I started watching the Obsession mini-series on Netflix on a whim. There was nothing on TV, and I was bored of flipping through the channels, so I looked for something on our friendly streaming service. I chose it mainly because of Richard Armitage, as I had seen him in some Harlan Coben series and I liked him.
So this was our first instance of one thing leading to another.
The start was a bit slow going; it took me a bit to get into it, but when I did, I binge-watched all four episodes of the mini-series. It was captivating, and I wanted to know how it ended, and it did not disappoint, all my assumptions were thwarted.
Of course, I saw it was based on a book, and one thing I have learned over the years: if a movie based on a book is good or decent, the book is amazing! So I went and looked for the book!
Second instance of one thing leading to another.
The book, my dears, the book is not amazing; it is outstanding. It is a poem in prose; it is mind-boggling that humans can produce anything like this. And here I am referring just to the style and the writing; the story itself is on another level.
Loved it so much that now, among my other reads, I am reading Josephine Hart’s other books. Such an accomplished writer! I need to share with you a quote Josephine Hart uses to describe herself; I love it so much:
I was a word child in a country of word children, where life was language before it was anything else. Poets were not only heroes, they were indeed the gods of language.’
How beautiful is this?!?
Throughout her books, it is evident that Josephine Hart had a special relationship with language and poetry; when I said that her novels read like poetry in prose, I did not say it lightly. It is like reading poems, wonderful, full-bodied poems for us all to understand.
I will not spend time here telling you about her career and accomplishments; that is easily found through a simple search. My post is just about my discovery of this great writer, wordsmith, enchantress.
The book I have is a mere 238 pages long, yet its impact feels like a blow to the head. I wholeheartedly recommend it- a quick read that will stay with you for a long time. Might lead to other interesting reads. Who knows? You never do know how things lead one to another.
In the novel, at some point, there is a reference to a poem by Marianne Moore, poem titled Roses Only:
What is brilliance without co-ordination? Guarding the
infinitesimal pieces of your mind, compelling audience to
the remark that it is better to be forgotten than to be remembered too violently,
your thorns are the best part of you.
Public domain poem.
I don’t really read poetry; I have difficulties understanding it- just my psychological make-up, or lack of practice, maybe- but this is so beautiful that I had to look up the entire poem and read it.
Another thing leading to another.
Maybe I should reconsider my stance on poetry.
I find the world and all these treasures we create for each other wonderful and humbling, and moments like these make me, and should make any creator, understand the value of art, of beauty, of the joy we find in creating and in what others have created.
We create without knowing who will pick up our work, who will benefit from it, or when, a year or a hundred years from now.
We leave a part of ourselves behind, unaware of the change it will elicit in others.