Posted by:
Human
(
)
Date: December 12, 2022 04:38PM
A book bereft Henry Bemis, with world enough and time, makes no sense.
So, if I may, the first paragraph from an excellent book:
“It is not expected of critics as it is of poets that they should help us to make sense of our lives; they are bound only to attempt the lesser feat of making sense of the ways we try to make sense of our lives. This series of talks [given at Bryn Mawr College, 1965] is devoted to such an attempt, and I am well aware that neither good books nor good counsel have purged it of ignorance and dull vision; but I take comfort from the conviction that the topic is infallibly interesting, and especially at a moment in history when it may be harder than ever to accept the precedents of sense-making—to believe that any earlier way of satisfying one’s need to know the shape of life in relation to the perspectives of time will suffice.”
—Frank Kermode—
—The Sense of An Ending—
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-sense-of-an-ending-9780195136128?cc=ca&lang=en&
The above book might meet your request:
“As for me, I rarely read to be entertained, rather, I read to understand something new, and to be mentally challenged. As such, I often read books that are a bit over my head and require a great deal of patience and concentration. My joy is when something clicks, and I finally understand, or feel I have acquired a new or deeper insight. That too, is a wonderful feeling.”
https://www.exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,2456075,2456165#msg-2456165Can’t promise a clicking, but if it does click it’ll be a joyous click, and could lead to much more (for example, to the poetry of Wallace Stevens, which shines behind Kermode’s thought here, and gains in appropriateness as one ages).
—I remember an exchange of yours with I think Schrödinger’s Cat about Time. I so wished at the time time of my own to respond. If I had it, I would have attempted an adumbration of some of the niceties Kermode brought to the topic.
Cheers to you, buddy,
Human
(Even if I could not respond, I would definitely read your thoughts after a considered reading, should you wish to do the reading and further wish to respond to what you have read. Just give me a heads up if you do.)