The Lines of Others
Why read great literature from the past?
Why read great literature from the past?
Love. Is it die-cut like the Valentine cards of grade school? Is it cliché like pop music? Is it a potion we constantly thirst for? Is it intoxication and under its influence we are not in our right minds? Is love passion? Sentimental? Carnal? Absolute? “What do any of us really know about love?”
“But I didn’t know if they could help me or not. Part of me wanted help. But there was another part.”
I’ve learned how true revolution takes place. It’s not through mad passions but through everyday empathy and love and the tiny alterations of the heart and mind that move us in that direction . . .
The subject’s universality – women doing manual labor – is a catalyst for imaginative truth.
“Be careful what you wish for” I hear Shelly prophetically say.
“Have you ever suffered? Have you any idea of what suffering is?”
He repented only that he had not done a better job of concealing this fact from his wife.”