You changed the way I see and think so wonderfully and I thank you so very much Mr Hoban
SA4QE - The Slickman A4 Quotation Event
This fan event began in 2002 as a unique way of spreading the words of Russell Hoban. Every 4th February (Russell's birthday), readers around the world write their favourite quotations from his books on sheets of yellow A4 paper (the sort he used) and leave them in public places, and/or share them on social media with the hashtags #sa4qe and #russellhoban. Contributed photos and commentary were posted from 2002 to 2012 on the SA4QE site and then following this site's launch in 2012 new posts were uploaded here. Due to technical and resource issues we will no longer be including new posts here, but fans are welcome to continue celebrating! If you need a single sheet of yellow A4 and have enough ink in your printer you can download this PDF. Below is an archive of the posts to this site. We hope you enjoy these.
SA4QE 2021 - Diana Slickman - Chicago, United States
Working at home, eating at home, shopping (not much) at home, doing theater (even less) at home, I thought it appropriate to 4Q8 at home as well this year. As usual, Russ came through with a germain quote!
Jachin-Boaz's footsteps had an early-morning sound. His footsteps, thought Jachin-Boaz, were abroad at all hours. Sometimes he joined them, sometimes not.
I posted this near my desk in my home office, where I spend most of my time these days.
So glad to see the other Hobanistas joined their footsteps and were still at it, out in the wider world!
SA4QE 2021 - Emmae - Argyll, United Kingdom
Page one? I didn't think so. Suddenly the idea of turning one's experience into a story seemed not only bizarre but perverted; the idea of such a thing as page one seemed at the very least a monstrous vanity. Where was the beginning of anything, how could I draw a line through endless cause and effrect and say, 'Here is page one' ? Well of course one was either a storyteller or one wasn't, and it looked as if I wasn't - all I could do was describe phenomena as I experienced them.
This must ring bells with writers and their confidence level, high or low, not just Herman Orff's introspection. I guess RH himself was aware of the 'monstrous vanity' aspect but we owe him unending gratitude for putting it aside.
THE DUSK VS ME
How do you find? said the dusk.
Guilty, I said.
The Little Tribunal of the Dusk resonates, unforgettable, one of the RH's unique themes, sometimes accompanied by the image of an owl.
Speaking out of covid lockdown, there are only tree trunks where I live, and I've done that before. Ruth Bosch has done it better - her posting on the bushes remains my favourite sa4qe.
SA4QE 2021 - Ra McGuire - White Rock, Canada
Today, Russ's naming day, was grey, wet and downcast in White Rock, BC Canada. Last year's SA4QE took place mere seconds before the plague struck the world. This year, I wore a mask. I chose a quote about fragility and unpredictability. I hope all my co-conspirators are well, and safe at home ... reading.
When one is a child, when one is young, when one has not yet reached the age of recognition, one thinks that the world is strong, that the strength of God is endless and unchanging. But after the thing has happened--whatever that thing might be--that brings recognition, then one knows irrevocably how very fragile is the world, how very, very fragile; it is like one of those ideas that one has in dreams: so clear and so self-explaining are they that we make no special effort to remember. Then of course they vanish as we wake and there is nothing there but the awareness that something very clear has altogether vanished.
"Every night the departure softly closes the door of the house behind it and puts its foot to the dark road; there is a continual walking into the the dark on the road away. Other nights I have lain in my bed; tonight I hear my footsteps on the road, tonight I put my feet into my footsteps and I go."