This was the first time that he has ever looked into the labyrinth of the human soul. He was very far from understanding what he saw. But what was of more value, he felt and suffered with her. In years that were yet to come, he relived this memory in song, in the most beautiful song this world has known. For the understanding of the soul's defencelessness, of the conflict between the two poles, is not the source of the greatest song. The source of the greatest song is sympathy. (Halldór Laxness)
Whoever doesn't live in poetry cannot survive here on earth. (Halldór Laxness)
4 comments:
pic 1: Corfe Castle, Dorset
pic 2: the Jurassic Coast (south west coast walk), Dorset
Amazing pictures, and the quotes are not half bad either!
:)
gorgeous pics for sure. that's some serious glacial landscape in the second pic. and the first one is totally a Hardy landscape-- the kind of place where (as per Hardy) you feel like you're in the twelfth century, and then a train goes by in the distance.
who's this Laxness person and why is he so smart...?
word verif: blentsh. a British countryside mensch.
Laxness was introduced to me via a friend and a bookshop clerk in NYC as on of the 10 'best writers you've never read' . . . which is probably true since how many of us can say we're up to date on our Icelandic writers from the '50s?
the writing can be infuriatingly difficult, but it's just so good you keep coming back for a few more page.
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