‘Blackie’ White
“My name is White—“Blackie” White, to my friends. The nickname derives from the one I was actually given, which is Black. . . .
I’m a private detective.”
—Jim Thompson, from The Red Kitten; Fireworks: The Lost Writings of Jim Thompson, 1988.
your pretty pink butt
“‘I get you alone, and I’m going to pop every pimple on your pretty pink butt!’”
—Jim Thompson, the voice of Bobo Justus in The Grifters, 1963.
the rich refracted Ray
“Behold, ye Fair! how radiant Colours glow,
What dyes the Rose; what paints the heav’nly Bow,
The purpling Shade, the rich refracted Ray,
And all th’ unblended Beams of various Day.”
—Henry Jones, Philosophy, from Poems on Several Occasions, 1749; quoted by Marjorie Hope Nicolson in Newton Demands the Muse, 1946.
The Law of White Lead
“[W]ith a dash of white paint on your walls, you will be masters of yourselves. And then you will wish to be precise; to be right, to think clearly. You will surround yourselves with order when your work has created confusion. After work you will tidy up, you will see what it has produced. . . . The Law of White Lead would bring with it the joy of living, the joy of acting.”
—Le Corbusier; quoted in The Furniture of Gerrit Thomas Rietveld by Daniele Baroni, 1977.
an extraordinary beauty
“Limewash has been associated with man’s dwelling places ever since the birth of humanity; the stones are calcinated, ground, distempered in water, and the walls are made of a very pure white: a white which has an extraordinary beauty.
If the house is white all over, the form of things stands out without the possibility of confusion; the volume emerges sharply; the color of objects is categorical. Limewash is absolute, everything stands out against it and is inscribed on it absolutely. . . .”
—Le Corbusier; quoted in The Furniture of Gerrit Thomas Rietveld by Daniele Baroni, 1977.
a dome of many-coloured glass
“Life like a dome of many-coloured glass
Stains the white radiance of Eternity,
Until Death tramples it to fragments.”
—Shelley, from Adonais; quoted by Marjorie Hope Nicolson in Newton Demands the Muse, 1946.
Fountain of Light
“Fountain of Light, thyself invisible
Amidst the glorious brightness where thou sitt’st
Thron’d inaccessible.”
—John Milton, from Paradise Lost, referring to the “Author of all Being”; quoted by Marjorie Hope Nicolson in Newton Demands the Muse, 1946.
the colours as they parted fly
“Some range the colours as they parted fly,
Clear-pointed to the philosophic eye;
The flaming red, that pains the dwelling gaze,
The stainless, lightsome yellow’s gilding rays;
The clouded orange, that betwixt them glows,
And to kind mixture tawny lustre owes;
All-chearing green, that gives the spring its dye;
The bright transparent blue, that robes the sky;
And indico, which shaded light displays,
And violet, which in the view decays.”
—Richard Savage, from The Wanderer, quoted by Marjorie Hope Nicolson in Newton Demands the Muse, 1946.
the ruby lights
“At thee the ruby lights its deepening flow,
And with a saving radiance inward flames.
From thee the sapphire, solid ether, takes
Its hue cerulean; and, of evening tinct,
The purple-streaming amethyst is thine.
With thy own smile the yellow topaz burns;
Nor deeper verdure dyes the robe of Spring,
When first she gives it to the southern gale,
Than the green emerald shows. But, all combined,
Thick through the whitening opal play thy beams;
Or, flying from its surface, form
A trembling variance of revolving hues
As the site varies in the gazer’s hand.”
—James Thomson, from Summer, quoted by Marjorie Hope Nicolson in Newton Demands the Muse, 1946.
The milky way
“The milky way, whose stream of vivid light,
Pour’d from innumerable fountains round
Flows trembling, wave on wave, from sun to sun,
And whitens the long path to Heaven’s extreme.”
—David Mallet, from The Excursion, quoted by Marjorie Hope Nicolson in Newton Demands the Muse, 1946.