"Old friend, what are you looking for?
After those many years abroad you come
With images you tended
Under foreign skies
Far away from your own land."
-George Seferis
After those many years abroad you come
With images you tended
Under foreign skies
Far away from your own land."
-George Seferis
Behold, this is a purely personal blog- naturally unrelated to our media theory class...So... I was rearranging my bookshelf today (a tedious and mildly refreshing task) because my new roommate decided to "move stuff around." I have a fabulous and quite large bookshelf, it's divine and proudly spans the entire wall of my living room (yay Ikea). As I become unhealthily immersed in this activity I dawn upon, of all things, a book! No really, not just any silly and trite thing- but a book I didn't even realized I owned. Some time ago I decided my new favorite book of all time is, The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Neffinegger. It's a fabulous read and I recommend it to all of you! Through out the novel she quotes from another text, A.S. Byatt's Possession. I doted on these quotes, rather marveled in their alacrity and perfect complimentary value to the story. Consciously, I thought, Damn I really need to get that book of poetry (?) the author is quoting. Well guess what gem I found, lingering in unread peril, on my bookshelf? Jolly good for my instinctual obsession with collecting and shame on me for never having even turned the cover. I initially freaked out and began jumping around the living room with glee and then I snatched the book and inspected its content.
And yet, hence forth is the real kicker:A.S. Byatt is a literary critic! And NOT ONLY THAT--- one of her books, Angels and Insects, is the next in a series of sixteen readings for my other graduate class. I deem all of this serendipity, yet it must actually be my unconscious mind doing the work for me. Somewhere in the realm of my long-term memory I must have known this book existed on my glorious bookshelf, and somehow (unbeknownst to my waking self) my chaotic and annoyingly oblivious brain made the connection. Thus, flailing in my find revealed two things: mere luck of timing (in the sense that serendipitously I was propelled to rearrange my books) and a perfectly frightening example of the one truth in life...nothing is really an accident and all is meant to be. Well, maybe that's making the whole thing a little too deep, but so what! I am beaming with creative ingenuity. I honestly make it a point to pay attention to random shit. Most details go in one ear and out the other--so be it. I unconsciously displaced or forgot the name of the author of Angels and Insects. Ehh, maybe its all coincidence and me being a phenomenal jackass. Haha. To this I laugh, I still made the connection and all is right with the universe.
love the post--especially the image of someone actually jumping up and down with joy after discovering a new (but old, technically) book. That made my day :).
ReplyDeleteEven for a non literary muso like myself I found my self immersed in your post, it might even get me to start reading real book, not some digital jumble of 1's and zeros on what is frankly an incorrctly shaped screen.
ReplyDeleteHow easy it is for one to forget that reading is more than simply looking at words and hopefully comprehending what the author was trying to impart, but more tactile, the feeling of the cover the smell of the printed page and the ability to mark ones progress so it can be picked up and continued without starting up another electronic toy, remembering the URL and then scrolling to find your spot.
I look forward to more of these posts in the near future