Kasra, as I am sure you know, besides the usual five senses that most people know, there are the senses such as those of time, of space, of the kinesthetic, that can engage the human body as we read. I think that sentence you have quoted prompts that engagement, and grief can cause some of us to focus on the physical world around us, rather than the emotions within. We know how integrated and affecting the senses are to how we think: there is a popular claim that more is absorbed, understood, and remembered from print texts than from electronic texts. Here's to the artifactual!
"A work of fine art is "fine" not because it is "refined" or "finished," but because it is an end (finis, Latin, means end) in itself. It does not move toward some result beyond itself. It is, as Emerson said of beauty, its own excuse for being."
Older works often had much more descriptive content. I think the general sentiment now is that pure descriptive prose has gone the way of photorealistic painting. The movies can do the job.
On the other hand, the sentence you quoted, "It was spring, and the rain had knocked the plum blossoms off the trees, and the pale pink petals lay plastered against the wet pavement" is very rich.
It uses on the [universal ?] symbolic association of fallen petals with premature death. As you wrote it plays with the repeated p sounds in plum, pale, pink, petals, plastered, and pavement, and even maybe a correspondence between rain and tears.
So I would read this less as mere description and more as something like a hidden poem
"pure descriptive prose has gone the way of photorealistic painting. The movies can do the job." very interesting point. maybe there's an attention span thing here too – even as I appreciate these sentences more I do think I would get bored if it was like, an entire paragraph or chapter of description with very little plot movement...
Yes. Attention! So you are not getting older, you are becoming more attentive.
By the way, I haven't read this one yet, but I liked the other Ozeki book, A Tale for the Time Being. It has a very interesting symbolism as the narrator receives the main story from the other side of the ocean by luck, much like her tenuous connection to her ancestral land.
A Tale for the Time Being was actually how I heard of her! randomly received it at a book swap. also really loved that one, and for what it's worth I'm enjoying Book of Form and Emptiness even more.
Indeed one of the changes that comes with growing older is learning to appreciate the intrinsic beauty of things and people simply existing — not because they are useful, productive, or beneficial to us...
Kasra, as I am sure you know, besides the usual five senses that most people know, there are the senses such as those of time, of space, of the kinesthetic, that can engage the human body as we read. I think that sentence you have quoted prompts that engagement, and grief can cause some of us to focus on the physical world around us, rather than the emotions within. We know how integrated and affecting the senses are to how we think: there is a popular claim that more is absorbed, understood, and remembered from print texts than from electronic texts. Here's to the artifactual!
"A work of fine art is "fine" not because it is "refined" or "finished," but because it is an end (finis, Latin, means end) in itself. It does not move toward some result beyond itself. It is, as Emerson said of beauty, its own excuse for being."
- Charles Van Doren
Older works often had much more descriptive content. I think the general sentiment now is that pure descriptive prose has gone the way of photorealistic painting. The movies can do the job.
On the other hand, the sentence you quoted, "It was spring, and the rain had knocked the plum blossoms off the trees, and the pale pink petals lay plastered against the wet pavement" is very rich.
It uses on the [universal ?] symbolic association of fallen petals with premature death. As you wrote it plays with the repeated p sounds in plum, pale, pink, petals, plastered, and pavement, and even maybe a correspondence between rain and tears.
So I would read this less as mere description and more as something like a hidden poem
"pure descriptive prose has gone the way of photorealistic painting. The movies can do the job." very interesting point. maybe there's an attention span thing here too – even as I appreciate these sentences more I do think I would get bored if it was like, an entire paragraph or chapter of description with very little plot movement...
really lovely comment thank you!
Yes. Attention! So you are not getting older, you are becoming more attentive.
By the way, I haven't read this one yet, but I liked the other Ozeki book, A Tale for the Time Being. It has a very interesting symbolism as the narrator receives the main story from the other side of the ocean by luck, much like her tenuous connection to her ancestral land.
A Tale for the Time Being was actually how I heard of her! randomly received it at a book swap. also really loved that one, and for what it's worth I'm enjoying Book of Form and Emptiness even more.
Peaceful thoughts abide with the reader.
Liberal arts (for its own sake) vs instrumental arts (means to an end)
Jesuit educational goal was famously “studying to deepen one’s love of god”
attention is all you need :)
Indeed one of the changes that comes with growing older is learning to appreciate the intrinsic beauty of things and people simply existing — not because they are useful, productive, or beneficial to us...
beautifully put