‘[A]s long as we see war as something outside and beyond civilised discourse, a traumatic “Real” manifesting a truth beyond language, we will continue to obscure the violence foundational to American empire and global capitalism.’
— Roy Scranton, Total Mobilization.
‘I am an anorak wanting inspiration by an anoraknophobic God.’
— Laura Del-Rivo, ‘Notes on Time’
‘[Y]ou know what I think of language? That it’s a fake horizon and there’s something else, a real truthful thing, but language is keeping us from it. And I think we should torture language to stop fucking around and tell it to us. We should torture language to tell the truth.’
— Rachel Kushner, The Flamethrowers
‘If you believe the doctors, nothing is wholesome; if you believe the theologians, nothing is innocent; if you believe the soldiers, nothing is safe.’
— Lord Salisbury
Your film was released only on VHS & only in Pan-&-Scan. The widescreen version is lost. No one will ever see what was in the edges of shot, at which the characters stare.
Can you hear me, the Untier of Knots?
‘What did it feel like, assuming that a trash can could feel, to be a receptacle for every bit of garbage that came your way? Did it choke on each piece of refuse that came flying into it or did it take an austere pride in its silent self-abnegation?’
— Barbara Ehrenreich, Living with a Wild God
‘We, at least, are not loyal men: we confess to having more respect and honour for the raggedest child of the poorest labourer in Ireland today than for any, even the most virtuous, descendant of the long array of murderers, adulterers and madmen who have sat upon the throne of England.’
— James Connolly, ‘Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee’
‘Why do our lot never admit failure? Never. It might be better for us if we did.’
— Doris Lessing, The Golden Notebook
‘We died in militant silence / We are true battalions.’
— Napo Masheane, ‘We Have Been Here Before’