December 5, 2006
-
Anno Domini
Today in History
(via The Associated Press)On this date (Dec. 5):
In 1776, the first scholastic fraternity in America, Phi Beta
Kappa, was organized at the College of William and Mary in
Williamsburg, Va.In 1791, composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died in Vienna, Austria, at age 35.
In 2006, author Joan Didion is 72.
“We tell ourselves stories in order to live….
We interpret what we see, select the most workable of multiple
choices. We live entirely, especially if we are writers, by the
imposition of a narrative line upon disparate images, by the ‘ideas’
with which we have learned to freeze the shifting phantasmagoria which
is our actual experience.Or at least we do for a while. I am talking here about a time when
I began to doubt the premises of all the stories I had ever
told myself, a common condition but one I found troubling.”An Alternate History
(based on entries of
the past three days):
“A FAMOUS HISTORIAN:
England, 932 A.D. —
A kingdom divided….”
A Story That
Works- “There is the dark, eternally silent, unknown
universe; - there are the friend-enemy minds shouting and
whispering their tales and always seeking the three miracles —
- that minds should really touch, or
- that the silent universe should speak, tell
minds a story, or (perhaps the same thing) - that there should be a story that works, that
is all hard facts, all reality, with no illusions and no
fantasy;
- and lastly, there is lonely, story-telling,
wonder-questing, mortal me.”– Fritz Leiber in “The Button Molder“
- “There is the dark, eternally silent, unknown
