JackAwful

Vague descriptions of specific superficialities.

"Powers of observation heightened beyond the normal imply extraordinary disinvolvement: or rather the double process,  excessive preoccupation and identification with the lives of others,  and at the same time a monstrous detachment...The tension between standing apart and being fully involved:  that is what makes a writer." ~ Nadine Gordimer,  Introduction, 'Selected Stories'. (London: Bloomsbury, 2000)

"And so rapturously, too, does he sing of his griefs, this poet, while the dull muttonheads pick their teeth and mount their females.  Miserable clown! Can one think of anything more ludicrous? ironic? zany?...Will the Poet, as a type, join the Priest, the Warrior, the Hero, and the Saint as melancholy museum pieces for the titillation of a universal babbitry?" ~ Irving Layton, Forward, 'A Red Carpet for the Sun'