Sunday, September 2, 2018

Summer Silliness: Favorite Lines

Labor Day weekend. End of summer? (NO!!!) Still wanting the green, wanting the light, wanting the warmth here. Trying to distract myself and think of silly summer things to post for you.

All I can manage right now are my favorite lines, from books, movies, plays, anywhere. These five are things I come back to again and again, or even now and again, and I love how they've stayed with me.

So, in no particular order, the lines I wish I'd written - or said:

1. "The Tingler is loose in the theater." This comes from one of my favorite horror movies, The Tingler (written by Robb White), about a spine removed at a period of high anxiety after someone died of fright. Obviously taking off from the idea of a spine-tingling scare, and obviously a very B-grade movie (but nonetheless one of my favorites). Because the Tingler should always be loose in the theater, especially when it's showing a horror film.

2. "Beware my lord, of jealousy. It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock the meet it feeds on." Spoken by one of William Shakespeare's greatest villains, this line nails the feeling of jealousy better than anything else. I know the green-eyed monster and love the use Shakespeare made of it. And when I am feeling jealous, it's the first thing I try to tell myself.

3. "Fuck. Ethel." This line from Tony Kushner's Angels in America occurs as part of a hallucination had by the character of Roy Cohn when he sees Ethel Rosenberg, who had been executed at Cohn's urging after the Rosenberg trial. Angels in America is one of my favorite plays and, though I love the line exactly how it's used, I also use it for anything and everything in the course of a day - especially when I'm knocked out by something or some other thing goes wrong.

4. "Why is this night different from all other nights?" This question, asked at every Passover seder, is also the question I ask myself before (and while) I'm writing a new work, or revising an older one. I love it because it forces me to tease out exactly why this particular play or story or novel needs to be written--and what about it is unique.

5. "It's a great life if you don't weaken." This is something my father always said, and I loved it so much I named a play after it. He would say it when things didn't go his way or when they did; and often said it to buck me up when I was depressed (which happens a lot in adolescence). What I really need to do is keep it on my wall, so I can always look at it, and try to find my way back from whatever ledge I'm standing on.


So. Was that summer-silly enough for you?



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