Presque vu XXXXIV

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A writer is someone who spends years patiently trying to discover the second being inside him, and the world that makes him who he is. When I speak of writing, the image that comes first to my mind is not a novel, a poem, or a literary tradition; it is the person who shuts himself up in a room, sits down at a table, and, alone, turns inward. Amid his shadows, he builds a new world with words. This man-or this woman-may use a typewriter, or profit from the ease of a computer, or write with a pen on paper, as I do. As he writes, he may drink tea or coffee, or smoke cigarettes. From time to time, he may rise from his table to look out the window at the children playing in the street, or, if he is lucky, at trees and a view, or even at a black wall. He may write poems, or plays, or novels, as I do. But all these differences arise only after the crucial task is complete-after he has sat down at the table and patiently turned inward. To write is to transform that inward gaze into words, to study the worlds into which we pass when we retire into ourselves, and to do so with patience, obstinacy, and joy. Orhan Pamuk

john baker, February 17th, 2008. One comment. Filed under humour, literature, quotations, reading, writing.

Robert Fisk, in The Independent, is seduced by the power of historic books in a Beirut bookshop:

(Habib, the bookseller, walks) over to me with a massive volume, printed in 1890 and entitled Architectural Studies in Italy, number 49 out of only 150 copies, authored by William J Anderson, president of the Glasgow Architectural Association. “The Photo-Mechanical-Process and the printing are by Messrs McLure and Macdonald & Co Glasgow,” the reader is solemnly informed, and by God, they knew how to print. Not in the glossiest of architectural volumes have I seen such fine and detailed drawings. “How much do you think it’s worth?” Habib asks me quietly. I express my total ignorance. “Sometimes I sell a book and I regret selling it,” he says mysteriously. “The person who loves a book – I sometimes sell it to him at half price. If I don’t like him, I don’t sell it to him for any price.”

My piece on Huckleberry Finn appears on Norman Geras‘ blog.

Dick Jones‘ Patteran Pages have a sneak preview of questions from 16+ Mathematics examination papers.

Sample from the one for State Schools: Simon has 0.5 kilos of cocaine. If he sells an 8 ball to Matt for 300 quid and 90 grams to Ollie for 90 quid a gram, what is the street value of the rest of his hold?

Sample from the one for Private Schools: Fiona’s personal shopper decides to substitute generic and own-brand products for the designer goods favoured by her employer. In the course of a month she saves the price of a return ticket to Fiji and Fiona doesn’t even notice the difference. Is she thick or what?

The others are even better. Go see.

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One Response to “Presque vu XXXXIV”

c.mcgurk says:

15th August 2011 at 5:32 pm

Interested to read the extract from Robert Fisk as I have recently come into possession of a copy of Architectural Studies in Italy (no.72).

It is a thing of rare beauty.

John Baker's Blog

Presque vu XXXXIV

One Response to “Presque vu XXXXIV”

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