One of the de Goncourts said
nothing hears so much silliness
as a picture in a museum.
I once wrote a column in which
I said the Edvard Munch painting, The Scream,
was the painting's reaction to what people
were saying about it.

New Forms of Ugly: The Immobilized Hero
in Modern Fiction. He can't get away from
passive conversation. He's like a character
in a Samuel Beckett play. Stuck. He may have
no legs. He has no tits and no veteran's preference.
No job, no publisher, no money, no prospects.