April 4, 1870
In taking off my jersey of knitted wool in the dark with an accidental stroke of my finger down the stuff I drew a flash of electric light. This explains the crackling I had often heard.
---- Gerard Manley Hopkins
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Beautiful picture.
ReplyDeleteAnd I love Hopkins.
Nin: I'm very glad you liked this. The photo (of a deep-sea jellyfish relative) and the words (a really charged, vivid but casual desription of something that has happened to everyone, I expect) seemed to go together well. The Hopkins diary entry is found in a diary collection cornucopia called The Assassin's Cloak, which I think you would find interesting. Curtis
ReplyDeleteAs he said, the world is charged. Some have called his poetics "electric meters" -- an apt if infelicitous description.
ReplyDeleteElectric meters: I'll remember that. It was nice to see that a lot of people I like said they liked this one, which really caught me by surprise too. It always amazes me to read casual remarks (I think this diary entry qualifies) approx. 150 years old that sound like something you might have heard just yesterday. Curtis
ReplyDeleteAgreed. Try the writings of U.S. Grant or other Civil War figures. Sometimes they sound antique, sometimes completely contemporary.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how our speech will sound in 150 years. I wonder whether people will speak like the robot on the Jetsons -- just beeping away. Or whether they'll bother to speak at all. Perhaps they'll just...tweet. Curtis
ReplyDeleteNot sure how I missed this jellyfish. I've always been fascinated by animals that generate visible electricity. We, of course, are electric animals, as so artfully written by Hopkins. But wouldn't it be neat if we could release flashes at will.
ReplyDeleteNell: I do. But only for $ at catered events under my assumed name (it's a difficult economy; you need to be versatile and multi-task with multi-talents) and for Jane as a bedtime story finale treat. My secret's out. Curtis
ReplyDeleteBig smile!
ReplyDelete