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WHY LOOK AT ANIMALS?

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The Music of Time
This chapter is in the book The Music of Time
Music of Time US.indd 20604/10/2019 18:17WHY LOOK AT ANIMALS?What we habitually see confirms us. John Berger WHEN WE DRIVE HOME from the west of an evening, my eyes fixed on the twilit road, my sons in the back of the car, quietened by fatigue or boredom, we have to pass through a strip of dense woodland, just a couple of miles before we emerge into the open farmland where we live. Even as a grown-up, I can see that this is one of those magical woods: the trees arching over the road on either side to form a long, half-lit tunnel that could bring us out anywhere, glints and winks of silver in the darkening under-growth and, not a rare event at this time of day though always a small miracle when it happens, a hint of other lives, swimming or leaping through the greenery, sometimes to shy away at the last second and sometimes to stream across the road, two or three or five of them together, panicky, but not too quick to make out – and always, no matter how suddenly it happens, we are all aware of the eyes, of the fleeting, gorgeous exchange of a look, while we shift from the humdrum routine of a homeward journey into vivid life again, just for a moment, and the boys call out, or whisper, wonderingly: Deer! It seems such a small event, yet this animal encounter is an occa-sion of quiet if short-lived pleasure every time it happens because, like the grown-up I am now, as opposed to the half-wild boy I was 206
© 2020 Princeton University Press, Princeton

Music of Time US.indd 20604/10/2019 18:17WHY LOOK AT ANIMALS?What we habitually see confirms us. John Berger WHEN WE DRIVE HOME from the west of an evening, my eyes fixed on the twilit road, my sons in the back of the car, quietened by fatigue or boredom, we have to pass through a strip of dense woodland, just a couple of miles before we emerge into the open farmland where we live. Even as a grown-up, I can see that this is one of those magical woods: the trees arching over the road on either side to form a long, half-lit tunnel that could bring us out anywhere, glints and winks of silver in the darkening under-growth and, not a rare event at this time of day though always a small miracle when it happens, a hint of other lives, swimming or leaping through the greenery, sometimes to shy away at the last second and sometimes to stream across the road, two or three or five of them together, panicky, but not too quick to make out – and always, no matter how suddenly it happens, we are all aware of the eyes, of the fleeting, gorgeous exchange of a look, while we shift from the humdrum routine of a homeward journey into vivid life again, just for a moment, and the boys call out, or whisper, wonderingly: Deer! It seems such a small event, yet this animal encounter is an occa-sion of quiet if short-lived pleasure every time it happens because, like the grown-up I am now, as opposed to the half-wild boy I was 206
© 2020 Princeton University Press, Princeton

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. CONTENTS vii
  3. A NOTE TO THE READER ix
  4. INTRODUCTION 1
  5. GHOSTLY MUSIC IN THE AIR 15
  6. EVERYONE SANG 34
  7. L’INFINITO 53
  8. EINEN REINEN VORGANG 69
  9. THE GRIEF THAT DOES NOT SPEAK 92
  10. THE POWER OF THE VISIBLE 107
  11. A VERY YOUNG POLICEMAN EXPLODING 127
  12. AN OLD CHAOS OF THE SUN 149
  13. WELTENTON 162
  14. LA RAZÓN POÉTICA 180
  15. WHY LOOK AT ANIMALS? 206
  16. A STONY INVITATION TO REFLECT 234
  17. A GOLDEN AGE OF POETRY AND POWER 250
  18. WHERE TURTLES WIN 275
  19. SÓLO TÚ, ALMA MÍA 293
  20. LIKE A STRIPÈD PAIR OF PANTS 306
  21. TANTALUS IN LOVE 325
  22. A GIFT TO THE FUTURE 356
  23. THE PANIC OF THE ADVERSARY 369
  24. THE BAT-POET 386
  25. TO RECLAIM LOST SPACE 400
  26. A TOWERING STRANGENESS 418
  27. THE POETS IN GHANA 440
  28. NOTES 463
  29. SELECT BIBILIOGRAPHY 479
  30. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 485
  31. INDEX 487
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https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691201566-013

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. CONTENTS vii
  3. A NOTE TO THE READER ix
  4. INTRODUCTION 1
  5. GHOSTLY MUSIC IN THE AIR 15
  6. EVERYONE SANG 34
  7. L’INFINITO 53
  8. EINEN REINEN VORGANG 69
  9. THE GRIEF THAT DOES NOT SPEAK 92
  10. THE POWER OF THE VISIBLE 107
  11. A VERY YOUNG POLICEMAN EXPLODING 127
  12. AN OLD CHAOS OF THE SUN 149
  13. WELTENTON 162
  14. LA RAZÓN POÉTICA 180
  15. WHY LOOK AT ANIMALS? 206
  16. A STONY INVITATION TO REFLECT 234
  17. A GOLDEN AGE OF POETRY AND POWER 250
  18. WHERE TURTLES WIN 275
  19. SÓLO TÚ, ALMA MÍA 293
  20. LIKE A STRIPÈD PAIR OF PANTS 306
  21. TANTALUS IN LOVE 325
  22. A GIFT TO THE FUTURE 356
  23. THE PANIC OF THE ADVERSARY 369
  24. THE BAT-POET 386
  25. TO RECLAIM LOST SPACE 400
  26. A TOWERING STRANGENESS 418
  27. THE POETS IN GHANA 440
  28. NOTES 463
  29. SELECT BIBILIOGRAPHY 479
  30. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 485
  31. INDEX 487
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