Veneration of Mark Twain is one of the roots of our current intellectual stalemate.

Oh, New Orleans is such freedom.

Canned food is a perversion,' Ignatius said. 'I suspect that it is ultimately very damaging to the soul.

Mother went out again tonight, looking like a courtesan.

Leaving New Orleans also frightened me considerably. Outside of the city limits the heart of darkness, the true wasteland begins.

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.

Veneration of Mark Twain is one of the roots of our current intellectual stalemate.