Blog 9/Words, Words, Words

For this week's blog, find a memorable quote or passage from a novel or play and post it.  Be sure to note the author and the title of the work in your response.  Return later in the week to respond to at least one of your classmate's post.

“[H]e is the long delayed but always expected something that we live for.”

--The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams

"All around you things are purely living, and you among them, and the aliveness makes you tremble.  You feel an intense, out-of-the-skin awareness of your living self--your truest self, the human being you want to be and then become by the force of wanting it. In the midst of evil you want to be a good man. You want decency. You want justice and courtesy and human concord, things you never knew you wanted.  There is a kind of largeness to it, a kind of godliness. Though it's odd, you're never more alive than when you're almost dead. --The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien 

Comments

[Amy]

“We accept the love we think we deserve.”
---The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky

[Demosthenes]

"The commonest thing is delightful if only one hides it."
-Oscar Wilde, the Picture of Dorian Gray

"Although this may sometimes be hard for the individual, it is best for the race because it ensures the survival of the fittest in ever department."
-Andrew Carnegie

"Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing."
-Robert E. Howard

[salsaboy]

"Genius may have its limitations, but stupidity is not thus handicapped."
- Elbert Hubbard

[salsaboy]

Demosthenes, I believe your quote should read "... the survival of the fittest in every department", but I am sure that with how pansophical you present yourself to be, you will create a labyrinthine excuse to denote why it doesn't pertain to the meaning of the quote or some garbage. I just wanted you to become embittered and send a trenchant message back that demonstrates your "obvious" mental superiority over me.

[Caitlin]

"It takes a great deal of courage to stand up to your enemies, but even more to stand up to your friends."
-J.K. Rowling

This next one isn't from a novel or play...But I don't care.

"Why, who makes much of a miracle? As for me, I know of nothing else but miracles."
-Walt Whitman

[Caitlin]

Okay, so Tyler, I love you.

Amy, I've never read The Perks of Being a Wallflower, but I've wanted to for a really long time. I should to probably get on that.

[Camuccini]

Hmm... interesting. An site online where I can express my opinions about the juvenile self expressions of fledglings. I feel reborn; in a sense, a renaissance of my artistic passion for writing. Camuccini ha rinviato!!

[Camuccini]

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication."
-Leonardo da Vinci

"A beautiful thing never gives so much pain as does failing to hear and see it"
-Michelangelo

Personally, reading is a boor of a task, so I do not read for pleasure nor do I remember what I read, so I figured I would post quotes from two of my influences. And da Vinci did in fact write many scripts, speeches, novellas, and treatises; there is a possibility that his quote is from one of his famous writings.

[StephB]

"Promise me you'll always remember: you're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think."
-Christopher Robin to Pooh

:]

[Demosthenes]

Why salsaboy- or Tyler, is it? It seems to me that there is a bit of excess of barbed vehemence in your statement. Even I am not infallible. You seem to suggest that I deign to step down from my high pulpit to address the commonest of plebs, a milling mass that lacks the cumulative understanding to appreciate the luminous brilliance of my wit.

[Polo Bear]

"Where I come from, we believe all sorts of things that aren't true. We call it history."- Wicked

[salsaboy]

Demosthenes... first, don't flatter yourself. Second, do not address me by my name unless you give me yours, for I would feel rather doltish if I were to wrongly address you by the insinuated name that my class has given you, sir. Furthermore, apparently you didn't quite understand what exactly I was trying to convey to you. I was trying to infer that the way that you write seems to support a rather sexist and belligerent tone. I don't know what has happened to you in your life to where you find females near useless, but it is rather calumniatory and an outright preliterate view of women. Try to lighten up.
P.S.- "obvious", since I denoted it with quotations, was meant to be taken as a sarcastic crack.
P.P.S.- I believe that you go to Georgia Tech, which possibly explains your distaste of women. If you go there, you know "The Ratio".

[5KatiePe]

"Here is my secret. It is very simple: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye." The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupery

"There is a luxury in self-reproach. When we blame ourselves, we feel that no one else has a right to blame us. It is the confession, not the priest, that gives us absolution." The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Camuccini and Demosthenes:
An Italian artist. That's quite inpressive, considering that you are a name little remembered from the great Renaissance. But you truly do remain true to your name, copying those before you, the "great masters." Welcome, alongside the pompous Demosthenes. It seems to me that this "fledgling" has seen the same tone in another's writing on this very same page. Perhaps it belongs to a certain ancient Roman orator, better with words than he is with wit, or even common courtesy. And you, beside him, believing you deserve the pedestal you put yourself so comfortably upon.
What you say is not offensive as much as it is awe-inspiring. There's a certain curiosity about your identity that causes me to enjoy reading what you, both of you, write. And as far as Demosthenes is concerned, I'd say your vocabularly is impressive, and your style rather...individualistic. I find it interesting that your writing changes substantially in some of your posts, according to who and what you're writing to and about. But that could just be in your nature as a speaker and writer.
As far as your love of art is concerned, Camuccini, I respect that fully. Renaissance artists have always been a passion of mine to study, and their works cause me to respect them, as well as the time period. You, however, chose to copy instead of being wholly original, at least for the first part of your life. Isn't that strange, considering the similarities in tone and diction between you and the Classic, Demosthenes?
You both are astounding to me. How you can be so blantantly obvious about your lack of regard for and patronization of the others involved in this blog, never ceases to amaze me. Especially considering that I still enjoy reading your comments, if for nothing more than a good hearty laugh and the desire to post back exactly how I feel about your self-righteous writings (or should I call them nothing more than poetic rantings?).
So thank you, for inspiring interest. But if you really deserve such a lordly position, as you seem to believe, over us high school "fledglings," why is it that we still have no idea of who you are? If your pompous nature tells us anything, it speaks of pride and perhaps even vanity. So should we not know your names, if you are so deserving of respect from people who are so below your stations?

