Weblog entry:
- World enough, and time
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If I had no duties, and no reference to futurity, I would spend my life in driving briskly in a post-chaise with a pretty woman.
Samuel Johnson, The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.
With this quote, Garret Keizer frames his latest essay for Harper’s Magazine, World Enough and Time. A one-time Renaissance scholar, Keizer quickly moves his excellent essay beyond worship of his hero Johnson, and into a meditation on how (if at all) old Sam’s quote applies to present day. He muses on why a great man such as Johnson could succumb to such desires of whimsy, and how such notions of whimsy apply to our own modern lives. In doing so, Keizer shares some touching memories of rides he’s taken with “pretty women”: a long car-ride to Vermont with his eighty-something mother-in-law; his young daughter, soon off to college; road trips with his wife in the early days of their marriage.I’ll say this once to the three of you: I realize it’s the end of the month, but run to your local newstand now and try to procure a copy of the October 2003 Harper’s. As with the rest of his work, Keizer’s essay is funny, honest, touching, and beautifully written: an amazing read that by itself is worth the price of the magazine.
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- 30th day of October 2003.
- Filed under Reviews, Reading.
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