Jenna Watson > Recent Status Updates

Ephrem i adore you

This one’s for you, @Rachel

When asked about how to communicate the universal through the particular, Ferrante says: “I think it has not to do with the technical skill of the writer but with the power of the authentic. If the representation goes beyond a skillful verisimilitude, carrying with it the pure and simple truth, then maybe it can transform its own private little plot of land into a garden open for all.”

“We are tornadoes that pick up fragments with the most varied historical and biological origins. This makes most of us—thankfully—fickle agglomerations that maintain a fragile equilibrium...that can’t be reduced to any one framework that does not inevitably leave out a great deal. Which is why the more effective stories resemble ramparts from which one can gaze out at everything that has been excluded.”

“In Naples progress is always the progress of the few to the detriment of the many. But, as you see, we are speaking no longer of Naples but of the world. What we call unlimited progress, for example, is the great cruel squandering of the wealthy classes of the West. Things may go a bit better when we prefer to take care of the entire planet and each of its inhabitants.” (232)

Loving comparing the translated poems with the original Hungarian. I’m now a firm believer that all translated poems should be accompanied by their original!!!

This will be the first book I read after I learn Italian

I’m hooked

“Whatever love we receive always comes as a form of grace.”

Was not expecting this to be such a page-turner. I’m enthralled