More made up quotes.
I do not know why almighty God saw fit to give to man, within this very decade, magicks of the elements and a quickening of the mind, Powers beyond reason and comprehension, and spells of energy and the spirit, when we were already so poised to destroy ourselves on our own. We enter tumultuous times. Left to our own devices I believe that I could stay this nation’s course, to hold this Union firm, but now I fear. Only five years have passed since the magicians began to appear seemingly at random from our people and I know not where this path will lead.
Oh why, Lord, did you see fit to give that accursed Stonewall Jackson the strength of ten?
Abraham Lincoln, Document discovered in the Smithsonian Archives, date unknown
It was nearly eleven o’clock – an immensely late hour for those latitudes – but the whole town was still gathered in the Gatlinburg courthouse yard, listening to the disputes of theologians. The Snopes trial had brought them in from all directions. There was a friar wearing a sandwich sign announcing that he was the Bible champion of the world. There was a Seventh Day Adventist arguing that Clarence Darrow was the beast with seven heads and ten horns described in Revelation XIII, and that the end of the world was at hand. A charlatan magician was escorted from the premises for pulling a rabbit from a hat, while nearby a fundamentalist of the Merlin-Baptists pontificated on the epistles of St. Paul while shooting lightning from his eyes and none dared interrupt that sermon. There was the eloquent Dr. T.T. Martin, of Blue Mountain, Miss. Come to town with a truck-load of torches (the wooden, not the human kind) and hymn-books to put Darwin in his place. There was a singing brother bellowing apocalyptic hymns. There was William Jennings Bryan, followed everywhere by a gaping crowd. It was better than the circus.
H.L. Mencken, Editorial in the Baltimore Mercurium about the Tennessee Magic-Monkey Trial. 1926
People ask me how I do it. It is hard to explain. There is just this thing inside, like a battery. It charges up on its own, and I can turn it on when I really need it. The battery runs down fast, too fast, and it takes time to charge back up, but when it is on… I can feel the individual pistons thumping, the air over the wings, I can see the propeller turning… everything. It is like time slows down. Well, mister, let’s just say that when I’m on, I own that sky.
Lt. James H. “Jimmy” Doolittle, Interview after breaking the world airspeed record in a Curtiss R4C Parasite 1927
Somebody asked what genre this was going to be in the last thread, and I said “Noir/Fantasy/Pulp/Magic/Alternative History/Gangster/Great War/Zeppelin/Ninja/Super Science action.” Since that is a little unweildy, I’m calling it Grimnoir. A Grimoire is old French for a book of spells. Noir is French for black, and Film Noir is the style based on the hard boiled detectives genre. So instead of NFPMAHGGWZNSSA I’ll just say Grimnoir. (pronounced Grim Nwarr, because I can’t speak French)
