Sometimes, when I’m waiting for whatever, I delve into the library on my iPhone eReader. I don’t read anything of great length on my iPhone, the screen is much too small for my squinting eyes. I read little “bits”, that is “bits” of short written pieces.
Virginia Woolf
Virginia Woolf wrote some short pieces, one is “Kew Gardens“. I downloaded it free from the internet and every now and then I dive into this piece to read a paragraph or two. The writing is excellent. I’m able to savour the sentences within the paragraphs much more readily than if I focus on the whole thing. Slow reading, similar to slow food.
The story is about a garden bed at London’s Kew Gardens and a snail moving within it and the people who walk past. Yes, it’s a very very small thing, I agree. Virginia makes this very small thing enchanting. Like a photo-realistic painting though the visual is created with words.
Here’s a little sample: “In the oval flower bed the snail, whose shell had been stained red, blue, and yellow for the space of two minutes or so, now appeared to be moving very slightly in its shell, and next began to labour over the crumbs of loose earth which broke away and rolled down as it passed over them.”
The woman was truly gifted. It’s a shame she was so unhappy. Why is it that so many of the “gifted” ones can’t be happy. Maybe it’s a gift not to be “gifted”.
Until tomorrow, best wishes for your work!
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