Justin Dargan > Recent Status Updates

“It is always the herd men who win battles and the free men who win wars.”

It’s such a shame looking back on generations past… realizing that even then, we knew better. And to see, ever and again, the leaders of powerful states reverting to the most destructive, shortsighted, and stupid behaviors.

Reading the intro of this book, and I can tell it’s going to feel depressingly current.

Poor old Merry! How glad I am to see you again! But tell me, are you hurt, or wounded?
‘No,’ said Merry. Well, no, I don’t think so. But I can’t use my right arm…

Jesus, this is like… ALL the memories of life lived as a sports guy. Not sure whether I am ashamed or proud of the fact that I relate to this. Both? I guess.

Gandalf and Shadowfax being friends and equals is one of the best, rarely remarked upon subplots in this eternal work of genius, and I am here for it so hard.

Ugh, Denethor sucks.

❤️❤️❤️ Frodo and Sam ❤️❤️❤️

It was Sam’s first view of a battle of Men against Men, and he did not like it much. He was glad that he could not see the dead face. He wondered what the man’s name was and where he came from; and if he was really evil of heart, or what lies or threats had led him on the long march from his home; and if he would not really rather have stayed there in peace…

Pippin is such a great hero in this saga. Underrated yet essential.

How shall a man judge what to do in such times?
As he ever has judged… Good and evil have not changed since yesteryear; nor are they one thing among Elves and Dwarves and another among Men. It is a man’s part to discern them, as much in the Golden Wood as in his own house.

“…in nothing is the power of the Dark Lord more clearly shown than in the estrangement that divides all those who still oppose him.”

Tolkien is such a wonderful writer. I loved this so much when I was a kid and I may like it even more now. His prose, his ideas, his ability to tell a story. Writing really doesn’t get better than this.

Struck by the clear fact that Saruman is every garbage Trump stooge. Mental gymnastics employed to trick yourself into thinking that doing pure evil is somehow part of a greater good. Timely and timeless, this book

“Elves seldom give unguarded advice, for advice is a dangerous gift, even from the wise to the wise, and all courses may run ill.”

“If that’s being queer, then we could do with a bit more queerness in these parts.”

Haven’t read this in literal decades, jazzed to dive back into what was my favorite childhood saga.

“She was a wench of about twenty-seven, sturdy, black-browed, and ruddy, with kindly smiling red lips, behind which her even, white teeth flashed.”

I know times were different back then, but 27 still seems too young an age to be a wench.

This one started a bit slow, but these scenes with Stavrogin and Kirillov… damn bruh.

“Why should you care?” I asked. “Our problems are fast becoming your problems.”

Damn…

I think I’m due for a re-read of Tolkien. I need some escapism… the real world is too much of a nightmare.

“Education determines the quality of governance. An investment in education takes a generation to bear fruit. Likewise, countries feel the impact of this disregard for education a generation later. That determines their productivity, the quality of their workforce, their investments, and ultimately their gross domestic product (GDP). A nation’s budget line item for education is an investment in its people.”

“there are successful people who, because of their childhood experiences, learn to suppress their emotions as long as their life is peppered with achievements. They do well, even excellently, in everything they undertake; they are admired and envied, successful whenever they care to be.
…but beyond all this lurks depression, a feeling of emptiness and self alienation, and a sense that their life has no meaning.

“To be left alone on the tightrope of youthful unknowing is to experience the excruciating beauty of full freedom and the threat of eternal indecision. Few, if any, survive their teens. Most surrender to the vague but murderous pressure of adult conformity. It becomes easier to die and avoid conflicts than to maintain a constant battle with the superior forces of maturity.”

Chapter 26 was just wonderful.
This is a phenomenal book so far.

“It was awful to be Negro and have no control over my life. It was brutal to be young and already trained to sit quietly and listen to charges brought against my color with no chance of defense. We should all be dead. I thought I should like to see us all dead, one on top of the other. A pyramid of flesh with the white folks on the bottom as the broad base…
As a species, we were an abomination. All of us.”

“The Black woman in the South who raises sons, grandsons and nephews had her heartstrings tied to a hanging noose. Any break from routine may herald for them unbearable news. For this reason, Southern Blacks until the present generation could be counted among America’s arch conservatives.”

“She had so many things she had to write, so many stories to tell. If she could only find the right outlet, heated thoughts and ideas would gush out like lava, congealing into a steady stream of inventive works the likes of which the world had never seen.”

This ruled, but it was more of a bunch of interviews cobbled together than a”book” proper. Basically that’s my way of saying, don’t let my three star review dissuade any Waits fans from reading this. For that demographic, I’d consider this essential reading.
Kathleen Brennan is one of the most brilliant, underrated artists ever, and I’m glad this book makes that clear.
Wish I had a chance to see him live

This book rules. Somebody really needs to turn it into a surrealist, horror-adjacent film in the style of David Lynch or a surrealist dark comedy a la the Cohen brothers

Just finished the “Frieda” chapter.

I love Kafka so much. Somehow, his writing simultaneously makes no sense at all while also being the ONLY thing that makes sense. His universally relatable “truth” is so hard to grasp, which makes it all the more real.

“…the thing Marlon really wanted to do was dress up as a woman and have Harry Dean dress up as a woman, and the two of them would have tea together and ad-lib while they were drinking tea.”

A damn shame this project never happened.

I’ve got this idea.. two cretinous guys.. one of them laughs & a bubble floats out of his mouth and goes down the hallway, around the corner, and into a room where it lodges in the housing of a sensitive piece of equipment… Then you cut to outer space and see a satellite deploy a kind of ray gun weapon that fires, and then a countdown starts.
We were 6 weeks away from shooting it with Steve Martin & Martin Short.

In life, you don’t know everything. You enter a room and people are sitting there and there’s an atmosphere, and you immediately know if you have to be careful about what you say, or if you have to be loud, or silent, or subdued—you immediately know it. The thing you don’t know is what’s next. In life, we don’t know where the story is going or even where a conversation is going to go in the next minute.

To the surprise of nobody, Mel Brooks is a magnificent hero.