“
I can't tell you what art does and how it does it, but I know that art has often judged the judges, pleaded revenge to the innocent and shown to the future what the past has suffered, so that it has never been forgotten.
I know too that the powerful fear art, whatever its form, when it does this, and that amongst the people such art sometimes runs like a rumour and a legend because it makes sense of what life's brutalities cannot, a sense that unites us, for it is inseparable from a justice at last. Art, when it functions like this, becomes a meeting-place of the invisible, the irreducible, the enduring, guts and honour.
”
”
John Berger
“
It had been a long, brutal, and bloody fight.
Their army had broken and left the two of them alone to defend the town. Julian had expected Kyrian to abandon him as well, but the young fool had just smiled at him, grabbed a sword for each hand, and said, „It's a beautiful day to die. What say we slay as many of these bastards as we can before we pay Charon?”
A complete and utter lunatic, Kyrian had always had more guts than brains.
”
”
Sherrilyn Kenyon (Fantasy Lover (Hunter Legends, #1))
“
He is a symbol. He is a legend. He is immortal. He is incorruptible. He is Batman. I am not him. When I die, he will live. Batman has no secret identity. He has no other. He is no one. He has only hosts--mere mortal men who don this suit, this symbol, to continue his crusade. He isn't a hero. He is a cure, a cure to the virus of the human condition. He is exactly like his enemies, and yet strikingly different. He is just as swift, strong, and smart as them, just as brutal, but in the other direction. He will never kill, and he will never die. He has no name. He is Batman.
”
”
Richard John "Dick" Grayson A.K.A. "Robin Red-X NightWing Red Robin Renegade Bat Breaker The Batman"
“
Out of this incredible brutality, we get the myth of the happy darky and Gone With the Wind. And the North Americans appear to believe these legends, which they have created and which absolutely nothing in reality corroborates, until today. And when these legends are attacked, as is happening now—all over a globe which has never been and never will be White—my countrymen become childishly vindictive and unutterably dangerous. The
”
”
James Baldwin (Notes of a Native Son)
“
Well than try giving it some thought, why don’t you? Apply that finely tutored mind of yours to all those bullshit hero-with-a-high-destiny legends you people are so fucking fond of telling one another. You really think, in a mudball slaughterhouse of a world like this, where war and privation harden whole populations to inhuman brutality and ignorance, where the ruling classes dedicate their sons to learning the science of killing men the way they consign their daughters to breeding till they crack--you really think the gods of a world like that have got no better thing to do with their time than take some random piece of lowborn trash and spend long years carving him into shape for a cat’s-paw?
”
”
Richard K. Morgan (The Cold Commands (A Land Fit for Heroes, #2))
“
Don't let it get too brutal. Too heartless
”
”
Richard Matheson (I Am Legend)
“
My father lied to me! He distorted the events, taking credit, hiding the extent of the brutality and suffering—even Omnius knew it. On the other hand, Serena had told him the truth.
”
”
Brian Herbert (The Butlerian Jihad (Legends of Dune, #1))
“
forced to realise that Jobs was, for all his visionary genius, deeply flawed, odd and capricious …’ Davin O’Dwyer, Irish Times ‘This is an authorised but brutally honest account of the life of a legend of our age’ Herald Sun ‘Isaacson has done an outstanding
”
”
Walter Isaacson (Steve Jobs)
“
Arthur is beginning to suspect that civilization is the name we give to what little we have salvaged from a loss that no one wants to remember. Triumphs are erected upon the jerry-built scaffolding of brutalities untold, heroic legends spun from the thread of aggressions and atrocities.
”
”
Elif Shafak (There Are Rivers in the Sky)
“
Tenía muchos pecados que expiar. Pecados tan grandes que dos mil años de cautiverio ni siquiera bastaban para enmendarlos.
No solo era un bastardo por nacimiento; tras una vida brutal, plagada de desesperación y traiciones, había acabado convirtiéndose en uno de verdad.
Cerró los ojos y se obligó a alejar esos pensamientos. Eso era, nunca mejor dicho, historia antigua y en esos momentos se encontraba en el presente. Grace era el presente.
Y estaba allí por ella.
