Sometimes I come across very appropriate quotations about
the elements in books that I read. I
like to collect these. Here are two
more, one about the Wood element and the other about the Metal element, both from a
book by Helen Dunmore called The Spell in
Winter:
Wood quote:
“I was bad at anger;
I’d always been bad at anger.
There was something pitiful in Miss Gallagher which muddled me.”
I, too, have always been "bad at anger". That doesn't mean that I don't get angry. I certainly do. But my anger leaves a strong aftertaste in me which it takes me a long time to get rid of. It is as though I am ashamed of feeling this emotion. The "something pitiful" which the protagonist in this book feels is something which resonates with me, because I also tend to find quite legitimate excuses for the behaviour in people that has provoked my anger.
Metal quote:
“You live backwards as if there’s no tomorrow.”
I think this is a very acute observation of some aspects of the way in which Metal people live their lives, looking backwards and judging a past that is behind them. I think that Wood, on the other hand, would like always to "live forwards as if there will be no past".
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