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Summer Tidings

James Purdy

‘He washed the quivering flesh of the wound in thick yellow soap.’

Requa-I

Tillie Olsen

‘Night scratched at the window and seeped from the room corners. No other sound but rising river wind.’

The New Music

Donald Barthelme

‘Went to the grocery store and Xeroxed a box of English muffins, two pounds of ground veal and an apple. In flagrant violation of the Copyright Act.’

from The Franchiser

Stanley Elkin

‘In sickness he understood what he never had in health, that his body, anyone’s, everyone’s, was something for the public record.’

from Long Talking Bad Conditions Blues

Ronald Sukenick

‘when rising expectations hit the upcoming decline hell was going to break loose it was already starting to break loose’

Unguided Tour

Susan Sontag

‘The more that places, customs, the circumstances of adventures are changed, the more we see that we amidst them are unchanging.’