Next Full Moon

Sunday, May 3rd Full Flower Moon

10 September 2013

suffering you need; literature is baloney

From The Rider, by Tim Krabbe:

Oh, to have been a rider then. Because after the finish all the suffering turns to memories of pleasure, and the greater the suffering, the greater the pleasure. That is Nature's payback to riders for the homage they pay her by suffering. Velvet pillows, safari parks, sunglasses: people have become wooly mice. They still have bodies that can walk for five days and four nights through a desert of snow, without food, but they accept praise for having taken a one-hour bicycle ride. 'Good for you.' Instead of expressing their gratitude for the rain by getting wet, people walk around with umbrellas. Nature is an old lady with few suitors these days, and those who wish to make use of her charms she rewards passionately.

Daaaaaaamn.

2 comments:

Gunnar Berg said...

good book.

Marc said...

But what if my one hour bike ride is really hard and *epic*? Can I still have my praise...?