Rene

“For almost a week the creature swam contentedly in its exhibit, until on Anzac Day, 25 April, it took a turn for the worse. Being a public holiday, the aquarium was busy, and many people peered through the glass to get a glimpse of the ferocious predator. After seeming to be disoriented and listless, it suddenly vomited up its entire stomach contents, causing the watching public to recoil, for floating in the foul-smelling discharge was a half-digested rat, a bird, and a tattooed human arm. When the arm was examined by a pathologist, it turned out that it had been cleanly severed from the body with a knife.”
― Tim Flannery, Big Meg: The Story of the Largest and Most Mysterious Predator that Ever Lived

“Ziggy turns his happiness on Roger, who’s blanked out, eyes fixed on the road, not listening, though that’s obviously impossible, because of . . . physics or whatever. Shit.”
― Dennis Cooper, Try

“There is much horror in the idea of being eaten by a shark. Yet sharks are responsible for only about ten human deaths a year, and in most of these cases the victim is bitten, but not consumed. Humans, in contrast, kill about 100 million sharks a year. That’s three sharks killed every second of every day. Many of these sharks are eaten by us. Consequently, it’s estimated that the total number of sharks has halved in the past 50 years.”
― Tim Flannery, Big Meg: The Story of the Largest and Most Mysterious Predator that Ever Lived

“As Daniel Singer asked at the Evergreen conference in 1987, “Is it possible for a class which exterminates the native peoples of the Americas, replaces them by raping Africa for humans it then denigrates and dehumanizes as slaves, while cheapening and degrading its own working class—is it possible for such a class to create a democracy, equality and to advance the cause of human freedom? The implicit answer is, ‘No, of course not.”
― George L. Jackson, Soledad Brother: The Prison Letters of George Jackson