Topical Guide 986
Mark Dorset
Emotions: Guilt
Leaving Small’s Hotel, Chapter 36:
“[…] I feel that it’s all my fault, and that it has always been my fault, the fault of every one of me, every age and stage of me down the years, adding mistakes on mistakes — and now I’ve gotten us into the mess we’re in and I can’t find a way to fix it. I try. I have tried, and I do try. […] .”
Humor: Its way of inserting itself where it is not wanted
Leaving Small’s Hotel, Chapter 36:
“Oh, I tried writing — ” I shook my head and expelled a bitter laugh. “ — the confessions of a hit man. The memoirs of a professional killer. […] It could make some money, […] Maybe. But probably not, because I have a hard time keeping myself from undercutting the story and the character. I try to be evil but the irony keeps creeping in. […]
Oliver Edwards to Samuel Johnson, quoted by James Boswell in The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.:
“You are a philosopher, Dr. Johnson. I have tried too in my time to be a philosopher; but I don’t know how, cheerfulness was always breaking in.”
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