It's not often I awake with a line from the Bible rattling around in my head, but this morning I opened my eyes, stared at the silvery dawn and thought, apropos of nothing, "There is death in the pot."
2 Kings 4:40, apparently. Not that that leaves me any the wiser. Still, that's a line with a nice ring to it, and it puts me in mind of Thomas Pynchon's observation about the role of death in literature. (Sorry, we get lighter in a minute.)
According to Pynchon - and I'm more willing to take his word for it than that of most people - "When we speak of 'seriousness' in fiction ultimately we are talking about an attitude towards death - how characters may act in its presence, for example, or how they handle it when it isn't so immediate.
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2 Kings 4:40, apparently. Not that that leaves me any the wiser. Still, that's a line with a nice ring to it, and it puts me in mind of Thomas Pynchon's observation about the role of death in literature. (Sorry, we get lighter in a minute.)
According to Pynchon - and I'm more willing to take his word for it than that of most people - "When we speak of 'seriousness' in fiction ultimately we are talking about an attitude towards death - how characters may act in its presence, for example, or how they handle it when it isn't so immediate.
Read more…
More...