legsareblackandblue

Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin: “People said that he was very nice, but I confess that his utter grotesqueness made me uneasy; perhaps in the same way that the sight of monkeys eating their own excrement turns some people’s stomachs. They might not mind so much if monkeys did not- so grotesquely- resemble human beings.”

Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut: “See the cat? See the cradle?”

The Virgin Suicides by Jeffery Eugenides: “After denuding the trunk, the men left to denude others, and for a time the tree stood blighted, trying to raise its stunted arms, a creature clubbed mute, only its sudden voicelessness making us realize it had been speaking all along.”