David Reader 🐳📚🐦
@thepaleusher.bsky.social
Constant reader, occasional writer living near San Diego
December 1, 2025 at 4:24 PM
From the perspective of 2001, my #SundaySentence from Thomas Pynchon:
“Future of film if you want to know—someday, more bandwidth, more video files up on the Internet, everybody’ll be shooting everything, way too much to look at, nothin will mean shit.”
Bleeding Edge
“Future of film if you want to know—someday, more bandwidth, more video files up on the Internet, everybody’ll be shooting everything, way too much to look at, nothin will mean shit.”
Bleeding Edge
November 30, 2025 at 4:11 PM
From the perspective of 2001, my #SundaySentence from Thomas Pynchon:
“Future of film if you want to know—someday, more bandwidth, more video files up on the Internet, everybody’ll be shooting everything, way too much to look at, nothin will mean shit.”
Bleeding Edge
“Future of film if you want to know—someday, more bandwidth, more video files up on the Internet, everybody’ll be shooting everything, way too much to look at, nothin will mean shit.”
Bleeding Edge
“I was ruminating,” said Mr. Pickwick, “on the strange mutability of human affairs.”
“Ah! I see—in at the palace door one day, out at the window the next. Philosopher, Sir?”
“An observer of human nature, Sir,” said Mr. Pickwick. (27)
Charles Dickens
“Ah! I see—in at the palace door one day, out at the window the next. Philosopher, Sir?”
“An observer of human nature, Sir,” said Mr. Pickwick. (27)
Charles Dickens
November 30, 2025 at 2:41 AM
“I was ruminating,” said Mr. Pickwick, “on the strange mutability of human affairs.”
“Ah! I see—in at the palace door one day, out at the window the next. Philosopher, Sir?”
“An observer of human nature, Sir,” said Mr. Pickwick. (27)
Charles Dickens
“Ah! I see—in at the palace door one day, out at the window the next. Philosopher, Sir?”
“An observer of human nature, Sir,” said Mr. Pickwick. (27)
Charles Dickens
The mind of man is capable of anything—because everything is in it, all the past as well as all the future. What was there after all? Joy, fear, sorrow, devotion, valor, rage—who can tell?—but truth—truth stripped of its cloak of time.
#JosephConrad
Heart of Darkness (2)
#JosephConrad
Heart of Darkness (2)
November 25, 2025 at 5:51 PM
The mind of man is capable of anything—because everything is in it, all the past as well as all the future. What was there after all? Joy, fear, sorrow, devotion, valor, rage—who can tell?—but truth—truth stripped of its cloak of time.
#JosephConrad
Heart of Darkness (2)
#JosephConrad
Heart of Darkness (2)
Along the way
red and green
red and green
November 25, 2025 at 5:44 PM
Along the way
red and green
red and green
November 24, 2025 at 4:35 PM
. . . travel psychology envisions man in equivalently weighted situations, without trying to lend his life any—even approximate—continuity. Life is made up of situations. (77)
#Tokarczuk25
#Flights
#Tokarczuk25
#Flights
November 23, 2025 at 8:28 PM
. . . travel psychology envisions man in equivalently weighted situations, without trying to lend his life any—even approximate—continuity. Life is made up of situations. (77)
#Tokarczuk25
#Flights
#Tokarczuk25
#Flights
“. . . he has been hovering about you all night.” [said Pip]
“Moths, and all sorts of ugly creatures,” replied Estella, with a glance towards him, “hover about a lighted candle. Can the candle help it?”
Dickens
Great Expectations
“Moths, and all sorts of ugly creatures,” replied Estella, with a glance towards him, “hover about a lighted candle. Can the candle help it?”
Dickens
Great Expectations
November 23, 2025 at 8:22 PM
“. . . he has been hovering about you all night.” [said Pip]
“Moths, and all sorts of ugly creatures,” replied Estella, with a glance towards him, “hover about a lighted candle. Can the candle help it?”
Dickens
Great Expectations
“Moths, and all sorts of ugly creatures,” replied Estella, with a glance towards him, “hover about a lighted candle. Can the candle help it?”
