David Seruyange's Radio Weblog

Monday, October 28, 2002

Literature as Architecture

There are some people who think contraception is immoral because the object of copulation is procreation. In a similar way there are people who think the only reason to read a book is to write a book; people should call up books from the dust and the dark and write thousands of words to be sent down to the dust and the dark which can be called up so that other people can send further thousands of words to join them in the dust and the dark. Sometimes a book can be called from the dust and the dark to produce a book which can be bought in shops, and perhaps it is interesting, but the people who buy it and read it because it is interesting are not serious people, if they were serious they would not care about the interest they would be writing thousands of words to consign to the dust and dark.
There are some people who think death a worse fate than boredom.

-Helen DeWitt (The Last Samurai)

I'm currently on my second real read of this book (I've reread sections quite a few times). One good thing about South Dakota is the amount of time one has to introvert and really chew on things. I'll be posting bits and pieces for a while, especially the parts that resonate with me.

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