Dr. Ed

"Dr. Ed decided to walk the rest of the way to the hospital. This took 20 minutes more, but further lateness seemed a small price to pay for sanity's sake. But he did not just walk; he never 'just' walked, of 'just' did anything. No! Dr. Ed made his way along the tidy sidewalks and streets with the unrestrainable vigour of a man in the full rudeness of health. He strode along determinedly, swinging his arms purposefully, in satisfaction of having the full knowledge concerning a certain undeniable fact: the undeniable fact that it took more than a few minor nuisances or chance inconveniences to put Dr. Ed off of his stride!"

~~ from White Mythology by W.D. Clarke

Meniscus

The Australasian Association of Writing Programs' Meniscus published a new issue. A year ago, they published "Chinese Sun." 

White Mythology by W.D. Clarke

I've only read the first ten pages, but this is the best written indie-press, English-language novel I can recall reading. Ever. 

 

Support Rick Harsch

Help Rick Harsch overcome a serious health setback.

 

László Krasznahorkai

László Krasznahorkai won the 2025 Nobel Prize in Literature.

 

unable to understand

"Most of the time I find my consolation, laugh if you like, Doctor, in inconsolability. If I am alone I feel like being with people; if I am with people I feel like being alone. I go to the greatest pains to understand others as though they were myself and I am utterly unable to understand any mind but my own."

~~ from Gargoyles by Thomas Bernhard

he wasn't fitted for this post

"Instead, he said, in keeping with his nature: I could think of nothing else but that notice in the newspaper. And he said: My wife discouraged me from coming here; she wants me to apply for a position, but she thought this one a bad idea. She said he wasn't fitted for this post, that he was a teacher. She said to him: You're a teacher; and she said, as she invariably did: A bad teacher."

~~ from Gargoyles by Thomas Bernhard

nothing is more irritating than books

"There was not a single book in the industrialist's house, my father said; he deliberately kept books out of the house in order not to be irritated. After all, nothing is more irritating than books if you want to be alone, must be alone."

~~ from Gargoyles by Thomas Bernhard

Gargoyles by Thomas Bernhard

"My father said he wanted to return Kant's Prolegomena and Marx's Dissertation, both of which he had finished. He took the two volumes out of his medical bag and put them down on the table. Then he mentioned the books that he would like to borrow: Nietzsche's On the Future of our Educational Institutions, a French edition of Pascal's Pensées, and Diderot's Mystification."

~~ from Gargoyles by Thomas Bernhard

Injustice has a cure.

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