Dickens
Great Expectations
“And the idea that none of us can truly know anything at all—not the lives of our friends or family, not even ourselves—is a thought they’d rather be shot in the arm with their own semi-automatic rifle than face head on.” (411)
#SundaySentence
Marisha Pessl
Special Topics in Calamity Physics
#SundaySentence
Marisha Pessl
Special Topics in Calamity Physics
November 23, 2025 at 3:28 PM
“And the idea that none of us can truly know anything at all—not the lives of our friends or family, not even ourselves—is a thought they’d rather be shot in the arm with their own semi-automatic rifle than face head on.” (411)
#SundaySentence
Marisha Pessl
Special Topics in Calamity Physics
#SundaySentence
Marisha Pessl
Special Topics in Calamity Physics
[Times Square]
—the melancholy bars, the cholesterol and fat dispensaries and porno theaters have been torn down or renovated, the unkempt and unhoused and unspoken-for have been pushed out, no more dope dealers, no more pimps…not even kids playing hooky at the old pinball arcades—all gone.
Pynchon
—the melancholy bars, the cholesterol and fat dispensaries and porno theaters have been torn down or renovated, the unkempt and unhoused and unspoken-for have been pushed out, no more dope dealers, no more pimps…not even kids playing hooky at the old pinball arcades—all gone.
Pynchon
November 23, 2025 at 2:18 AM
[Times Square]
—the melancholy bars, the cholesterol and fat dispensaries and porno theaters have been torn down or renovated, the unkempt and unhoused and unspoken-for have been pushed out, no more dope dealers, no more pimps…not even kids playing hooky at the old pinball arcades—all gone.
Pynchon
—the melancholy bars, the cholesterol and fat dispensaries and porno theaters have been torn down or renovated, the unkempt and unhoused and unspoken-for have been pushed out, no more dope dealers, no more pimps…not even kids playing hooky at the old pinball arcades—all gone.
Pynchon
“. . . it is impossible to convey the life-sensation of any given epoch of one’s existence—that which makes its truth, its meaning—its subtle and penetrating essence. It is impossible. We live as we dream—alone. . . .”
#JosephConrad
Heart of Darkness (1)
#JosephConrad
Heart of Darkness (1)
November 22, 2025 at 9:39 PM
“. . . it is impossible to convey the life-sensation of any given epoch of one’s existence—that which makes its truth, its meaning—its subtle and penetrating essence. It is impossible. We live as we dream—alone. . . .”
#JosephConrad
Heart of Darkness (1)
#JosephConrad
Heart of Darkness (1)
Kunicki: Water (II)
The world is ready to be overturned—it’s only a convention that the floor is beneath our feet, while the ceiling is overhead, the body no longer belongs just to itself, but is instead a part of a live chain, a section of a living circle. (44)
#Tokarczuk25
#Flights
The world is ready to be overturned—it’s only a convention that the floor is beneath our feet, while the ceiling is overhead, the body no longer belongs just to itself, but is instead a part of a live chain, a section of a living circle. (44)
#Tokarczuk25
#Flights
November 22, 2025 at 7:22 PM
Kunicki: Water (II)
The world is ready to be overturned—it’s only a convention that the floor is beneath our feet, while the ceiling is overhead, the body no longer belongs just to itself, but is instead a part of a live chain, a section of a living circle. (44)
#Tokarczuk25
#Flights
The world is ready to be overturned—it’s only a convention that the floor is beneath our feet, while the ceiling is overhead, the body no longer belongs just to itself, but is instead a part of a live chain, a section of a living circle. (44)
#Tokarczuk25
#Flights
“There is a taint of death, a flavor of mortality in lies—which is exactly what I hate and detest in the world—what I want to forget. It makes me miserable and sick, like biting something rotten would do.”
#JosephConrad
Heart of Darkness (1)
#JosephConrad
Heart of Darkness (1)
November 21, 2025 at 4:02 PM
“There is a taint of death, a flavor of mortality in lies—which is exactly what I hate and detest in the world—what I want to forget. It makes me miserable and sick, like biting something rotten would do.”
#JosephConrad
Heart of Darkness (1)
#JosephConrad
Heart of Darkness (1)
Another chilly day
More rain on the way
More rain on the way
November 20, 2025 at 6:20 PM
Another chilly day
More rain on the way
More rain on the way
What greatness had not floated on the ebb of that river into the mystery of an unknown earth! . . . The dreams of men, the seed of commonwealths, the germs of empire.
[…]
“And this also,” said Marlow suddenly, “has been one of the dark places of the earth.”
#JosephConrad
Heart of Darkness
[…]
“And this also,” said Marlow suddenly, “has been one of the dark places of the earth.”
#JosephConrad
Heart of Darkness
November 17, 2025 at 5:05 PM
What greatness had not floated on the ebb of that river into the mystery of an unknown earth! . . . The dreams of men, the seed of commonwealths, the germs of empire.
