“But remember. Just because you don't believe in something doesn't mean it isn't real.”
―
Katherine Howe,
The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane
“Of course mothers and daughters with strong personalities might see the world from very different points of view.” ― Katherine Howe, The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane
“She was always puzzled that people say that darkness falls. To her it seemed instead to rise, massing under trees an shrubs, pouring out from under furniture, only reaching the sky when the spaces near the ground were full.” ― Katherine Howe, The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane
“Just because you don't believe it[] [...]doesn't mean that it's not true.” ― Katherine Howe, The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane
“...You can have this whole entire life, with all your opinions, your loves, your fears. Eventually those parts of you disappear. And then the people who could remember those parts of you disappear, and before long, all that's left is your name in some ledger. This...person -- she had a favorite food. She had friends and people she disliked. We don't even know how she died...I guess that's why I like preservation better than history. In preservation I feel like I can keep some of it from slipping away.” ― Katherine Howe, The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane
“When a Girl's on a pedestal, there's nothing some people would like better than to shove her off it, just to know what kind of noise she'd make when she shattered.” ― Katherine Howe, Conversion
“In his voice resonated the timbre of a man who thinks he has convinced himself of an idea, but masks his own doubt by laboring to persuade others.” ― Katherine Howe
“Let's press ahead a little further by sketching out a few variations among short shorts: ONE THRUST OF INCIDENT. (Examples: Paz, Mishima, Shalamov, Babel, W. C. Williams.) In these short shorts the time span is extremely brief, a few hours, maybe even a few minutes: Life is grasped in symbolic compression. One might say that these short shorts constitute epiphanies (climactic moments of high grace or realization) that have been tom out of their contexts. You have to supply the contexts yourself, since if the contexts were there, they'd no longer be short shorts.LIFE ROLLED UP. (Examples: Tolstoy's 'Alyosha the Pot,' Verga's 'The Wolf,' D. H. Lawrence's 'A Sick Collier.') In these you get the illusion of sustained narrative, since they deal with lives over an extended period of time; but actually these lives are so compressed into typicality and paradigm, the result seems very much like a single incident. Verga's 'Wolf' cannot but repeat her passions, Tolstoy's Alyosha his passivity. Themes of obsession work especially well in this kind of short short.SNAP-SHOT OR SINGLE FRAME. (Examples: Garda Marquez, Boll, Katherine Anne Porter.) In these we have no depicted event or incident, only an interior monologue or flow of memory. A voice speaks, as it were, into the air. A mind is revealed in cross-section - and the cut is rapid. One would guess that this is the hardest kind of short short to write: There are many pitfalls such as tiresome repetition, being locked into a single voice, etc.LIKE A FABLE. (Examples: Kafka, Keller, von Kleist, Tolstoy's 'Three Hermits.') Through its very concision, this kind of short short moves past realism. We are prodded into the fabulous, the strange, the spooky. To write this kind of fable-like short short, the writer needs a supreme self-confidence: The net of illusion can be cast only once. When we read such fable-like miniatures, we are prompted to speculate about significance, teased into shadowy parallels or semi allegories. There are also, however, some fables so beautifully complete (for instance Kafka's 'First Sorrow') that we find ourselves entirely content with the portrayed surface and may even take a certain pleasure in refusing interpretation.("Introduction")” ― Irving Howe, Short Shorts
“Il est bon à savoir. It is good to know.” ― Katherine Howe, Conversion
“But an attentive researcher--like you--might be able to see something that all the experts can't see. If she asks the right questions.” ― Katherine Howe, Conversion
“The philosophers stone is just an allegory. It represents everything that man wants and can never have.” ― Katherine Howe, The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane
“Everyone has wounds as want healing. Seems like they all find me.” ― Katherine Howe, The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane
“When I looked at life through the camera, I felt like I could finally see it.” ― Katherine Howe, The Appearance of Annie van Sinderen
“Mentally Connie gathered her strands of thinking into thick handfuls, trying to braid them into a coherent whole.” ― Katherine Howe, The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane
“I was impressed. She had already mastered the art of not saying much of anything at all.” ― Katherine Howe, Conversion
“God shields the souls of the innocent the best He can from the Devil's torments.” ― Katherine Howe, The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane
“Every memory we have changes slightly each time we think about it. We add stuff we learn in other places, or we forget stuff that doesn't seem important anymore. Or you think you remember something, like from your childhood, but actually you've just seen so many pictures of it, and your parents have told you about it, so you think you remember it, but you don't. A memory is a process. Instead of a thing. Like a story we tell ourselves that changes from the standpoint we're looking at it.” ― Katherine Howe, The Appearance of Annie van Sinderen
“Okay, he says. They both say it, all the time. I've finally started to figure out what it means. It means "yes" and "all right". It also means less than all right, and a begrudging no. It means everything, and nothing, all at once.” ― Katherine Howe, The Appearance of Annie van Sinderen
“Only by being present can you be happy. Too much attention to the past and the future takes the now away. And once it's gone, you never get it back.” ― Katherine Howe, The House of Velvet and Glass
