How's How I Love Epigraphs and Dedications, and That?

I rarely read them! I usually skip right over that page especially if it's song lyrics or poetry.

really!?

you're missing out, Mirka. seriously. the epigraphs are almost like part of the novel to me. i've already begun compiling possible epigraphs for the novel i am drafting. i know that's probably a bit excitable, but i can't help it. it's like a title to me. and, in case you;re interested, the working title is: There's More Than One Way to Oblivion.

Really!

Maybe it's disrespectful to the author, but it feels extraneous to me, like blurbs or dedications.

sure, 'let the work speak for itself' and all that, but i just get a kick out of seeing how the author sums up their work, or the major theme of their work. and dedications can sometimes be so sincere and beautiful. blurbs, not so much, but definitely the first two.

"i remember my father said to me something about memory. he said, 'i thought i could recall my childhood when we first came to [this place], but now i know that i can't.... every time i recall something i'm not recalling it really, i'm recalling the last time i recalled it, i'm recalling my last memory of it.'"

i read that in Swimming to Cambodia by Spalding (called himself Spuddy:)Gray. guess i liked it so much i put it in my FB notes. i've since got rid of the book, so i can't say who the quote came from right now. the brackets are mine.

No man is an Iland, entire of it selfe; every man is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine; if a Clod bee washed away by Sea, Europe is the lesse, as well as if a Promontorie were, as well as if a Mannor of thy friends or of thine owne were; any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde; And therefore never send to know form the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.

John Donee

From Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls

I think, now that I've thought about it a little outside of the drunken haze that i was in creating this thread, I favour short and concise epigraphs (a rhyming couplet, or a sentence or two) over large passages like the above one.

For the dead

The Kindly Ones.

that's awesome, even though it is more of a dedication. i was going to make a dedications thread as well, but decided against it. that book is massive too. i've seen in around. what's it all about, Imke? vampires?

Yeah, I figured it was more of a dedication after I had posted it, haha. Oh well, I still like it.

It's a fictional memoir of a former SS intelligence officer. Most of it is about his life during the second world war. I'm absolutely in love with the book.

yeah, i thought you were. i've noticed you mention it a few times and i think you even mentioned re-reading it at some point.

i'm gonna change the thread title to include dedications, too!

For Tom, Nick and Lucy, without whom this book would have been written much sooner.

The backhanded dedication in my Mum's book.

I'm thinking of returning the favor with something along the lines of "For Mum, without whom this book would've been about princes and princesses and happy endings."

Your mother wrote a book? You name isn't Edward??

your Mum has a book published?

cool, man. is she still in australia?

I always wondered what the hell those things were called.

well now you know, my man. glad to have helped you gain some knowledge. now, you got a favourite?

Yeah she's still in Aus. She's a lecturer at UTS.

Weave a circle round him thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread,
For he on honey dew hath fed,
And drunk the mild of Paradise

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

From HST's Kingdom of Fear

type them out or it doesn't count.

man, that's brilliant. what does she lecture? years down the road, i am probably going to do a Masters in creative writing. i'd love to be part of the UTS creative writing program. they've got it pretty covered. and they bring out that great anthology every year.

She's been on sabbatical this year doing research and writing that book, and most of her interesting stuff is research based, not teaching based, but when she is teaching it's got something to do with English, communication, ESL....I'm never really sure what it is, but I think she works closely with international students.

I didn't even know UTS had an anthology, let alone an MA Creative writing program. I'll email her to see if she knows anything about them.

yeah, man. they put out an annual anthology of fiction, poetry and essays. it's pretty quality shit too.

FOR TABBY
this dark chest of wonders

outside the street's on fire
in a real death waltz
between what's flesh and fantasy
and the poets down here
don't write nothin at all
they just stand back and let it all be
and in the quick of the night
they reach for their moment
and try to make an honest stand
but they wind up wounded
not even dead
tonight the jungle land.
bruce springstein

and it was clear she couldn't go on!
the door was open and the wind appeared,
the candles blew and then disappeared,
the curtains flew and then he appeared,
said, "don't be afraid,
come on, Mary,"
and she had no fear
and she ran to him
and they started to fly...
she had taken his hand...
"come one, Mary;
don't fear the reaper!"
blue oyster cult

WHAT'S THAT SPELL?
WHAT'S THAT SPELL?
WHAT'S THAT SPELL?
country joe and the fish

we need help, the poet reckoned.
edward dorn

which one or all?

"They can kill you, but they can't eat you."
Folk belief

from the wonderful Hard Rain Falling, by Don Carpenter

hop to it, CandS

"This book is dedicated, with love, to Bobby, who has found the only pound of pure-Faith in a Loving God."

Hubert Selby, Jr.
Requiem for a Dream

i have the edition pictured below. do you think they put that dedication on the publisher's page instead of the whatever page to like hide it? i guess i could look at older editions and see where the dedication was originally...

My cigar is not a symbol. It is only a cigar.
-Sigmund Freud

I kissed her.... It was like being in church.
-James M. Cain, The Postman Always Rings Twice

from the Contortionist's Handbook
didn't see any dedications.

PS
there was another edition in my PL, where the second quote was omitted. i wondered why. i can check in a little bit to be sure. why do they change these things?

and Matt was it you reading The Postman recently?
yeah. i think you said so in your lousy day, which was the best part of a bad day.

I'm looking for an epigraph for my memoir. I'm considering: "When did reality become the enemy?", from that song by the Queers.

yeah, that was me. The Postman was definitely the best part of that lousy day. great book. a few other guys have been reading it recently too. PETE GOUTIS WAS ONE OF THEM. Lizard King was one of them. i think Razorsharp. maybe. can't remember.

oooh, i like that, Phil. great for your book, too.

i checked the Clevenger Handbook quotes:
2002 ONLY the Frued quote.
2005 both that i have noted.

This reminds me that I still need to come up with an epigraph and dedication. The dedication might be really broad. I can't think of a specific person to dedicate it to.

i always thought the first novel should probably be dedicated to yourself because, i mean, i know it's shallow, but fuck me, if i finish a novel and it's badass and gets published, i've probably got no one else to blame for that happening but myself. you know?

but if you aren't going to be selfish, you could always use your dedication as an extra device to take the piss out of the club scene you mock in the book. like: For the barbies and kens in kanzas

"For all my success, I have only myself to blame."

I kinda like that. Self-depreciating but cocky.

Anyway, yeah...I know those writers who have a support system. I have that somewhat, but not enough to warrant a dedication.

I've got something that I think covers it, though.

that's what acknowledgements are for, dude.

dedications are a whole other thing. a big thing. not to be given lightly.

yeah, and you, Pete. did you edit my post? i swear i wrote you down there.

Nope, I try not to edit other peoples posts unless it's to help them out.

bugger. sorry, mate. that a couple of times now i've left you out. completely unintentionally, too. let me just fix that post of mine.

lmao nice!

I figure, it's probably a good thing ANYTIME you mention my name from now on to put it in all caps like that. ha

well, at least until my name gets rubbed out of the naughty book.

honestly though, i can't believe how badly i have been excluding you. maybe i'm just so used to you being there that i'm taking you for granted.

don't hit me.