dennis scharnberg

words R us

“Time reveals the truth.”  Well, yes.  Of course.  Except that we all know, don’t we, that “time” and “truth” can have no meaning.  The words have no real meaning.  And we are very clever, indeed.

Rollin Mungo,  Selected Rants of Mr. Barraclough.

word without end

Logic doesn’t preclude the preternatural.  It merely presents it in terms of a dull order.

Sal Aurobindo,  The Immersion in Matter.

tell old tales

This is the way the world ends—not with a Bang (but with Slang).

Chadwick Graves,  Maoist Struggle Session and Other Stories.

plea for inanity

Let’s hear Pagliacci with all the performers gagged.  An opera of whimpers and groans.

Anthony Scowling,  The Beat Paradigm.

sink sank sunk

The crowd shots at Woodstock (the helicopter views) remind me of the obedience of jam spread on toast.

Jeremy Breedlove,  A Sardonic View of the Movies.

cause and effect

James shocked Christine with this remark:  “Perhaps you just thought that you were sleeping.”

Alberta Traywick,  Susannah’s Accident.

giving his word

Ours is a mediated culture.  We don’t deserve traditions.

Desmond Urquhart,  The Unsocial Sciences.

rut root rotten

The pop song—any pop song—is in need of a punchline.

Arlie Kahoots,  Recollections of a Very Merry Prankster.

up and in

Language permits this:  “very lovely” is a very lovely phrase.  But language does not dissolve because of this.

Daniel Brasso,  The Infinite Regress.

smiting a foe

The problem with sentiment is:  What do we attach it to?  Who will tell us this?

Hampton Fancher,  Variations on the Red-Barn Con.