[Demosthenes]

I find your comparison of my tone and diction to that of this Camuccini character insulting.
As for my identity, it is far too early for an unveiling. I'll leave you with a tantalizing hint: I am in your class.

[Camuccini]

Now I don't know who you think you are Miss 5KatiePe, but I can assure you that I am no mere coordinate to this Demosthenes. And if you think that our styles and diction are similar, you may need to reevaluate your character scheme. I am not in your class, nor have I ever been in your class, for when I was attending high school, there were no AP classes. I am merely, an entertainer, who was informed of this blog from a certain relative of mine.
Demosthenes, what have you done exactly for jejune misfits of the high school scene trying to insult and offend you so?
If you do not want me to comment on this blog, which is open to all those who wish to put their two cents in, then simply tell me so and I will neglect your waning minds from my creative genius.

[AlexW]

"Kids think with their brains cracked wide open; becoming an adult, I've decided, is only a slow sewing shut."
— Jodi Picoult (My Sister's Keeper)

[EmilyL]

“I don't know that love changes. People change. Circumstances change.” Nicholas Sparks

Caitlin-
This quote is so true. I personally do not like confrontation at all and I avoid it whenever I can, but I have noticed that I am always more likely to confront an enemy rather than a friend. I think this is because I do not ever care if my enemy is mad at me, but I fear that if I confront a friend, they will be mad at me and the friendship will be jeopardized. I find myself to be the one who will accept something and move on before I start an argument about it because I can never find that courage to stand up to my friends in that way when it honestly is not that big of a deal to me and I can move on not holding any hard feelings.

[Ca$hD]

"An infinite God can give all of Himself to each of His children. He does not distribute Himself so that each may have a part, but to each one He gives all of Himself as fully as if there were no others." A.W. Tozer in The Shack by William P. Young

[Ca$hD]

AlexW- I so agree with the quote you chose. I work with a class of first graders for Rise everyday, so I get insight into how they think. They are so creative, kind, and expressive most of the time. They think simply in that if they have something on their minds, they are not afraid to express it. I think they are open to what others have to say, and they are at a stage when they don't judge as much as adults because judgmental thoughts are just being implanted into their minds. It is often said that some of the most insightful moments come courtesy of children. I think as people get older, they become less open to what others think because of all that they have learned.

[AlexW]

Cashin- I love that quote from The Shack. Especially having just finished the book, I think that that accurately sums up the love God has for all of his children. It took me the whole book to firmly grasp the concept that Papa was trying to explain, about how people make bad things happen but it is Him, the Lord, who helps us find good in it. Because I, like Mack, used to have a tendency to look up into the sky when things went bad and place blame on God. If I took nothing else from the book, I took the comfort of knowing that no matter what we do God is standing beside us, loving us despite our actions.

[Kellis]

"It was only a smile, nothing more. It didn't make everything all right. It didn't make ANYTHING all right. Only a smile. A tiny thing. A leaf in the woods, shaking in the wake of a startled bird's flight. But I'll take it. With open arms. Because when spring comes, it melts the snow one flake at a time, and maybe I just witnessed the first flake melting."
-Khaled Hosseini (The Kite Runner)

[5HopeG]

“Seldom, very seldom does complete truth belong to any human disclosure; seldom can it happen that something is not a little disguised, or a little mistaken; but where, as in this case, though the conduct is mistaken, the feelings are not, it may not be very material.”
-Emma by Jane Austen

[Polo Bear]

KelliS-
Great quote from a great book and so true. Overcoming grief and tragedy is a hard thing to do and must be taken one little step at a time. The first step of a smile may not be the biggest thing and wont conquer the grief but it will give the spark of hope that lights up the fire to recovery. This quote was the best way Hosseini could end his book because it gave the reader a sense of hope and the feeling that they would all be ok.

[Kellis]

Katie (Pelech)- I really liked your quote from The Little Prince. It is true that, without the heart, we are binded to so much of the world's beauty.

[prickly]

"It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends."
-Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling