RKS Literature: Pain and Humour (Ken Kesey)

“Because he knows you have to laugh at the things that hurt you just to keep yourself in balance, just to keep the world from running you plumb crazy. He knows there is a painful side: he knows my thumb smarts and his girlfriend has a bruised breast and the doctor is losing his glasses,Continue reading “RKS Literature: Pain and Humour (Ken Kesey)”

RKS Literature: Aggravate Your Adversaries (Ken Kesey)

“Even McMurphy doesn’t seem to know he has been fogged in. If he does, he makes sure not to let on that he’s bothered by it. He’s making sure none of the staff see him bothered by anything: he knows that there’s no better way in the world to aggravate somebody who’s trying to makeContinue reading “RKS Literature: Aggravate Your Adversaries (Ken Kesey)”

RKS Literature: England as a Hijacker and The United States as a Terrorist? (James Baldwin)

“Who, indeed, has hijacked more than England has, for example, or is more skilled in the uses of terror than my own unhappy country? Yes, I know: nevertheless children, what goes around comes around, what you send out comes back to you. A terrorist is called that only because he does not have the powerContinue reading “RKS Literature: England as a Hijacker and The United States as a Terrorist? (James Baldwin)”

RKS Literature: The State and Legal Terror (James Baldwin)

“The State, at bottom, and when the chips are down, rules by means of a terror made legal-that is how Franco ruled so long and is the undeniable truth concerning South Africa. No one called the late J. Edgar Hoover a terrorist, though that is precisely what he was: and if anyone wishes, now, inContinue reading “RKS Literature: The State and Legal Terror (James Baldwin)”

RKS Literature: When You Are Gone Will Anyone Know? (James Baldwin)

“I think that everyone imagines that, when they go away, the scene they have left behind them alters, that their departure leaves a hole in their previous surroundings. The departure may leave a hole in some people’s lives, a wound which is invisible; but one’s surroundings take as little notice of one’s departure as theContinue reading “RKS Literature: When You Are Gone Will Anyone Know? (James Baldwin)”

RKS Literature: Wondering About Love (James Baldwin)

“So then, for the first time, I wondered about love and wondered if I would find strength to give love, and to take it: to accept my nakedness as sacred, and to hold sacred the nakedness of another. For without love, pleasure’s inventions are soon exhausted. There must be a soul within the body youContinue reading “RKS Literature: Wondering About Love (James Baldwin)”

RKS Literature: New York is No Mistake (James Baldwin)

“Whoever is born in New York is ill-equipped to deal with any other city: all other cities seem at best, a mistake, and, at worst, a fraud. No other city is so spitefully incoherent. Whereas other cities flaunt their history-their presumed glory-in vividly placed monuments, squares, parks, plaques, and boulevards, such history as New YorkContinue reading “RKS Literature: New York is No Mistake (James Baldwin)”

RKS Literature: “Surrounded By Junkies and Sleepwalkers” (James Baldwin)

“It’s like we used to say in church, and its still true-the sinner can’t be saved unless he knows he is a sinner. And you surrounded by junkies child. This is a nation of sleepwalkers, and they can’t wake up” She reaches out, and touches Tony’s face, lightly. “And death comes baby, that’s all. It’sContinue reading “RKS Literature: “Surrounded By Junkies and Sleepwalkers” (James Baldwin)”

RKS Literature: The Particularly Nasty British Press (Balzac)

“Whenever you see the press out for the blood of some powerful figure, you will not be far wrong in concluding that behind the attacks there is the story of a refusal to pay or to render some service or other. Blackmail arising out of their private lives is the special terror of rich EnglishmenContinue reading “RKS Literature: The Particularly Nasty British Press (Balzac)”

RKS Literature: The Cold Blade of a Journalist (Balzac)

“He savoured one of the secret and the keenest pleasures known to the journalist- that of sharpening his epigrams, whetting the cold blade that will find its mark in the heart of the victim, and decorating the pommel for the benefit of the reader. The public admires the clever workmanship of that sword and hasContinue reading “RKS Literature: The Cold Blade of a Journalist (Balzac)”