Once in a while something like this will slide past me and whack me on the head with how much I don't know.
I have not read this book, I have not read any of this man's books, I have never heard of him before. But apparently he was an important writer in his time and his collected works run to at least 17 volumes. And I will probably die before I read any of them.
It makes me want to cry.
One time I remember particularly vividly is when the city of Jinan briefly came to my attention a few years back.
Jinan is in northern China. I had literally never heard of it. But it has parks and universities and monuments and museums and skyscrapers and mountains and lakes, and I am most likely never going to see any of it.
I may never get to see Shanghai, but I might, I can try. And I will probably never get to see Ürümqi, but at least I knew I was missing it. But here was this city with NINE MILLION people and I didn't even realize it existed. A place I could have spent a lifetime exploring. And there are so, so many places like that, places I not only don't know and will never know but that I don't even realize I don't know.
It's just crushing, how tiny I am and what a tiny slice of the world I will get to see. First Jinan, and now the novels of José María de Pereda. And whatever the next thing is. And the ten thousand things after that.
@mjd on the other hand, wouldn't it also be depressing if all the interesting things in the world could be learnt in a lifetime?
@mjd (BTW, I'm Spanish. I wouldn't say I'm deep into Spanish literature- just basic high school education and what you soak through time. I don't think Pereda is a household name.)
(Sometimes I meet people who say they wouldn't want immortality, because they think they would get bored. Give it to me! I will take it and spend ten years learning to read Spanish and then ten years reading the complete works of José María de Pereda and then ten more years understanding the Spanish revolution of 19 September 1868. It was important for Pereda but until just now I did not know there had been a Spanish revolution of 1868.)
@mjd I feel this in my bones. You could spend a whole life getting to know one city, all the little alleys and shops and parks and vistas. And cities change! Even if you dedicated your life to seeing every square meter of it, it would be a different city by the time you were done. But there couldn’t possibly be enough time to see everything everywhere, and that’s heartbreaking.
@flooey Yes, exactly. I spent a large part of my youth exploring New York, and I think I got to see a good chunk of Manhattan — the outside parts, anyway. But I barely know Brooklyn or Queens and I hardly even set foot in the Bronx or on Staten Island. Most of those streets and neighborhoods I missed are changed forever and I will never know what they were like.
@mjd Not wishing to spoiler you - given your last few posts on this topic I think it might be an interesting for you.
@kittylyst I placed a hold, but there is a 7 week wait at the library.
I sometines wonder if we won't all find ourselves in Hell for failing to eat a tuna sandwich every other Tuesday, as revealed in the holy book of some region on another planet we haven't visited. “Sorry, no exceptions.”
@mjd I am now even more sure that this book is likely to be of interest.
