“Without sound, celebration and grief look nearly the same.”
―
Ben Marcus,
The Flame Alphabet
“The true elitists in the literary world are the ones who have become annoyed by literary ambition in any form, who have converted the very meaning of ambition so totally that it now registers as an act of disdain, a hostility to the poor common reader, who should never be asked to do anything that might lead to a pulled muscle. (What a relief to be told there's no need to bother with a book that might seem thorny, or abstract, or unusual.) The elitists are the ones who become angry when it is suggested to them that a book with low sales might actually deserve a prize (...) and readers were assured that the low sales figures for some of the titles could only mean that the books had failed our culture's single meaningful literary test.” ― Ben Marcus
“To refrain from storytelling is perhaps one of the highest forms of respect we can pay. Those people, with no stories to circle them, can die without being misunderstood.” ― Ben Marcus, The Flame Alphabet
“Spelling is a way to make words safe, at least for now, until another technology appears to soften attacks launched from the mouth.” ― Ben Marcus, Notable American Women
“Oh, don’t worry, I am perfectly aware of the fantasy involved here, but what we want is almost never exempt from the impossible. That barrier has very little meaning for me these days. Given what’s happened, the impossible is just a blind spot that dissolves if we move our heads fast enough. History seems to show that the impossible is probably the most likely thing of all.” ― Ben Marcus, The Flame Alphabet
“How do you find a name?" "In this case, on a shampoo bottle. It's one of the ingredients; Sodium Laureth Sulphate. He thought it was a beautiful word and sounded like a name.""He's right.""Mum didn't think so. He swears he told her at the time where it came from, and maybe he did, but she was too ill to remember. I was seven when she found out, and then she hit the roof. 'You named our daughter after a chemical!' That kind of thing.""I still think it's a cool name," said Sam, and I could hear the smile in his voice. It was a soft voice, too. I liked it."And very beautiful," he added."Thank you," I said, feeling a little warm inside. "And that's why I have such a boring name," said Benjamin."Oh, hey," said Sam. "That's a cool name, too.""No, it's not," said Benjamin. "There are two Bens in my class. Mum said she was going to choose my name when I was born. Dad wasn't allowed. So I got a boring name. But that's why Stan's called Stan.""Because you wanted him to have a boring name, too?""Stan's not a boring name. It's short for Stannous.""Stannous?" "Stannous Chloride," I said. "It's a chemical. It was on a tube of toothpaste."Sam laughed. "Mum hit the roof," said Benjamin, proudly.” ― Marcus Sedgwick, She Is Not Invisible
“I think you’re going to find Marcus Aurelius particularly useful.’ ‘For what?’ I asked. Nightingale hesitated. ‘Quoting, mainly,’ he said. ‘And thus maintaining an air of erudition and authority.” ― Ben Aaronovitch, The Furthest Station
“Verbalize someone's actions back to them. Menace them with language, the language mirror. Death by feedback.” ― Ben Marcus, The Flame Alphabet
“Eventually you stop paying attention to your own feelings when there's nothing to be done about them.” ― Ben Marcus, The Flame Alphabet
“RHETORIC The art of making life less believable; the calculated use of language, not to alarm but to do full harm to our busy minds and properly dispose our listeners to a pain they have never dreamed of. The context of what can be known establishes that love and indifference are forms of language, but the wise addition of punctuation allows us to believe that there are other harms - the dash gives the reader the clear signal they are coming.” ― Ben Marcus
“Maybe this was the quiet before the real fucking quiet.” ― Ben Marcus, The Flame Alphabet
“How did one even fraternize with people who could not entertain vivid scenarios of self-mutilation? How was the sexual act even possible if one's partner could not entertain being crushed under a truck, just as a cathartic exercise? What important piece of her brain was missing that deprived her of such, well, deeply necessary acts of physical editing?” ― Ben Marcus
“A misspelled word is probably an alias for some desperate call for aid, which is bound to fail.” ― Ben Marcus, Notable American Women
“A short story works to remind us that if we are not sometimes baffled and amazed and undone by the world around us, rendered speechless and stunned, perhaps we are not paying close enough attention.” ― Ben Marcus
“Sorry, I said to myself, wondering how many times in my marriage I'd said that, how many times I'd meant it, how many times Claire had actually believed it, and, most important, how many times the utterance had any impact whatsoever on our dispute. What a lovely chart one could draw of this word Sorry.” ― Ben Marcus, The Flame Alphabet
“Machineries of reason, machineries of conduct, machineries of virtue. The machine that regulates instinct, keeps one’s hands free of another man’s throat, free of one’s own. These machines have all, as someone said, gone too long in the elements. Gummed now, rusted, bloodless.I forget who said it and I no longer care.” ― Ben Marcus, The Flame Alphabet
“What treaty is it that finally separates those two territories, the hard resolve of our exteriors and the terrible disaster on our insides?” ― Ben Marcus, The Flame Alphabet
“It would seem that, through touch, through kissing, we might have gouged a worm-size channel through which crucial information could pass, sublingual messages, the kind of pre-verbal intimacy that should flow with thunderous force between the bodies of people so bonded. We should have been able to bypass a mere inability to exchange language.” ― Ben Marcus, The Flame Alphabet
“Anyone who believes that you can make art from language is part of a small, nearly-vanishing community, and we should all form a wedge and march on the enemy. Do we need different uniforms in this struggle, different stripes on our arms so that it's clear who the realists are? Maybe, but I care less and less.” ― Ben Marcus
