Edward Gorey - November 1992

N is for Neville who died of ennui

We all have periods when we're shining very brightly and people are calling us up and wanting to do things and so forth, and then somehow the phases of the moon change and we're hardly visible at all and the phone doesn't ring for days. I just go along with that. I wait for the phone to ring, usually.

-- The New Yorker

The Return of the Native - 1878/1978

He had been a lad of whom something was expected. Beyond this all had been chaos. That he would be successful in an original way, or that he would go to the dogs in an original way, seemed equally probable. The only absolute certainty about him was that he would not stand still in the circumstances amid which he was born.

1878 - Written by Thomas Hardy; 1978 - First read by Robert

Margo - December 1983

I am in class right now but this man is a dreadful bore and his speech is imprecise and sloppy. I pass. This is one of those irritating, time-consuming, trivial education courses. I only came to hand something in. And you know what bugs me? He is using the overhead projector but the transparencies are permanent and he doesn't need to write anything but the asshole has his pen uncapped. That just bugs the heck out of me.

I'm not going to Istanbul. I'm too tired. I'm just gonna stay here in Akron. That way I won't have to pack or discard anything. I can just sit here.

I read Valley of the Dolls again Sunday but I got to the part where Anne decides to use her money to get Lyon to stay in New York and I just couldn't go on. It's too sad and I've already been through it once. I want to see the movie.

I read Homer's Odyssey last night before I went to sleep and all night I had dreams about gods in the modern world. It was really fun.

WHY DOESN'T HE STOP TALKING, ROBERT? HE KEEPS BRINGING UP NEW THINGS AND THEY'RE ALL IMPRACTICAL IDEAS THAT HE'S TALKING ABOUT. THAT HE'S TALKING ABOUT. HE KEEPS TALKING. I WISH HE WOULD STOP TALKING. HE'S TALKING ABOUT WHAT HE'S GOING TO TALK ABOUT NEXT WEEK. GOD.