a-man-and-his-muse - Tumblr blog

[a-man-and-his-muse]

"you are the one

i am lit for.

Come with your rod

that twists

and is a serpent.

i am the bush.

i am burning

i am not consumed."

- To A Dark Moses by Lucille Clifton

[a-man-and-his-muse]

"Sometimes I feel we have a room with two doors on opposite sides and each of us is holding his doorknob and, at the bat of one person’s eyelash, the other jumps behind his door, and now if the first person utters a single word, the second is sure to close the door behind him, so that he can no longer be seen. He is bound to reopen the door, though, since it may be a room impossible to leave. If only the first person weren’t exactly like the second, then he would be calm and pretend not to care in the slightest about the second; he would slowly go about ordering this room the way he would any other. But instead, he repeats the same thing at his door; occasionally even both people are standing behind their doors at the same time and the beautiful room is empty."

- Franz Kafka, Letters to Milena (1953)

[a-man-and-his-muse]

"This dream isn't feeling sweet We're reeling through the midnight streets And I've never felt more alone It feels so scary, getting old"

- Ribs by Lorde

[a-man-and-his-muse]

“So here's my promise: don't aim for flawless 'Cause some of your best art is made with chalk on your sidewalk, it's Gone when you wash it off, it's Not made for fame or profits It's looking back and giving all you've got to top it”

- Disco! in the Panic Room by Bug Hunter

[a-man-and-his-muse]

"You see, as far as I’m concerned what’s happening is incredible—my world is collapsing, my world is rebuilding itself: wait and see how you (meaning me) survive it all. I’m not lamenting the falling apart, it was already in a state of collapse, what I’m lamenting is the rebuilding, I lament my waning strength, I lament being born, I lament the light of the sun."

- Franz Kafka, Letters to Milena (1953)

[a-man-and-his-muse]

"Kids don't fight shock the way adults do; they go with it, maybe because kids are in a semipermanent state of shock until they're thirteen or so."

- The Mist (1980) by Stephen King

[a-man-and-his-muse]

"I realized with fresh horror that new doors of perception were opening up inside. New? Not so. Old doors of perception. The perception of a child who has not yet learned to protect itself by developing the tunnel vision that keeps out ninety percent of the universe. Children see everything their eyes happen upon, hear everything in their ears' range. But if life is the rise of consciousness (as a crewel-work sampler my wife made in high school proclaims), then it is also the reduction of input."

"Terror is the widening of perspective and perception. The horror was in knowing I was swimming down to a place most of us leave when we get out of diapers and into training pants. I could see it on Ollie's face, too. When rationality begins to break down, the circuits of the human brain can overload. Axons grow bright and feverish. Hallucinations turn real: the quicksilver puddle at the point where perspective makes parallel lines seem to intersect is really there; the dead walk and talk; a rose begins to sing."

- The Mist (1980) by Stephen King

[a-man-and-his-muse]

"And isn’t my fear, that in her distress she might write something insidious and turn you against me, a great dishonor to you? Of course it’s a dishonor, but what am I supposed to do if this fear, and not my heart, is beating in my body?"

- Franz Kafka, Letters To Milena (1953)

[a-man-and-his-muse]

“Now wouldn't it be the best if all the answers to our questions Came as sheepish realisations obvious in retrospective? Like the answer to anxiety that's crept into your head Is as simple as your printer - you forgot to plug it in”

- Disco! in the Panic Room by Bug Hunter

[a-man-and-his-muse]

"I had a dream that I saw God walking across Harrison on the far side of the lake, a God so gigantic that above the waist He was lost in a clear blue sky. In the dream I could hear the rending crack and splinter of breaking trees as God stamped the woods into the shape of His footsteps. He was circling the lake, coming toward the Bridgton side, toward us, and all the houses and cottages and summer places were bursting into purple-white flame like lightning, and soon the smoke covered everything. The smoke covered everything like a mist."

- The Mist (1980) by Stephen King

[a-man-and-his-muse]

"Thus this question was a ridiculous device—as you noticed right away of course—the kind a teacher sometimes uses when, out of exhaustion and yearning, he deliberately lets himself be deceived by one correct answer into believing that the pupil thoroughly understands the subject, whereas in reality the pupil only knows it for some irrelevant reason, and is in fact incapable of more thorough understanding, for only the teacher could teach him that."

- Franz Kafka, Letters to Milena (1953)

[a-man-and-his-muse]

"Candles are funny things, you know. You lay them by every spring, knowing that a summer storm may knock out the power. And when the time comes, they hide."

- The Mist (1980) by Stephen King

[a-man-and-his-muse]

“Don't get me ventin' on friends who resent you 'Cause all you've ever done is been a noose to hang onto They thought was a necklace, and reckless, you fell Into Hell where you both hang with nothing to do but Scratch, kick, let gravity win, like Fuck this, let gravity win, like You can leave it all behind Even the Devil needs time alone sometime”

- It's Called: Freefall by Rainbow Kitten Surprise

[a-man-and-his-muse]

"Enough questions; they were sleeping soundly in the underworld, why call them up into the daylight? They are gray and sad and affect one the same way."

- Franz Kafka, Letters to Milena (1953)

[a-man-and-his-muse]

“Such a charmed life Nothing really mattered Everything was yours to take One mistake, and Everything fell apart, everything changed Sitting there, bleeding out, isn't it strange?”

- Ordinary Man by Johnathan Coulton

[a-man-and-his-muse]

“Tell the world I know that my mind is made It's a horrorshow, but I'm not afraid Though I won't be missed I would say it's time For a different twist in the storyline”

- Bird with a Broken Wing by Owl City

[a-man-and-his-muse]

"I don’t want to unfold to you the whole long story with its veritable forest of details, which still scare me, like a child, except that I lack a child’s power to forget."

- Franz Kafka, Letters to Milena (1953)