Old, funny quotes.

“From Kiquotan [the settlers] extended themselves as far as James-Town, where like true Englishmen, they built a Church that cost no more than Fifty Pounds, and a Tavern that cost Five hundred.” --From William Byrd II's, The History of the Dividing Line
ROFL

“The good Missionary, disgusted with this idle Tale, said, ‘What I delivered to you were sacred Truths; but what you tell me is mere Fable, Fiction, and Falsehood.’ The Indian, ofended, reply'd, ‘My brother, it seems your Friends have not done you Justice in your Education; they have not well instructed you in the Rules of common Civility . You saw that we, who understand and practice those Rules, believ’d all your stories; why do you refuse to believe ours?’” --From a conversation between a Swedish minister and a Native American chief, quoted in Benajmain Franklin's Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America

Bloviating about stuff I know little about.

(This is me pretending I know stuff. Don't take it too seriously.)

“A narrator should not supply interpretations of his work; otherwise he would not have written a novel, which is a machine for generating interpretations.”
—Umberto Eco

So if a story forces an interpretation of itself to the reader, it's not a story, it's a really long pamphlet. This is why stories have subtlety (in bringing across messages, that is), because subtlety allows for ambiguity of interpretation--it allows one person to read a story and see one thing, while another sees something else entirely.

This may be why I have such difficulty with earlier literature (in this case, the History of Eliza Wharton, which is about as subtle as a brick to the face). It's not their fault, they were writing prototypes and lacked the refinement of the art and codified tropes present today (I imagine in the future someone will say the same about the current generation, should be amusing. :P) But it doesn't change the crudeness inherent in many earlier works of literature.
Oh well.

It's also why we'll probably never replace the classics--they were first (from a standpoint of recorded history and known literature that is). How well they're written is only part of it; they just existed first and espoused relevant ideals, and so naturally have the most prominence.

Just read “The Coquette,” or, “The History of Eliza Wharton”

Peter Sanford is such. A. Dick.

Also, what does “&c” mean? I have never met a footnote with the decency to explain that to me.

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I just finished a Cracked article that shows off six amazing things we've discovered in outer space (what's inner space then? Do we have a better name for it?)

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Must buy MTG books. But first, Don Quixote, and then The Three Musketeers.

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Does anyone know how to make blogger use "smart" quotation marks? I don't like these dumb ones.
ETA: Haha, the smart has been doubled! “ ”