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:
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.