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strange how reading someone's books can give you the illusion that the author will always be around. strange how news that shows you that you were wrong about that can affect you.
slaughterhouse five jolted me significantly when i ran into it, and it still does.
i read quite alot of his other work, but s5 is the one that has stuck with me.
he had such a lovely voice-----able to make quite radical ideas seem sweet and light as candy. you'd eat them; they'd tickle your throat and make you laugh. you'd think that meant that the ideas would disappear as soon as the laughing stopped. but they didnt.
i feel a little like i've lost an old friend--you know, one of those folk you have known for a long long time but dont really keep in touch with, but who you retain affection for regardless, who makes you smile when you think of him or her, whose presence you kinda take for granted and that makes you happier in the world for that. despite the fact that you rarely talked any more. the kind of friend that was always great to see, to see how they have changed and how they havent, when you'd see them. the intervals between meetings doesnt seem to matter. sad that way.
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a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear
it make you sick.
-kamau brathwaite
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