To the writers of the Wooden Whale
And to friend and former roommate Larry Hackman, who gave me the gloomy tag-line
And, looking back at what had promised to be our own unique, unpredictable, and dangerous adventure, all we find in the end is such a series of standard metamorphoses as men and women have undergone in every quarter of the world, in all recorded centuries, and under every odd disguise of civilization.
– Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces
Were Niagara but a cataract of sand, would you travel your thousand miles to see it?
– Herman Melville, Moby Dick
(Yes, Mr. Melville, I would. A cataract of sand, especially one the size of Niagara Falls, would be mind-bogglingly cool.)