"I'll always remember that hotel in Paris. we were all there. kaja, Nal Horse, Burroughs... the greatest literary minds of our generation." "do you think it helped your writing, Mr. L?" I asked. it was a stupid question. he looked at me sternly, then allowed me to watch him smile, "everything helps my writing."
[...] I realize I switch from present to past tense, and if you don't like it... ram a nipple up your scrotum. - printer: leave this in.)
Kjøpte Richard Bauschs "Wives and Lovers" på Shakespeare & Co i Paris sist uke, tok den med til København uka etterpå, hvor jeg leste den ut og derfor la den igjen i en hyllene på hostellet.
"Blame it, this whole thing is just as easy and awkward as it can be. And so it makes it so rotten difficult to get up a difficult plan. There ain't no watchman to be drugged—now there OUGHT to be a watchman. There ain't even a dog to give a sleeping-mixture to. And there's Jim chained by one leg, with a ten-foot chain, to the leg of his bed: why, all you got to do is to lift up the bedstead and slip off the chain. And Uncle Silas he trusts everybody; sends the key to the punkin-headed nigger, and don't send nobody to watch the nigger. Jim could a got out of that window-hole before this, only there wouldn't be no use trying to travel with a ten-foot chain on his leg. Why, drat it, Huck, it's the stupidest arrangement I ever see. You got to invent ALL the difficulties. Well, we can't help it; we got to do the best we can with the materials we've got.
And he made every one of them tell him a tale every night; and he kept that up till he had hogged a thousand and one tales that way, and then he put them all in a book, and called it Domesday Book—which was a good name and stated the case. You don't know kings, Jim, but I know them; and this old rip of ourn is one of the cleanest I've struck in history. Well, Henry he takes a notion he wants to get up some trouble with this country. How does he go at it—give notice?—give the country a show? No. All of a sudden he heaves all the tea in Boston Harbor overboard, and whacks out a declaration of independence, and dares them to come on. That was HIS style—he never give anybody a chance. He had suspicions of his father, the Duke of Wellington. Well, what did he do? Ask him to show up? No—drownded him in a butt of mamsey, like a cat. S'pose people left money laying around where he was—what did he do? He collared it. S'pose he contracted to do a thing, and you paid him, and didn't set down there and see that he done it—what did he do? He always done the other thing. S'pose he opened his mouth—what then? If he didn't shut it up powerful quick he'd lose a lie every time. That's the kind of a bug Henry was; and if we'd a had him along 'stead of our kings he'd a fooled that town a heap worse than ourn done. I don't say that ourn is lambs, because they ain't, when you come right down to the cold facts; but they ain't nothing to THAT old ram, anyway. All I say is, kings is kings, and you got to make allowances. Take them all around, they're a mighty ornery lot. It's the way they're raised."
It took away all the uncomfortableness and we felt mighty good over it, because it would a been a miserable business to have any unfriendliness on the raft; for what you want, above all things, on a raft, is for everybody to be satisfied, and feel right and kind towards the others.
I judged she would be proud of me for helping these rapscallions, because rapscallions and dead beats is the kind the widow and good people takes the most interest in.
Mighty soon we'll have the cave so cluttered up with women, and fellows waiting to be ransomed, that there won't be no place for the robbers. But go ahead, I ain't got nothing to say.
but by and by she let it out that Moses had been dead a considerable long time; so then I didn't care no more about him, because I don't take no stock in dead people.
Kjærligheter er ikke alltid av lang varighet. Den varer sjelden lenger enn en bil. Det finnes biler som overlever tre ekteskap. Jeg vet om kjøleskap som har vært vitne til mer enn tyve forelskelser, alle like alvorlige.
she used to wear vintage dresses over her bikini
and flip-flops
ride to venich beach to read virginia on the sand
she used to make collages with images of the virgin
mary and roses she used to write poetry
she went to a ballet high
school and could have died
for beauty
not only from the eating disorder
but from the words of the mean mistress
she found her mother on the floor of the bathroom
with a bottle of pills
but still alive
her roommate in college was raped
and brutally murdered
another friend died the same way at a different place
and time
her terror turned into worry
about small things
like the overgrown cuticle on her little toenail
she married an artist and went to clubs
with scrawls on the walls called art
kept her collages private
intricate and glistening as hidden body parts
her husband stopped having sex with her
she doubted her poetry
because a mean bulimic woman
told her she couldn't write
she took up african dance and then brazilian
because they honored rather than denied her ass
helped her heal her marriage
and the scars of ballett and anorexia
she danced into the arms of the drummer
they coul have been brother and sister
he read her a poem on their first date
she was still married when she made love to him
left her husband almost right away
married again on the hills above malibu
dancing on the crest above the sea
with white flowers in her hair
she gave birth to two children
decorated her house in pink and green velvet
teaches thirteen year olds literature every day
comes home and cooks dinner every night
writes her books in the weekends
the war maked her so sad she needs meds
she's okay though
her husband still wants her whenever possible
still reads her poetry aloud
she has finally discovered
the brutality is not inside of her
however there are many roses, there are altars,
there are stories
running from the green-eyed lady
i got lost on the freeway in l.a.
