The only excursion of my life outside of New Orleans took me through the vortex to the whirlpool of despair: Baton Rouge. . . . New Orleans is, on the other hand, a comfortable metropolis which has a certain apathy and stagnation which I find inoffensive.

John Kennedy Toole

Categorized in : Hands New Orleans Despair

you can always tell employees of the government by the total vacancy which occupies the space where most other people have faces.

John Kennedy Toole

government space people

Having once been so high, humanity fell so low. What had once been dedicated to the soul was now dedicated to the sale.

John Kennedy Toole

soul humanity lows

...I doubt very seriously whether anyone will hire me.' What do you mean, babe? You a fine boy with a good education.' Employers sense in me a denial of their values.' He rolled over onto his back. 'They fear me. I suspect that they can see that I am forced to function in a century I loathe. This was true even when I worked for the New Orleans Public Library.

John Kennedy Toole

work boys mean

I am at the moment writing a lengthy indictment against our century. When my brain begins to reel from my literary labors, I make an occasional cheese dip.

John Kennedy Toole

cheesy writing food

A firm rule must be imposed upon our nation before it destroys itself. The United States needs some theology and geometry, some taste and decency. I suspect that we are teetering on the edge of the abyss.

John Kennedy Toole

united-states taste needs

You could tell by the way he talked, though, that he had gone to school a long time. That was probably what was wrong with him.

John Kennedy Toole

gone long school

It smells terrible in here.' Well, what do you expect? The human body, when confined, produces certain odors which we tend to forget in this age of deodorants and other perversions. Actually, I find the atmosphere of this room rather comforting. Schiller needed the scent of apples rotting in his desk in order to write. I, too, have my needs. You may remember that Mark Twain preferred to lie supinely in bed while composing those rather dated and boring efforts which contemporary scholars try to prove meaningful. Veneration of Mark Twain is one of the roots of our current intellectual stalemate.

John Kennedy Toole

writing meaningful lying

The only problem that those people have anyway is that they don't like new cars and hair sprays. That's why they are put away. They make the other members of the society fearful. Every asylum in this nation is filled with poor souls who simply cannot stand lanolin, cellophane, plastic, television, and subdivisions.

John Kennedy Toole

car hair people

Oh, Fortuna, blind, heedless goddess, I am strapped to your wheel,' Ignatius belched, 'Do not crush me beneath your spokes. Raise me on high, divinity.

John Kennedy Toole

divinity crush wheels

I avoid that bleak first hour of the working day during which my still sluggish senses and body make every chore a penance. I find that in arriving later, the work which I do perform is of a much higher quality.

John Kennedy Toole

good-morning arriving quality

with the breakdown of the medieval system, the gods of chaos, lunacy, and bad taste gained ascendancy.

John Kennedy Toole

medieval chaos taste

Stop!' I cried imploringly to my god-like mind. by John Kennedy Toole

Stop!' I cried imploringly to my god-like mind.

John Kennedy Toole

cry tears mind

Apparently I lack some particular perversion which today's employ... by John Kennedy Toole

Apparently I lack some particular perversion which today's employer is seeking.

John Kennedy Toole

employers work today

This liberal doxy must be impaled upon the member of a particular... by John Kennedy Toole

This liberal doxy must be impaled upon the member of a particularly large stallion.

John Kennedy Toole

doxies stallions members

Jail was preferable. There they only limited you physically. In a mental ward they tampered with your soul and worldview and mind.

John Kennedy Toole

jail soul mind

The human desire for food and sex is relatively equal. If there are armed rapes, why should there not be armed hot dog thefts?

John Kennedy Toole

dog desire sex

The day before me is fraught with God knows what horrors. by John Kennedy Toole

The day before me is fraught with God knows what horrors.

John Kennedy Toole

god-knows horror fear

employers sense in me a denial of their values...they fear me. i suspect that they can see that i am forced to function in a century which i loathe.

John Kennedy Toole

denial function century

You got a job?" "Ignatius hasta help me at home," Mrs. Reilly said. Her initial courage was failing a little, and she began to twist the lute string with the cord on the cake boxes. "I got terrible arthuritis." "I dust a bit," Ignatius told the policeman. "In addition, I am at the moment writing a lengthy indictment against our century. When my brain begins to reel from my literary labors, I make an occasional cheese dip.

John Kennedy Toole

home writing jobs

Between notes, he had contemplated means of destroying Myrna Minkoff but had reached no satisfactory conclusion. His most promising scheme had involved getting a book on munitions from the library, constructing a bomb, and mailing it in plain paper to Myrna. Then he remembered that his library card had been revoked.

John Kennedy Toole

library mean book