31 posts &c
Day 3:
As if I could ever pick just one... indecision is the name of the game.
This is one I have been musing on quite a lot recently:
“But those men who know anything at all about the Light also know that there is a fierceness to its power, like the bare sword of the law, or the white burning of the sun. [...] At the centre of the Light there is a cold white flame, just as at the centre of the Dark there is a great black pit bottomless as the Universe." - Susan Cooper (The Dark is Rising sequence)
I really enjoy this as a nice succinct description of one of the effects of the magic compass (as in political compass, not Jack Sparrow's) that really, when you get fanatical about anything, there's very little difference even if you represent opposite ends of the spectrum. This is something I've been thinking about a lot this week since one of the exercises we did in my writing class was identifying recurrent themes in works we enjoy, and this was one of mine. I also think the other axis of the magic compass is important (High-Wild), and anyone who asks what the point of Tom Bombadil is may find themselves on the receiving end of a rantlet about that, but I don't have a fancy pants quote to sum up my feelings.
In my younger days I would occasionally use Dylan Thomas as a bit of a mantra:
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
That was about as positive as it gets for me.
I am also currently fond of Not all those who wander are lost but in a very mundane way - I tend to mutter it under my breath in an attempt to convince myself that I am just wandering and enjoying the scenery when I am, in fact, lost.
And because I am now in a nostalgic mood, here are some of my old favourites:
Still love this. Problems with Neil Gaiman aside, it's just freaking awesome. Even more so since I am chugging my way through the Big Book of Virago Fairy Tales (title may not be accurate) in quiet moments at work, so the tale elements are all ringing very true with me just now.
On bicycles: "To ride a bicycle is in itself some protection against superstitious fears, since the bicycle is the product of pure reason applied to motion. Geometry at the service of man! Give me two spheres and a straight line and I will show you how far I can take them. Voltaire himself might have invented the bicycle, since it contributes so much to man's welfare and nothing at all to his bane. Beneficial to the health, it emits no harmful fumes and permits only the most decorous speeds. How can a bicycle ever be an implement of harm?" (Angela Carter, I am fairly sure from The Bloody Chamber)
And what would dearest Pangloss have made of the bicycle, the best of all possible transportation?
More Susan Cooper: "Oh, you will be happy enough," Lugan said, "because you will not know. Where there is no change, there is neither promise nor disappointment-only content. And the wisdom of not wanting more than it is possible to have."
Westerly said slowly, "I don't know that I want to be wise. Or contented. At any rate not yet."
"Nor do I," Cally said. "Maybe not ever." (From Seaward this time)
As if I could ever pick just one... indecision is the name of the game.
This is one I have been musing on quite a lot recently:
“But those men who know anything at all about the Light also know that there is a fierceness to its power, like the bare sword of the law, or the white burning of the sun. [...] At the centre of the Light there is a cold white flame, just as at the centre of the Dark there is a great black pit bottomless as the Universe." - Susan Cooper (The Dark is Rising sequence)
I really enjoy this as a nice succinct description of one of the effects of the magic compass (as in political compass, not Jack Sparrow's) that really, when you get fanatical about anything, there's very little difference even if you represent opposite ends of the spectrum. This is something I've been thinking about a lot this week since one of the exercises we did in my writing class was identifying recurrent themes in works we enjoy, and this was one of mine. I also think the other axis of the magic compass is important (High-Wild), and anyone who asks what the point of Tom Bombadil is may find themselves on the receiving end of a rantlet about that, but I don't have a fancy pants quote to sum up my feelings.
In my younger days I would occasionally use Dylan Thomas as a bit of a mantra:
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
That was about as positive as it gets for me.
I am also currently fond of Not all those who wander are lost but in a very mundane way - I tend to mutter it under my breath in an attempt to convince myself that I am just wandering and enjoying the scenery when I am, in fact, lost.
And because I am now in a nostalgic mood, here are some of my old favourites:
Still love this. Problems with Neil Gaiman aside, it's just freaking awesome. Even more so since I am chugging my way through the Big Book of Virago Fairy Tales (title may not be accurate) in quiet moments at work, so the tale elements are all ringing very true with me just now.
On bicycles: "To ride a bicycle is in itself some protection against superstitious fears, since the bicycle is the product of pure reason applied to motion. Geometry at the service of man! Give me two spheres and a straight line and I will show you how far I can take them. Voltaire himself might have invented the bicycle, since it contributes so much to man's welfare and nothing at all to his bane. Beneficial to the health, it emits no harmful fumes and permits only the most decorous speeds. How can a bicycle ever be an implement of harm?" (Angela Carter, I am fairly sure from The Bloody Chamber)
And what would dearest Pangloss have made of the bicycle, the best of all possible transportation?
More Susan Cooper: "Oh, you will be happy enough," Lugan said, "because you will not know. Where there is no change, there is neither promise nor disappointment-only content. And the wisdom of not wanting more than it is possible to have."
Westerly said slowly, "I don't know that I want to be wise. Or contented. At any rate not yet."
"Nor do I," Cally said. "Maybe not ever." (From Seaward this time)