An observation about life and language from author Michael Sims: Every encounter with another human being is like being able to read half a page from the middle of a novel, isn’t it? And then someone grabs the book away. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Author Michael Sims”
I came across this observation about life and language that I really liked.
Every encounter with another human being is like being able to read half a page from the middle of a novel, isn’t it? And then someone grabs the book away.
Oh, that’s nice. I thought that was so great. That is literally it. Isn’t it?
Yeah, that feeling that you get of somebody that you loved so much because you went to school together or worked together, and then one day you’re not together anymore, right? It’s not a breakup. It’s just—
Well, yeah, the way I took it was like an encounter in the street or in a coffee shop. You know, you get like this little window of somebody’s life, but then the book gets taken away.
I mean, it doesn’t necessarily have to be a romantic relationship. Like they have stylish hair and a cute puppy and you like the book they’re reading and then they’re gone.
Yeah, just this little window on their life. But the person I got that from is Michael Sims, who is the author of The Adventures of Henry Thoreau and Arthur and Sherlock and a number of other very well regarded books.
I don’t know him personally, but we have a mutual friend on Facebook and I saw him make that as a comment. It was just a comment that he threw away on Facebook. One of those people.
But I thought it was so gorgeous. Brilliant even in passing. Even on Facebook, every encounter with another human being is like being able to read half a page from the middle of a novel, isn’t it? And then someone grabs the book away.
I thought that was just gorgeous. Grab your phone. Give us a call, 877-929-9673, or pull out the keyboard. Hit us up at words@waywordradio.org.
