On Time and Clips

I’m planning on setting up a site dedicated to clips of text I find, be it from a book, website, magazine piece or tabloid feature. Clips are extended quotes, or quotes that are long enough to contain quotes that can stand by themselves.

Take for example the following quote, from the book Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates:

Ruin and pestilence have been held at bay, and death itself will have to wait; he is booked solid.

Taken out of context, the reader would be curious on what the quotation really means. Who is the man saying this? Why will death wait? Why is he booked solid?

So we add the context: a little more of the story from whence the quote came.

I’m afraid I’m booked solid through the end of the month,” says the executive, voluptuously nestling the phone at his cheek as he thumbs the leaves of his appointment calendar, and his mouth and eyes at that moment betray a sense of deep security. The crisp, plentiful, day-sized pages before him prove that nothing unforeseen, no calamity of chance or fate can overtake him between now and the end of the month. Ruin and pestilence have been held at bay, and death itself will have to wait; he is booked solid.

And an “oh, so that’s what it means…” would be muttered by the curious reader.

How wonderful.