Symbols

A couple of months ago, I finished a book that took me a while to read. It is not that it was a long book, just that I always read a few books at the same time so I can read what I feel like each moment. Also, the fact that when I was living in London I used to read in the tube and got so used to that I stopped reading elsewhere so, here, it is hard to get used to lay down a bit and read (I never read before sleeping). Also, the obvious fact that I am not English so I read slower in the language. But this time it was even slower becauseit was a rather complicated book.

I have always liked books about children (moreover if they are speciall or difficult) like "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time" by Mark Haddon, or "Soy Julia" (also available in French: "Moi, Julia") by Antonio Martínez. Or even "Never Ending Story" by Ende, which is also about a boy in problems.
The thing is that Christopher, the main character of "The Curious Incident..." is autistic; Julia, of "Soy/Moi Júlia", who "writes" writes the book at the age of two, has lissencephaly and this really makes me think if I am not a kind of sadist for reading this kind of books. Though, "Soy Julia" is hilarious and "The Curious...", also funny, but very touching, emotive and special.
So, this book I finished. It is titled "Glyph" and is written by Percival Everett. This time the child who also "writes" the book is Ralph, a baby (yeah, can't remember his age, but it was something like 18 months) truly gifted. He can read, write, compose poetry and even write philosophy essays. But he has chosen not to speak. This is all what I can say, I don't want to spoil it; this you can find it on the back cover or at Amazon when you order it.
What makes this book so special a part of being a very interesting adventure of a baby? The fact that he, a part of talking philosophy, he talks linguistics, language. He has no uttered a word in his life but he knows language perfectly.
It is amazing and sometimes you just can't believe how great it is.

I don't want to talk long about the book as I think everybody should read it. I would like to type here a short story which is in the book and titled "No place for a pig" which is absolutely fabulous. Though, I can't as it would be plagiarism. Though, I want to add four quotes that I find very interesting.

"Whether atoms, monads, or words, things are made up of small things and small things are made of smaller things and, to some extend, my understanding of the whole world depends on my comprehension of its constituent parts".

"Humans invented language. So says the innocent. Language invented humans. So says the cynic. My parents made an offspring. Or was it the case that I made them parents? There I was again, making parents of people. Chicken? Egg? Omelette? The beginnings of sense is to realize that the term sense is a stand-in for whatever sense can be made within a particular context, just a thing serves for any noun substantive, just a quality serves for some adjective. Aliquid pro aliquo. To say that in some sense that things has certain quality means nothing, except here where it works to make my point. He was making sense tells you nothing of what he was saying. He had a certain quality. He came in waving this thing."

"
"I feel sick," she said. "Not physically sick, but lost. I don't know where I am or where I'm going. I've always know exactly where I was going. I knew where I was going to college and graduate school and where I was going to do my post doc and even where I was going to publish my first article and my first book an I knew it all when I was only twelve. And now, I don't know where I'm going to sleep tomorrow night. Direction has always been a kind of neurosis for me and to have it taken away, well, it's saddening. But also freeing. (...)"
"

"The water that is spirit, the water of all things, the water of tears, the water of blood, dream water, streams, and rivers where life begins, where things are washed, like Circe in that creek, the dreams like waters, mixing with water, like water, the water that is kiss, water, that drink, full of parasites, drink it only when it flows faster than you can walk."

"I wondered while hiding there in the hallowed walls in god's house whether tigers knew they were striped cats, whether mules found each other stubborn, whether language ever lacked meaning. I wondered whether meanings were the stripes on words and marvelled at how words always erased themselves but never disappeared. I wondered where the window of meaning opened and what was in its place before, nonmeaning? nonsense? nondisjunction? Nonfeasence? The baby was bored in the back room."

[If the publisher, the author, or whoever is bothered of this being here, it will be removed. Just let me know.]

So, here you go. I hope you have enjoyed this quotations and am sure you will enjoy the whole book.

Listening to Joanna Rubio : "We're off to See the Wizard"

BTW, it is so funny that this song is sounding now. Why?
Check this amd you'll understand.

Image taken from Amazon (above link).