”
”
Sherrilyn Kenyon (Fantasy Lover (Hunter Legends, #1))
“
Magellan called the region Patagonia. The name may have derived from the inhabitants’ feet—pata means “paw” in Spanish—which, as legend has it, were mammoth; or perhaps the name was borrowed from a medieval saga that featured a monstrous figure known as “the Great Patagon.” There was a sinister design to these fictions. By portraying the natives as both magnificent and less than human, Europeans tried to pretend that their brutal mission of conquest was somehow righteous and heroic.
”
”
David Grann (The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder)
“
We are engaged in a world war of stories—a war between incompatible versions of reality—and we need to learn how to fight it. A tyrant has arisen in Russia and brutality engulfs Ukraine, whose people, led by a satirist turned hero, offer heroic resistance, and are already creating a legend of freedom. The tyrant creates false narratives to justify his assault—the Ukrainians are Nazis, and Russia is menaced by Western conspiracies. He seeks to brainwash his own citizens with such lying stories. Meanwhile, America is sliding back towards the Middle Ages, as white supremacy exerts itself not only over Black bodies, but over women’s bodies too. False narratives rooted in antiquated religiosity and bigoted ideas from hundreds of years ago are used to justify this, and find willing audiences and believers. In India, religious sectarianism and political authoritarianism go hand in hand, and violence grows as democracy dies. Once again, false narratives of Indian history are in play, narratives that privilege the majority and oppress minorities; and these narratives, let it be said, are popular, just as the Russian tyrant’s lies are believed. This, now, is the ugly dailiness of the world. How should we respond? It has been said, I have said it myself, that the powerful may own the present, but writers own the future, for it is through our work, or the best of it at least, the work which endures into that future, that the present misdeeds of the powerful will be judged. But how can we think of the future when the present screams for our attention, and what, if we turn away from posterity and pay attention to this dreadful moment, can we usefully or effectively do? A poem will not stop a bullet. A novel cannot defuse a bomb. Not all our satirists are heroes. But we are not helpless. Even after Orpheus was torn to pieces, his severed head, floating down the river Hebrus, went on singing, reminding us that the song is stronger than death. We can sing the truth and name the liars, we can join in solidarity with our fellows on the front lines and magnify their voices by adding our own to them. Above all, we must understand that stories are at the heart of what’s happening, and the dishonest narratives of oppressors have proved attractive to many. So we must work to overturn the false narratives of tyrants, populists, and fools by telling better stories than they do, stories within which people want to live. The battleground is not only on the battlefield. The stories we live in are contested territories too. Perhaps we can seek to emulate Joyce’s Dedalus, who sought to forge, in the smithy of his soul, the uncreated conscience of his race. We can emulate Orpheus and sing on in the face of horror, and not stop singing until the tide turns, and a better day begins.
”
”
Salman Rushdie (Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder)
“
Too bad that many more people know the Galileo legend than know the truth about Stalin’s brutal attack on science. And there is no indication that textbooks as well as PBS’s science programs, which are shown throughout the world in schools and universities, are interested in changing the situation.
”
”
Anonymous
“
AROUND 1271 OR 1272, MARCO POLO, THE RENOWNED VENETIAN merchant adventurer, was on his way through Persia en route for Cathay when he came upon a story told by travellers in that region. Twenty-five years later he recounted it in his book II Milione, better known today as The Travels of Marco Polo. The story concerned a remote area ruled by one they called the Old Man of the Mountains, whose followers were notorious for their ruthlessness. According to Marco Polo, they had been in existence since the middle of the eleventh century and there was not an Arab leader who did not go in mortal dread of them. The disciples of this leader were kept loyal to their master by the promise that, were they to die whilst in his service, they would assuredly go to Paradise. To strengthen their resolve, the Old Man of the Mountains gave initiates to his following a preview of what it would be like in Paradise by maintaining a fabulous garden within his mountain stronghold. In this pleasure ground, exquisitely beautiful houris wandered ready to fulfil any desire, the fountains ran with milk and honey and the flowers were beyond compare. However, it was said, to enter this fabled place the would-be acolyte was first given a powerful drug and, only when unconscious, allowed in: before leaving, he was again drugged. After their induction, the initiates were given a solid Islamic education but were also taught the arts of murder, killing anyone whom their master commanded be put to death. Before going into battle, they apparently partook of the same drug to increase their courage. The drug was hashish. The veracity of Marco Polo’s writings has long been suspect, yet the story has stuck, enhanced and exaggerated as the centuries have passed. The legend of the Old Man of the Mountains has become nothing short of unassailable fact and his followers, notorious as much for their merciless cruelty as their gargantuan appetites for hashish, have become a byword for brutality. Even the name by which they came to be known derived from the drug it was alleged they took: they were called the Hashshashin. They are now known as the Assassins.
