Monday, December 03, 2007

Heartwarming ...

... Anthony Daniels on Kahlil Gibran: The false prophet. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Try this:

Dip your oar, my beloved,
And let me touch my strings.

"It is impossible to plumb the shallows of this."

or this:

"Let me leave you with a typical Gibran aphorism:

"The flowers of spring are winter’s dreams related at the breakfast table of the angels."

"If that doesn’t nauseate you, you must subsist on a diet of marrons glacés: though there is, in fact, a big difference between Kahlil Gibran and marrons glacés. It is that the first mouthful of marrons glacés is delicious."

I once saw a television interview with Alfred Knopf during which that great publisher made a sort of confession. It seems there was only one book published by Knopf that he did not himself read beforehand. When that one book sold its millionth copy, he felt he ought to read it. And so he did. It was The Prophet. "I would never have published that book," Knopf told the interviewer. Its appeal is perplexing. It's the sort of thing that's so sweet that - to borrow a phrase from Alexander King - it makes every aperture in your body pucker.



2 comments:

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  2. Did you read the book named "The Prophet"?

    I'm halfway through and I was positively surprised. I think the teachings really are very valuable and true. I don't know about his other books but I try to find out what people dislike so much about Gibran.

    What made it too sweet you think? And what exactly is sweet?

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