The mind couldn’t think about the End of the World all the time.
Neal Stephenson: Seveneves
Schlagwort: Konzentration
Konzendration.
Erdreistaunliche Deutredlichkeit.
Aber weil ich doch irgendeine dunkle Vorstellung habe, die mit dem, was ich suche, von fern her in einiger Verbindung steht, so prägt, wenn ich nur dreist damit den Anfang mache, das Gemüt, während die Rede fortschreitet, in der Notwendigkeit, dem Anfang nun auch ein Ende zu finden, jene verworrene Vorstellung zur völligen Deutlichkeit aus, dergestalt, daß die Erkenntnis zu meinem Erstaunen mit der Periode fertig ist.
Heinrich von Kleist (1805): Über die allmähliche Verfertigung der Gedanken beim Reden
Alter-nativen.
That merely glimpsing three good wooden boxes on a baggage-wain could lead to such broodings made Daniel wonder that he could get out of bed in the morning. Once, he had feared that old age would bring senility; now, he was certain it would slowly paralyze him by encumbering each tiny thing with all sorts of significations.
Neal Stephenson: The System of the World
Feature from the Past.
Surprise of the day: The "Work Offline" option in my browser still exists.
Schreibk(r)ampf.
Anyone moderately familiar with the rigours of composition will not need to be told the story in detail; how he wrote and it seemed good; read and it seemed vile; corrected and tore up; cut out; put in; was in ecstasy; in despair; had his good nights and bad mornings; snatched at ideas and lost them; saw his book plain before him and it vanished;
Virginia Woolf: Orlando: A Biography