bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art

Just because the sun is shining, have some Keats: at once it struck me, what quality went to form a Man of Achievement especially in literature & which Shakespeare possessed so enormously - I mean Negative Capability, that is when man is capable of being in uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts without any irritable reaching after fact & reason.

(was talking about this over at hyel's place, and realized that I hadn't thought about it for too long. So, as a reminder to myself, and to anyone else who might need it today.)

I wish - I wish - I wish I could have lived in the Old Days

In the winter, I have to walk back and forth to campus - too snowy for my bicycle to manage. Which means my little iPod shuffle always has audiobooks loaded on it, to keep me from thinking about how bloody cold it is outside. And I just last week torrented the Derek Jacobi recording of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which I've been lusting after for years. I bought Prince Caspian, but Dawn Treader is and always has been my dearest, truest love.

(Isn't it odd how clearly we inflect books, sometimes? When Jacobi reads, at the very beginning, "the picture was moving," he inflects in as "was moving," which in my head is just wrong, because clearly it's "was moving," with reference to Lucy's remark about why she likes the painting.)

But I've been falling in love with Caspian all over again, or rather finding new reasons and understanding of why I always have loved him, because of course he was my first fictional true love. There's a darling moment, when Lucy and Edmund are first come aboard the Dawn Treader, and Caspian and Drinian are recounting the adventures they've had since they sailed from Cair Paravel - Terebinthian pirates and all that. And Drinian is talking about their stay in Galma, and, well, here's the passage:

"We were in port for a week, for the Duke of Galma made a great tournament for his Majesty and there he unhorsed many knights--"
"And got a few nasty falls myself, Drinian. Some of the bruises are there still," put in Caspian.
"--and unhorsed many knights," repeated Drinian with a grin.

( And it makes me love Caspian so damn much. )