Look At Situations As Contingent, Not As

I Am For Peace. And I Am For A Negotiated Peace. But This Accord Is Not A Just Peace.

The Central Fact For Me Is, I Think, That The [role Of The] Intellectual... Cannot Be Played Without A Sense Of Being Someone Whose Place It Is Publicly To Raise Embarrassing Questions, To Confront Orthodoxy And Dogma (rather Than To Produce Them), To Be Someone Who Cannot Easily Be Co-opted By Governments Or Corporations, And Whose Raison D'etre Is To Represent All Those People And Issues That Are Routinely Forgotten Or Swept Under The Rug.

Captain Ahab Was A Man Possessed With An Obsessional Drive To Pursue The White Whale Which Had Harmed Him - Which Had Torn His Leg Out - To The Ends Of The Earth, No Matter What Happened. In The Final Scene Of The Novel, Captain Ahab Is Being Borne Out To Sea, Wrapped Around The White Whale With The Rope Of His Own Harpoon And Going Obviously To His Death. It Was A Scene Of Almost Suicidal Finality.

Speaking As A New Yorker, I Found [september 11] A Shocking And Terrifying Event, Particularly The Scale Of It.

Note That There Was No Claim For These Attacks [on 9/11]. There Were No Demands. There Were No Statements. It Was A Silent Piece Of Terror.