Friday, February 20, 2009

like light withstanding a black hole

"To be loved like that makes all the difference. It does not lessen the terror of the fall, but it gives a new perspective on what that terror means. I had jumped off the edge, and then, at the very last moment, something reached out and caught me in midair. That something is what I define as love. It is the one thing that can stop a man from falling, the one thing powerful enough to negate the laws of gravity."

- Paul Auster, Moon Palace

5 comments:

Pim said...

This is one of the passages that I hope will appeal to Marjan and that glimmer of light harboured somewhere deep inside her. We're at the beginning of the novel, are we not? BTW: I kinda have a thing for Kitty Wu, even though she's such an elusive character. Well, that's probably what makes her so interesting in the first place...

P said...

i believe around page fifty in my edition. Kitty Wu is great, elusive but strong as well. i'm in love with the entirety of the novel, and each and every one of its characters.

Pim said...

I'm not so sure about Julian Barber's offspring though :-) I generally don't have a knack for overweight bald guys, even though they have interesting things to say on Bishop Berkeley and the "Injuns". He just didn't quite cut it for me.

But thanks for helping me see the relevance of this character and for making me aware of the fact that a true moon is always round, although a crescent state is needed to get there. Luckily. What wealth would have been lost had it not been so!

Come to think of it, "Moon Palace" in a way mimics a waxing moon. A lot has become visible by the end of the novel but what you see is just one side of the story. You can always start again from page 1, of course, just like the moon renews itself every 30 odd days but the novel never fully wanes. The moon never does either, it always holds a promise of fulfillment once you have seen it in its full state, which is never full in fact. The same goes for the novel.

In the end, you always see just one side of it. This elusiveness, to me, is close to sheer perfection, all because of the splendid deformities it generates. The dark side of the moon. This is where imagination sets in. This is what makes "Moon Palace" such an outstanding novel for me. So I thank you again for bringing it to my attention!

P said...

you are very welcome. there's a reason why the moon shines. who can argue with the sun?

Pim said...

Perhaps black holes and revelations? No to worry, I will not go there...