Epigraphs. A good epigraph is like good salsa picante. It lifts the book, shows its soul, wit, humor, anger and despair all together in a very concise way. It's an index for the book's whole economy. Two great epigraphs I have at hand today:
"It is by a long, long road that I choose to go back to primitive life. What I need first is condemned by my race." (Jean Genet)
Quoted by Christopher Bracken, Magical Criticism.
"Anything that happens to mind in England has usually happened somewhere else first." (Ezra Pound)
Quoted by Antony Easthope, British Post-structuralism.
Quoted by Antony Easthope, British Post-structuralism.
