Fiction, Philosophy, and Folderol*

Good morning, starshine

We’re saying, “Hell no.”

You twinkle above us,

we stinkle below.

              * * * * *

It wasn’t the best of times, it wasn’t the worst of times. But it was close.

                                * * * * *

George Grosz: The Pillars of Society

“We have . . . plunged into a twilight of a peculiar existential disorientation . . . . hectic and perplexed, enterprising and discouraged, caught in the middle of everything, alienated from history, unaccustomed to any optimism about the future. Tomorrow assumes the dual character of inconsequence and probable catastrophe . . . .

     “Against the principle of hope, the principle of life in the here and now rises up. . . . The late and cynical feeling of the times is . . . stretched between irritable realism and incredulous daydreams . . . . Some are ambitious, and others just hang around. More than ever, we wait for something corresponding to that feeling of better days, that has something has to happen. And more than a few want to add: It doesn’t matter what. We feel catastrophic and catastrophile, bittersweet and private, if it is at all possible to keep the nearby area free from the worst. With some things we feel dismay but with most things we can’t really give a damn,”

     though we do try to, we pretend to, we pretend very, very hard. And we convince ourselves, we do give a damn . . . but we don't. We can't afford to.

_______________

*With assistance from James Rado and Gerome Ragni, Charles Dickens, and Peter Sloterdijk.