The path into the light seems dark,

the path forward seems to go back,

the direct path seems long,

true power seems weak,

true purity seems tarnished,

true steadfastness seems changeable,

true clarity seems obscure,

the greatest art seems unsophisticated,

the greatest love seems indifferent,

the greatest wisdom seems childish.


Tao te Ching

v. 41, trans. Stephen Mitchell

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A. A violent order is disorder; and
B. A great disorder is an order. These
Two things are one. (Pages of illustrations.)

Connoeisseur of Chaos, Wallace Stevens


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Death is the mother of beauty

Sunday Morning, Wallace Stevens


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Pullman's Dark Materials is a work of complex beauty to which I know I will eagerly return -- and happily pass on to others. I found it profoundly moving and disturbing in the way writing should be.

I'm also very fond of his willingness to stand up to the prevailing winds of opinion, to fight the good fight for creating complex literature for people, young and old, who now, more than ever, need and deserve it.

two interesting interviews, chosen by Pullman himself
1."Everything that is Dust is the result of the amorous inclinations of matter (Blake: 'Eternity is in love with the productions of Time')."
2. "We're rightly concerned that children should learn to read and to write and to become literate, and so on, but in doing that, we sometimes forget that pictures can also tell stories, can inform us in ways that are not exactly parallel to the ways in which words do. They're different. They work differently. I think it important for us to help young people to gain that sort of literacy as well."
Pullman here also discusses narrative voice and metaphor/allegory and the nourishment stories provide -- fascinating!
"William Blake, of course: 'Show me a world where every particle of dust breathes forth its joy' "