"My mother went on, 'You may make more money than your father, but you don't make enough to support two women. Don't think she and Joan are going to eat peaceably out of the same dish. Joey, you've bought an expensive piece of property. These cute little Iwo Jimas or whatever they are and Lord and Taylor pants and transparent nighties aren't bought with just wishing.'
'Her nighties aren't transparent.'
'No, but her eyes are and I see my son's ruin in them.'" (103-4)
Updike, John. On the Farm. New York: Fawcett Crest, 1967 [1965].
Bikini Atoll ≠ Iwo Jima.
Also, Mr. Updike would have been 80 this month, and Fresh Air re-ran a 1988 interview with him in which he explains why detail is so important:
"Well, I find that the main charge, let's call it, that I get out of writing is when I feel I've gotten something down accurately. Uh, and the main bliss, whether I read Henry Green, or Nabokov, or Proust, or Tolstoy, is the sense that they've described precisely a certain moment of experience, whether it's a dress, or a chair, or how a person's face looks that really...the literary art is a parasitic one, and that its energy comes from the energy of the real, and so accuracy is one way of describing the close approximation to the real that we all sort of live for."
Man after my own heart.
'Her nighties aren't transparent.'
'No, but her eyes are and I see my son's ruin in them.'" (103-4)
Updike, John. On the Farm. New York: Fawcett Crest, 1967 [1965].
Bikini Atoll ≠ Iwo Jima.
Also, Mr. Updike would have been 80 this month, and Fresh Air re-ran a 1988 interview with him in which he explains why detail is so important:
"Well, I find that the main charge, let's call it, that I get out of writing is when I feel I've gotten something down accurately. Uh, and the main bliss, whether I read Henry Green, or Nabokov, or Proust, or Tolstoy, is the sense that they've described precisely a certain moment of experience, whether it's a dress, or a chair, or how a person's face looks that really...the literary art is a parasitic one, and that its energy comes from the energy of the real, and so accuracy is one way of describing the close approximation to the real that we all sort of live for."
Man after my own heart.