Frederich, who travels infrequently, is keen on reading books.
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Frederich: A good book can be filled with well-crafted utterances and analyses, from fun to opinion to declaration.
It makes me want to concur, demur and comment. Nod my forehead, shake my ears, and speak my piece.
Woman in the River: An outer oral interaction becomes an inner literary lip-reading.
Frederich: Going into a book is like going on a trip. The linearity and stuttering of listening and speaking is replaced by the random access to rooms of finely sculpted ideas of reading and writing.
In speech we watch the idea being chiseled. In reading we see the idea on display in a gallery.
Woman in the River: You hear me but I wonder if you are listening to me. You make my ideas your own.
Frederich: Possibly. Maybe. I might be.
Woman in the River: You are serially rephrasing again.
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Voice-over
Reading and traveling are parallel ideas occurring in two dimensions. Reading, an activity of the mind, sparks new thoughts. Traveling, a physical activity, sparks new thoughts. Two roads, both leading to Rome.
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2 comments:
Oh! Lord Barrymore-
I seriously love this post. Why aren't you in the river? Time for the novel?
And btw greetings from Academia Sinica in Taipei. Just had a great night's sleep in the Grand Hotel, and marvel at how much at home this place feels. Now my little bit of study of Chinese in 1984, preparing for a job in Chengdu, to which I never did go, is paying off as I laugh with taxi drivers and cringe at my dullness.
More posts like this please dear sir, you chill my heart with realizations of horizons missed, and I jump up heated and applaud your wordstership.
best
Rolenzo di Moncici
Oho, Lord Lawrie, TQ for your encouragement. Taiwan is full of stories and the best are not always out of the mouths of taxi drivers, although I was driven a few nights ago for some time by woman yakuza charioteer who told me a real tale which chilled my red cells. Glad you liked the Grand, there is a lookalike in Kaohsiung. Am flying again tomorrow, that makes flying almost every other day for the past 10 days now. Pity me for I don't fly as lightly as George Clooney in Up in the Air.
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