”
”
Martin Booth (Cannabis: A History)
“
What We Know For NBA 2K18 So Far
One of the most valuable series of sport games of nowadays is, without a doubt, NBA 2K. As you can easily see from impressions of last year's edition NBA 2K18, the series has reached a simply brutal level so this 2017/18 edition will have an increased level of demand.
NBA 2K18 still finds the first steps but has already received weight news.
In recent years, the NBA 2K series has managed to become the most valuable game related to the biggest basketball competition in the world, the NBA. All those who follow the NBA minimally, will be accustomed to watching brutal television productions with high levels of spectacular and show-off. In fact, this can be confirmed today with the final of the current edition of this year. With 2K Games NBA 2K Games transposed in a very well achieved all this spectacular for the digital.
However, it is not only this that the game feeds and another strong point of the game is the great diversity of modes that makes available to the player. This is both singleplayer and multiplayer.
This year, however, the series will be back and with it comes an increased responsibility: to maintain the high levels of quality, increasing them even more.
For now, little is known about NBA 2K18, but here's what we know.
Firstly, NBA 2K18 already has a cover, you already have the player that will cover. It is Kyrie Irving, the player of the Cleveland Cavaliers that is to be the cover of the NBA 2K18 Standard Edition of this time. About the choice to fall on the cover of the game, Kyrie revealed that he feel a great honor at being chosen for the cover. Meanwhile, Shaquille O'Neal feels great pleasure as the cover of this year's Legend Edition. The pe-odering reward is huge, too.
Then, NBA 2K18 will hit stores on September 19 for Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch and PC. We hope that during the E3 of this year 2017 we know a little more about the innovations that are incorporated in the delivery of this year and we can enjoy its gameplay.
”
”
Bunnytheis
“
Antonin Dolohov, read the legend beneath a wizard with a long, pale, twisted face who was sneering up at Harry, convicted of the brutal murders of Gideon and Fabian Prewett. Augustus Rookwood, said the caption beneath a pockmarked man with greasy hair who was leaning against the edge of his picture, looking bored, convicted of leaking Ministry of Magic Secrets to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.
”
”
J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Harry Potter, #5))
“
Maharet put her arm around Mekare’s waist, and Mekare, come from brutal isolation I know not where, merely stared into space as though she knew some quiet peace but no more than that.
”
”
Anne Rice (Blood And Gold (The Vampire Chronicles, #8))
“
LEGEND HERE The initial euphoria of being named commander in chief has long since passed for Washington, replaced by the fear that he has made a very big mistake. “I have often thought how much happier I should have been if, instead of accepting a command under such circumstances, I had taken my musket on my shoulders and entered the ranks,” he has written to a friend.
”
”
Bill O'Reilly (Killing England: The Brutal Struggle for American Independnce)
“
It's been a few decades since I last saw one of you,' Lucien drawled, 'but you humans never change, so I don't think I'm wrong in asking why you find our company to be so unpleasant, when surely the men back home aren't much to look at.'
At the other end of the table, Tamlin gave his emissary a long, warning look. Lucien ignored it.
'You're High Fae,' I said tightly. 'I'd ask why you'd even bother inviting me here at all- or dining with me.' Fool- I should have been killed ten times over already.
Lucien said. 'True. But indulge me: you're a human woman, and yet you'd rather eat hot coals than sit here longer than necessary. Ignoring this'- he waved a hang at the metal eye and brutal scar on his face- 'surely we're not so miserable to look at.' Typical faerie vanity and arrogance. That, at least, the legends have been right about. I tucked the knowledge away. 'Unless you have someone back home. Unless there's a line of suitors out the door of your hovel that makes us seem like worms in comparison.
