dennis scharnberg

“Yesterday, Lydia, was so long ago.  Let’s not forget that.”

Ellen Entwhistle, The Caravan Murders.

“I must assume,” declared Sheldon, “that reality will adapt accordingly.”

Burdyce Goode, Philosophy of Vegetables.

Caroline was bored.  And those who are bored tend to believe that they are more intelligent than others.  But it simply does not follow.

Tristan Holyoke, A Tree Full of Monkeys.

Golf:  Whack!  Whack!  Whack!  Tap.

Callista Ralph, Alphabet Soup.

“We need subsidiary guidelines for that, don’t we?”  asked Lisa, betraying herself as that person who doesn’t want the meeting to end.

Anselm Bligh, A Collection of Miniatures.

“If we are going to wreck our language,” grumbled Harry, “can’t we do so in the way that I prefer?”

Corliss Archer, Boarding the Crazy Train.

All Stewart remembered was that he had moved his index finger in a peculiar way and then the thunder and lightning just stopped, suddenly.

Corliss Archer, Boarding the Crazy Train.

“Must” is not at all pleasant, as words go.

Alex Twist, A Primer of Posturing.

“If we had wanted you to hold an opinion, Jane, we would have issued one to you.”

Delbert Arbogast, The Null Hypothesis and Other Stories.

Anything that has happened—whether 50 years or 50 hours ago—should be carried to its absolute limit now.  This is one way of the contemporary artist.  Find remnants of modernism, and then railroad them to some extreme (usually reductive) form.

Hunter Hogarth, Raised by Wolves.