[If the beginning of this post is boring to you, wait and read next Monday’s post. It tells the real scoop about Dillard. Plus it’s funny.]
I love situations like the one I’m about to describe: they illustrate how much an individual reader and/or writer is embedded in the vast community of all readers and writers.
So: Layer One:
For a long time I have subscribed to Image: A Journal of Art and Religion. I read it faithfully. [Involuntary pun.]. As a subscriber I receive their online “Image Update.”
Layer Two:
I recently followed a link there to an article/interview by John Freeman in the online publication “Literary Hub.” http://lithub.com/contemplating-the-infinite-with-annie-dillard/
Layer Three:
The article, “Contemplating the Infinite with Annie Dillard,” also appears in the journal Poets and Writers, which I used to read.
I had never heard of John Freeman, so in the process of reading about Dillard, whom I adore, it was fun to notice his own writing. Here is some language I like:
The words in the title, “Contemplating the Infinite with Annie Dillard.” I ask you, what could be better than that? (Both the title and the situation.)
“ . . . a demented singularity of purpose.” I know people who have that. Sometimes I do too, like right now, writing this sentence.
“My friend . . . and I are sitting at her dining table, cupped in the mountain cove’s silence that fills the room like a held breath.” It’s that word cupped that gets me. I can see the scene, and be in it.
“In the morning the cabin is clobbered by light.” Yes! Clobbered! I love it.
More to come . . .
So Close to the Other Side 