A Weak Moment
Today these came...and yes, I know, I definitely wasn't going to buy any more books...but somehow I did. Well... I do so love Michael Frayn's work, and Ian McEwan did mention this book (THE TRICK OF IT), and it did sound good...and yes, in the end I also succumbed to THE ROAD TO XANADU by John Livingston Lowes because when I did a Google search I saw it mentioned Poincaré and Coleridge on the same page, and when I told my Very Intelligent Friend about this little discovery he (of course!) knew about it already, and made it sound so intriguing I had to get it. So I did.
From Chapter 1 of Book One of THE ROAD TO XANADU
'...I propose to tell the story, so far as I have charted its course, of the genesis of two of the most remarkable poems in English, "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," and "Kubla Khan." If that should appear to b a meagre theme on which to lavish all these pages, I can only crave of the judicial reader a suspended sentence.'
I am not disappointed. Sometimes weak moments are a very good thing.
posted by Clare Dudman at 10:45 pm
3 Comments:
I too succumb to them all the time - bookish weak moments. I think it goes with the job. In fact, it's getting so that I sneak the parcels up to my study and hide the packing material under Gypsy's rug till it's safe to bin it. There must be a self-help group out there for this sort of behaviour.
I loved the eye on London you gave me ... and some of those statements about science and truth and beauty are worth pondering deeply ... which I will, subconsciously :)
Yes, I think we're all a bit like that, Lee.
Thanks, Kay - and yes, I think the subconscious is the way ahead!
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