The two polar aspects of the contemporary American character collided that day in Dallas--a consideration which, in going beyond p...olitics, goes far to explain why it had to be Kennedy. For John Kennedy was everything that Lee Oswald was not. He existed directly in the vivid center of reality, he was potent in every way, his life and personality were one continuous action and interaction; he was neither dualistic, separated, nor helpless; he had never been prevented from experiencing himself as alive and consequential. Oswald struck back at everything he was not, but in a sense he was performing a Kennedy-like act (as far as he could imagine one), and was attempting to become the sort of man he killed by the very act of killing. And so all that was starved, thwarted and hopeless in our national life took its pathetic and sullen revenge on all that was most vital, potent, and attractive.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
But then they danced down the street like dingledodies, and I shambled after as I've been doing all my life after people who inter...est me, because the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes "Awww!"LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Dead of a dark thing, John Holmes, you've been lost in the college chapel, mourned as father and teacher,... mourned with piety and grace under the University Cross.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I was not at all shocked with this execution at the time. John died seemingly without much pain. He was effectually hanged, the ro...pe having fixed upon his neck very firmly, and he was allowed to hang near three quarters of an hour; so that any attempt to recover him would have been in vain. I comforted myself in thinking that by giving up the scheme I had avoided much anxiety and uneasiness.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
John was a very political animal. The thing that politics did and that fame as an entertainer didn't do was provide you with an en...gine for propagating your theories and beliefs. The one thing John would have liked more than anything else was his own political machine. Even though he would profess that politics is bullshit, he just wouldn't call it "politics." He'd call it "peace."LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
John Anderson my jo, John, We clamb the hill the gither;... And mony a canty day, John, We've had wi' ane anither: Now we maun totter down, John, And hand in hand we'll go; And sleep the gither at the foot, John Anderson my Jo.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »