Category: Lit & Crit

When the hub gives way, the wheel flies to piecesWhen the hub gives way, the wheel flies to pieces

Tetman Callis 0 Comments 5:44 am

“Remember what Socrates tells Euthyphro, who supposed that the good could be defined by what the gods had willed: if what the gods will is based on some other criterion of goodness, divine will isn’t what makes something good; but if goodness is simply determined by divine will there’s no way for us to assess that judgment.  In other words, if you believe that God ordains morality–constitutes it through his will–you still have to decide where God gets morality from.  If you are inclined to reply, ‘ Well, God is goodness; He invents it,’ you threaten to turn morality into God’s plaything, and you deprive yourself of any capacity to judge that morality.” — James Wood, “Is That All There Is?” (emphasis in original)

A naked definition of sovereigntyA naked definition of sovereignty

Tetman Callis 0 Comments 6:17 am

“I would banish all minor questions, assert the broad doctrine that as a nation the United States has the right, and also the physical power, to penetrate to every part of our national domain, and that we will do it—that we will do it in our own time and in our own way; that it makes no difference whether it be in one year, or two, or ten, or twenty; that we will remove and destroy every obstacle, if need be, take every life, every acre of land, every particle of property, everything that to us seems proper; that we will not cease till the end is attained; that all who do not aid us are enemies, and that we will not account to them for our acts.” – William Tecumseh Sherman, 1863 (quoted in The Civil War: A Narrative, by Shelby Foote)

How one or two things workHow one or two things work

Tetman Callis 0 Comments 6:28 am

“Editing has pushed me to recognize when my own work is not succeeding and how essential revision is to the process. It’s also taught me that belief in a piece is essential to publication. Editing inspires, perhaps even demands, belief in a poem or story, enough to publish work that’s operating at its best quality.  Also, to be on this end of the process increases my enthusiasm about submitting my own work and helps me accept any rejections. Because I’ve been in the position of saying, ‘We already have a story about ninja alien cats so while this is a good story, it’s too much ninja alien cats for one issue.’ So in that respect, I’m more accepting of rejection as a natural occurrence in the submissions process. On the flip side though, having edited and sent acceptances, I know it happens, that this isn’t some weird numbers game, that if the work demonstrates quality writing and is a good fit for a journal, it will get accepted.” – Gina Keicher (quoted in “An Interview with the Editors of Salt Hill,” by Roxane Gay)

Our best Other friendOur best Other friend

Tetman Callis 0 Comments 6:11 am

“Cats and birds are wonderful, but they keep their own counsel and their own identity.  They sit withing their own circles, even in the house, and let us spy, occasionally, on what it’s like out there.  Only the dog sits right at the edge of the first circle of caring, and points to the great unending circles of Otherness that we can barely begin to contemplate.” – Adam Gopnik, “Dog Story”

They’re everywhereThey’re everywhere

Tetman Callis 2 Comments 7:00 am

“There has been nothing which I have found to require a greater effort of patience than to bear the criticisms of the ignorant, who pronounce everything a failure which does not equal their expectations or desires, and can see no good result which is not in the line of their own imaginings.” – Jefferson Davis (quoted by Shelby Foote in The Civil War: A Narrative)

Or it may scratch and bite and cling to the ceilingOr it may scratch and bite and cling to the ceiling

Tetman Callis 7 Comments 10:14 am

“A person has other concerns, but at each moment in its life, a cat has only one concern.  This is what gives it such perfect balance, and this is why the spectacle of a confused or frightened cat upsets us: we feel both pity and the desire to laugh.  It faces the source of danger or confusion and its only recourse is to spit a foul breath out between its mottled gums.” — Lydia Davis, “The Cats in the Prison Recreation Hall”

Fingerpaints and doodlesFingerpaints and doodles

Tetman Callis 4 Comments 6:19 am

“Whatever sense of professional competence we feel in adult life is less the sum of accomplishment than the absence of impossibility: it’s really our relief at no longer having to do things we were never any good at doing in the first place—relief at never again having to dissect a frog or memorize the periodic table.  Or having to make a drawing that looks like the thing you’re drawing.” – Adam Gopnik, “Life Studies”

Provocative consistent conjunctionProvocative consistent conjunction

Tetman Callis 0 Comments 6:22 am

“A plot is the means by which fiction portrays the consequences of actions, but it is not like a pool table; one event never mechanically causes another.  In a plot each event provokes other events by making it possible for them to happen–possible but not inevitable, because human beings are always free to choose their response to provocation.” — Edward Mendelson, “The Perils of His Magic Circle” (emphasis in original)

Souls on saleSouls on sale

Tetman Callis 2 Comments 7:33 am

“Something is profoundly wrong with the way we live today.  For thirty years we have made a virtue out of the pursuit of material self-interest: indeed, this very pursuit now constitutes whatever remains of our sense of collective purpose.  We know what things cost but have no idea what they are worth.  We no longer ask of a judicial ruling or a legislative act: Is it good?  Is it fair?  Is it just?  Is it right?  Will it help bring about a better society or a better world?  Those used to be the political questions, even if they invited no easy answers.” – Tony Judt, “Ill Fares the Land” (emphasis in original)

It’s–I dunno–sorta like, mebbe imho, roflmao–or maybe not, but whose to say?It’s–I dunno–sorta like, mebbe imho, roflmao–or maybe not, but whose to say?

Tetman Callis 6 Comments 5:28 am

“Shoddy prose today bespeaks intellectual insecurity: we speak and write badly because we don’t feel confident in what we think and are reluctant to assert it unambiguously (‘It’s only my opinion…’). Rather than suffering from the onset of ‘newspeak,’ we risk the rise of ‘nospeak.'” — Tony Judt, “Words”

All roads lead to RomeAll roads lead to Rome

Tetman Callis 5 Comments 7:43 am

“The novelist and the historian are seeking the same thing: the truth—not a different truth: the same truth—only they reach it, or try to reach it, by different routes.  Whether the event took place in a world now gone to dust, preserved by documents and evaluated by scholarship, or in the imagination, preserved by memory and distilled by the creative process, they both want to tell us how it was: to re-create it, by their separate methods, and make it live again in the world around them.” – Shelby Foote, The Civil War: A Narrative (emphasis in original)

They called him “Little Mac”They called him “Little Mac”

Tetman Callis 0 Comments 9:51 am

“I have done the best I could for my country; to the last I have done my duty as I understand it.  That I must have made many mistakes I cannot deny.  I do not see any great blunders; but no one can judge of himself.  Our consolation must be that we have tried to do what was right.” – Major General George B. McClellan, upon being relieved of command of the Union Army of the Potomac, 1862

Nowhere to hideNowhere to hide

Tetman Callis 0 Comments 5:48 am

“One meets all sorts of men in the army, and he often finds himself in a crowd of the very roughest of the human species.  But human nature is very much the same everywhere.  No matter how ‘rough’ a man may become, or how wicked, he naturally admires the excellent qualities of others, and condemns their faults very much the same as do those more cultivated and virtuous.  To be popular with such men, it is only necessary to be unselfish.  A selfish man is popular nowhere.  His ill nature will creep out in a thousand ways in spite of him, and bring all his virtues into contempt.” – Wilbur Fisk, Hard Marching Every Day (eds. E. and R. Rosenblatt)

The silence of dutyThe silence of duty

Tetman Callis 0 Comments 6:45 am

“The scenes in a soldier’s life are continually shifting, sometimes for better and sometimes for worse, and we soldiers get to be nearly as indifferent about the matter, and care as little where we go, as a horse cares where his driver may see fit to drive him.  And we have just as little voice in the matter as a horse has.  One day a soldier may be in his tent comfortable, contented, and happy, and the next day on a march with but few of the world’s comforts and but little cause of contentment except what he finds within himself.  A soldier’s time and services are not his own, they belong to the Government which he has sworn to defend, and it is his duty to be ever ready and obey with alacrity whatever the Government calls upon him to do.  Sometimes a streak of good luck will turn up to a soldier whether he deserves it or not, and sometimes they won’t turn up though he may deserve it ever so well.  It would be easy to mention a great many good boys in the ranks who have been doing duty at the front since the war began, but to whom no soft detail has ever been given, or any particular favors shown.” – Wilbur Fisk, Hard Marching Every Day (eds. E. and R. Rosenblatt)

Physical and moral knowledgePhysical and moral knowledge

Tetman Callis 2 Comments 7:30 am

“If a man wants to know what it is to have every bone in his body ache with fatigue, every muscle sore and exhausted, and his whole body ready to sink to the ground, let him diet on a common soldier’s fare till he has only the strength that imparts, and then let him shoulder his knapsack, haversack, gun and equipments, and make one of our forced marches, and I will warrant him to be satisfied that the duties of war are stern and severe, whether we march or face the enemy on the field of battle.  A fellow feels very much like grumbling at such times as that, and when we march on and on, expecting every minute to halt but still hurrying forward, when every spark of energy seems about to be extinguished, and the last remnant of strength gone, tired, hungry, sick and sore, who blames a soldier if he finds it hard work to suppress thoughts of a quiet home he has left behind him, with its comforts and endearments, and if he sometimes turns his thoughts to himself and wonders if he, as an individual, will ever be compensated for the sacrifice he is making.  What if the rebels are whipped, and what if they are not?  How does it matter to him?  One blunder of General Grant’s may make final victory forever impossible and all our lost toil go for nothing.  I tell you some of our hard marches put one’s patriotism severely to the test.  It finds out a fellow’s weak points if he has got any, and we don’t claim to be without them.” – Wilbur Fisk, Hard Marching Every Day (eds. E. and R. Rosenblatt)