light was the reality

“When he reached the orchard the sun was hanging low over the wheatfield. Long fingers of light reached through the apple branches as through a net; the orchard was riddled and shot with gold; light was the reality, the trees were merely interferences that reflected and refracted light.”

—Willa Cather, O Pioneers!, 1913.

Vernacular Baton Rouge: A River Runs Through Us

A pioneer should have imagination

“A pioneer should have imagination, should be able to enjoy the idea of things more than the things themselves.”

—Willa Cather, O Pioneers!, 1913.

A big white bird with long wings and pink feet

“’Ask him, Alexandra, if it is true that a sea gull came here once. I have heard so.’
    She had some difficulty in making the old man understood.
    He looked puzzled at first, then smote his hands together as he remembered. ‘Oh, yes, yes! A big white bird with long wings and pink feet. My! what a voice she had! She came in the afternoon and kept flying about the pond and screaming until dark. She was in trouble of some sort, but I could not understand her. She was going over to the other ocean, maybe, and did not know how far it was. She was afraid of never getting there. She was more mournful that our birds here; she cried in the night. She saw the light from my window and darted up to it. Maybe she though my house was a boat, she was such a wild thing. Next morning when the sun rose, I went out to take her food, but she flew up into the sky and went on  her way.’ Ivar ran his fingers through his thick hair. ‘I have many strange birds stop with me here. They come from very far away and are great company. . . .’”

—Willa Cather, O Pioneers!, 1913.

writing on the sun

“On some upland farm, a plough had been left standing in the field. The sun was sinking just behind it. Magnified across the distance by the horizontal light, it stood out against the sun, was exactly contained within the circle of the disk; the handles, the tongue, the shard—black against molten red. There it was, heroic in size, a picture writing on the sun.”

—Willa Cather, My Ántonia, 1918.

tiger-eye

“She was a dark child, with brown curly hair, like a brunette doll’s, a coaxing little red mouth, and round, yellow-brown eyes. Every one noticed her eyes; the brown iris had golden glints that made them look like gold-stone, or, in softer lights, like that Colorado mineral called tiger-eye.”

—Willa Cather, O Pioneers!, 1913.

a distinguished intellectual

“It is quite impossible these days to assume anything about people’s educational level from the way they talk or dress or from their taste in music. Safest to treat everyone you meet as a distinguished intellectual.”

—Ian McEwan, Atonement, 2001. Wow. What an amazing book. This book takes something to another level.

Logos Gone Wild