The first writer I thought of is Annie Dillard in her essay, "Total Eclipse." In order to prime my imaginative landscape, I read her essay prior to experiencing the solar eclipse of 2017. It worked. All alone in the backcountry with just my camera and a notebook, I was enchanted. I even have a picture of me standing by a footbridge and toasting the universe with a glass of Irish whiskey as the lights were coming back on.
Thank you, Sal, for those kind and encouraging words! This author was the subject of a book I worked on for several years and planned to finish on a sabbatical in 2020-2021. Then 2020 did its thing and that sabbatical plan got cancelled. For now, Substack writing has given me the small scope that suits the present, while I wait for longform to return. I do love the years of extravagant prose and enchantment that I got to enjoy while working on this writer, and it certainly habituated me to a relationship with literature that I hadn't put in the same words before. I can thank Bret Harte for turning my attention to enchantment. Where I go with it is all mystery again. :-)
Oh, perceptive one! This book you describe does seem closer to where my dinghy has drifted since 2020 - author Harte perhaps only a bridge to it. Thank you for showing me how it looks from there. How helpful these nudges can be. 🥰
The first writer I thought of is Annie Dillard in her essay, "Total Eclipse." In order to prime my imaginative landscape, I read her essay prior to experiencing the solar eclipse of 2017. It worked. All alone in the backcountry with just my camera and a notebook, I was enchanted. I even have a picture of me standing by a footbridge and toasting the universe with a glass of Irish whiskey as the lights were coming back on.
Now that is a fine way to experience a celestial phenomenon! I’ll need to read that essay before the next eclipse.
Finally caught up with this — thanks for linking it. It strikes me as the beginning of a book — I hope you are writing it!
Thank you, Sal, for those kind and encouraging words! This author was the subject of a book I worked on for several years and planned to finish on a sabbatical in 2020-2021. Then 2020 did its thing and that sabbatical plan got cancelled. For now, Substack writing has given me the small scope that suits the present, while I wait for longform to return. I do love the years of extravagant prose and enchantment that I got to enjoy while working on this writer, and it certainly habituated me to a relationship with literature that I hadn't put in the same words before. I can thank Bret Harte for turning my attention to enchantment. Where I go with it is all mystery again. :-)
I feel for Bret Harte, absolutely, but the vision you put in front of my eyes was of a book centered on enchantment and reading. You’d be amazing.
Oh, perceptive one! This book you describe does seem closer to where my dinghy has drifted since 2020 - author Harte perhaps only a bridge to it. Thank you for showing me how it looks from there. How helpful these nudges can be. 🥰