Point Quote Comment is a monthly (ish) transmission by the writer J. Patrick Armstrong (https://jpatrickarmstrong.com/) about what Samuel Taylor Coleridge might have called “the best words in the right order,” those little yet huge parts of novels, poems, plays, songs and films that stop you dead, give you pause, chill you cold, pimple your skin, make you cry, stick in your mind and never leave, draw you back again and again, and give you reason to tell someone else and hope that they too will read them and feel moved or stirred enough to tell someone else.
Driven by a love of all things literary, PQC will endeavour to be eclectic but not pretentious, broad but not blunt, political but not partisan, leftfield but mainstream, current yet historical, highbrow and pop-cultured, contentious but (sometimes) light. The point is not divisive didactics or soapbox shouting but rather a thoughtful and questioning look at the world through the prism or lens of great writing, a moment of reflection or even understanding that draws upon the great wealth of words we call writing.
PQC is not a book review that presumes to tell you what or what not to read. It is not interested in star ratings, bigging things up or putting things down. It is not attempting to influence, and it is not concerned with what is cool or trending. But pausing for thought in this click and swipe world, however, taking the time to (re)consider some great words and their timeless significance, this most definitely is its concern.
So, if all that sounds agreeable and once a month or so you’ve got some time for a short read and some big ideas, PQC would love for you to join in a shameless co-revel in words and ideas. And if you feel moved enough about a book, poem or film, Point Quote Comment can be about your thoughts as well as ours. But no grandstanding or trolling, please. While PQC may well take on some difficult or sensitive subjects through the texts and quotations shared, our eventual aim or project (if there is one) is to be positive about the power of words. Read on . . .