“[SHE] DECIDED SHE LACKED PASSION, WHICH WAS A WORD SHE HATED. ASK HER WHAT SHE CRAVED, AND SHE'D GET A LITTLE FRANTIC ABOUT THINGS LIKE BOOKS, THE WOODS, MUSIC. PLANTS AND THE SEASONS. ALSO FREEDOM. NOT BEING BOUGHT AND SOLD BY SOME IDIOT EMPLOYER, NOT HAVING THE MOMENTS OF HER DAYS VALUED IN FRACTIONS OF A DOLLAR BY SOMEBODY OTHER THAN HERSELF.”
Charles Frazier, Nightwoods

I AM
THE SUN AND MOON AND FOREVER HUNGRY
THE SHARPENED EDGE
WHERE DAY AND NIGHT SHALL MEET
AND NOT BE
ONE.
Audre Lorde, From the House of Yemanjá

“BUT HOW WAS IT, THEN, THAT WHILE HE HAD THE FEELING THAT HE HAD DONE NOTHING HIMSELF AND THAT EVERYTHING HAD ONLY HAPPENED TO HIM, HIS LIFE SEEMED SO LONG? HE HAD ALREADY BEEN HERE FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS, AND IF HE HAD STUDIED ZOOLOGY, IT WOULD HAVE BEEN MILLIONS. SMALL WONDER, WITH SUCH A PAST, THAT YOU COULD NOT REMEMBER EVERYTHING, AND YET AT THE SAME TIME IT WAS SURPRISING WHAT YOU DID REMEMBER. AND STRANGER STILL WAS THE EQUIVALENCE OF THESE RECOLLECTIONS, IN WHICH THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF HIS FATHER’S DEATH WAS ON A PAR WITH ALL KINDS OF OTHER ANNEXED EVENTS, SUCH AS THALASSA THALASSA, THE CRUCIFIXION, AND THE BURNING OF THE REICHSTAG. ALL OF IT WAS YOU, IN EFFECT, FOR ALTHOUGH YOU HAD NOT EXPERIENCED IT ALL, IT HAD WOVEN ITSELF INTO YOUR LIFE... STRANGE CHEMICAL PROCESSES IN YOUR BRAIN HAD SEEN TO IT THAT YOU WERE AWARE OF THE PALEOZOIC, WHICH THEREFORE, SOMEHOW OR OTHER, HAD BECOME PART OF YOUR EXPERIENCE, SO THAT YOU YOURSELF WERE CONNECTED WITH UNIMAGINABLY DISTANT TIMES TO WHICH YOU WOULD BELONG UNTIL YOU DIED, BY VIRTUE OF THAT SAME MYSTERIOUS MECHANISM.”
Cees Nooteboom, Rituals