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dolorosa_12) wrote2021-04-01 08:37 am
dolorosa_12) wrote2021-04-01 08:37 am
Space-filling acts
I spotted this fantastic book meme via ermingarden a week or so ago. I think the original intention was for the meme to be done Tumblr-style (i.e. post all the questions in a batch, answer them when requested in the comments of the post). If you want to do this meme in that fashion, please feel free!
I decided instead to answer it in the old school Livejournal/Dreamwidth manner: as a thirty-day meme, one answer per day.
This is day one:
1. A book that haunts you
I suspect that like a lot of bookish people on Dreamwidth, I have a lot of books that could be used to answer this question. Books I love tend to linger with me, and if it's a story about memory, the passage of time, people finding home, identity and purpose in each other, or people who value art, learning, pluralistic communities (andfreedom of movement and the European Union) fighting against desperate odds to retain these things in the wake of their utter destruction by people who are incapable of seeing their value, it's highly likely that said stories will end up 'haunting' me.
Obviously the above could apply to a great many things.
I have decided here to use the Labyrinths collection of short stories and essays by Jorge Luis Borges as my answer. I first encountered these writings at probably the ideal age: they were assigned to my literature class in Year 12 in secondary school (so when I was seventeen) as part of a unit on Latin American literature in translation. (We also read House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende, which I had read before outside of class, and Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel García Márquez, which I had not.)
The stories were incredible. They were mainly concerned with themes of memory, learning, identity and humanity, and they had several common, repeating vivid images: libraries, labyrinths, strange, alienating cities. The impression of reading them was like a thunderclap, and thinking about them again returns me immediately to my old school, the classroom, the plastic chairs and the dry Canberra air.
Two of the stories stick most vividly in my mind: 'Everything and Nothing', and 'The Witness'. I can still remember the astonished wonder I felt when reading them for the first time.
2. A book that was an interesting failure
3. A book where you really wanted to be reading the "shadow" version of the book (as in, there are traces of a different book in the work and you would have much preferred to read that one)
4. A book with a worldbuilding detail that has stuck with you
5. A book where you loved the premise but the execution left you cold
6. A book where you were dubious about the premise but loved the work
7. The most imaginative book you've seen lately
8. A book that feels like it was written just for you
9. A book that reminds you of someone
10. A book that belongs to a specific time in your mind, caught in amber
11. A book that came to you at exactly the right time
12. A book that came to you at the wrong time
13. A book with a premise you'd never seen before quite like that
14. A book balanced on a knife edge
15. A snuffed candle of a book
16. The one you'd take with you while you were being ferried on dark underground rivers
17. The one that taught you something about yourself
18. A book that went after its premise like an explosion
19. A book that started a pilgrimage
20. A frigid ice bath of a book
21. A book written into your psyche
22. A warm blanket of a book
23. A book that made you bleed
24. A book that asked a question you've never had an answer to
25. A book that answered a question you never asked
26. A book you recommend but cannot love
27. A book you love but cannot recommend
28. A book you adore that people are surprised by
29. A book that led you home
30. A book you detest that people are surprised by
ermingarden a week or so ago. I think the original intention was for the meme to be done Tumblr-style (i.e. post all the questions in a batch, answer them when requested in the comments of the post). If you want to do this meme in that fashion, please feel free!I decided instead to answer it in the old school Livejournal/Dreamwidth manner: as a thirty-day meme, one answer per day.
This is day one:
1. A book that haunts you
I suspect that like a lot of bookish people on Dreamwidth, I have a lot of books that could be used to answer this question. Books I love tend to linger with me, and if it's a story about memory, the passage of time, people finding home, identity and purpose in each other, or people who value art, learning, pluralistic communities (and
Obviously the above could apply to a great many things.
I have decided here to use the Labyrinths collection of short stories and essays by Jorge Luis Borges as my answer. I first encountered these writings at probably the ideal age: they were assigned to my literature class in Year 12 in secondary school (so when I was seventeen) as part of a unit on Latin American literature in translation. (We also read House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende, which I had read before outside of class, and Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel García Márquez, which I had not.)
The stories were incredible. They were mainly concerned with themes of memory, learning, identity and humanity, and they had several common, repeating vivid images: libraries, labyrinths, strange, alienating cities. The impression of reading them was like a thunderclap, and thinking about them again returns me immediately to my old school, the classroom, the plastic chairs and the dry Canberra air.
Two of the stories stick most vividly in my mind: 'Everything and Nothing', and 'The Witness'. I can still remember the astonished wonder I felt when reading them for the first time.
2. A book that was an interesting failure
3. A book where you really wanted to be reading the "shadow" version of the book (as in, there are traces of a different book in the work and you would have much preferred to read that one)
4. A book with a worldbuilding detail that has stuck with you
5. A book where you loved the premise but the execution left you cold
6. A book where you were dubious about the premise but loved the work
7. The most imaginative book you've seen lately
8. A book that feels like it was written just for you
9. A book that reminds you of someone
10. A book that belongs to a specific time in your mind, caught in amber
11. A book that came to you at exactly the right time
12. A book that came to you at the wrong time
13. A book with a premise you'd never seen before quite like that
14. A book balanced on a knife edge
15. A snuffed candle of a book
16. The one you'd take with you while you were being ferried on dark underground rivers
17. The one that taught you something about yourself
18. A book that went after its premise like an explosion
19. A book that started a pilgrimage
20. A frigid ice bath of a book
21. A book written into your psyche
22. A warm blanket of a book
23. A book that made you bleed
24. A book that asked a question you've never had an answer to
25. A book that answered a question you never asked
26. A book you recommend but cannot love
27. A book you love but cannot recommend
28. A book you adore that people are surprised by
29. A book that led you home
30. A book you detest that people are surprised by
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I've been thinking of reading Borges's stories for a while, and Labyrinths in particular (it was recommended to me as being similar to the imagery in Piranesi). Your description certainly does make it sound haunting...
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