While reading Terror by Night: Classic Ghost & Horror Stories of Ambrose Bierce

[juushika]

"An author has rights which the reader is bound to respect."

"For specific example?"

"The right to the reader's undivided attention. To deny him this is immoral. To make him share your attention with the rattle of a streetcar, the moving panorama of the crowds on the sidewalks, and the buildings beyond—with any of the thousand distractions which make our customary environment—is to treat him with gross injustice. By God, it is infamous!"

The speaker had risen to his feet and was steadying himself by one of the straps hanging from the roof of the car. The other man looked up at him in sudden astonishment, wondering how so trivial a grievance could seem to justify so strong language.

—"The Suitable Surroundings," Ambrose Bierce

This amuses me most because for some reason, despite that I packed this book for Ashland, I cracked it not once over the three days that we were away.