Sunday 28 July 2013

Sunday Morning Musing: The Frozen Sea

 

I believe in reading books that matter. Books that affect us. Books that can tear the wool from our eyes and make us see. Books that don't offer escapism, but truth. Just as Kafka puts it here:

'I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound or stab us. If the book we’re reading doesn’t wake us up with a blow to the head, what are we reading for? So that it will make us happy, as you write? Good Lord, we would be happy precisely if we had no books, and the kind of books that make us happy are the kind we could write ourselves if we had to. But we need books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us. That is my belief.' – Franz Kafka

And mine. How about you?



~Siobhán

4 comments:

  1. bonjour Siobhân, la même chose... mais avec des glaçons (ici à Arles...il fait chaud). :-)

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    1. Bonsoir Thige, ah oui, il fait chaud ici aussi, trés chaud! :)

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  2. You are quite correct. I have muddled through many average books and though they have been a pleasant read, they are not remembered. The books that stay with me forever have caused me pain and emotion.

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    Replies
    1. Exactly Juliette! The ones that leave a mark wound somehow.

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