December 2009
32 posts
“So, as Thorgest’s men roamed the islands for Eirik in their skiffs, choking with anger and hatred, they met the shrill troops of bird-soldiers that promenaded on the low black cliff-edges of mossy islands; as they sailed from rock to ochre-smeared rock, harshly jesting and telling each other the lying tales of their unsheathed swords, they heard the soft sobbing chuckles of birds; and sometimes when they rowed suddenly upon some hidden beach, skiff by skiff in their full warlike importance, they passed between guano-streaked cliffs from which jutted thousands of tiny pedestals, cushioned by moss, and on every one of these perches stood a grey bird, with a snowy breast and a snowy head; and because Thorgest’s men were rowing quietly, in order to take Eirik by surprise, the birds did not take fright, but stood on their ledges like statues of themselves, and as Thorgest’s men came closer the birds shook their heads and cried like children and spread their wing-feathers like fingers.”
—
William T. Vollmann,
The Ice-Shirt
Play
“You can draw a good likeness of Tulla’s face with the most familiar punctuation marks.”
—
Günter Grass, Cat And Mouse
Play
Play
