Searching for a quotation in response to John Holbo’s post on revolutionaries and patriotism, I stumbled across this Google Book artifact:
“Thank Heaven he isn’t [alive today]” is quite a sentiment to express about a disabled person, but what can you do? Hunchback or no, “he would probably be an avid RED!” I wonder when this exchange took place — the red-baiting obviously dates it, but then again, maybe it doesn’t. We hear about “reds” and “commies” from contemporary conservatives now too, but I doubt any of the current commentariat would have heard of, much less read, Bourne.
As for the quotation I sought:
We have been kneaded so successfully that we approve of what our society approves, desire what our society desires, and add to the group our own passionate inertia against change, against the effort of reason, and the adventure of beauty.
Goldberg and his ilk have little choice but to evince “passionate inertia against change,” no matter what form that change might take. They believe, mistakenly, the status quo is a castle keep in which we were born and must defend — Bourne reminds us society is a La Madeleine on wheels staffed by mad tireless bakers, adrift on the plains of history.
The Edge of the American West 
19 comments
July 12, 2008 at 9:52 am
Vance Maverick
I’m afraid I had to google around to decode the reference to La Madeleine — evidently not this.
This scribbling brings back old days in the library, with the reminder that the conversations enabled by the old paper technologies (like the card catalogue, mourned e.g. by Nicholson Baker) weren’t necessarily, intrinsically more insightful than our degenerate blogging.
July 12, 2008 at 9:52 am
Jeremy
Hahaha… nice find!
July 12, 2008 at 10:08 am
Adam Roberts
‘Avid red’, for some reason, makes me think ‘colourless green’. I suppose it’s the chromatic opposition. That and the meaninglessness.
July 12, 2008 at 10:32 am
SEK
I added a link, Vance. I was a little bothered by the double article anyway, so maybe I should just change it.
Much obliged, Jeremy.
Adam, for some reason “avid red” didn’t do that for me, but “fervent red” (and other variations thereof) always does.
July 12, 2008 at 12:05 pm
bitchphd
I thought this was going to be a post about wine.
July 12, 2008 at 12:27 pm
Vance Maverick
That’s what I thought too, B. Perhaps along the lines of “In Soviet Russia, red wine drink YOU!”
July 12, 2008 at 12:35 pm
bitchphd
Californians think everything’s about wine.
I wasn’t disappointed, though. Those marginalia are teh awesome.
July 12, 2008 at 4:52 pm
neocynic
Although it has neither hunchbacks nor communists, Nathanael West’s Miss Lonelyhearts came to my mind as I read the scribbles. Because Peter Doyle is a “cripple,” which is kind of hunchbacky, and West was an avid red.
Or at least sort of avid and kind of reddish.
July 12, 2008 at 7:44 pm
Charlieford
“The allure of fresh and true ideas, of free speculation, of artistic vigor, of cultural styles, of intelligence suffused by feeling, and feeling given fiber and outline by intelligence . . . Whence can come this allure? Only from those who are thorough malcontents. Irritation at things as they are, disgust at the continual frustrations and aridities of American life, deep dissatisfaction with self and with the groups that give themselves forth as hopeful—out of such moods there might be hammered new values. . . . Yet these malcontents have no intention of being cultural vandals, only to slay. They are not barbarians, but seek the vital and the sincere everywhere. . . . They are too much entangled emotionally in the possibilities of American life to leave it, and they have no desire whatever to starve. So they are likely to go ahead beating their heads at the wall until they are either bloody or light appears. They will give offense to their elders who cannot see what all the concern is about, and they will hurt the more middle-aged sense of adventure upon which the better integrated minds of the younger generation will have compromised. Optimism is often compensatory, and the optimistic mood in American thought may mean merely that American life is too terrible to face. A more skeptical, malicious, desperate, ironical mood may actually be the sign of more vivid and more stirring life fermenting in America today. It may be a sign of hope. . . . Malcontentedness may be the beginning of promise. ” Twilight of Idols, 1917
July 12, 2008 at 7:48 pm
eric
Californians think everything’s about real estate.
It is indeed an awesome find, SEK.
July 13, 2008 at 7:44 am
Larry Cebula
This battling marginalia is fascinating. My first thought is that it is like very slow blogging: post, comment, comment.
Isn’t there a blog out there highlighting marginalia and oddities within Google Book Search?
July 13, 2008 at 8:30 am
SEK
Isn’t there a blog out there highlighting marginalia and oddities within Google Book Search?
If there is, I 1) haven’t been able to find it in the past 40 minutes but 2) desperately want to. (All my Google searches come back with Google blogs and the occasional artifact. I know Miriam‘s addressed this a few times, but I don’t know of a particular blog dedicated to it.
July 13, 2008 at 8:56 am
eric
The really brilliant bit is “What do you think?”
July 13, 2008 at 11:58 am
Fontana Labs
In my grad school’s library, there’s a copy of “twilight of the idols” that (inexplicably!) had an extra “l” in the last word of the title. And of course someone crossed out the “i” to get “twilight of the dolls” which always cracked me up.
Althouse once posted a photo of a medieval law manuscript in which someone from the 13th century had drawn a little cock-n-balls. It comforts me to know that some things never change.
July 13, 2008 at 2:05 pm
andrew
In my high school, people occasionally – ok, rarely – carried on conversations with others who sat at the same desk during different parts of the day by writing short messages on the desktops.
July 13, 2008 at 2:26 pm
bitchphd
Californians think everything’s about real estate.
Jesus, last night I *dreamed* about real estate.
July 13, 2008 at 3:13 pm
JP Stormcrow
Leads me to re-post my favorite marginalia from an old Geology book I own. Evolution of the Falls of the Niagara by Winthrop (J.W.) Spencer. The book is inscribed:
“B.F. Taylor,
in admiration of his good work cited here with the regards of the author. Jan 15, 1908.” (Taylor had some notoriety as an early proponent of Continental Drift.)
Not surprisingly, Taylor made many notes in the margin. As the book begins to touch upon the work of Taylor himself, the notes become more pointed: “wrong”, “not clear”, “pshaw!”. It culminates in a magnificent drawing labeled “Shame!” showing a stick figure being pushed into a gorge (the Niagara, one presumes, with strata evident.) Scanned image here.
July 13, 2008 at 5:43 pm
eric
The “thud!” is nice.
July 13, 2008 at 5:55 pm
urbino
Jesus, last night I *dreamed* about real estate.
The California version of Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret?