and five sharp pencils and a scratch pad to make figures on. Maybe a little doodling on the side. Well, that's not the way I look at it, Walter. To me, a claims man is a surgeon. That desk is an operating table. And those pencils are scalpels and bone chisels. And those papers are not just forms and statistics and claims for compensation, they're alive, they're packed with drama, with twisted hopes and crooked dreams. A claims man, Walter, is a doctor and a bloodhound...and a cop and a judge and a jury and a father confessor all in one. And you want to tell me you're not interested. You don't want to work with your brains. All you wanna work with is your finger on the doorbell, for a few bucks more a week."

. . . Barton Keyes (played by Edward G. Robinson) . . . DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944) . . .

Suicide by poison, subdivided by TYPES of poison . . .

[Norton, Keyes's boss, has just tried, unsuccessfully, to convince a client that her husband's death was a suicide]

Barton Keyes: You know, you, uh, oughta take a look at the statistics on suicide some time. You might learn a little something about the insurance business.

Edward S. Norton: Mister Keyes, I was RAISED in the insurance business.

Barton Keyes: Yeah, in the front office. Come now, you've never read an actuarial table in your life, have you? Why they've got ten volumes on suicide alone. Suicide by race, by color, by occupation, by sex, by seasons of the year, by time of day. Suicide, how committed: by poison, by firearms, by drowning, by leaps. Suicide by poison, subdivided by TYPES of poison, such as corrosive, irritant, systemic, gaseous, narcotic, alkaloid, protein, and so forth. Suicide by leaps, subdivided by leaps from high places, under the wheels of trains, under the wheels of trucks, under the feet of horses, from STEAMBOATS. But, Mr. Norton: Of all the cases on record, there's not one single case of suicide by leap from the rear end of a moving train. And you know how fast that train was going at the point where the body was found? Fifteen miles an hour. Now how can anybody jump off a slow-moving train like that with any kind of expectation that he would kill himself? No, no soap, Mr. Norton. We're sunk, and we'll have to pay through the nose, and you know it.

. . . Dialogue from DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944) . . .

I wonder if you wonder . . .

Walter Neff: You'll be here too?

Phyllis: I guess so, I usually am.

Walter Neff: Same chair, same perfume, same anklet?

Phyllis: I wonder if I know what you mean.

Walter Neff: I wonder if you wonder.


. . . Dialogue from DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944) . . .

A good piece of magic . . .

"A good piece of magic is like a first degree murder, every little detail is planned out."

. . . David Ben, “Wizards of Awe: Part Two.” The Journal. CBC NEWS. 23 June 1992 . . .

"Well, it's no trick to make a lot of money . . .

"Well, it's no trick to make a lot of money, if what you want to do is make a lot of money."

. . . Bernstein in CITIZEN KANE (1941) . . .

I got a sheep dog . . .

Paco: I got a sheep dog.

Girl (at party): Yeah?

There have been sheep dogs in my family (Pause) dating back (Pause) for generations ... dating back to the Borgias.

Girl (at party): Oh, shit!

Paco: The family crest (pause) is a sheep dog (pause) pissing into a gondola.

Girl: (Spills her drink laughing)


. . . Al Pacino in SERPICO (1973) . . .

I love deadlines. . . .

"I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by."

. . . Douglas Adams . . . from: Simpson, M. J. (2003). Hitchhiker: A Biography of Douglas Adams, First U.S. hardcover edition, Page 236, Justin, Charles and Co. . . .

People need secrets . . .

"People need secrets because they need the assurance that there is something left to discover, that they have not exhausted the limits of their environment, that a prize might lie in wait like money in the pocket of an old jacket, that the existence of things beyond their ken might propose a corollary that their own minds contain unsuspected corridors. People need uncertainty and security. It's not that secrets make them feel small but that they make the world seem bigger—a major necessity these days, when sensations need to be extreme to register at all. Secrets reawaken that feeling from childhood that the ways of the world were infinitely mysterious, unpredictable and densely packed, and that someday you might come to know and master them. Secrets purvey affordable glamor, suggest danger without presenting an actual threat. If there were no more secrets, an important motor of life would be stopped, and the days would merge into a continuous blur. Secrets hold out the promise, false but necessary, that death will be deferred until their unveiling."

Sante, Luc, "What Secrets Tell," The New York Times Magazine, Section 6, December 3, 2000, The New York Times, New York, p. 77.

The only form of lying that is absolutely beyond reproach . . .

"The only form of lying that is absolutely beyond reproach is Lying for its own sake, and the highest development of this is, as we have already pointed out, Lying in Art."

. . . Oscar Wilde . . . The Decay of Lying: an observation . . . 1889 . . . page 190 . . .

Things are because we see them . . .

"Things are because we see them, and what we see, and how we see it, depends on the arts that have influenced us."

. . . Oscar Wilde . . . The Decay of Lying: an observation . . . 1889 . . . page 184 . . .

Life imitates Art far more than art imitates Life . . .

". . . Life imitates Art far more than art imitates Life, and I feel sure that if you think seriously about it you will find that it is true. Life holds the mirror up to Art, and either reproduces some strange type imagined by painter or sculptor, or realizes in fact what has been dreamed in fiction. Scientifically speaking, the basis of life - the energy of life, as Aristotle would call it - is simply the desire for expression, and Art is always presenting various forms through which this expression can be attained. Life seizes on them and uses them, even if they be to her own hurt. Young men have committed suicide because Rolla did so, have died by their own hand because by his own hand Werter died. Think of what we owe to the imitation of Christ, of what we owe to the imitation of Caesar."

. . . Oscar Wilde . . . The Decay of Lying: an observation . . . 1889 . . . page 183 . . .

It is a humiliating confession, but . . .

