‘Screw you, Zeus’: Quotes from previous weeks

 

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“If nobody brings in snacks, it won’t really be a party,” said a colleague teacher to some students at the end of 1st hour. 18 Jan.

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“Jeremiah!” shouted a woman while listening to a call on speaker phone in the dairy department of a local grocery store. I think she was shouting at a little boy who had run off. Or maybe she was shouting for a prophet. 20 Jan.

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Nonfiction is one’s mind encountering some part of the world. There’s no one-book of the world. 21 Jan.

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I like “spoilers.” I dislike narrative tension. I want to know what happens so that I can think about the story rather than just waiting to find out what happens. 25 Jan.

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“Sometimes ramblings are the most-interesting things to read,” said my student. 25 Jan.

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“‘Cuz I got holes,” said student about why he’s got a coat over his t-shirt in class. 25 Jan.

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I write for myself. When I write for others, I get hammy, needy. There’s no money in writing — and why should there be? It’s just ideas, and there’s no lasting value in ideas. Of course I write for myself — why write for any other! I’m just borrowing the language, the words, anyway! 26 Jan.

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I don’t have to explain/rationalize why I like an idea, artwork, etc. Liking something isn’t rational. 27 Jan.

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One upside to being sick [with a cold]: I’ve been less ambitious with writing. 28 Jan.

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After I told a student that it’s good to have a hobby outside of one’s job, student said, “Being bored IS my hobby.” 28 Jan.

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A female student walked into class 3rd hour and said, “I’m gonna walk up to him and say [in an insinuating voice], ‘So you LIKE peeling bananas, huh?’” 28 Feb.

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Greek myths, Book of Genesis — whatever happened before there were people existing to witness it can’t be known, can’t be nonfiction, and so must be speculative, fictional, philosophical (definitional), all that. 28 Jan.

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A student said to friends in the hallway after school, “… to be fair, I am an asshole, but still …” 29 Jan.

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At a grocery store in Rockford, I heard a boy say something about needing more bananas. The mom said, “Oh, like we need to buy more than 20 bananas?” What if a kid or kids in the boy’s class want more than one banana each, the boy asked. The teacher would say “one each,” said the mom. 31 Jan.

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“Go look at him ‘cuz he’s beautiful,” said my former student about a substitute teacher at school this day. 2 Feb.

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The book of Genesis says the Earth was “without form” in the beginning. If we take “form” to be, in part, distinction, we make distinctions in general to have useful ideas. We make useful distinctions. 2 Feb.

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“My ex-boyfriend doesn’t exist,” said student, who was then told that she’s used that joke before. “Do I really say that all the time?” she asked. 2 Feb.

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“Why am I hearing your voice?” I asked a student during poem-writing time. “My voice is beautiful,” said student. “It’s weird as hell,” answered second student. 3 Feb.

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Creation stories (like Book of Genesis, Hesiod’s “Theogony”) establish symbols for the purpose of having symbols, common symbols within the group of followers. I suppose this is like how fans of any text — say, the Lord of the Rings trilogy — have common reference points. 4-5 Feb.

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Were I famous, people would want me but for their own (selfish) reasons, and not appreciate me as me. But I don’t often feel appreciated for any reason — I need to let go of bitter, cynical thoughts like that as I age, even if I never get as much appreciation as I’d like. 5 Feb.

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I read an online comment recently that said David Foster Wallace’s book Infinite Jest should’ve been edited down. In Genesis and in Hesiod’s “Theogony,” the chaos that arrives before other things is said to be without form. So is the implication that any work that isn’t well-fitted to a form (like DFW’s novel didn’t fit the novel-form, perhaps) chaotic? 5 Feb.

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One student said of another, “He has moments of brilliance, and moments of ‘you are dumb.’” 5 Feb.

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Said a worker at a Casey’s convenience store to another worker, “I’m not known for losing that kind of stuff.” 8 Feb., about 4:10 p.m.

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At the local diner: Kim Waitress pointed to some plates of food and asked the cooks, “Which one’s ‘Easy Onion’?” I like the name “Easy Onion” for a criminal’s name, perhaps. 13 Feb.

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Also at the diner: Ashli Waitress said she needed to pour coffee into both cups on the table “because otherwise the table’s leaning this way,” she explained her compulsive behavior. 14 Feb.

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Ashli Waitress’s pink-ribbon tattoo is on her foot because “I didn’t think my first tatt should be on my tit,” she said. 14 Feb.

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“I’d be like, ‘Screw you, Zeus,’” said my sophomore student about what he’d do if he were, like Atlas, asked to hold up the sky. 18 Feb.

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While I was outside on a warm February Saturday, I heard my Neighbor-Dad yelled at his kids, who were in the garage. Neighbor-Mom said, “Are they playing with poison? Go inside and wash your hands.” 20 Feb.