Friday, March 14, 2008

To Suspend Time


Nap in Purrfection, originally uploaded by littlemiao.

.
Lately, I haven't had nearly as much time to read as I would like. I'm still not done with The Dark Is Rising. The book sits on the shelf right in my line of vision when I'm at my desk - a constant reminder of the suspenseful, fast-paced story that I'm inching through page by interrupted page. I've been studying all day - I didn't even go outside for a walk today, even though the sky is beautiful and blue. I gave myself that luxury yesterday. I don't like being cooped up in my little basement. I feel like a prisoner glancing longingly at the little patch of blue. I even have a crick on my neck from glancing up too much.

Enough complaining.

In The Dark Is Rising, the main character, Will Stanton is given a book of ancient knowledge to read and absorb. Through reading that book, he experiences the entire universe, from the farthest stars to the deepest crevices under the ocean. It is "the Gift of Gramarye: a long lifetime of discovery and wisdom, given to him in a moment of suspended time." As an "Old One", Will exists in a different time-scale. He can stretch time out as he wishes, "to make it go fast, or slow..."* As petty as it sounds, I'm envious. Very very envious.

* Quotations from pages 123 and 109, respectively, of the 1973 Macmillian edition.

3 comments:

scb said...

I must tell one of my coworkers (wbrosie) about this series. It sounds like her sort of book.

I would like to be curled up like Ping this weekend. Why is there always so much to do on the weekends? (And during the week??)

I'm still slowly working my way through Middlemarch. I'm about a quarter of the way through it -- it's just over 1000 pages. I shall have to read something quick and easy after it. Aha! A Brain Wave! I think I'll read "Three Men in a Boat" next. It's a re-read, but it's funny, and it's in the next decade (I'm trying to read my decades in order. That may change...)

little miao said...

Aw, I hope you get time to curl up and read this weekend. 250 pages isn't bad at all - my book isn't even that long to start with!

Anonymous said...

The experience of the entire universe when reading the book of Gramarye is very similar to the experience of reading or absorbing (via drinking) the Book of Thoth in the ancient Egyptian (Demotic) first story of Setna Khamwas, and they're both similar to initiatory visions or revelations in various sources.