A book is made from a tree. It is an assemblage of flat, flexible parts (still called “leaves”) imprinted with dark pigmented squiggles. One glance at it and you hear the voice of another person — perhaps someone dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, the author is speaking, clearly and silently, inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people, citizens of distant epochs, who never knew one another. Books break the shackles of time, proof that humans can work magic.
Carl Sagan
I read this and thought - I have nothing to say; it says it all.
But I'll probably say a little bit about how it transports you to a page; in a book; with black squiggles; which mean something; and which lead you to hear a voice in your head; helping you understand those squiggles; maybe a voice that comes from hundreds of years ago; and it works. It makes sense, and hundreds of others over time and across the world, have shared your joy, your ah ha moments and your frustration or revolutionary angst. Proof that humans can work magic.
Carl Sagan
I read this and thought - I have nothing to say; it says it all.
But I'll probably say a little bit about how it transports you to a page; in a book; with black squiggles; which mean something; and which lead you to hear a voice in your head; helping you understand those squiggles; maybe a voice that comes from hundreds of years ago; and it works. It makes sense, and hundreds of others over time and across the world, have shared your joy, your ah ha moments and your frustration or revolutionary angst. Proof that humans can work magic.
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| Ancora Imparo by Fiona Dempster, photography by Noela Mills |
What a wonderful quote. I love it. Thanks. I love this photo as well. I can almost hear the sound of those leaves moving in my hands.
ReplyDeleteAh but if you read The Spell Of The Sensuous by David Abram you will get a whole other perspective about language and writing. x te
ReplyDeleteThis piece is just awesome!
ReplyDeleteSuperb quote, beautifully illustrated with ypour photo.
ReplyDeletethe folds and the marks are beautiful here, fiona.
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas Fiona, hope you have a beautiful day... Kim x
ReplyDeleteAnd this is why in spite of its predicted demise amidst the proliferation of electronic equivalents, the book as a physical object will never quite vanish from our lives. Riffling through the pages and enjoying the scent of good old book reminds us of leaves rustling in a perfumed breeze.
ReplyDeleteHi Annie - thanks for loving the quote and the book! It's a lovely little bookish thing...
ReplyDeleteHi Trace - well I'll just have to go discover it I think! There are always lots of different ways of being in, and seeing the world aren't there?
Thanks Stregata!
Thank Jo - I love the way a quote can carry me away and its nice when I can come back with an image that suits...
Thanks Velma - lovely folds and scribbles I agree.
Kim - Hope you had a lovely time as well
G/TT - so true; they are such different ways of achieving an end (reading) but it's the process and the experience that just can't be replicated. The smell of a good book...