dennis scharnberg

Today, irony is the only course open to us.  It is not a choice, or even a predilection.  It is the burden.

Aaron Flynders,  A Theory of Everything.

337.  The “postmodernism” of the 1980s demarcates a point at which it was clear—even to many artists—that “modernism” had exhausted itself.

Paxton W. Pierce,  Six-Hundred Brief Comments on Twentieth Century Art.

“Just keep moving, Thomas.  Any movement will do.”  This was Sunderland’s advice, although he steadfastly refused to elaborate on what he meant by it.

Rubina Malcolm,  The Black Box.

Can’t there be emotional hedonists, along with the material kind?  Those who live for what makes them feel good “inside”?

Roderick Hewes,  Introduction to the World of Light.

Suppose we make a list of all the matters that we are forbidden to mention.  And suppose we call that list our mirror.

Thomas Ludlow,  Next to Physics.

The Child is wiser than the Man.  Yes, that is a charming turn of phrase.  But as a principle upon which to base a society?

Alistair Danning,  An Anecdotal History of Radicalism.

I didn’t believe the specific words the actor spoke.  But the general idea?  Yes.

Kenneth Duckworth, Planes, Lorries, Corridors.

People will erect all sorts of notions, behaviors, politics—and they will vigorously enforce these—just to hold certain thoughts at bay.  It is the need to evade.

Christopher Hallows,  The Red Herrings of Doom.

It is not what the photograph shows—the subject—that is boring.  It is photography that is boring.

Malcolm Scrivener,  The Reclining of the West.

…[Henry Miller’s] Trilogy is not literature, but pseudoethnography—a delineation of behavior.  What the “modern artist” is like.  How he lives.  The sex, the drugs, the drinking, the squalor, the sneering mockery aimed at ordinary people.

Palmer Coates,  The Dark Afternoon of the Soul.