One of the things I like to do when I’m reading and I read lots–reading, as in experiencing and thinking–is to think about concrete and abstract space and how ceratin kinds of designed and natural spaces–constructs or natural topology–evoke meaning.
McCarthy’s novel Blood Meridian is spatial in the sense that it’s on the table or in my hand as a book, yet the language also suggests space. I open the book, start to read, and something happens as my eyes move: thought. The writing evokes the landscapes of the southwest and northern Mexico and those landscapes become another character for the many “principles” in the tale. The sense grapple with vastness.
It’s a relationship, it seems to me. Evocations.
How can you enjoy a book with so many things coming at you? Blood Meridian is only one example of being bombarded with words, ideas, issues, emotions, and yet you can still be aware of the physicality of the space you and the book are taking up? I’m jealous.
Pausing will help and rereading. Tough to do under deadline. McCarthy writes, ” . . . they saw the silver filaments of cascades divided upon the faces of distant buttes that appeared as signs and wonders in the heavens themselves so dark was the ground of their origins” (187).
Steve,
It shows how much you enjoy reading, as a student I am discovering who likes to read and others that go through the motions. When you write about what you read you put all your emotions into it. This writing absolutely took me to the level of the book and relaxed me by you sharing your thoughts.