Matthew Newton's Electronic Notebook: August 2009

31 August 2009

American morning, American afternoon

30 August 2009

Eight Queenses

25 August 2009

One must take an objective view of things

The white cloudy sky, the trees on the banks, the boats with the people in them, and the oars, were reflected in the water as in a mirror; under the boats, far away below in the bottomless depths, was a second sky with birds flying across it.

"I can wait in the street. I think it's loathsome here, really!"

"Come, come, Grisha.... If it is loathsome, observe it! Do you understand? Obsrve!"

"One must take an objective view of things," said the medical student gravely.

Of her former belongings, all that remained was a photograph of her mother, but the dampness in the school had faded it, and now nothing could be seen on it but the hair and eyebrows.

-a selection of quotes from Chekhov short stories

23 August 2009

Dead, Dead, Dead

"She would of been a good woman," The Misfit said, "if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life."

from A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor

We regret to inform we have eaten the missionary alive. Please send one with longer hair next time.

from Pine Box Town by Autopilot Is For Lovers

Nikolay began shivering; his face took on a drawn look, and, as the women put it, shrank up into a little fist; his fingers turned blue. He wrapped himself up in a quilt and a sheepskin coat, but felt colder and colder. Towards evening he began to feel very ill, asked to be laid on the floor, begged the tailor not to smoke; then he grew quiet under the coat, and towards morning he died.

from Peasants by Anton Chekhov