Thursday, January 31, 2008

To Borrow a Phrase

Nothing ever begins.

There is no first moment; no single word or place from which this or any other story springs.

The threads can always be traced back to some earlier tale, and to the tales that preceded that; though as the narrator's voice recedes the connections will seem to grow more tenuous, for each age will want the tale told as if it were of its own making.

Thus the pagan will be sanctified, the tragic become laughable; great lovers will stoop to sentiment, and demons dwindle to clockwork toys.

Nothing is fixed. In and out the shuttle goes, fact and fiction, mind and matter woven into patterns that may have only this in common: that hidden among them is a filigree that will, with time, become a world.

(Clive Barker, Weaveworld)


Mr. Barker reminds, at the outset of his fantastic tale, that it must be arbitrary, the point at which we choose to embark upon our tale.

And so we begin. Welcome to Better Reading. Because, frankly, they can say it better than I.

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