#opacities

[smokefalls]

It seemed true to writing that it should be a form of repetition, closer to a heartbeat than a craft. One moment like another.

Sofia Samatar, Opacities: On Writing and the Writing Life

[dk-thrive]

I wanted to send you something very small and perfect that would say everything. A single sentence. A word. A letter.

— Sofia Samatar, Opacities: On Writing and the Writing Life (Soft Skull, August 13, 2024)

[thelovelygods]

I'd like to write a magic spell. When I finished writing it, I'd break into a million pieces. And you, too, when you finished reading, you'd break into a million pieces. A spell for shattering.

Sofia Samatar, Opacities

[musicmakesyousmart]

Opacities - Day’s Residue

Static Reason Recordings

2013

[smokefalls]

That’s what I wanted: to throw my notecards out. To throw them away and then, somehow, retrieve them. Somehow to retain their atmosphere, their ragged smell, that sense of something gathered, hoarded, of the stash. As you wrote: a work suffused with feeling.

Sofia Samatar, Opacities: On Writing and the Writing Life

[smokefalls]

Imitation makes community. It is an affectionate art.

Sofia Samatar, Opacities: On Writing and the Writing Life

[smokefalls]

“No poem is intended for the reader,” wrote Walter Benjamin, “no picture for the beholder, no symphony for the listener.” Reading this, I remembered his practice of lifting quotations from texts, which he cherished as if they had been written for him alone.

Sofia Samatar, Opacities: On Writing and the Writing Life

[thelovelygods]

Early December. Rilke's birthday. It was the season of Absolute Shadows, the time of closing the book, snuffing the candle, and folding one's arms to lie down on the tomb.

Sofia Samatar, Opacities