I am reading Georges Perec: ‘Species of Spaces and Other Pieces’. And you?
Stuck indoors? Love a book!
27 Monday Aug 2012
Posted Pirates
in27 Monday Aug 2012
Posted Pirates
inI am reading Georges Perec: ‘Species of Spaces and Other Pieces’. And you?
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, and getting my head around the Canterbury Tales. Ardous! But well worth it, so far.
Hi Omi; I enjoyed the Miller’s Tale at school; haven’t read about Captain Corelli or his mandolin yet!
“Love is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have become so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion. That is just being “in love” which any of us can convince ourselves we are. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident. Your mother and I had it, we had roots that grew towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossom had fallen from our branches we found that we were one tree and not two.”
– Louis de Bernières, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin
That reminds me of Laurie Lee: “The sum of love is that it should be a meeting place, an interlocking of nerves and senses, a series of constant surprises and renewals of each others’ moods, of sharing the gods of bliss and silence.”
“Did you know that childhood is the only time in our lives when insanity is not only permitted to us, but expected?”
― Louis de Bernières, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin
it’s gold mine!
“Symmetry is only a property of dead things. Did you ever see a tree or a mountain that was symmetrical? It’s fine for buildings, but if you ever see a symmetrical human face, you will have the impression that you ought to think it beautiful, but that in fact you find it cold. The human heart likes a little disorder in its geometry, Kyria Pelagia. Look at your face in a mirror, Signorina, and you will see that one eyebrow is a little higher than the other, that the set of the lid of your left eye is such that the eye is a fraction more open that the other. It is these things that make you both attractive and beautiful, whereas…otherwise you would be a statue. Symmetry is for God, not for us.”
― Louis de Bernières, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin