“With a steady hand Aimée fulfilled the prescribed rites of an American girl preparing to meet her lover-dabbed herself under the arms with a preparation designed to seal the sweat glands, gargled another to sweeten the breath, and brushed into her hair some odorous drops from a bottle labelled: ‘Jungle Venom’-from the depth of theContinue reading “RKS Literature: American Girl Preparing to Meet Her Lover (Evelyn Waugh)”
Tag Archives: RKS literature
RKS Literature: The Suicidal Hanging of Francis Hinsley (Evelyn Waugh)
“They told me, Francis Hinsley, they told me that you were hung With red protruding eyeballs and black protruding tongue; I wept as I remembered how often you and I Had laughed about Los Angeles and now ‘tis here you’ll lie; Here pickled in formaldehyde and painted like a whore Shrimp pink incorruptible, not lostContinue reading “RKS Literature: The Suicidal Hanging of Francis Hinsley (Evelyn Waugh)”
RKS Literature: These Undertakers Will Fix You Up Real Good (Evelyn Waugh)
“We had a loved one last month who was found drowned. He had been in the ocean a month and they only identified him by his wrist-watch. “they fixed that stiff,” said the hostess disconcertingly lapsing from the high diction she had hitherto employed, ‘so he looked like it was his wedding day. The boysContinue reading “RKS Literature: These Undertakers Will Fix You Up Real Good (Evelyn Waugh)”
RKS Literature: The Brutality of the Hun and Trench Warfare (Pat Barker)
“The other expression was the trench expression. It looks quite daunting if you don’t know what it is. Any one of my platoon could have posed for a propaganda poster of the Brutal Hun, but it wasn’t brutality or anything like that It was sort of a morose disgust and it came from living inContinue reading “RKS Literature: The Brutality of the Hun and Trench Warfare (Pat Barker)”
RKS Literature: Australian Blackbirder Slavers (Pat Barker)
“He’d started as a “blackbirder” as so many of the older traders had, kidnapping natives to work on the Queensland plantations, and he was frank about his methods too. Make friends with them, invite them on board ship, get them drunk and Bob’s your uncle, By the time they come around they’re out at seaContinue reading “RKS Literature: Australian Blackbirder Slavers (Pat Barker)”
RKS Literature: Murderous Missionary Ships (Pat Barker)
“Rivers was used to missionary islands where canoes paddled out to meet the oncoming steamer, brown faces, white eyes, flashing smiles, while others gathered at the landing stage, ready to carry bags up to the mission station for a few sticks of tobacco or even sheer Christian goodwill. A cheerful picture, as long as youContinue reading “RKS Literature: Murderous Missionary Ships (Pat Barker)”
RKS Literature: Supressed Memory and a Smack on the Leg (Pat Barker)
“Was this the supressed memory? He didn’t know. Was it trivial? Well, yes, in a way, compared with Prior’s lurid imaginings. A smack on the leg, a lesson in manliness from an over conscientious but loving father. It’s a long way from sadistic beatings, And yet it wasn’t as trivial as it seemed at first.”Continue reading “RKS Literature: Supressed Memory and a Smack on the Leg (Pat Barker)”
RKS Literature: Death and Cartography (Michael Ondaatje)
“We die containing a richness of lovers and tribes, tastes we have swallowed, bodies we have plunged into and swum up as if rivers of wisdom, characters we have climbed into as if trees, fears we have hidden as if in caves. I wish for all of this to be marked on my body whenContinue reading “RKS Literature: Death and Cartography (Michael Ondaatje)”
RKS Literature: Unbalanced by War (Michael Ondaatje)
“Caravaggio sits there in silence, thoughts lost among the floating notes. War has unbalanced him and he can return to no other world as he is, wearing these false limbs that morphine promises. He is a man of middle age who has never become accustomed to families. All his life he has avoided permanent intimacy.Continue reading “RKS Literature: Unbalanced by War (Michael Ondaatje)”
RKS Literature: Yugoslavia’s Tito: One Day a Hero of the USSR The Next Its Perfidious Enemy
“The class laughed just as unanimously when the geography teacher talked about Yugoslavia. Today Tito is a “sinister and perfidious enemy”; but it was only two weeks ago that we were shown the film: “In the Mountains of Yugoslavia”, in which Marshal Tito was awarded the Order of Victory as our best friend and faithfulContinue reading “RKS Literature: Yugoslavia’s Tito: One Day a Hero of the USSR The Next Its Perfidious Enemy”
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