The last word, our series about emotions and states of mind in books, focuses on depictions of dithering this month, from Hamlet to the ‘maybe-boyfriend’ of Anna Burns’s Milkman
Much of life, according to the sage wisdom of Bucks Fizz, relies on making your mind up. But those of us stuck in a quandary may find a kind of kinship with some of the 19th century’s greatest ditherers. Ivan Goncharov’s Oblomov will resonate with many in need of a duvet day:
The moment he woke up, he made up his mind to get up right away … and really get to work on the problem. For fully half an hour he lay there, tormented by his decision, but then he began to reason that he would still have time for everything even after his cup of tea, and that he could just as well have his tea in bed … After tea, he actually raised himself into a sitting position.
If you ask me, us takes in undulations –
each wave in the sea, all insides compressed –
as if, from one coast, you could reach out to
the next; and maybe it’s a Midlands thing
but when I was young, us equally meant me
I hope you get, here, where I’m coming from.
I hope you’re with me on this – between love
and loss – where I’d give myself away, stranded
as if the universe is a matter of one stress.
Us. I hope, from here on, I can say it
0 Comments