Monday, December 06, 2010

In homage to lotsa books

Having books all around your house leads to 67% more reading though does not, according tot he experts, necessarily lead to actually finishing books; therefore, a celebration is in store every time I actually finish a book:

From the last page of the simply, yet fully explanatory, Bodies by Susie Orbach

"Our struggle is to recorporealise our bodies so that they become a place we live from rather than an aspiration always needing to be achieved"

"We need bodies sufficiently stable to allow us moments of bliss and adventure when, sure that they exist, we can then take leave of them"

NOTE: neither of these quotations was underlined though the previous reader of this book carefully, well not so carefully, underlined many insightful passages. My guess is once said reader hit the last two pages she was too excited, yet tired, to mark anymore. That, or I have no sense of a good quote.

Orbach also offers several critiques of postmodernism's insistence on performing our bodies in an effort to celebrate multiplicity and fluidity, but I won't bother with those quotations as certainly both sides overstate.

Time taken to read this simple, straight-forward, 200 page book: Several months, maybe more.

Context: book got lost amongst amazon and half.com purchases...and I think my wife borrowed it for a bit.

1 comment:

SH said...

I love those quotes, and I certainly think you have a good sense of this. I look at my body in pictures 20, 10 (even just 5) years ago and think god..I wish I had enjoyed it back then rather than harping on all my flaws. Will I be doing the same thing years down the road. Wishing I had enjoyed walking and breathing when I'm so old that moving is a chore. God..i hope it never gets to that. Thanks for your refreshing quotes! I'm gonna need to add that to my growing list of must reads.