Replay IV

The Ghosts of Innocence

Loretta Lux (b. 1969) - Girl with Marbles, 2005


I use children as a metaphor for a lost paradise.

Loretta Lux

Childhood: the period of human life intermediate between the idiocy of infancy and the folly of youth - two removes from the sin of manhood and three from the remorse of age.

Ambrose Bierce

I'd give all the wealth that years have piled,
The slow result of Life's decay,
To be once more a little child
For one bright summer day.

Lewis Carroll

Childhood is not only the childhood we really had but also the impressions we formed of it in our adolescence and maturity. That is why childhood seems so long. Probably every period of life is multiplied by our reflections in the next.

Cesare Pavese

Childhood has no forebodings; but then, it is soothed by no memories of outlived sorrow.

George Eliot

The Bricklayers Of Eternity

Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824-1904) - Prayer on the Housetops, 1865


pray, v. To ask the laws of the universe to be annulled on behalf of a single petitioner.

Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary, 1911

Musique du Jour: Djivan Gasparyan, Apricots From Eden

Addendum IX

If Books Could Kill

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844-1900) in Basel, c. 1875


All are lunatics, but he who can analyze his delusion is called a philosopher.

Ambrose Bierce

The Future That Was

Hildebrands Chocolate promotional campaign, 1900

A Quick Stroll on the Water in the Year 2000

Combined Ship and Railway Locomotive in the Year 2000

House Moving by Train in the Year 2000

Personal Airships in the Year 2000

Personal Flying Machines in the Year 2000

Police X-Ray Surveillance Machine in the Year 2000

Roofed Cities in the Year 2000

Summer Holidays at the North Pole in the Year 2000

Televised Outside Broadcasting in the Year 2000

The Moving Pavement in the Year 2000

Undersea Tourist Boats in the Year 2000

Weather Control Machine in the Year 2000

future, n. That period of time in which our affairs prosper, our friends are true, and our happiness is assured.

Ambrose Bierce, The Cynic's Word Book, 1906

The Ghosts Of Innocence

Loretta Lux (b. 1969) - Girl with Marbles, 2005

"I use children as a metaphor for a lost paradise."

Loretta Lux

"Childhood: the period of human life intermediate between the idiocy of infancy and the folly of youth - two removes from the sin of manhood and three from the remorse of age."

Ambrose Bierce

"I'd give all the wealth that years have piled,
The slow result of Life's decay,
To be once more a little child
For one bright summer day."

Lewis Carroll

"Childhood is not only the childhood we really had but also the impressions we formed of it in our adolescence and maturity. That is why childhood seems so long. Probably every period of life is multiplied by our reflections in the next."

Cesare Pavese

"Childhood has no forebodings; but then, it is soothed by no memories of outlived sorrow."

George Eliot