[…]
“And this also,” said Marlow suddenly, “has been one of the dark places of the earth.”
#JosephConrad
Heart of Darkness
[…]
“And this also,” said Marlow suddenly, “has been one of the dark places of the earth.”
#JosephConrad
Heart of Darkness
November 17, 2025 at 2:53 PM
Mr. Jaggers’s room was lighted by a skylight only, and was a most dismal place; the skylight, eccentrically patched like a broken head, and the distorted adjoining houses looking as if they had twisted themselves to peep down at me through it.
#SundaySentence
Dickens
Great Expectations
#SundaySentence
Dickens
Great Expectations
November 16, 2025 at 3:33 PM
Mr. Jaggers’s room was lighted by a skylight only, and was a most dismal place; the skylight, eccentrically patched like a broken head, and the distorted adjoining houses looking as if they had twisted themselves to peep down at me through it.
#SundaySentence
Dickens
Great Expectations
#SundaySentence
Dickens
Great Expectations
We don’t have northern lights
but we have this tonight
but we have this tonight
November 13, 2025 at 1:16 AM
We don’t have northern lights
but we have this tonight
but we have this tonight
Whenever I watched the vessels standing out to sea with their white sails spread, I somehow thought of Miss Havisham and Estella; whenever the light struck aslant, afar off, upon a cloud or sail or green hill-side or water-line, it was just the same.
Dickens
Great Expectations C15
Dickens
Great Expectations C15
November 13, 2025 at 12:01 AM
Whenever I watched the vessels standing out to sea with their white sails spread, I somehow thought of Miss Havisham and Estella; whenever the light struck aslant, afar off, upon a cloud or sail or green hill-side or water-line, it was just the same.
Dickens
Great Expectations C15
Dickens
Great Expectations C15
. . . they somehow conveyed to me that they were all toadies and humbugs, but that each of them pretended not to know that the others were toadies and humbugs: because admission that he or she did know it, would have made him or her out to be a toady and humbug.
Dickens
Great Expectations C11
Dickens
Great Expectations C11
November 11, 2025 at 10:46 PM
. . . they somehow conveyed to me that they were all toadies and humbugs, but that each of them pretended not to know that the others were toadies and humbugs: because admission that he or she did know it, would have made him or her out to be a toady and humbug.
Dickens
Great Expectations C11
Dickens
Great Expectations C11
Not really a problem, though. I can use your start and end lines to follow along.
November 11, 2025 at 4:42 PM
Not really a problem, though. I can use your start and end lines to follow along.
November 10, 2025 at 5:00 PM
All is yet chaos, but, slowly, the apparitions change into living flesh, the shimmering mists take shape, and—who knows?—something may be born of the clash of nebulous ideas.
#SundaySentence
#JosephConrad
Conrad’s description of the writing process from a letter
#SundaySentence
#JosephConrad
Conrad’s description of the writing process from a letter
November 9, 2025 at 2:42 PM
All is yet chaos, but, slowly, the apparitions change into living flesh, the shimmering mists take shape, and—who knows?—something may be born of the clash of nebulous ideas.
#SundaySentence
#JosephConrad
Conrad’s description of the writing process from a letter
#SundaySentence
#JosephConrad
Conrad’s description of the writing process from a letter
But Agnes isn’t afraid of the creatures [owls]. She likes them, likes their eyes, which resemble the centre of marigolds, their overlapped, flecked feathers, their inscrutable expressions. They seem, to her, to exist in some doubled state, half spirit, half bird.
Maggie O’Farrell
Hamnet
Maggie O’Farrell
Hamnet
November 7, 2025 at 7:53 PM
But Agnes isn’t afraid of the creatures [owls]. She likes them, likes their eyes, which resemble the centre of marigolds, their overlapped, flecked feathers, their inscrutable expressions. They seem, to her, to exist in some doubled state, half spirit, half bird.
Maggie O’Farrell
Hamnet
Maggie O’Farrell
Hamnet
Joan is screeching even before she reaches the byre. The words fly out of her mouth, like hornets, words she didn’t even know she knew, words that dart and crackle and maim, words that twist and mangle her tongue.(74)
Maggie O’Farrell / Hamnet
Maggie O’Farrell / Hamnet
November 6, 2025 at 10:32 PM
Joan is screeching even before she reaches the byre. The words fly out of her mouth, like hornets, words she didn’t even know she knew, words that dart and crackle and maim, words that twist and mangle her tongue.(74)
Maggie O’Farrell / Hamnet
Maggie O’Farrell / Hamnet