D.H. Lawrence, "Introduction to Edward Dahlberg’s Bottom Dogs" When we think of America, and of her huge success, we never realize how many failures have gone, and still go to build up that... It helps one to understand the world, and saves one the necessity of having to follow out the phenomenon of physical repulsion any further, for the time being. D. H. LAWRENCE BANDOL, 1929

Finding informed comment, literary or otherwise, on Jean Raspail's 1973 novel The Camp of the Saints is exceptionally difficult; most of the novel's enthusiast's in the online world are isolationists...apocalyptic dread. Consequently, demography is sure to tempt more fiction-writing dabblers to prise open the lid.   —from Lionel Shriver , “Population Doomsday,” New Statesman , 10 June 2002

There are about a million things I should be doing right now - things not involving LJ, or blogging, at all. But I itch to blog, even though I really have nothing to say. This is probably not a good thing...Linguistics this semester and I have a new appreciation for Tolkien's languages. Or maybe Tolkien is just pure awesome, and I had forgotten. Rereading those books gives me hope for the human race

  Umberto Eco, " Casablanca : Cult Movies and Intertextual Collage"   Umberto Eco (b. 1929) was born in Allesandra, Italy, and studied at the University of Turin. He has taught at universities...— Proverbial expression variously attributed to Madame la Pompadour and Louis XV of France.     —from David Lodge (ed.), Modern Criticism and Theory: A Reader . Harlow, England: Longman, 1988.

Eric Auerbach, "The Aesthetic Dignity Of The 'Fleurs Du Mal'"   SPLEEN   Quand le del has et lourd pèse comme un couvercle Sur I'esprit gémissant en proie aux longs ennuis, Et que...Bildung (Bern, 1951), pp. 107-27. The second half of Auerbach’s "The Aesthetic Dignity of the 'Fleurs du Mal" appears in the post immediately below; his notes appear two posts down.

[The second half of Eric Auerbach, "The Aesthetic Dignity Of The 'Fleurs Du Mal'"] Madame Sabatier's "bust"   There seem to be isolated exceptions. Among the poems known or presumed to have...zur Geschichte der französischen Bildung (Bern, 1951), pp. 107-27. Auerbach’s notes to "The Aesthetic Dignity of the 'Fleurs du Mal'" appear in the post immediately below.

Illustration by Jeff Hill for Baudelaire’s Flowers of Evil (Jacques Leclerq translation). Mount Vernon, New York:  Peter Pauper Press, 1958.   Erich Auerbach, " The Aesthetic Dignity...Aesthetic Dignity of the "'Fleurs du Mal'": Translated by Ralph Manheim from the original German text in Vier Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der französischen Bildung (Bern, 1951), pp. 107-27.

J.M.G. Le Clézio, “Freedom to Dream”   We could begin the story this time around 1867, when the young Isidore Ducasse—not yet Comte de Lautréamont—decides to move into a furnished room on the...p. 25. 11 Codex Florentinus , facsimile edition, Mexico City, AGN, 1969, tr. Alfredo Lopez Austin, book VI, p. 196. This English translation is also from Le Clézio, The Mexican Dream , p. 208.  

In the early 1920s in Rutherford, New Jersey, William Carlos Williams had serious doubts that the "Great American Novel," as it was then conceptualized, could ever be written. Though generally known...fool me. He became very angry but understood at once that she had penetrated his mystery, that she saw he was stealing in order to write words. She smiled again knowingly. He became furious.

Gilles Deleuze,  "Literature and Life"      Translated by Daniel W. Smith and Michael A. Greco Critical Inquiry 23 (Winter 1997)   To write is certainly not to impose a form (of expression...something else.   If we consider these criteria, we can see that, among all those who make books with a literary intent, even among the mad, there are very few who can call themselves writers.