Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Proust, the Squid and the Runner

This is from a review of the book Proust and the squid.

... reading has given us "the gift of time"- time when our thoughts can move beyond the words on the page to new levels of understanding, time to think the unthinkable. Reading is not just about absorbing information and finding ready-made answers; it is thought-in-action. There are no pre-packaged answers in life. "We can receive the truth from nobody," said Proust; "we must create it ourselves."

If you just substitute the word 'running' for 'reading' this quote is a description of what I am doing plodding along in Ashridge or by the canal.

So if anybody asks you 'why are you doing running?' you can reply “I am just testing something that Proust once said”. (You will then be slapped round the chops for being a bit of a pretentious fop).

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