He thought of trying to explain something he had recently noticed about himself: that if anyone insulted him, or one of his friends, he didn't really mind--or not much, anyway. Whereas if anyone insulted a novel, a story, a poem that he loved, something visceral and volcanic occurred within him. He wasn't sure what this might mean--except perhaps that he had got life and art mixed up, back to front, upside down.Julian Barnes
About This Quote
He thought of trying to explain something he had recently noticed about himself: that if anyone insulted him, or one of his friends, he didn't really mind~or not much, anyway. Whereas if anyone insulted a novel, a story, a poem that he loved, something visceral and volcanic occurred within him. He wasn't sure what this might mean~except perhaps that he had got life and art mixed up, back to front, upside down. He thought of visiting Keats's grave in the English countryside, but wasn't sure why.
What was it about Keats's poetry that made him feel so fierce? Was this perhaps the same feeling he experienced when reading Dickens? He thought of visiting Wordsworth's grave in Grasmere, but couldn't make himself get off the train. Around the last page of his novel, which was set in Poland amid the anti-Semitic pogroms, he had become very involved with what was happening to the characters. He wanted to know what would happen next--and not just for his characters but for himself as well.
It was as though there were two versions of himself: his own self and the self who loved these stories.
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