“Words are small shapes in the gorgeous chaos of the world.”
Diane Ackerman book A Natural History of the Senses
Source: A Natural History of the Senses
Source: The World and Other Places: Stories
“Words are small shapes in the gorgeous chaos of the world.”
Diane Ackerman book A Natural History of the Senses
Source: A Natural History of the Senses
Peter J. Carroll (1953) British occultist
Source: Liber Null & Psychonaut (1987), p. 52
Arshile Gorky (1904–1948) Armenian-American painter
Source: 1942 - 1948, Arshile Gorky, – Goats on the roof' (2009), p. 357: in: 'A visit to the Metropolitan Museum with Gorky', Ethel Schwabacher, 1947
Thomas Pynchon book Gravity's Rainbow
Gravity's Rainbow (1973)
Context: No, as none of these, but instead a point in space, a point hung precise as the point where burning must end, never launched, never to fall. And what is the specific shape whose center of gravity is the Brennschluss Point? Don't jump at an infinite number of possible shapes. There's only one. It is most likely an interface between one order of things and another. There's a Brennschluss point for every firing site. They still hang up there, all of them, a constellation waiting to have a 13th sign of the Zodiac named for it...
“Love the battle between chaos and imagination.”
Robert Fulghum (1937) American writer
"Alice-Alice" in Third Wish (2006)
Context: Love the battle between chaos and imagination.
Remember: Acting is living truthfully in imaginary circumstances.
Remember: Acting is the way to live the greatest number of lives.
Remember: Acting is the same as real life, lived intentionally.
Never forget: The Fruit is out on the end of the limb. Go there.
Ivars Peterson (1948) Canadian mathematician
Source: The Jungles of Randomness: A Mathematical Safari (1997), Chapter 10, “Lifetimes of Chance” (p. 202)
“There is a vivid contrast between the order of China and the chaos of the West.”
Xi Jinping (1953) General Secretary of the Communist Party of China and paramount leader of China
Source: As quoted in The East Is Rising': Xi Maps Out China’s Post-Covid Ascent https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/03/world/asia/xi-china-congress.html The New York Times
Charles Stross book Singularity Sky
Source: Singularity Sky (2003), Chapter 4, “The Admiral’s Man” (p. 72; ellipsis represents a minor elision of description)