Author: Elizabeth Hand

Cites

• Patti Smith (2)
  • IN: Radiant Days (2012) Fiction, Young Adult Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: There is no keeper bu the key [Up there there are several walls of possibilities] Except for one who seizes possibilities.
    FROM: Land: La Mer (de), (1975), Song, US
  • IN: Generation Loss (2007) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: Art needs light Look at the lack of it.
    FROM: sister morphine, (1978), Poem, US
• Arthur Rimbaud (1)
  • IN: Radiant Days (2012) Fiction, Young Adult Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: My eternal soul Seize your desire Despite the night And the day on fire.
    FROM: A Season in Hell, (1873), Poem, France
• Roland Barthes (2)
  • IN: Available Dark (2012) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: All those young photographers who are at work in the world, determined upon the capture of actuality, do not know that they are agents of Death.
    FROM: Camera Lucida (translated by Richard Howard), (1981), Book, France
  • IN: Generation Loss (2007) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: I then realized that there was a sort of link (or knot) between Photography, madness, and something whose name I did not know.
    FROM: Camera Lucida (translated by Richard Howard), (1981), Book, France
• NULL (2)
  • IN: Available Dark (2012) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: Domine, libera nos a furore normannorum. "Lord, save us from the rage of the Norsemen."
    FROM: Medieval prayer, (None), Prayer, NULL
  • IN: Waking the Moon (1994) Dark fantasy, American
    EPIGRAPH: If all those young men were like hares on the mountain Then all those pretty maidens would get guns, go a-hunting. If all those young men were like fish in the water Then all those pretty maidens would soon follow after. If all those young men were like rushes a-growing Then all those pretty maidens would get scythes, go a-mowing
    FROM: Maying Song, (None), NULL, NULL
• Aeschylus (1)
  • IN: Icarus Descending (1993) Speculative fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: But when, from flesh born mortal, Man’s blood on earth lies fallen, A dark, unfading stain, Who then by incantations Can bid blood live again? Zeus in his pure wisdom ended That sage’s skill who summoned Dead flesh to rise from darkness And live a second time; Lest murder cheaply mended Invite men’s hands to crime…
    FROM: Agamemnon, (-458), Play, Greece
• J. G. Ballard (1)
  • IN: Icarus Descending (1993) Speculative fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: Ah, Dr. Austin…What do you think of them? I see there’s War in Hell.
    FROM: The Atrocity Exhibition, (1970), Novel, UK
• Octave Mirbeau (1)
  • IN: Æstival Tide (1992) Science Fiction, Speculative fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: Some minutes later a murmur ran through the crowd. Through my heavy eyelids which had almost closed at the horror of her tale, I saw gown after gown passing, and parasols, and fans, and happy faces, and accursed faces, dancing, whirling, rushing. It was like a burst of immense flowers, like a whirl of fantastic birds. “The doors, darling!” cried Clara, “the doors are opening! Come, come quickly! And don’t be sad anymore… Think of all the beautiful things you’re gong to see!”
    FROM: The Torture Garden, (1899), Novel, France
• W. H. Auden (2)
  • IN: Winterlong (1990) Speculative fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: We know without knowing there is reason for what we bear … Whoever the searchlights catch, whatever the loudspeakers blare, We are not to despair.
    FROM: The Complete Works of W. H. Auden, Volume VI: Prose: 1969-1973, (2015), Book, US/England
  • IN: Glimmering (1997) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: Four voices just audible in the hush of any Christmas: Accept my friendship or die. I shall keep order and not very much will happen. Bring me luck and of course I’ll support you. I smell blood and an era of prominent madmen.
    FROM: Blessed Event, (1939), Poem, US/England
• Bertolt Brecht (1)
  • IN: Winterlong (1990) Speculative fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: When he’d begun to rattle deep down in his throat, I asked him: “What are you thinking about?” I always like to know what a dying man is thinking about. And he said: “I’m still listening to the rain.” It gave me gooseflesh. “I’m still listening to the rain.” That’s what he said.
    FROM: Baal, (1920), Book, Germany
• Arthur Machen (1)
  • IN: Black Light (1999) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: And all alone on the hill I wondered what was true. I had seen something very amazing and very lovely, and I knew a story, and if I had really seen it, and not made it up out of the dark, and the black bough, and the bright shining that was mounting up to the sky from over the great round hill, but had really seen it in truth, then there were all kinds of wonderful and lovely and terrible things to think of, so I longed and trembled, and I burned and got cold. And I looked down on the town, so quiet and still, like a little white picture, and I thought over and over if it could be true.
    FROM: The White People, (1904), Short Story, UK
• CR Cavafy (1)
  • IN: Waking the Moon (1994) Dark fantasy, American
    EPIGRAPH: Anyway those things would not have lasted long. The experience of the years shows it to me. But Destiny arrived in some haste and stopped them. The beautiful life was brief. But how potent were the perfumes, on how splendid a bed we lay, to what sensual delight we gave our bodies. An echo of the days of pleasure, an echo of the days drew near me, a little of the fire of the youth of both of us; again I took in my hands a letter, and I read and reread till the light was gone. And melancholy, I came out on the balcony— came out to change my thoughts at least by looking at a little of the city that I loved, a little movement on the street, and in the shops.
    FROM: “In the Evening,” translated by Rae Dalven, (1917), Poem, Greece/Egypt
• Oscar Wilde (1)
  • IN: Glimmering (1997) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: “Fin de siecle,” murmured Lord Henry. “Fin du globe,” answered his hostess. “I wish it were fin du globe,” said Dorian with a sigh. “Life is such a great disappointment.”
    FROM: The Picture of Dorian Gray, (1890), Novel, Ireland
• Thomas Campion (1)
  • IN: Wylding Hall (2015) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: Thrice tosse these Oaken ashes in the ayre, Thrice sit thou mute in this inchanted chayre; Then thrice three times tye up this true loves knot, And murmur soft, shee will, or shee will not. Goe burn these poys’nous weedes in yon blew fire, These Screech-owles fethers, and this prickling bryer, This Cypresse gathered at a dead mans grave: That all thy feares and cares an end may have. Then come, you Fayries, dance with me a round, Melt her hard heart with your melodious sound. In vaine are all the charmes I can devise: She hath an Arte to breake them with her eyes.
    FROM: Thrice Toss These Oaken Ashes, (1617), Song, UK
• William Mortensen (1)
  • IN: Hard Light (2016) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: To put it more simply, you look most quickly and instinctively at those pictures that suggest, in their mere black and white pattern, something that was feared by your ancestor that lived in a cave.
    FROM: The Command to Look, (1937), Book, US