“Of course mothers and daughters with strong personalities might see the world from very different points of view.” ― Katherine Howe, The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane
“She was always puzzled that people say that darkness falls. To her it seemed instead to rise, massing under trees an shrubs, pouring out from under furniture, only reaching the sky when the spaces near the ground were full.” ― Katherine Howe, The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane
“Just because you don't believe it[] [...]doesn't mean that it's not true.” ― Katherine Howe, The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane
“...You can have this whole entire life, with all your opinions, your loves, your fears. Eventually those parts of you disappear. And then the people who could remember those parts of you disappear, and before long, all that's left is your name in some ledger. This...person -- she had a favorite food. She had friends and people she disliked. We don't even know how she died...I guess that's why I like preservation better than history. In preservation I feel like I can keep some of it from slipping away.” ― Katherine Howe, The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane
“When a Girl's on a pedestal, there's nothing some people would like better than to shove her off it, just to know what kind of noise she'd make when she shattered.” ― Katherine Howe, Conversion
“In his voice resonated the timbre of a man who thinks he has convinced himself of an idea, but masks his own doubt by laboring to persuade others.” ― Katherine Howe
“Let's press ahead a little further by sketching out a few variations among short shorts: ONE THRUST OF INCIDENT. (Examples: Paz, Mishima, Shalamov, Babel, W. C. Williams.) In these short shorts the time span is extremely brief, a few hours, maybe even a few minutes: Life is grasped in symbolic compression. One might say that these short shorts constitute epiphanies (climactic moments of high grace or realization) that have been tom out of their contexts. You have to supply the contexts yourself, since if the contexts were there, they'd no longer be short shorts.LIFE ROLLED UP. (Examples: Tolstoy's 'Alyosha the Pot,' Verga's 'The Wolf,' D. H. Lawrence's 'A Sick Collier.') In these you get the illusion of sustained narrative, since they deal with lives over an extended period of time; but actually these lives are so compressed into typicality and paradigm, the result seems very much like a single incident. Verga's 'Wolf' cannot but repeat her passions, Tolstoy's Alyosha his passivity. Themes of obsession work especially well in this kind of short short.SNAP-SHOT OR SINGLE FRAME. (Examples: Garda Marquez, Boll, Katherine Anne Porter.) In these we have no depicted event or incident, only an interior monologue or flow of memory. A voice speaks, as it were, into the air. A mind is revealed in cross-section - and the cut is rapid. One would guess that this is the hardest kind of short short to write: There are many pitfalls such as tiresome repetition, being locked into a single voice, etc.LIKE A FABLE. (Examples: Kafka, Keller, von Kleist, Tolstoy's 'Three Hermits.') Through its very concision, this kind of short short moves past realism. We are prodded into the fabulous, the strange, the spooky. To write this kind of fable-like short short, the writer needs a supreme self-confidence: The net of illusion can be cast only once. When we read such fable-like miniatures, we are prompted to speculate about significance, teased into shadowy parallels or semi allegories. There are also, however, some fables so beautifully complete (for instance Kafka's 'First Sorrow') that we find ourselves entirely content with the portrayed surface and may even take a certain pleasure in refusing interpretation.("Introduction")” ― Irving Howe, Short Shorts
“Il est bon à savoir. It is good to know.” ― Katherine Howe, Conversion
“But an attentive researcher--like you--might be able to see something that all the experts can't see. If she asks the right questions.” ― Katherine Howe, Conversion
“The philosophers stone is just an allegory. It represents everything that man wants and can never have.” ― Katherine Howe, The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane
“Everyone has wounds as want healing. Seems like they all find me.” ― Katherine Howe, The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane
“When I looked at life through the camera, I felt like I could finally see it.” ― Katherine Howe, The Appearance of Annie van Sinderen
“Mentally Connie gathered her strands of thinking into thick handfuls, trying to braid them into a coherent whole.” ― Katherine Howe, The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane
“I was impressed. She had already mastered the art of not saying much of anything at all.” ― Katherine Howe, Conversion
“God shields the souls of the innocent the best He can from the Devil's torments.” ― Katherine Howe, The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane
“Every memory we have changes slightly each time we think about it. We add stuff we learn in other places, or we forget stuff that doesn't seem important anymore. Or you think you remember something, like from your childhood, but actually you've just seen so many pictures of it, and your parents have told you about it, so you think you remember it, but you don't. A memory is a process. Instead of a thing. Like a story we tell ourselves that changes from the standpoint we're looking at it.” ― Katherine Howe, The Appearance of Annie van Sinderen
“Okay, he says. They both say it, all the time. I've finally started to figure out what it means. It means "yes" and "all right". It also means less than all right, and a begrudging no. It means everything, and nothing, all at once.” ― Katherine Howe, The Appearance of Annie van Sinderen
“Only by being present can you be happy. Too much attention to the past and the future takes the now away. And once it's gone, you never get it back.” ― Katherine Howe, The House of Velvet and Glass