i saw the mexican markets
i saw the train tracks
i saw the old bridge and the cement river
i saw the vast expanse of grayness
leading nowhere
i saw a dog zigzag thirsty
i thought of the woman with her eyes
like cold green glass
and her smirking smile
how she tried to eat my boyfriend and my mentor
and my house
i thought, what has happened to my city
with its roses and angels?
i thought, what has happened to my boyfriend
who was bowling with miss green eyes
just the day before?
after she ate his heart
he handed mine to her on a china plate
just like the one she used to serve him meat
in my vegetarian kitchen
and then left
so i dug in my purse for my cell phone
and i called my friends
sara and sera and maria
and they looked at maps and told me
which way to turn
and they helped guide me home
it is good to see the sadness of my city
without roses without angels except the ones
disguised as your girlfriends
it is good to get lost in her
it is even good to let envy hold her heart
in her mouth
but if you don't give in to her my darlings
she will release you
she will spit you out
i always believed if i had blond hair, pixie face,
big breasts
everything would be all right
not realizing that culturally idolized beauty
is not only foolproof
but potentially dangerous
if you believe un your own unconventional beauty
when you are young
you will accomplish twice as much and suffer half so
turn of the lightbulbs and light a candle
walk don't drive
plant a tree
wear sunscreen
dancing is an antidepressant
kindness is the new status symbol
every day please try to eat something green
and something orange
that grow on the ground
tell me how mad you are
that your father and i parted
i will always listen
though i can't ever take away the pain
expectations are for what you yourself create
they rarely work when applied to others
turn of the television
tv is a depressant
yoga is an antidepressant
don't feel guilty about wanting pretty things
they would not be so alluring
if you weren't supposed to want them
just don't value them over compassion
use your words even when you are a grown-up
and people no longer think it is entirely acceptable
when you say, that hurt my feelings
if you can digest chocolate eat it sometimes
same goes for ice cream
(i don't really need to tell you those things do i?)
do your homework because it is part of the game but
don't spend too much time worrying about grades
fall in love with someone kind who loves your body
and your mind
if you have a dream that won't let you go, that
tickles your solar plexus, heed it
turn dark feelings into paintings or poetry
or dancing
music is a kind of food
if you are sad talk to a happy woman who loves you
it will always help
move your body when you are sad or angry
avoid the following:
genetically modified ingredients
parabens
sodium lauryl sulfate
mercury in certain fish
neurotic thoughts about food
(is that a contradiction?)
love your curls though they tangle
your pale skin though it can burn in the sun
your nose though it is broader than some
your sturdy legs and feet
forget barbie she does not possess imagination
remember you are a botticelli angel
the planet we live on is perfection
love her like a goddess
love yourself as her daughter
there is a planet full of different kinds of beauty
the idea that only one type of woman is beautiful
is blashpemy
of everything i brought to the world in these
forty-five years
you and your brother are by far the most astounding
because of that i will always love your father
matter never vanishes, only changes
remember that when someone you love dies
your round head on my breast when you were born
is the memory
i will keep with me when i leave this body
when i am gone i will still be near you
this is how i know: when you were born
it was not a meeting
but reunion
she was a princess of the holy wood her parents brought her to a jungle when she was little to sit at the fett of a prophetic madman when she was older she performed on the stage the crowd put her in the stocks and threw vegetables at her da vinci face her brother the prince drowned in the sea she married a man everyone called genius it seemed like paradise she wept
alone in her villa while she flirted with actresses
she made
art won acclaim and her husband's jealousy he left
she wore
only short black or white dresses
some full some slim and elegant black flats
was named best dressed on every list smiled quietly
and like a cat
told a story about marie crowned queen at nineteen
dressed in magical shoes
showered with jewels
and cake not loved properly lost in a castle og gilt dreaming
of the natural world making babies finally beheaded
but this princess keeps dreaming her next dream
she has a lot of stories to tell
she knows that in times of danger it up to the girls
to overcome himiliation and grief even decapitation
and save us
Vi læres opp til å like forandring, til å ønske den velkommen. Det er sykt og jeg forstår det ikke.
Herregud, folk er så enkle. De tror at alt blir bra bare de reiser til andre land. Hvis jeg skulle laget en brosjyre for egen regning, ville jeg ha oppfordret folk til å bli hvor de er. Det er billigere, og det er minst like mye å hente.
Den ligger i stabelen min over boeker jeg skal lese!
Syns det er et gøy tema, men det var min lesepartners forslag.
Tusen hjertelig takk alle sammen! Setter virkelig pris på det.
"I verste fall får vi slå til, som vi gjorde i militæret." "Du har vel aldri vært i militæret," påpekte jeg. "Du ble fritatt av psykiske årsaker, og med rette." "Det er ikke nødvendig å ha tjenestegjort," sa Ari, steg ut av bilen og smelte igjen døren, "jeg har sett det på TV"