“Here was language that drew meaning out of music, of echo, of silence. That communicated before it meant”.
Lam Ne on David Malouf’s Remembering Babylon
David Malouf is an Australian writer. He has written some touchstone books for some of us; and he writes beautifully of his growing up in Queensland (the state where we live, often maligned by those down south). I studied his texts at high school as well.
I love the way that Lam Ne suggests that Malouf's writing could draw meaning out of things that weren't there; that weren't words; that weren't written down. That somehow through the written word, he could muster expressions of the intangible.
The last sentence is the most beautiful for me. The idea that his languages could communicate before meaning something.
It seems to me that suggests communication in the form of emotional response; or intuitive reaction; or simply coming to an understanding of something. Somehow these words were able to express things that allowed the reader to 'know' or experience something before they knew what it meant.
As if you didn't need the words to tell you something - they simply evoked it.
It seems to me to be a gift if you can do that; and another gift if you can express that thought to others.
Lam Ne on David Malouf’s Remembering Babylon
David Malouf is an Australian writer. He has written some touchstone books for some of us; and he writes beautifully of his growing up in Queensland (the state where we live, often maligned by those down south). I studied his texts at high school as well.
I love the way that Lam Ne suggests that Malouf's writing could draw meaning out of things that weren't there; that weren't words; that weren't written down. That somehow through the written word, he could muster expressions of the intangible.
The last sentence is the most beautiful for me. The idea that his languages could communicate before meaning something.
It seems to me that suggests communication in the form of emotional response; or intuitive reaction; or simply coming to an understanding of something. Somehow these words were able to express things that allowed the reader to 'know' or experience something before they knew what it meant.
As if you didn't need the words to tell you something - they simply evoked it.
It seems to me to be a gift if you can do that; and another gift if you can express that thought to others.
the magic of poetry
ReplyDeletePoetry does exactly this doesn't it ? Go well.
DeleteI love how you illustrate your Thursday Thoughts ... your images "communicate before meaning something"
ReplyDeleteThanks Liz - it can sometimes just happen; at others time I go searching and searching and just end up hoping. This one happened swiftly!
Delete