120

Horace Walpole but he recognized frivolity as the most insolent refinement of satire.

2-20-84

Deadline at Dawn - 1946- this is a film noír of the city at night one of my favorite themes. I don't know who wrote the screenplay. I missed the first part of the film. Some of the dialogue:

"A beautiful blond got into a taxi, she was lame."

"How lame?"

"Just enough to treat her like a sister."

"This is New York where Hello means Goodbye."

"It's allright to be caught in this cocoon if you plan to be a butterfly." (the girl says this of her dumpy apartment)

A man hits a girl across the face: "That's all the love I'm giving away this morning."

"I don't want no trouble. I work. I'm just a parasite on parasites."

"Play it again and play it sweet."

"We start with some gas station courtesy."

121

"I am not a happy man. But the years bring you discipline."

Feb 20, 1984

Night City: Passing car headlights flock, illuminating fragments of street: worn stone curb, angular mailbox legs, white paper scraps, discarded containers, glint of broken glass, pitted asphalt, wet places sucked back into darkness. Night streets, human shapes silhouetted against lighted store windows, in open doorways glimpsed interiors, stairs ascending dark hallways. Faces side lit, defined shadows. Hidden movements.

The Defense - by Vladimir Nabokov 1929(trans 1964)

p 31 The secret for which he strove was simplicity harmonious simplicity, which can amaze one far more than the most intricate magic.

p 59 The veranda cast a black triangular shadow on the bright sand. The avenue was paved with sunflecks, and these spots if you slitted your eyes, took on the aspect of