The narrator in Olga Tokarczuk's Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead says of a descipable character who winds up dead early in the book:
In my view he should have received several Punishments by now, or even been sent to prison. I don’t know how he got away with it all. Perhaps there were some angels watching over him; sometimes they turn up on the wrong side.
Many among us know someone in our lives whose streak of good luck seems infinite even though they constantly and needlessly hurt others. We watch in awe and dream of schadenfreude that never does come. Do the mills of God grind at all we wonder ? Will the process be done in our life-times ?
Though the mills of God grind slowly; Yet they grind exceeding small;
Though with patience He stands waiting, With exactness grinds He all.
I like how Tokarczuk likens this inequity to angels watching over a person after turning up on the wrong side. That is exactly how it feels to those watching from the outside - it is as if the person is blessed with some divine protection and is therefore invinscible.
crossings as in traversals, contradictions, counterpoints of the heart though often not..
Subscribe to my Substack: Signals in the Noise
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Good List
Great reflection on educating children in the present world and things that have enduring value. There is a lot in this list for any generat...
-
An expat desi friend and I were discussing what it means to return to India when you have cobbled together a life in a foreign country no ma...
-
Recently a desi dude who is more acquaintance less friend called to check in on me. Those who have read this blog before might know that suc...
-
Published in Serenelight Shiv is fond of saying that he is left where magic realism meets Haiku and remembers having mentioned this to Joie...
No comments:
Post a Comment