Out of Context Quotes

[Kelle]

Economondos wrote: "And from earlier in the same book:

"Call it Rule 27B. Never make key tactical decisions while having electro-convulsive seizures.""

I have to say, it sounds like a very good rule.

[Brett]

"As everyone at court wanted to emulate the king, anal fistulas became all the rage at Versailles."

[Economondos]

Ouch!

[Economondos]

Two from one book:

Well, dragons need to be rescued too, sometimes.

Idiocy by committee, the finest kind.

[Economondos]

And from the same author:

"People are the only mirror we have to see ourselves in. The domain of all meaning. All virtue, all evil, are contained only in people. There is none in the universe at large."

[Brett]

"After his death a madwoman placed his head at the top of a set of stairs in the market square, washed off the blood, combed its hair, and surrounded it with more than a hundred lit candles."

[Brett]

"While there were laws that prohibited the removal of a penis, there was no legislation that prevented an individual from adding one."

This is nonfiction, by the by.

[Economondos]

From a major fantasy author, "The purpose of a storyteller is not to tell you how to think, but to give you questions to think upon."

From earlier in the same book, "This world, it is a tempest sometimes. But remember, the sun always rises again."

Perhaps a bit of author's message leaked through?

[Brett]

"As he leaned on his shovel - for he was always digging new graves - he bent over to pick up a human shoulder blade, which he held for a while in his hand while he talked and then tossed aside."

Classic (though not Classical) Italian author.

[Brett]

"His peg leg had a rubber tip and his departure was surprisingly silent."

[Michelle]

Brett wrote: ""His peg leg had a rubber tip and his departure was surprisingly silent.""

That's actually a pretty good quote!

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

“Impatience is all I got,” says Ron. “It’s my superpower."

~ Thursday Murder Club

[Brett]

@Michelle - it's from a between-the-wars pulp detective story.

[DivaDiane]

Colleen, I live just down the road from Marlow and am interested in those books just for that reason. I picked up the 2nd book from a leave one/take one shelf recently, but I suppose I ought to start with the first one? (I wasn’t sure if it was the first or second when I grabbed it - I was in a rush).

[Brett]

"Oh thank you Lord, thank you so much, we now have enough jackoff material in our memory banks to last at least a week."

[Alexandra]

"Dinosaur sex, she thought. That is a hell of a place to draw the line."

[Brett]

"How come you're spending money on my book when you don't have it?"

[CBRetriever]

"The tunnel stinks of dander and cat piss"

I get the cat piss smell, but I had no idea cat dander smelled like anything...

[Jabotikaba]

Frequently they could be seen right down on the sea-shore, trotting briskly along the tide line, looking like small, rotund colonels on a Bournemouth sea-front, imbibing the health-giving ozone, though they would occasionally spoil the illusion by stopping to have a light snack of a dead crab, a thing I have never seen a colonel do.

The Whispering Land

[Beth]

@Jabotikaba - Haha that's a great one!

[Jabotikaba]

I get the cat piss smell, but I had no idea cat dander smelled like anything..."

Thank you! This author's books are funny and educational at the same time.

CBRetriever wrote: ""The tunnel stinks of dander and cat piss"

There's a comic called Fish Wielder. It's a great parody of just about every fantasy book ever written in the world.
It mentions 'the stench of evil' several times. What's more, the author even kindly explains what that stench is. It's the smell of chocolate mixed with cumin. Considering that I can't stand cumin, I completely agree with the author.

[Brett]

"Normal is war, and war ain't hell. War is the foyer to hell."

[Jabotikaba]

Brett wrote: ""Normal is war, and war ain't hell. War is the foyer to hell.""

As I recall, General William T. Sherman strongly believed that war was all hell. But I prefer the definition of war that Andrzej Sapkowski gives in his book Baptism of Fire. He compares it to a brothel in which a fire is raging.
"I have met many military men in my life. I have known marshals, generals, commanders and governors, the victors of numerous campaigns and battles. I’ve listened to their stories and recollections. I’ve seen them poring over maps, drawing lines of various colours on them, making plans, thinking up strategies. In those paper wars everything worked, everything functioned, everything was clear and everything was in exemplary order. That’s how it has to be, explained the military men. The army represents discipline and order above all. The army cannot exist without discipline and order.
So it is all the stranger that real wars–and I have seen several real wars–have as much in common with discipline and order as a whorehouse with a fire raging through it."

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

DivaDiane wrote: "Colleen, I live just down the road from Marlow and am interested in those books just for that reason. I picked up the 2nd book from a leave one/take one shelf recently, but I suppose I ought to sta..."

I've only read the first, but it's very character oriented, so I assume you miss a lot of background if you read them out of order.

[Colin]

"You smelled blood. You smelled something else more distantly; above the blood hung the crisp, faecal sweetness of a rose."

From Harrow the Ninth.

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet, so said the bard, but I don't know if it would smell like this.

[Brett]

"Nat had dinner with the lizard still poised comfortably on top of his head, spent a pleasant hour walking around the town and startling his friends, then got back on the motorcycle and rode back almost to Oran."

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

My kinda night!

[Brett]

"The witch doctor did not smell of fish, he was not so attractive as an otter, but his voice was raised just as much."

[CBRetriever]

This one was really strange:

My lungs collapse on themselves with every strained exhale.

from Still the Sun by Charlie N. Holmberg

I can't even imagine this

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

I think they've confused lungs with jellyfish.

[Jabotikaba]

"And you know what English is? The result of the efforts of Norman men-at-arms to make dates with Saxon barmaids in the Ninth Century Pre-Atomic, and no more legitimate than any of the other results."

[Stephen]

“Of the daughters of Father Sol, only fair Terra is truly suited to Man.”

[Jabotikaba]

Stephen wrote: "“Of the daughters of Father Sol, only fair Terra is truly suited to Man.”"

That's a great one!