Saturday, December 12, 2009

The undiscovered road...

Took time out from writing today to refresh the brain...spent some time in a little indie bookshop by the beach and brought home two finds. 
The Songlines is a famous and hotly disputed text by Bruce Chatwin, recommended to me by a very wise old friend in Africa. 
"The songlines are the invisible pathways that criss-cross Australia, ancient tracks connecting communities and following age-old boundaries. Along these lines Aboriginals passed the songs which revealed the creation of the land and the secrets of its past..."
I'm told it's an absolute essential, and I believe it. Though I suspect I may need a couple of reads to grasp it properly.
The second one is Nikki Gemmell's new book, Why You Are Australian, a letter to her children, being raised in London, to instill in them the wonders of growing up across the sea in our wide, free land and what it means to be Australian right now.
Flicking through the hardback volume, a quote by Nigerian poet and novelist Ben Okri caught my eye and snagged my unconscious mind... I didn't have a pen to write it down on the spot so I had to buy the book.
In the context of writing, tapping into the imagination and accessing the story within, it seems like good advice:
'Learn to free yourself from all things
That have moulded you
And which limit your secret and
undiscovered road.'
I like the idea of an undiscovered road in each of us. Where do you think yours might lead...?

1 comment:

L u l ü said...

CONGRATULATIONS FOR YOUR BLOG!, I like the concept

Demi,

http://perrifamilia.blogspot.com/