”
”
Sarah J. Maas (A Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #1))
“
Entreri had killed many foes, both in battle and in secret. He had lived as a hired assassin. Always had he justified his work by telling himself that he had never killed anyone who hadn’t deserved it-the world was a brutal place, after all. He still believed that to some extent….except when it came to the work he did with this particular weapon. He hadn’t just killed people with it; he had obligated their souls and stolen whatever afterlife might have awaited them. How many victims deserved that?
”
”
R.A. Salvatore (Relentless (Generations, #3; The Legend of Drizzt, #36))
“
I thought about my father. In his prime, he’d been a fierce enforcer for the Gallo family. A legend of loyalty and brutality. He’d been a good father—though tough on us boys—who prized honor and courage above almost everything. I’d strived my whole life to live up to his legacy, but I also witnessed the way my mother’s death had destroyed him. Destroyed our entire family. I had pledged I wouldn’t allow myself to fall victim to that weakness. The lives we led were dangerous, and bringing a woman into the mix was asking for misery. Between that promise and my need to maintain control of my life, having a wife never made sense. How could I be adamantly against something yet cling to it with such ferocity? I never wanted to end up losing the love of my life like my father.
”
”
Jill Ramsower (Absolute Silence (The Five Families, #5))
“
Her name was Jane,” I said, and Olivia stopped walking. “We were together for two years, married after a few months. I was happy, genuinely happy. Even though she was human, and I knew I’d outlive her, I just wanted to enjoy the time that we had together. “It all ended on a damp November morning in seventeen eighty-two. I’d been away working for Avalon for a few months and had been eager to get home. I found her inside the house we’d shared. She’d been butchered. Her blood decorated our bedroom. She was naked and appeared to have been dead for several days. My rage was…terrifying. I buried Jane with my own hands, placing her near a field that we used to love going to. And then I burnt the house to the ground.” Olivia’s shoulders sagged, but she didn’t turn and face me. “I hunted her killer for a year. I didn’t care who I hurt to get the information I needed. I was so single-minded, so determined to have vengeance. Eventually, I discovered that her murderer had been part of the king’s army, which had been going through the area. “The killer was an officer by the name of Henry. No idea what his last name was. It didn’t matter. He liked hurting women, and once he’d finished with them, he kept their hair as a souvenir. The rest of his squad had waited outside while he brutalized and murdered the woman I loved. No one had helped Jane, and no one had tried to stop him. “I discovered that they’d been on training maneuvers the day of the murder, just their squad of thirty. And after all my searching, I found them and I killed them. They died in one night of blood and rage. All but one. I left Henry until last. I took him away to a secluded place and had my fill of vengeance. It took a week for him to die, and when he finally succumbed, I buried Hellequin with him.” The memory of Henry’s blind and bloody form flashed in my mind—his pleas had long since silenced because I’d removed his tongue. I hadn’t wanted information from him; I’d just wanted to make him suffer. Before he’d lost his ability to talk, he’d told me that someone had paid him to do it, but he never said who. No matter what I did to him, he took that secret to his grave. And after a few years of searching, I decided he’d been lying. Trying to prolong his life for a short time more, hoping for mercy where there was none to give. “I no longer had the desire to go by that name,” I continued, still talking to Olivia’s back, “I no longer wanted to instill fear with a word. I hoped that the legend would die, but it didn’t, it grew, became more…fanciful. “You’re right, I’m a killer. I’ve killed thousands, and very few of them have ever stained my conscience. I can go to a dark place and do whatever I need to. But for those I care about, those I love, I will move fucking mountains to keep them safe. And I care about Tommy and Kasey, whether you grant permission or not.
”
”
Steve McHugh (Born of Hatred (Hellequin Chronicles, #2))
“
This was a pattern America would repeat throughout Latin America where any government, no matter how corrupt, brutal or oppressive, was supported in preference to popular socialism.
”
”
Jimmy Thomson (Tunnel Rats: The larrikin Aussie legends who discovered the Vietcong's secret weapon)
“
He swallowed hard, and stared into the corner. “I never wanted you to see me like that. When a man faces death, he meets the animal lurking inside him. When it’s hand to hand, blade to blade, kill or be killed . . .” Defiant green eyes met hers, and he slapped a hand to his scar. “The man who did this to me— I killed him. With his bayonet stuck in my flesh, I reached out and grabbed him by the throat and watched his eyes bulge from his skull as he suffocated at my hand.”
She would not react, Cecily told herself, calmly dabbing at his wound. That’s what he expected, what he feared— her reaction of revulsion or disgust.
“And he wasn’t the only one,” he continued. “To learn what violence you’re truly capable of, in those moments . . . It’s a burden I’d not wish on anyone.”
She risked a glance at him then. “Burdens are lighter when they’re shared.”
Luke swore. “I’ve shared too much of it with you already. I can’t believe I’m telling you this.”
“You can tell me anything. I’ll still love you. And I warn you, I’ve learned something of tenacity in the past four years. I’m not going to let you go.”
He shook his head. “You don’t understand. Sometimes, I scarcely feel human anymore. The brutal way I took down that boar, Cecily. That barbarism with the stocking . . .”
“Ah, yes.” She put aside her handkerchief and stood. “The stocking.” She propped one boot on the stool and slowly rucked up her skirts to reveal her stocking-clad leg.
“Cecy . . .”
“Yes, Luke?” She leaned over to untie the laces of her boot, giving him an eyeful of her décolletage.
He groaned. “Cecy, what are you doing?”
“Tending to your wounds,” she said, slipping the boot from her foot. With sure fingers, she unknotted the ribbon garter at her thigh, then eased the stocking down her leg. “Making it better.” Skirts still hiked thigh-high, she straddled his legs and nestled on his lap. “Shh.” She quieted his objection, then deftly wound the length of flannel around his injured arm, tucking in the end to secure it. “There,” she said in a husky voice, lowering her lips to the underside of his wrist. “All better.”
“I wasn’t after your damn stocking,” he blurted out. “When I took you to the ground last night and pushed up your skirts. By all that’s holy, I wanted—” With a muttered oath, he gripped her by the shoulders, hauling her further into his lap. Until she felt the hard ridge of his arousal, pressing insistently against her cleft. “Cecily, what I want from you is not tender. It’s not romantic in the least. It’s plunder. It’s possession. If you had the least bit of sense, you’d turn and run from—”
She kissed him hard, raking his back with her fingernails and clutching his thighs between hers like a vise. Boldly, she sucked his lower lip into her mouth and gave it a sharp nip, savoring his startled moan. Wriggling backward, she placed her hands over his, dragging them downward and molding his fingers around her breasts. “For God’s sake, Luke. You’re not the only one with animal urges.”
He took her mouth, growling against her lips as he did.
”
”
Tessa Dare (The Legend of the Werestag)
“
world seem more palatable or be brutally honest from the outset? Santa, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny . . . are these all legends that enrich childhood or lies that destroy trust?
”
”
Imogen Clark (Postcards From a Stranger (Postcards #1))
“
The recognition of utter helplessness is more than humbling; it is devastating. On those occasions when it is made clear to someone, internally, that willpower or muscle or technique will not be enough to overcome the obstacles placed before him, that he is helpless before those obstacles, there follows a brutal mental anguish.
”
”
R.A. Salvatore (The Ghost King (Transitions, #3; The Legend of Drizzt, #22))
“
Family is only the tribe in microcosm. Long ago Thoacdiens realized—since their business is information, and information is not static—that, technology aside, the prime source of their capital was the unbridled imagination of each individual in each successive generation. The family is not only an inefficient system, it is a cruel one. The whole object of the family is to repeat itself, to create the future in the image of the past. Consequently it is a very effective brake on change because it keeps all children within the boundaries of cultural tradition. In the family learning is a process of psychological brutality at the end of which a child knows nothing but what is permissible to the tribe. There is no future, and no joy in the family—only the long, agonized, destructive groan of the continual death of the past. Once in a while there is friendship, but that is the exception, not the rule.
”
”
Mary Staton (From the Legend of Biel)
“
Ulysses Grant never lost his special bond with horses. When he was seventeen years old, he enrolled at the United States Military Academy at West Point. While there he set a school high-jump record that stood for twenty-five years. “It was as good as a circus to see Grant ride,” one of his fellow cadets recalled. As a grown-up, Grant served in the Union army during the American Civil War and eventually rose to the rank of general. Despite the bloody and violent war raging around him, Grant would tolerate no cruelty toward animals. Once when he witnessed a man beating a horse, he ordered the man tied to a tree “for six hours as punishment for his brutality.
