ext_24142 ([identity profile] donutsweeper.livejournal.com) wrote in [personal profile] donutsweeper 2016-07-13 01:27 pm (UTC)

Yes, somehow the sunken boat picture turned into a submerged and drowned Watson in my head. Not sure exactly how.

The quote is from a letter Kafka wrote in 1904, translations vary somewhat but the one I like best is

"I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us. If the book we are reading doesn't wake us up with a blow on the head, what are we reading it for? ...we need the books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us."

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