"Tenth of December" & other stories

I've glad that George Saunders chose that date as the title of one of his more upbeat stories. It's interesting how much of his stories happen internally, especially after 《繁花》, which only tells you what people said and did, but not what they thought.

• Sometimes there would be torture. They would make him lie on his back looking up at the racing clouds while they tortured him in ways he could actually take.
• That was sad. He didn’t do well with sad. There had perchance been some pre-weeping, by him, in the woods.
• A breeze sent down a sequence of linear snow puffs from somewhere above. Beautiful. Why were we made just so, to find so many things that happened every day pretty?
• Your bravery is irascible, Suzanne said.
• The big something/someone was neutral. Unconcerned. When it innocently moved, it crushed people.
• Guy must have had his hopes and dreams, closet full of pants, and so on, some treasured childhood memories: a mob of koi in the willow shade at Gage Park, say,
• Across the field, his house sat like a big sweet animal.
• there could still be many—many drops of goodness, is how it came to him—many drops of happy—of good fellowship—ahead, and those drops of fellowship were not—had never been—his to withheld. Withhold.
• She came to him now, stumbling a bit on a swell in the floor of this stranger’s house.

《穿墙记》马塞尔·埃梅
__ 他想从报纸上找点东西。激发激发灵感。他特别注意政治栏与体育栏，觉得这两类活动都是令人尊敬的。但是，他最后明白过来，在这些方面，能穿墙而过的人是没有什么用武之地，而社会新闻最能启发人，他就把注意力转到这个栏里。
__ 可是，当他要通过院墙时，明显地感到有阻力，就仿佛在一种流动的物质中行动，而且，这种物质越变越稠。他越是用力挣扎，周围物质的稠度就越大。最后，他的身体总算钻到墙心，可发觉再也无法移动了。他心中一惊，猛然想起白天吃的两片药，原以为是阿司匹林，哪知道却是医生去年给他开的长效比雷特合剂。药力加上过量的体力消耗，顿时见效。

《震惊了！我们一个同事是猩猩，今天被北京动物园的抓走了》  张大锤 2013.7.21 微信版
__ 第二天，公司出台三项政策：一是严防老太太。二是人事部全体加强学习，提高动物辨别能力，每人买一套动物世界vcd全集，行动电话上下载安装“亚洲动物图鉴”app，每周组织去一次动物园，与动物面对面交流。三是保障单位香蕉供应量不变。请大家安心工作。

《立体几何》 伊恩.麦克尤恩
{I did see it coming. http://blog.renren.com/share/250428821/4206120544 has more analysis of UN.}
__ 1875年在梅尔顿?莫布雷举办的“异趣珍宝”拍卖会上，我的曾祖父在他的朋友M陪同下，拍得了尼科尔斯船长的阳具，