Stunning. So many quotes about this liminal rain world that felt so satisfying to read, sentences whose forms were pleasing to my eyes and, when spoken aloud, my mouth. Sentences I wish I'd dreamt up.
As someone who moved from California to the United Kingdom on her own at the age of nineteen, because I love the rain and green, mossy places, this piece of writing felt like entering into the very rain dream state you described. I love the strange liminal world of rain.
The Clarice Lispector quote tasted so good I read it out loud several times. I have never heard of her and thank you kindly for the introduction - and for the introduction to Gaston Bachelard.
I'm realising that I'm growing into my worldview as an animist, rain is absolutely alive, endowed with personhood as Graham Harvey would say. Storms, too. And rain is not one entity. Rains in South East England are very different from rains in Glasgow, and even in the same place, one rainfall is not the same as another. Having said that, no sky is the same either but each is equally a person.
"Music and silence are two roads we can take towards a temporary forgetting of ourselves, of a merging with the world." I think you would love what the Sufis have had to say about music. "The whole process of the Sufi path – the fasting, retreats, renunciation, and *sama* – the listening and dancing to music – is to transcend the self or ego – the nafs. Over the course of the spiritual journey, the nafs is gradually burnt away until nothing of it remains, and only then can god appear. True selfhood lies in the experience of no self, of being nothing at all." Source: https://youtu.be/7xcBDg2JYkg?si=8SOPnHXJ2qfZlpga
"And yet, for all the doomed morbidity that the passage of time reaps upon the human race, we are gifted with an inner life." I do not think humans are the only beings gifted with an inner life but there are hours of conversation in that statement that cannot be condensed into a comment.
Thank you so much! I always read my work aloud (albeit under my breath) as I'm writing it, so the cadences and general feeling of the words on the tongue is very much a part of the creative process for me - I'm really glad that this shone through for you. And that I was able to conjure up the rain dream state. I am very much a fellow lover of green, mossy places - there's so much dreaming contained in the greens of the world.
And if you haven't encountered Clarice Lispector before then you are in for an absolute treat! I don't have the time in a comment to praise her enough, but if you're interested, my second ever essay I uploaded on here was about her: https://somethingishappening.substack.com/p/the-genius-of-friendship. She is such a life-enriching writer. And Bachelard very much so too.
I am loosely familiar with Rumi, but I know little about Sufism generally - thank you for the recommendation, I will give that video a watch soon (probably in the bath).
As for animism and your comment on the inner life of things - I'm inclined to agree though I think it's something I'm still in the process of waking up to. I think a lot of my writing is actually a project of trying to dream my way into the inner life of various phenomena, though I never started out with anything like a strict intention, it's just a thread that seems to have emerged that I'm eager to keep following.
Thank you again for the detailed and thoughtful comment!
I'm here (on Substack) to read, to find new writings to fall in love with, and to talk about the thoughts the writings conjure in my mind and how they made me feel.
I took a wee break from Substack because I felt like I was seeing a lot of political *content* and that's not why I'm here. Upon my return, I came across In the Chamber of the Solemn Bell and it was such a relief.
I'm away to read your Clarice Lispector essay now, thank you again.
Stunning. So many quotes about this liminal rain world that felt so satisfying to read, sentences whose forms were pleasing to my eyes and, when spoken aloud, my mouth. Sentences I wish I'd dreamt up.
As someone who moved from California to the United Kingdom on her own at the age of nineteen, because I love the rain and green, mossy places, this piece of writing felt like entering into the very rain dream state you described. I love the strange liminal world of rain.
The Clarice Lispector quote tasted so good I read it out loud several times. I have never heard of her and thank you kindly for the introduction - and for the introduction to Gaston Bachelard.
I'm realising that I'm growing into my worldview as an animist, rain is absolutely alive, endowed with personhood as Graham Harvey would say. Storms, too. And rain is not one entity. Rains in South East England are very different from rains in Glasgow, and even in the same place, one rainfall is not the same as another. Having said that, no sky is the same either but each is equally a person.
"Music and silence are two roads we can take towards a temporary forgetting of ourselves, of a merging with the world." I think you would love what the Sufis have had to say about music. "The whole process of the Sufi path – the fasting, retreats, renunciation, and *sama* – the listening and dancing to music – is to transcend the self or ego – the nafs. Over the course of the spiritual journey, the nafs is gradually burnt away until nothing of it remains, and only then can god appear. True selfhood lies in the experience of no self, of being nothing at all." Source: https://youtu.be/7xcBDg2JYkg?si=8SOPnHXJ2qfZlpga
"And yet, for all the doomed morbidity that the passage of time reaps upon the human race, we are gifted with an inner life." I do not think humans are the only beings gifted with an inner life but there are hours of conversation in that statement that cannot be condensed into a comment.
Thank you so much! I always read my work aloud (albeit under my breath) as I'm writing it, so the cadences and general feeling of the words on the tongue is very much a part of the creative process for me - I'm really glad that this shone through for you. And that I was able to conjure up the rain dream state. I am very much a fellow lover of green, mossy places - there's so much dreaming contained in the greens of the world.
And if you haven't encountered Clarice Lispector before then you are in for an absolute treat! I don't have the time in a comment to praise her enough, but if you're interested, my second ever essay I uploaded on here was about her: https://somethingishappening.substack.com/p/the-genius-of-friendship. She is such a life-enriching writer. And Bachelard very much so too.
I am loosely familiar with Rumi, but I know little about Sufism generally - thank you for the recommendation, I will give that video a watch soon (probably in the bath).
As for animism and your comment on the inner life of things - I'm inclined to agree though I think it's something I'm still in the process of waking up to. I think a lot of my writing is actually a project of trying to dream my way into the inner life of various phenomena, though I never started out with anything like a strict intention, it's just a thread that seems to have emerged that I'm eager to keep following.
Thank you again for the detailed and thoughtful comment!
I'm here (on Substack) to read, to find new writings to fall in love with, and to talk about the thoughts the writings conjure in my mind and how they made me feel.
I took a wee break from Substack because I felt like I was seeing a lot of political *content* and that's not why I'm here. Upon my return, I came across In the Chamber of the Solemn Bell and it was such a relief.
I'm away to read your Clarice Lispector essay now, thank you again.
Beautiful.
Thank you, Patricia.