Saturday, March 9, 2013

The importance of elsewhere

In case you missed any of this, there's a lot of discussion at Reshef Agam-Segal's Notes and Half-Thoughts on the duty to tell the truth, a new and longish post at Philosophical Investigations, and a post that ought to be prompting more discussion (and is now starting to do so) at Language is Things We Do.


The Importance of Elsewhere

Lonely in Ireland, since it was not home,
Strangeness made sense. The salt rebuff of speech,
Insisting so on difference, made me welcome:
Once that was recognised, we were in touch

Their draughty streets, end-on to hills, the faint
Archaic smell of dockland, like a stable,
The herring-hawker's cry, dwindling, went
To prove me separate, not unworkable.

Living in England has no such excuse:
These are my customs and establishments
It would be much more serious to refuse.
Here no elsewhere underwrites my existence.
Philip Larkin

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