Wednesday 10 June 2009

Flaubert

I am just off into town and hoping to come back round by a particularly pretty church - if I manage to do so then later today I shall post pictures of one of the prettiest churches round here.
In the meantime, here is a quotation I came across. I have a book in which I record my favourite words, poems and sayings - I thought this one was particularly apt for all of us bloggers.

"Human language is like a cracked kettle on which we beat out tunes for bears to dance to, when all the time we are longing to move the stars to pity." (Flaubert) Have a good day!

15 comments:

Caroline Gill said...

Too true! ... though I would love to see bears dancing to their own music in the wild. What a wonderful quotation: thank you, Weaver, for sharing it with us.

EB said...

Wonderful. Please can you give it in French too?

And I would like very much to see the church pictures. I always enjoy on long journeys - by road seems better than rail for this - seeing the church towers and steeples change in style from one area to the next. In Sri Lanka we noticed that the feral dogs do the same!

Dave King said...

I will now! Thanks for that.

Heather said...

I shall add that quotation to my collection - thankyou. Hoping you get to photograph the church. Will look in later!

Unknown said...

How nice of M. Flaubert! I'm sure the stars pity my words!

Grizz………… said...

I think I'm with Derrick on this one…if my words provoke any reaction among the stars, it's doubtless pity or at the very least a sniggering cosmic chuckle.

I vote for church photos, too.

Totalfeckineejit said...

Thanks for putting me on your blog list, weaver.Love the blaze of summer colour in the new header.Stars ,cracked kettles, dancing bears- he knew his onions that Flaubert!

Cat said...

I'm all for church photos!

Jinksy said...

Think I'd rather move the stars to dance too, given a choice...Who wants pity?

The Weaver of Grass said...

I feel like adding all these comments to my Favourite words book (I shall put it on tomorrow) as you all have such good things to say about the Flaubert.

mand said...

This is a strong theme in Madame Bovary - in fact, maybe the quote's from Madame Bovary? - the difficulty of communication between people, when language is all we have to communicate with. He does non-articulate 'ordinary' people, struggling with this, very well. Mind you we all struggle, ordinary or not, don't we?

And jinksy, i love your dancing stars.

The Solitary Walker said...

I love this, and remember quoting it some time ago in my own blog.

If Flaubert, the great searcher for 'le mot juste', Flaubert, who spent days composing just a few sentences, then rewrote them time and again, felt this... then there's hope for us all.

Woman in a Window said...

I'm mulling that around in my mouth...move the stars to pity. Not sure I get that. Do tell.

DayPhoto said...

That is a beautiful church. You live in such a lovely country!

Thanks for stopping by. I've joined your followers!

Linda
hppt://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com

Pamela Terry and Edward said...

Love love love that quotation!!