Have you read this book? Read this book.
This is my third reading of In The Skin of a Lion by Michael Ondaatje, and I think I finally get it. It was beautiful the first time, and the second time -- the third time, it's a continual epiphany.
Or maybe I'll just uncover another self-referential layer every time I read it -- fifty years from now, this already worn copy having lost redundant physical pages that reside faithfully in my memory --
'Only the best art can order the chaotic tumble of events. Only the best can realign chaos to suggest both the chaos and order it will become.
Within two years of 1066, work began on the Bayeux Tapestry, Constantin the African brought Greek medicine to the western world. The chaos and tumble of events. The first sentence of every novel should be: "Trust me, this will take time but there is order here, very faint, very human." Meander if you want to get to town.'
-- Michael Ondaatje, In The Skin of a Lion
Aha. I get it now.
Or maybe I'll just uncover another self-referential layer every time I read it -- fifty years from now, this already worn copy having lost redundant physical pages that reside faithfully in my memory --
'Only the best art can order the chaotic tumble of events. Only the best can realign chaos to suggest both the chaos and order it will become.
Within two years of 1066, work began on the Bayeux Tapestry, Constantin the African brought Greek medicine to the western world. The chaos and tumble of events. The first sentence of every novel should be: "Trust me, this will take time but there is order here, very faint, very human." Meander if you want to get to town.'
-- Michael Ondaatje, In The Skin of a Lion
Aha. I get it now.