exquisite
meme (ex machina):1
Intrigue me?2 The impression is that the lay-out of the whole area resembled that of the Seraglio in Constantinople, with palaces, barracks, and other royal buildings set in an area of parkland.3 A house of sin you may call it, but not a house of darkness, for the candles are never out; and it is like those countries far in the North, where it is as clear at mid-night as at mid-day.4 It can infuse vehemence and passion into spoken words in many ways, and when combined with argumentative passages it not only persuades the auditor but actually enslaves him.5 Wheresoever a thinker appeared, there in the thing he thought-of was a contribution, accession, a change or revolution made.6 The duke himself only rarely paid a visit north of the rivers and, when he did, stayed only briefly.7
- Take the nearest six to ten books from your shelf; open them to page 23, and find the fifth sentence: write down those sentences and arrange them to form a short story; post the text in your journal along with these instructions. [↩]
- Roland Barthes, Camera Lucida [↩]
- Peter Fraser, Ptolemaic Alexandria, vol. 1 [↩]
- John Earle, Microcosmography [↩]
- [Longinus], Libellus de Sublimitate (15.9). The actual passage runs as follows (I have not translated the bracketed material): [τί οὖν ἡ ῥητορικὴ φαντασία δύναται;] πολλὰ μὲν ἴσως καὶ ἄλλα τοῖς λόγοις ἐναγώνια καὶ ἐμπαθῆ προσεισφέρειν, κατακιρναμένη μέντοι ταῖς πραγματικαῖς ἐπιχειρήσεσιν οὐ πείθει τὸν ἀκροατὴν μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ δουλοῦται. [↩]
- Thomas Carlyle, On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History [↩]
- Jonathan I. Israel, The Dutch Republic [↩]