“The true elitists in the literary world are the ones who have become annoyed by literary ambition in any form, who have converted the very meaning of ambition so totally that it now registers as an act of disdain, a hostility to the poor common reader, who should never be asked to do anything that might lead to a pulled muscle. (What a relief to be told there's no need to bother with a book that might seem thorny, or abstract, or unusual.) The elitists are the ones who become angry when it is suggested to them that a book with low sales might actually deserve a prize (...) and readers were assured that the low sales figures for some of the titles could only mean that the books had failed our culture's single meaningful literary test.” ― Ben Marcus
“To refrain from storytelling is perhaps one of the highest forms of respect we can pay. Those people, with no stories to circle them, can die without being misunderstood.” ― Ben Marcus, The Flame Alphabet
“Spelling is a way to make words safe, at least for now, until another technology appears to soften attacks launched from the mouth.” ― Ben Marcus, Notable American Women
“Oh, don’t worry, I am perfectly aware of the fantasy involved here, but what we want is almost never exempt from the impossible. That barrier has very little meaning for me these days. Given what’s happened, the impossible is just a blind spot that dissolves if we move our heads fast enough. History seems to show that the impossible is probably the most likely thing of all.” ― Ben Marcus, The Flame Alphabet
“How do you find a name?" "In this case, on a shampoo bottle. It's one of the ingredients; Sodium Laureth Sulphate. He thought it was a beautiful word and sounded like a name.""He's right.""Mum didn't think so. He swears he told her at the time where it came from, and maybe he did, but she was too ill to remember. I was seven when she found out, and then she hit the roof. 'You named our daughter after a chemical!' That kind of thing.""I still think it's a cool name," said Sam, and I could hear the smile in his voice. It was a soft voice, too. I liked it."And very beautiful," he added."Thank you," I said, feeling a little warm inside. "And that's why I have such a boring name," said Benjamin."Oh, hey," said Sam. "That's a cool name, too.""No, it's not," said Benjamin. "There are two Bens in my class. Mum said she was going to choose my name when I was born. Dad wasn't allowed. So I got a boring name. But that's why Stan's called Stan.""Because you wanted him to have a boring name, too?""Stan's not a boring name. It's short for Stannous.""Stannous?" "Stannous Chloride," I said. "It's a chemical. It was on a tube of toothpaste."Sam laughed. "Mum hit the roof," said Benjamin, proudly.” ― Marcus Sedgwick, She Is Not Invisible
“I think you’re going to find Marcus Aurelius particularly useful.’ ‘For what?’ I asked. Nightingale hesitated. ‘Quoting, mainly,’ he said. ‘And thus maintaining an air of erudition and authority.” ― Ben Aaronovitch, The Furthest Station
“Verbalize someone's actions back to them. Menace them with language, the language mirror. Death by feedback.” ― Ben Marcus, The Flame Alphabet
“Eventually you stop paying attention to your own feelings when there's nothing to be done about them.” ― Ben Marcus, The Flame Alphabet
“RHETORIC The art of making life less believable; the calculated use of language, not to alarm but to do full harm to our busy minds and properly dispose our listeners to a pain they have never dreamed of. The context of what can be known establishes that love and indifference are forms of language, but the wise addition of punctuation allows us to believe that there are other harms - the dash gives the reader the clear signal they are coming.” ― Ben Marcus
“Maybe this was the quiet before the real fucking quiet.” ― Ben Marcus, The Flame Alphabet
“How did one even fraternize with people who could not entertain vivid scenarios of self-mutilation? How was the sexual act even possible if one's partner could not entertain being crushed under a truck, just as a cathartic exercise? What important piece of her brain was missing that deprived her of such, well, deeply necessary acts of physical editing?” ― Ben Marcus
“A misspelled word is probably an alias for some desperate call for aid, which is bound to fail.” ― Ben Marcus, Notable American Women
“A short story works to remind us that if we are not sometimes baffled and amazed and undone by the world around us, rendered speechless and stunned, perhaps we are not paying close enough attention.” ― Ben Marcus
“Sorry, I said to myself, wondering how many times in my marriage I'd said that, how many times I'd meant it, how many times Claire had actually believed it, and, most important, how many times the utterance had any impact whatsoever on our dispute. What a lovely chart one could draw of this word Sorry.” ― Ben Marcus, The Flame Alphabet
“Machineries of reason, machineries of conduct, machineries of virtue. The machine that regulates instinct, keeps one’s hands free of another man’s throat, free of one’s own. These machines have all, as someone said, gone too long in the elements. Gummed now, rusted, bloodless.I forget who said it and I no longer care.” ― Ben Marcus, The Flame Alphabet
“What treaty is it that finally separates those two territories, the hard resolve of our exteriors and the terrible disaster on our insides?” ― Ben Marcus, The Flame Alphabet
“It would seem that, through touch, through kissing, we might have gouged a worm-size channel through which crucial information could pass, sublingual messages, the kind of pre-verbal intimacy that should flow with thunderous force between the bodies of people so bonded. We should have been able to bypass a mere inability to exchange language.” ― Ben Marcus, The Flame Alphabet
“Anyone who believes that you can make art from language is part of a small, nearly-vanishing community, and we should all form a wedge and march on the enemy. Do we need different uniforms in this struggle, different stripes on our arms so that it's clear who the realists are? Maybe, but I care less and less.” ― Ben Marcus
