Barbarity: Downtime for the Goldenboys

Downtime for the Goldenboys

“A pianist dreams that he’s hired by a wrecking company to ruin a piano with his fingers . . .”
Russell Edson, “The Marionettes of Distant Masters”

“Lo, the ship, at this opportunity, slipped slyly,
Making cunning noiseless travel down the ways.
So that, forever rudderless, it went upon the seas
Going ridiculous voyages,
Making quaint progress,
Turning as with serious purpose
Before stupid winds.
And there were many in the sky
Who laughed at this thing.”
Stephen Crane, “God Fashioned the Ship of the World Carefully”

“. . . Yet, I thought to give the factory a motif closer to the popular taste; and by this means prove myself worthy of executive station. I created a suicide motif: a chain of paper-doll factory workers attached elbow to elbow, cutting their wrists.

An inferior foreman merely said, you are well on the way to the misuse of your tools, which may well involve your monkey.

. . . My monkey? I screamed.

. . . Of course the mind is a desert; one grows used to the simplicity of thirst.”
Russell Edson, “The Mental Desert”

“. . . And he, little sprite,
Came to watch with me,
And at midnight
We were like two creatures by a dead camp-fire”
Stephen Crane, “I heard thee laugh”