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That NightA Novel
It’s hard not to think of Sheryl’s mother as cruel in all this: hard not to think of her as the boys did, as the jealous queen, the wicked witch. She was the one, after all, who had swept her daughter out of the state the very day her pregnancy was confirmed, who chose to torment her boyfriend with these coy games. It was she who made sure her daughter had no chance to explain, to tell him goodbye. No doubt Sheryl tried to get past her, tried to call him from the supermarket on the last day she worked, from her own house as she quickly gathered her things together, from the airport, even, when she’d told her mother she wanted to go to the bathroom before boarding the plane and instead headed for the phones.
That Night : A Novel -
That NightA Novel
“I’m not even afraid of dying,” she told me, the cigarette at her lips. Her tone was pleasant but self-assured. She blew smoke upward into the air. “They showed us movies of these car accidents in school and it didn’t even bother me. Even Rick got nervous when he saw them, but I said, ‘So what? Everyone’s going to die.’ ” She looked at me carefully through the smoke and then sat back again, letting her head touch the railing. She wore a navy-blue scarf around her throat. One end was thrown behind her, the other hung down in front of her bright red shell. Except for a small bruise just above her scarf, what the Meyer twins had taught us to recognize as a love bite, her throat was as white as the inside of her wrist.
That Night : A Novel -
That NightA Novel
If you want to see how far we have not come from the cave and the woods, from the lonely and dangerous days of the prairie or the plain, witness the reaction of a modern suburban family, nearly ready for bed, when the doorbell rings or the door is rattled. They will stop where they stand, or sit bolt upright in their beds, as if a streak of pure lightning has passed through the house. Eyes wide, voices fearful, they will whisper to one another, “There’s someone at the door,” in a way that might make you believe they have always feared and anticipated this moment—that they have spent their lives being stalked.
That Night : A Novel
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Hippo in a TutuDancing in Disney AnimationEven in a traditional "princess" picture, such as the still-popular 1950 Cinderella, the scene with the most romantic magic—the Fred-and-Ginger buoyancy and sense of brimming anticipation—is not, as we would expect, Cinderella's waltz with the Prince in the ballroom. That we only get to glimpse from behind the courtiers watching it—during those moments when the dance isn't interrupted by comic business for secondary characters or by the couple themselves breaking off the dance merely to drink in each other's shadows. The accent is on their private discovery of their feelings, not on the public celebration of their newfound romance. The real dance energy, rather, surges forth in the designing, cutting, and assembly of the heroine's dress in her lonely bedroom by an exaltation of singing mice and birds: a solitary girl's fantasy. The Disney inspirational artist for Cinderella, as for many animated features of the 1950s, was the brilliant and thoughtful painter Mary Blair. Although Blair was frequently heartbroken by what she viewed as the mistranslation of her concepts in the finished films—a feeling that seems to be embodied in the moment when Cinderella's wicked stepmother and stepsisters tear her dress to shreds—throughout the picture you can still see evidence of Blair's deeply unconventional ideas of how stories can be told through synecdoche (key details made to stand for a larger whole) and emotions represented through color and shifts in proportion.Hippo in a Tutu : Dancing in Disney Animation
Selected Works
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The Last Days of Judas IscariotA Play
JUDGE LITTLEFIELD: Cunningham, you’re the cynical, faithless spawn of a crackpot gypsy and a defrocked mick—yet, you just told me Jesus would have you on your knees in three minutes.
CUNNINGHAM: So?
JUDGE LITTLEFIELD: So consider this: your friend Judas? He has Jesus for three years. Think about that, Cunningham. Three years in the foxhole with the best friend ya ever had, then he shot him in the back for a pack of Kools. Think what that says about the essential character of the man. Now go home and stir that into your wee gypsy teapot! Petition’s invalid, motion denied! Next case!
The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (guilastd)Premiered in2005- Print Books
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The Last Days of Judas IscariotA Play
SATAN: Hey. Judas, lemme ask you something: Who is this Jesus of Nazareth guy I’ve been hearing about?
JUDAS: Jesus of Nazareth?
SATAN: Yeah—I heard he’s some kinda somebody.
JUDAS: Some kinda somebody?
SATAN: Yeah, that’s what I heard.
JUDAS: Aw, fuck that guy, man—he’s a bitch!
The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (guilastd)Premiered in2005- Print Books
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The Last Days of Judas IscariotA Play
SATAN: Look, I didn’t make you people, God did, okay? But, there was a design flaw in the creation: He gave you free will—and to balance that out you were designed to self-correct. But, unlike the “free will” muscle, the “self-correct” muscle is not a particular favorite of the homo sapiens. I’d say “self-correct” falls somewhere between “colonoscopy” and “firing squad” on most people’s holiday “wish” lists. At any rate, the truth it: I don’t have to actively compete for human souls—I don’t have to lull or flatter or tempt or deceive—because with God at the helm and you people running around wrecking havoc: I’ll be honest, I spend most of my time on a sofa watching one-hour dramas on HBO.
The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (guilastd)Premiered in2005- Print Books
- Powell's
- Barnes & Noble
- Alibris
- Abe Books
- Dramatists Play Service (Acting Edition)
- E-Books
- Kobo
- Google Books
- Barnes & Noble