Musings of a sensitive young Norwegian man. «He is dressed in a striking yellow suit and has a small bottle of prussic acid hidden in his vest pocket…»
Joined December 2020
- Tweets3.2K
- Following246
- Followers1.2K
- Likes5.3K
J.N. Nagel retweeted
“Sight isolates, sound incorporates. Whereas sight situates the observer outside what he views, at a distance, sound pours into the hearer.”
Walter J. Ong, Orality and Literacy
J.N. Nagel retweeted
“It seems to be a law of literature that the more strictly limited its environment is, the more universal its appeal. Faulkner writes of his unpronounceable county in Mississippi and gets the Nobel Prize in Sweden, while novelists writing of the dilemma of modern man would get nowhere.”
—Northrop Frye, “Criticism and Environment”
J.N. Nagel retweeted
The end of Brothers Karamazov, a book partially about a terrible father, has what I interpret as a beautiful call for men to be good fathers, and give their children sacred memories.
You must know that there is nothing higher, or stronger, or sounder, or more useful afterwards in life, than some good memory, especially a memory from childhood, from the parental home. You hear a lot said about your education, yet some such beautiful, sacred memory, preserved from childhood, is perhaps the best education. If a man stores up many such memories to take into life, then he is saved for his whole life. And even if only one good memory remains with us in our hearts, that alone may serve some day for our salvation.
J.N. Nagel retweeted
“Interruption, incoherence, surprise are the ordinary conditions of our life. They have even become real needs for many people, whose minds are no longer fed by anything but sudden changes and constantly renewed stimuli. We can no longer bear anything that lasts. We no longer know how to make boredom bear fruit. So the whole question comes down to this: can the human mind master what the human mind has made?”
Paul Valéry, quoted in Zygmunt Bauman, Liquid Modernity
J.N. Nagel retweeted
Every man should keep one work of fiction as his personal treasure. Preferably reading this book once every few years. Learning passages by heart. Writing essays and poems on different themes in it. Letting it linger in your subconscious.
J.N. Nagel retweeted
Deep-diving into a few books a year, writing long-form essays on different themes in the books, and reading academic articles on them, is arguably more rewarding in the long run than reading as much and quickly as possible. I fear this is a lost art in the age of quantity.
J.N. Nagel retweeted
“Love is every bit as violent and dangerous as murder.”
Knut Hamsun, A Wanderer Plays on Muted Strings
J.N. Nagel retweeted
“The Contemplator” (1876) by Ivan Kramskoy
as mentioned by Fyodor Dostoevsky in “The Brothers Karamazov”
J.N. Nagel retweeted
“To give oneself a name that is the negation of all names: that is the ruse by which Odysseus saves himself from the vengeance of the Cyclopes. Because thought is capable of inventing what is not, human beings are no longer wholly at the mercy of natural fate.”
— Ernst Jünger.
J.N. Nagel retweeted
SOME NOTES ON WRITING A NOVEL:
You might start with anything: conflict, an image, a relationship dynamic, a scrap of language that interests you, an exchange of dialogue. Understand that whatever you first write (probably) won’t end up being the beginning of the final draft.
J.N. Nagel retweeted
'Here is my behest to you: in woe seek happiness.'
Zossima in Dostoyevsky's
The Brothers Karamazov
