Wednesday, November 08, 2006

The epiphany of Stephen Dedalus

I remember standing there and gazing at the long rows of tall shelves on both sides. My gaze stayed with just that one part of the second floor but I felt like a part of the entire library- all three floors. Long halls, tall windows, unexplored corners and wide silences. Pulling out a book after another and thumbing through them. Stopping to read a paragraph and heading to sit down to absorb more. Reading about Stephen’s epiphany and the criticism of Joyce’s Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man meant more than the words in the musty book with the yellow cover. His theory of beauty today lies mixed with the sunlight from the wide windows on my left and the tall ceiling of the quiet library.

It has been long since I’ve sat reading in a library- amidst the smell of books, and echoing footsteps. Sitting at a table in the same sunlit long hall with many others at other tables reading many different worlds.

Typed out words that form my first post on a blog and I wonder if these words will become part of many different experiences of reading. But writing it surely has been my very own little epiphany :-)

5 comments:

Aparna Kalley said...

Really I could smell the books myself and sneezed inside:-)Libraries are always precious paradises full of wonderful experiences and peepholes which allow peeking at favourites before we select what we like...

Chin said...

:-) Yup. You think we'll ever sneeze when we browse through virtual libraries!

Aparna Kalley said...

Hmm waiting for more girl :-)
I was thinking of my favourite repeatedly read book at one point of time, it was a play called "Admirable Crichton", have you read it? It talks about values crichton belive in - Everybody is not equal, people with more skills and previleges should be on the top", there is a shocking interplay of this value.... This book has really made me question my beliefs and to what extent I am ready to go with them and how do I know they are right??

Daysleeper said...

the epitaph of moorchukki? what happens after the first post? waiting for the next post!

Anonymous said...

It is like 'Silent snow and Secret snow'.