"It is a humiliating confession, but we are all of us made out of the same stuff. In Falstaff there is something of Hamlet, in Hamlet there is not a little of Falstaff."

. . . Oscar Wilde . . . The Decay of Lying: an observation . . . 1889 . . . page 169 . . .

The world is a smoke-filled room . . .

"The world is a smoke-filled room. We die in the aisles looking for the exit."

. . . Bruce Wagner . . . from the first episode of the mini-series WILD PALMS . . . 1993 . . .

I like the night. . . .

"I like the night. Things grow at night. My imagination is available to me at night. All my preconceptions of things go away. Sometimes you could be looking for heaven in the wrong places. Sometimes it could be under your feet. Or in your bed."

. . . Bob Dylan . . . Chronicles (volume one) . . . page 202 . . . 2004 . . .

There are chapters in every life . . .

"There are chapters in every life which are seldom read, and certainly not aloud."

. . . Carol Shields . . . The Stone Diaries . . . 1993 . . . page 111 . . .

You're sure you don't want a TV dinner?

Willie: You're sure you don't want a TV dinner?
Eva: Yes. I'm not hungry. Why is it called TV dinner?
Willie: Um... You're supposed to eat it while you watch TV. Television.
Eva: I know what a TV is. Where does that meat come from?
Willie: What do you mean?
Eva: What does that meat come from?
Willie: I guess it comes from a cow.
Eva: From a cow? It doesn't even look like meat.
Willie: Eva, stop bugging me, will you? You know, this is the way we eat in America. I got my meat, I got my potatoes, I got my vegetables, I got my dessert, and I don't even have to wash the dishes.

. . . John Lurie and Eszter Balint in Stranger Than Paradise (1984) . . . During the New York section of the story . . .

It was the disease that bound the underworld . . .

"It was the disease that bound the underworld to decent society--the card players in a thieve's to the gamblers at Monte Carlo; the pimp from Buenos Aires to the drawing-room Don Juan, the cutthroat to the revolutionary terrorist. As Yasha shuffled the cards, he marked them with the edge of his fingernail."

. . . Isaac Bashevis Singer . . . The Magician of Lublin . . . 1958 . . . page 140

If two writers are of equal natural ability . . .

"If two writers are of equal natural ability, the more convincing will be the one who [also] shares the actual emotions, blustering like a blusterer, ranting like someone furious. Writers need to have sympathetic natures or be slightly mad. The first kind easily understand emotions [of the characters], the second kind feel those emotions in person."

. . . Aristotle . . . Poetics . . . 350 B.C.E. . . . pages 24 to 25 . . .

Hamartia [error] . . .

"Hamartia [error] is the failing in understanding or moral character which leads someone to a disasterous choice of action: a choice which arouses our pity because it is both catastrophic and made deliberately but not out of wickedness, and arouses our terror because we identify with both the innocence and the helplessness of the person who makes the choice."

. . . Translator's insertion (Kenneth McLeish) within Aristotle's Poetics . . . 350 B.C.E. . . . page 17

What doctrine call you this?

"What doctrine call you this? Che sara, sara:
What will be, shall be! Divinity adieu!
These metaphysics of magicians,
And necromantic books are heavenly!"

. . . Christopher Marlowe . . . Dr. Faustus . . . act one, scene one: 47-50 . . . c. 1594 . . .

Some poems are easily laid . . .

"Some poems are easily laid. They will give themselves to anybody and anybody physically capable can receive them. . . . I swear that if one of them were hidden beneath my carpet, it would shout out and seduce somebody. The quiet poems are what I worry about--the ones that must be seduced. They could travel about with me for years and no one would notice them. And yet, properly wed, they are more beautiful than their whorish cousins."

. . . Jack Spicer in a letter to the deceased Gabriel Garcia Lorca . . . THE COLLECTED BOOKS OF JACK SPICER . . . page 38 . . .

I will be free of this dark little nightmare . . .

"I will be free of this dark little nightmare: your magnificent body."

. . . Don Perlimplin to Belisa . . .

. . . Gabriel Garcia Lorca . . . The Love of Don Perlimplin and Belisa in the Garden 1928. . . during the second half

J.C.

Your tongue is your creature . . .

"An old Haussa proverb says: "Your tongue is your creature; if you unleash it, it will devour you.'"

Hubert Aquin . . . Trou de mémoire OR Blackout 1968 . . . page 42

INTRO or PREMATURE FEARS OF ALZHEIMER'S

"These fragments I have shored against my ruins"

. . . T.S. Eliot . . . "The Wasteland" . . . line 430 . . .

"A Continuous thing, quantity, or substance; a continuous series of elements passing into each other"

. . . The OED ONLINE's definition of 'continuum' . . .


Introducing the latest, greatest, and possibly the most introverted of my online projects thus far -- ladies and gentlemen -- I give you the QUOTE CONTINUUM! (insert dramatic sound effect here).

I see that you have not dropped your coffee due to astonished amazement. But that is the beauty of this project == it is not designed to dazzle or shock you. In fact this project is not designed to entertain you. It exists for two reasons:

1) I have waited a long time to use the word "continuum" to name something. It is rare to see two twin vowels side by side like that, you know.

2) I can't remember shit.

Reason number 2 (in more ways than one) is the short and vulgar way of saying I am now watching so many movies, television shows and plays, and reading so many brilliant stories that I cannot keep the titles straight. I especially worry about letting great lines slip through the cracks of my memory.

Therefore, I have decided to take the best line -- the most impressive quotation -- from everything I see or read this term. I look forward to compiling a virtual archive, one much more organized than my various and hopelessly disorganized pocket-sized notebooks, from which I can draw upon in the future.

Now, let's see if it works!

J.C.