Tuesday, August 9, 2016

Sebald Sentences

Transportation, 2016

W. G. Sebald is one of my favorite authors. I might have mentioned this before. I'm currently reading Vertigo for the first time. As always, reading just a page or two of Sebald's writing transports me into a trancelike state, sometimes all it takes is a sentence or two. I folded the top left corner of page 84 earlier this morning so I could return to it and share the sentences below with you.

"After barely an hour of breezy travel, with the windows open upon the radiant landscape, the Porta Nuova came into view and as I beheld the city lying in the semicircle of the distant mountains, I found myself incapable of alighting. Strangely transfixed, I remained seated, and when the train had left Verona and the guard came down the corridor once more I asked him for a supplementary ticket to Desenzano, where I knew that on Sunday the 21st of September, 1913, Dr K., filled with the singular happiness of knowing that no one suspected where he was at that moment, but otherwise profoundly disconsolate, had lain alone in the grass on the lakeside and gazed out at the waves in the reeds."
 
Sebald died young, at 57 years old, only 11 years after this book was published. His books have been described as difficult to characterize, and I wholeheartedly agree. What I think I respond to most in his work is the way it both carries me to faraway places and reminds me to be present and live fully. A thoroughly satisfying, albeit slightly disorienting, combination.

8 comments:

  1. I'm so glad you posted this. I had not heard of Sebald, but can't wait to dive in. Thank you!

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    1. I hope you enjoy reading his work as much as I do.

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  2. "incapable of alighting" - how so many people fit this disposition...

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    1. Thankfully, in this context, it was a temporary thing. ;)

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  3. It must be a great fun to hold a chance and get along with an author of fascinating descriptions toward an unknown direction. Have a nice weekend.

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    1. Sebald is always a treat. I hope you are enjoying your weekend too.

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  4. Have heard of him but have not read him. This passage...it produced a longing in me that was uncomfortable, if not a little frightening. And now I must return to my reality and resist the urge to flee...

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    1. Uh oh. I hope not too uncomfortable. Sebald can have that effect.

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