”
”
David Stabler (Kid Legends: True Tales of Childhood from the Books Kid Artists, Kid Athletes, Kid Presidents, and Kid Authors)
“
the plan was a scheme to bilk money from the investors in return for selling them Louisiana. Law was given a monopoly on trade, as well. Later, when it turned out that Law’s company was merely a large confidence game, many of the settlers decided to ignore this and stay on. During the first year of Law’s operation, he decided that a town should be founded at a spot that could be reached from both Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi River. In 1718, this town became La Nouvelle Orleans. Development of the city began that year, but work was slow, thanks to brutal heat and the rising and falling waters of the Mississippi. There was talk of moving the city because of the danger of flooding, so levees were constructed, which spread out as the city and the plantations of the area grew. But rising water was not the only danger that could be found at the mouth of the Mississippi. In many early documents, writers spoke of the monsters that dwelt in the murky waters, and the Indian legends told of gigantic beasts that waited to spring upon unwary travelers. “May God preserve us from the crocodiles!” wrote Father Louis Hennepin. Meanwhile, John Law was having problems holding up his end of the bargain that he made with the French. In order to get his money, he had promised his investors that he would have a colony of six thousand settlers and three thousand slaves by 1727. His problem, however, was a shortage of women. The colony’s governor, Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, wrote, “The white men are running in the woods after the Indian girls.” About 1720, one solution to cure the shortage of women arrived when the jails of Paris were emptied of prostitutes. The ladies of the evening were given a choice: serve their term in prison or become a colonist in Louisiana. Those who chose the New World quickly became the wives of the men most starved for female companionship. The prisons also served as a source for male colonists. Many thieves, vagabonds, deserters and smugglers also chose to come to Louisiana to avoid prison time. They made for strange company when mixed with aristocrats, indicted for some wrongdoing or another, who also chose New Orleans over the Bastille. New Orleans also lacked education and medical care. Despairing over the conditions, Governor Bienville coaxed the sisters of Ursuline to come from France and assist the new city. The first Ursulines arrived in 1727 and set to work caring for orphans, operating
”
”
Troy Taylor (Haunted New Orleans: History & Hauntings of the Crescent City (Haunted America))
“
Should the perfect mother let her children make mistakes or sweep in to protect them against every false step? Does she twist the truth to make the world seem more palatable or be brutally honest from the outset? Santa, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny . . . are these all legends that enrich childhood or lies that destroy trust?
”
”
Imogen Clark (Postcards From a Stranger (Postcards #1))
“
There is also a legend that if one wakes up at exactly 3:00 a.m. the Devil himself has visited you in your dreams. Psychics also believe the 3:00 a.m. hour is when the veil between the human and spirit world is at its thinnest all day, thus making humans more likely to experience paranormal activity.
”
”
Frances J. Armstrong (The Real Amityville Horror: The True Story Behind The Brutal DeFeo Murders)
“
Truth is nightmare. All the nightmares have come back home. We send them out at night to terrify the normal, to show them a glimpse of our world, our world of burning Viking longboats sailing over the edge of this cursed earth, plunging into the Sirens’ immortal abyss. A cruel eagle soars over a lake of mothers’ tears, a blood-drenched witness to a Spanish festival of murder, a thousand scarlet massacres on the silver plains ruled by brutal Aztec princes. We are standing amidst a Byzantine legend of pain and we are happy. We communicate directly with the center of the earth. Only pain lives there. That is why we revere it.
”
”
Mark Romel (The Mistletoe Murders: A Nietzschean Murder Mystery)
“
No, a pesar de todos los crímenes de su pasado, había bondad en él.
Julian había sido un hombre de su tiempo. Un general de la antigüedad forjado en el fragor de la batalla. Un hombre que se había criado en el campo de batalla, bajo unas condiciones tan brutales que ella ni siquiera podía imaginar.
”
”
Sherrilyn Kenyon (Fantasy Lover (Hunter Legends, #1))