This Book Said The Past Ain’t Through With Us
Yesterday, I watched the second half of Magnolia, started the evening before. I’ve watched it dozens of times, and it’s gone from “meh” to my top two favorite PT Anderson films. There’s a quote heard throughout, and the last line for narrator Ricky Jay:
And the book says, “We may be through with the past, but the past ain’t through with us.”
In what “book” does this quote appear? After finding a clue on an archived thread that linked to a dead page that I found through the Wayback Machine that turned out to be a fake autobiography of one of the dead site’s editorial staff– well, I found it in an essay:
Bergen Evans: The Natural History of Nonsense
The full text of “The Natural History of Nonsense” is available from a personal page on the history of Cape Cod. The book itself is by renowned lexicographer Bergen Evans and concerns superstition in modern times. I think I’ll buy it. Someday.
Gosh, I wish I would have had that inomrfation earlier!
Hey, I wondered, too, what book was being referenced. The quote sounds like something a great philosopher or writer of fiction would say.
Wanna chime in and say that the AA Big Book is often referred to as “the book” and it has this line in it.