Category: Books

A Walking Tour of the Shambles by Neil Gaiman & Gene Wolfe

I hope you’ve read Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino.  If not, go read it.  If you have, imagine stopping at one of those cities and finding the weirdest, darkest little area in it.  Then imagine a description of that area by Gaiman and Wolfe.  That the city in this case happens to be Chicago is besides the point.  It is a perfect little gem of delightful madness and charming evil.  Go read it.

Great moments in literature

1. In This Immortal, by Zelazny, when Conrad says, “Feathers or Lead?”

2. In Twenty Years After, by Dumas, when M. de Beaufort removes the poniard from the pie and says, “I hold one of these poniards to La Remee’s heart and say to him, ‘My friend, I am truly distressed, but if you make any movement or utter a cry, you are a dead man.'”

It’s things like that, those catch-your-breath instants, that are what I live for–why I say I’ll do anything for a good scene.  A long, slow build-up, and a payoff that makes the brain explode.

So–can you think of moments like that, lines that are the culmination of a scene that make your heart skip a beat?  (And, just so no one thinks I’m fishing for compliments, let us exclude any that I might be responsible for).