The world was a huge ball then, the universe a might harmony of ellipses, everything moved mysteriously, incalculable distances th...rough the ether. We used to feel the awe of the distant stars upon us. All that led to was the eighty-eight naval guns, ersatz, and the night air-raids over cities. A magnificent spectacle. After the collapse of the socialist dream, I came to America.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Nobody who has any kind of creative imagination can possibly be anything but disappointed with real life.... Of course, you could ...always argue that you live more intensely in your mental world-substitute than we who only wallow in the real thing.... But the trouble is that you can't be content to stick to your beautiful ersatz. You have to descend into evening clothes and Ciro's and chorus girls--and perhaps even politics ... with lamentable results. Because you're not at home with these lumpy bits of matter. They depress you, they bewilder you, they shock you and sicken you and make a fool of you.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
How, in one short century, has this ersatz sport so strangled the consciousness of the country in the grip of its flabby tentacles... that the mention of women's baseball gets no reaction other than blank amazement?LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
War is not a true adventure. It is a mere ersatz. Where ties are established, where problems are set, where creation is stimulated...--there you have adventure. But there is no adventure in heads-or-tails, in betting that the toss will come out of life or death. War is not an adventure. It is a disease. It is like typhus.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The indispensable ingredient of any game worth its salt is that the children themselves play it and, if not its sole authors, shar...e in its creation. Watching TV's ersatz battles is not the same thing at all. Children act out their emotions, they don't talk them out and they don't watch them out. Their imagination and their muscles need each other.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »