“A book should be an axe to chop open the frozen sea inside us.”

—  J.M. Coetzee , book Summertime

Source: Summertime

Last update June 3, 2021. History

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J.M. Coetzee 61
South African writer 1940

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“A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us.”

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Variant translations:
If the book we are reading does not wake us, as with a fist hammering on our skulls, then why do we read it? Good God, we also would be happy if we had no books and such books that make us happy we could, if need be, write ourselves. What we must have are those books that come on us like ill fortune, like the death of one we love better than ourselves, like suicide. A book must be an ice axe to break the sea frozen inside us.
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A book should be an ice-axe to break the frozen sea within us.
A book must be an ice-axe to break the seas frozen inside our soul.
A book should serve as the ax for the frozen sea within us.
Variant: A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us.
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