From an essay by Teju Cole on his time exploring and photographing the landscape of Switzerland:
Light from the world could be fixed on a surface: It was possible to take the shadow away from the body and show it elsewhere.
I always enjoy Cole’s musings on photography and the wandering quality of his prose. And I like reading a piece that feels effortless: the type of writing that, for a moment, empowers me and makes me feel like I can sit down right here and now and type words, one after the other, like this person.
Sometimes, when I read Teju Cole, I feel like we’re wandering streets together, without a destination. Or maybe I retreat inward, and when I reach the end of the piece, I’ve returned to the surface. I feel my skin, this skin I’m in.
Miranda’s writing affects me in a similar way. Her musings are like water, and I sense she might think that as a positive thing, as much of her recent writing is about water, inspired by water. When I read her prose, like her road trip notes, I’m taken elsewhere, too. I’m not sure where, but it’s not a place I can reach on my own. Her first sentence sits at the surface, and as I read, I submerge. When I reach the end, I’ve come up for air, and it’s almost as if I’ve gone somewhere, but also nowhere at all.
Thank you so much. Yes, I am translating the whol essay.
I am still struggling with the translation of that sentence (as of a few others), though,and I guess I am not the only one…
http://forum.wordreference.com/threads/take-the-shadow-away.3175670/#post-16070812
But I think you might have a point, with your interpretation.
Thank you so much for being so kind to get back to me.
Diana
Hi, I came across your post as I was trying to make sense of that quote from Cole’s essay (on light, surface and shadow). I have to translate it – into Italian – but I don’t understand what he means by “take the shadow out of the body”. Maybe you could help me…
Thanks anyway,
Diana,
Rome, Italy
Hi Diana — that sentence comes from this paragraph in his essay:
This can mean different things to different people. For me, I understand it to mean that in the age of photographs, people, places, and things were now able to be captured and frozen on paper — that someone could take a picture of a person — capture or “steal” a piece of them (like their shadow) — and display it on a photograph.
Thank you, Cheri. So very lovely to stumble across this. (I do love the “watery” comparison, of course!)
What a beautiful, mix of your thoughts with a tribute to the work of others. I can see already, this is a dangerous place for me to visit on a busy day. Worth setting time aside for. Cheers —