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December 8, 2007
the states of felt being
However artful, however inspired, the words of the poet, of the philosopher, will fall short of the numinous intensities of certain phenomena and states of felt being. The aura of certain settings in nature, of certain privacies of desire or of pain, resists communicative transfer into speech. The only just response to Helen’s mystery of loveliness and to the surge of Eros in her step is not speech but silence. It is not, says Kafka, the song of the Sirens, but their silence which carries the true charge of illumination and of menace.
George Steiner - Real Presences
Posted by amin at December 8, 2007 11:42 PM