Uncommonplaces

[rivkat]

I keep a sort of commonplace book, where I write down pieces that catch my eye for one reason or another; I thought I'd try putting them here.

Anagnorisis:
the point in the plot especially of a tragedy at which the protagonist recognizes his or her or some other character's true identity or discovers the true nature of his or her own situation

The truth will set you free, but then so will a lie -- Ani DiFranco

An all-expenses-paid education in grieving

True! - nervous - very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am, but why will you say that I am mad? - E.A. Poe

Curiously, a covenant is honored even in its breach, for a broken covenant is just that .... A rift in a relationship does not totally destroy the relationship, otherwise it could not be rendered as a rift.

The sky blue as lit gas -- David Foster Wallace

I have read your book and much like it.

Fides: can be translated as "fealty" for feudal relations, "fidelity" for marriage, and "belief" for religion, but is all three

"Tut, tut, child," said the Duchess. "Everything's got a moral, if only you can find it." - Lewis Carroll

Interesting, if true, and interesting anyway. -- Mark Twain

You make my blood run dry

If I'm going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple-choice. -- The Joker

I am getting to be the age my father was when he died.
My last will shows many superscriptions.
I must change my life and my death
daily, to fulfill all the predictions concerning me. So they won't be lies.
That commits one.
I have passed my fortieth year.
There are posts they will not let me fill
because of that. Were I in Auschwitz,
they wouldn't put me to work.
They'd burn me right away.
That commits one. -- Yehuda Amichai

Random thoughts: I'd like to have story segments suitable for the following titles: Hearts and Minds; Architecture and Morality; some others I forgot -- sparked by the discovery today that La Femme Nikita's first season episode titles were all one word; second, two words; and so on until fifth, five words. I love the show ten times more knowing that than I ever did before.

On rewatching Buffy S6, I have a lot more sympathy for Xander in Hell's Bells. He's a juvenile jerk, sure, but when he's ripped out of the illusion of his future, the first and only thing he cares about i whether he hurt Anya. And for that, he gets credit in my book. Still way too self-righteous and selfish for me to admire him as a person, but at least with Anya he was trying to act in good faith.

Comments

[iocaste212.livejournal.com]

sparked by the discovery today that La Femme Nikita's first season episode titles were all one word; second, two words; and so on until fifth, five words. I love the show ten times more knowing that than I ever did before.

But it was a sort of built in death warrant. I knew the show couldn't last much longer; imagine seven word titles, eight word titles -- what were they gonna do, start over at one?

[ter369.livejournal.com]

I have a journal for quotes and phrases, too. It usually sits by the television, since I began it while watching Dave & Maddy banter in Moonlighting. ::is old::

[westmin.livejournal.com]

I thought I'd try putting them here.

i liked these :)
thank you!

[vivwiley.livejournal.com]

I've been keeping commonplace books (I'm on my 4th) since about 1986. Every so often I go back and re-read them to discover how the things that caught my eye back then have aged. Do they still speak to me now? I do love them - they are strange meanderings through my reading habits and thought patterns. Thanks for sharing some of your quotes - I may be inspired...

[chase820.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad to see I'm not the only person who does this. It makes me feel less obsessive.

I keep a separate file for interesting British slang expressions I hear on the many British TV shows and movies I watch, so that when I'm writing Spike he doesn't just say "bloody hell" and "sodding" every five seconds.

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

My favorite is from AJ Hall's "Lust over Pendle" -- "that's a bit of a facer and no mistake."

[chase820.livejournal.com]

That's very Spike.

I have too many favorites, but two I fully intend to work into future fics are

--"don't sit there like cheese at ninepence"

and

--"goin' around like Creepin' Jesus."

I have my recent trip to NZ to thank for those. I take it where I can find it.

[dearg.livejournal.com]

Do you think he should have married Anya? I think the false illusion of his future merely acts as a catalyst, and brings to the fore his own doubts. If you really invested in a relationship 100% no portent of a wretched future together is going to perturb you from marrying them. So I think he did the right thing, it made him recognize his own doubts and although he broke her heart, marrying her on false pretenses (even not knowingly) would have been worse. Anyway can you forgive Anya for those Bridemaids dresses???

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure. I don't believe there's one true love for everyone; I think he could have made a good life with Anya, if he'd ever stopped treating her like an embarrassment. If he couldn't love her without trying to change and muzzle her, then he did the right thing, and he should have done it a lot earlier. I understand why he behaved as he did, but I don't like it.

The bridesmaids' dresses weren't anywhere as near as bad as they could have been. There were neither poufs nor hats.