submit our fancies to their
writers who influence us, at least when we're young (pace harold bloom), are not usually the ones we read thoroughly and confront with our complete attention, but rather the ill- and partially-read writers we start on, often in troubled awe, only to close the book after pages or chapters, when our own imagination works up beyond the point where we can continue to submit our fancies to theirs.
- samuel delany, the motion of light and water
it wasn't until i read this that i stopped feeling silly that i call a question of power my favorite book, even though i never finished it.
posted January 04, 2002 in delivery, print