"Portion of Wall Misplaced, Whereabouts Unknown"

"Dieter was hunched forward, balanced on the balls of his feet, his chin jutting out from his chest. He had his hands up, palms out, fingers splayed. He patted the air in front of the hole, swiping at it, running his hands back and forth and up and down along an invisible plane, mere inches from the guards' faces. They stared, transfixed. No one spoke. Dieter continued to slide his hands through the air, reaching forward again and again, each time stopping in the space where the wall once stood. 

The two guards stood frozen in contemplation. The bushier one opened his mouth and then closed it. The other opened his own mouth and left it that way. 

'Upon further examination,' said the first, 'I might want to revise my initial opinion.' 

'I was just thinking the same thing,' said the other. 'I can't say it looks exactly the same as other walls I've seen. But there's clearly a wall there--I feel sure of that.' 

His partner squinted. 'I feel the same way. I wasn't sure how to say it, but you--you've described it perfectly' 

'Not all walls are the same.' 

'Certainly not.'"

The Pickle Index, Eli Horowitz

The Trouble With Angels (1966)

"... the curve of a tree trunk, a muscle or a column, will display the essence of its form--for the tree, sap, for the muscle, blood, and for the column, an inner cohesive core providing structural integrity. Therefore, a convex wall will be characterized not only by an outward expansion but also by an inward-looking characterization."

"The Convex Wall," Archetypes in Architecture, Thomas Thiis-Evensen

Francesco (1984)

"Gravity will always draw objects and ourselves down, representing in the extreme an annihilation of existence. That something stands up against this force by rising up is therefore synonymous with survival--and survival implies freedom from the earth."

"Gravity and Motion from Above Downward," Archetypes in Architecture, Thomas Thiis-Evensen

Psycho III (1986)

best-quality deputy

John Lurie & the Lounge Lizards, "Show 122," Sunday Night (1989 TV)

"Anyway, ringmastering was for ringmasters, and I still had the bat cages to clean. 'You are so good with the shovel,' Zloty would say, tousling my hair. 'You are a true master. I would not deprive you of an opportunity to display your talents.' Sometimes I thought about the farm, the dirt-prod, the three unfinished mounds, but never for very long--there were so many bat cages.

That was six years ago. I think. ... I'm no longer a little girl, and I'm no longer such a sucker for enchantment. I used to dream of someday standing in the center of the ring myself, mesmerizing a hushed throng of ladies and gentlemen, spinning acts into feats. Now I mostly dream of a waterproof blanket, and mostly I keep my mouth shut."

The Pickle Index, Eli Horowitz

"The show was just beginning when I arrived. Zloty stood in the center of the ring, his arms outstretched, tracing circles in the air to indicate the boundlessness of the wonders we were soon to witness. He used words like intrepid and spellbound and liability waiver. He said we were privileged to witness such feats. Had I ever really witnessed anything before? I searched my memories, but mostly it was just a whole bunch of ordinary seeing. On the farm, there was only the work and how the work got done. You looked at the dirt mounds, you looked at your hands, splinter-rich from the dirt-prod, and then you went to bed. But to witness something--to become an accomplice just by watching--that was something else. 

...By the grand finale the bleachers were almost empty. But I hardly noticed--I was entranced. I stayed until the end, when had the troupe came out to take a bow to scattered, anemic applause. And I stayed to watch Rueben push a wide broom across the dirt floor and into a pile in the corner. And while they dismantled the ring and packed up the lights, I curled into a wooden crate filled with novelty wigs and buried myself deep inside. If I wasn't chosen, I would choose. I'm a performer now, I thought, and I felt the netting of a wig settle into place just above my ears. I thought about my dirt-pod still lying next to those three mounds, and then I fell asleep."  

The Pickle Index, Eli Horowitz

Trust (1990)

"... I understood that we would forever be trailing five years behind the dream of prosperity. I saw that I was not the chosen one. There was no chosen one. My purpose in the world, which once seemed so clear and crisp, had fallen away, and in its place was just the glacial creep of the hard days ahead."

The Pickle Index, Eli Horowitz

"Despite the festive atmosphere, the air was rank with an unmistakable Kornblattery. The man was apprehended, yes, but his ideas remain, airborne pustules of mental infection, wafting along a gentle breeze of passivity. A figure like Zloty Kornblatt does not simply materialize out of the fermented mists, and his network of dedicated followers does not simply wither away in his absence. At this moment, highly trained disruptor cells lurk just a river's width from Destina, in Burford, our nation's spiritual pantry, a city of earthly fold living happy, brine-spattered lives. These humble people aren't distracted by Destina's insatiable appetite for novelty, the endless chase of new flavors, delicious foods, fresh vegetables. They don't have to worry about being first to discover the new treat of tomorrow; there, tomorrow is the same as today and yesterday, only slightly more vinegary. Yes, theirs is an innocent, authentic existences, uncluttered by the pleasant odors and dull administrative powers of our capital city."

The Pickle Index, Eli Horowitz

(subterranean)

The Paper Chase (1973)

"I'd started wetting the bed again, yeah. After two years dry."

Escape from L.A. (1996)

"Till the Morning Comes," The Ones That Got Away, Stephen Graham Jones

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White Lightnin' (2009)

"Don't come near me, Jennifer, I wouldn't know what to say to you now. My memories of you have coexisted for too long with too many dialogues between us that never occurred and I don't want to add more exchanges to this jumble. Don't have the wherewithal to parse imaginaries."

The Revolutionaries Try Again, Mauro Javier Cardenas

"(... simply what? what have you done with the memory of what was given to you? -- forget her?)"

It's Pat (1994)

"(how many times does the Virgin Mary need to appear to remind us of what we already know? how many times do we need to induce ourselves into believing she has come to warn us again that we're on the wrong path? in how many places around the world does she need to appear for no one to disbelieve anymore? or are her recurrent appearances what perpetuate disbelief?)"

The Revolutionaries Try Again, Mauro Javier Cardenas 

"-- Why are you telling me all of this Rolando? -- oh -- so you were not asleep -- he doesn't say -- what is he supposed to say? -- I'm sharing all these tender memories with you so you'll know -- what? -- that I am not what I am? --"

The Revolutionaries Try Again, Mauro Javier Cardenas

"... builds a / valentine out of a blue / leaf & tree pitch for his missing sister"

Figures for a Darkroom Voice, Noah Eli Gordon & Joshua Marie Wilkinson

Wise Blood (1979) 

"Distance is not something to believe in, & yet, you are so far from the image of yourself."

Figures for a Darkroom Voice, Noah Eli Gordon & Joshua Marie Wilkinson

(I was first shown how things grow here.)

"--and she seems to be talking to the plants or petting the plants as if trying to console them -- That's my grandmother she's apologizing to the tomatoes and the potatoes because we'll have to eat them soon."

The Revolutionaries Try Again, Mauro Javier Cardenas

Oh Lord, let this be my motto:

"I in You, and Ye in me."