From 270fbd653e501220bef6a888cf907e20d1273f72 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Madison Scott-Clary Date: Tue, 28 May 2024 22:01:45 -0700 Subject: [PATCH] update from sparkleup --- writing/post-self/idumea/005.md | 10 +++++++++- 1 file changed, 9 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/writing/post-self/idumea/005.md b/writing/post-self/idumea/005.md index 65540625..ca6cfdc4 100644 --- a/writing/post-self/idumea/005.md +++ b/writing/post-self/idumea/005.md @@ -125,4 +125,12 @@ When I was once more able to speak, after I had taken a moment to clean up, I as "I did not like all of the books, but Slow Hours instructed me to read them anyway, unless they started to make me truly bored. None did, however, so I finished every book I took with me. -"Of the five books I brought home, one made me quite upset for how viscerally uncaring the protagonist was. I found them acting for reasons that I did not understand, as though they were a being solely of habits and not of thoughts or emotions. One made me cry for the way the protagonist was torn down and yet built herself into someone new. +"Of the five books I brought home, one made me quite upset for how viscerally uncaring the protagonist was. I found them acting for reasons that I did not understand, as though they were a being solely of habits and not of thoughts or emotions. One made me cry for the way the protagonist was torn down and yet built herself into someone new. The other three books I found quite enjoyable, and they were all engrossing to greater or lesser extent. + +"I found this form of reading to be fulfilling, yes, but also all-encompassing. When I read in the manner that Slow Hours suggests, by wrapping myself up in the story and letting it play out in my head, I found that I became more easily engrossed, yes, but also I found myself wrung out at the end of each. I would finish a book and then have to lay in bed for ten hours straight, sleeping off and on. When I brought this up with Slow Hours, she only smiled, shrugged, and said that appreciation takes as much energy as creation. + +"There *was* joy there, though. It has been many, many years since I had read something so thoroughly, had so completely taken it within myself. It was nothing so trite as feeling as though I was living there with the characters, nor that I was unable to put the book down. It was a relishing. It was a savoring. Each word became a part of my world, drifting into view to be cherished and then back out of it. By the third book, I saw what it was that Slow Hours meant by wrapping oneself up in a story, and I found comfort in this." + +I stayed silent as I listened. After all, to hear so intriguing a person speak so eloquently on the act of reading was a joy! I never learned whether any of the books that she read were mine, and I was too afraid to ask. I do not know why, friends, but I was feeling quite outclassed. The Woman had a quiet force to her personality that I cannot deny, and I wonder to this day whether she knew this about herself. + +