Wonderland: a collection of authors and books. Banned Books On-line
SASIALIT: Literature of South Asia and the Indian diaspora. .

Though distrustful of logical chains of ideas, I loved the polyphony of ideas. As long as you don't believe in them, the collision of two ideas - both false - can create a pleasing interval, a kind of diabolus in musica. I had no respect for some ideas that people were willing to stake their lives on but two or three ideas that I did not respect might still make a nice melody. Or have a good beat, and if it was jazz, all the better.

From Foucault's Pendulum, by Umberto Eco.

Eco on the religious war between microcomputers.

Ah, fill the Cup: -- what boots it to repeat
How Time is slipping underneath our Feet:
Unborn To-morrow, and dead Yesterday,
Why fret about them if To-day be sweet!

 Waste not your Hour, nor in the vain pursuit
Of This and That endeavor and dispute;
Better be merry with the fruitful Grape
Than sadden after none, or bitter, fruit.

From The Rubayyat of Omar Khayyam, translated by Edward FitzGerald.

The Poetical Works of John Keats.

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

from The Second Coming by W.B.Yeats.		 I'd like to get away from earth awhile
And then come back and begin all over.
May no fate willingly misunderstand me
And half grant what I wish and snatch me away
Not to return. Earth's the right place for love:
I don't know where it's likely to go better.

from Birches by Robert Frost.
But if in your fear you would seek only love's peace and love's pleasure,
Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love's threshing-floor,
Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears.

from The Prophet by Khalil Gibran.
| Home |

Amber Habib
a_habib@yahoo.com 1