Quotes from book
The Discovery of Slowness

The Discovery of Slowness

Sten Nadolny Original title Die Entdeckung der Langsamkeit (German, 1983)

The Discovery of Slowness is a novel by Sten Nadolny, written under a double conceit: first, as a novelization of the life of British Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin, and second as a hymn of praise to "slowness," a quality which Nadolny's fictional Franklin possesses in abundance. Published in Germany in 1983, its fame spread through the English translation by Ralph Freedman, first published in the United States by Viking Penguin in 1987; in Nadolny's native Germany it has also been the subject of television programs, experimental films, and even an opera composed by Giorgio Battistelli.

“Present and past—what had Dr. Orme said about that? The light was most fully in the present when, flaring up, it met John's eye directly. Whatever else he saw must have been lit up before and now shone only within his own eye—a light of the past.”

Sten Nadolny book The Discovery of Slowness

p, 125
The Discovery of Slowness (1983, 1987)

“In the study of history, slowness is an advantage. The scholar decelerates the fast-moving events of past days until his mind can fathom them. Then… he can demonstrate to the rashest king how he should have acted in battle.”

Sten Nadolny book The Discovery of Slowness

p, 125
The Discovery of Slowness (1983, 1987)

“Someday he'd be quicker… to be like the sun, which only seems to wander slowly across the sky, yet whose rays are as quick as the blink of an eye. …they reach in one instant the most distant mountains.”

Sten Nadolny book The Discovery of Slowness

The Discovery of Slowness (1983, 1987)

“History is intercourse with greatness and duration. It allows us to rise above time.'… that was tempting. But he couldn't earn any money with it.”

Sten Nadolny book The Discovery of Slowness

p, 125
The Discovery of Slowness (1983, 1987)

“The spirit of history can't be caught in pictures. …History, seriously pursued, belongs in the realm of uncertainty. A picture is a certainty.”

Sten Nadolny book The Discovery of Slowness

The Discovery of Slowness (1983, 1987)

“Large animals, John thought, move more slowly than mice and wasps. Perhaps he was secretly a giant.”

Sten Nadolny book The Discovery of Slowness

p, 125
The Discovery of Slowness (1983, 1987)

“The most distant mountains, like himself, just stood there and gazed.”

Sten Nadolny book The Discovery of Slowness

p, 125
The Discovery of Slowness (1983, 1987)

“John always went over the time limit and then answered one or two earlier questions unexpectedly, out of order, for nothing could prevent him from solving a problem, even if it had already become inappropriate.”

Sten Nadolny book The Discovery of Slowness

p, 125
The Discovery of Slowness (1983, 1987)

“The world is full of important ideas, but I'll follow my own mind.”

Sten Nadolny book The Discovery of Slowness

p, 125
The Discovery of Slowness (1983, 1987)

“I'm not afraid because I can only imagine nothingness as rather quiet.”

Sten Nadolny book The Discovery of Slowness

p, 125
The Discovery of Slowness (1983, 1987)

“He didn't want to learn another thing. Motionless, he constantly stared at the same spot, unseeing. He breathed as if the air were loam. …he no longer wanted to be quick. …he wanted to slow down until he died. …Outside the passage of time… until they'd think him dead. …The alterations of day and night would finally become just a flickering… John sucked in the air and held his breath. …everything would be as it had been before his birth. He would have never been.”

Sten Nadolny book The Discovery of Slowness

The Discovery of Slowness (1983, 1987)

“The villagers and squires now treated him with respect, largely because of his tall stature and the scar on his forehead. If he asked someone to repeat what had been said he was no longer mocked… The country was actually pleasant for a grown man.”

Sten Nadolny book The Discovery of Slowness

p, 125
The Discovery of Slowness (1983, 1987)

“In this place they knew him and were aware of how hard he had to strain. He would rather be among strangers who might possibly be more like himself. There had to be such people—perhaps far, far away. And there he would be able to learn more easily how to be fast.”

Sten Nadolny book The Discovery of Slowness

p, 125
The Discovery of Slowness (1983, 1987)

“If he could just stay there and gaze upon the land like a stone, whole centuries long, while grassy plains became forests and swamps turned into villages or tilled land. …He'd be recognized as human only when he stirred.”

Sten Nadolny book The Discovery of Slowness

The Discovery of Slowness (1983, 1987)

“When people talk too fast the content becomes as superfluous as the speed.”

Sten Nadolny book The Discovery of Slowness

p, 125
The Discovery of Slowness (1983, 1987)

“Now everything would be different; a little today, all of it tomorrow.”

Sten Nadolny book The Discovery of Slowness

p, 125
The Discovery of Slowness (1983, 1987)

“How did Tom get there? Again, a piece of time had dropped out.”

Sten Nadolny book The Discovery of Slowness

p, 125
The Discovery of Slowness (1983, 1987)

“The game went on. John had understood nothing. Everything was too fast: the game, the other's talk, the goings-on in the street…”

Sten Nadolny book The Discovery of Slowness

p, 125
The Discovery of Slowness (1983, 1987)

“If there had been no war, perhaps I would have already discovered a lot by now.”

Sten Nadolny book The Discovery of Slowness

p, 125
The Discovery of Slowness (1983, 1987)

“History is intercourse with greatness and duration. It allows us to rise above time.”

Sten Nadolny book The Discovery of Slowness

...that was tempting. But he couldn't earn any money with it.
The Discovery of Slowness (1983, 1987)

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