Endings And Beginnings: Rewriting Old Classics

Paul Klee

I thought it would be amusing to put together the first and last sentence of books and see what happens, so I randomly selected 10 titles from The Guardian's Top 100 books of all time. The result is rather interesting: Alternative thoughts, anecdotes and statements emerged from the novel's main story.... 

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Mark Twain)

You don't know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain't no matter. I been there before.

Anna Karenina (Leo Tolstoy)
ALL happy families resemble one another; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. But my whole life, every moment of my life, independently of whatever may happen to me, will be, not meaningless as before, but full of the deep meaning which I shall have the power to impress upon it."

The Trial (Kafka)
Someone must have been telling lies about Josef K., he knew he had done nothing wrong but, one morning, he was arrested.  "Like a dog!" he said, it was as if the shame of it should outlive him.

Dead Souls (Gogol)
To the door of an inn in the provincial town of N. there drew up a smart britchka—a light spring-carriage of the sort affected by bachelors, retired lieutenant-colonels, staff-captains, land-owners possessed of about a hundred souls, and, in short, all persons who rank as gentlemen of the intermediate category. I invite those men to remember the duty which confronts us, whatsoever our respective stations; I invite them to observe more closely their duty, and to keep more constantly in mind their obligations of holding true to their country, in that before us the future looms dark, and that we can scarcely...."    [Here the manuscript of the original comes abruptly to an end.]

Gulliver's Travels (Jonathan Swift)
My father had a small estate in Nottinghamshire: I was the third of five sons.  I dwell the longer upon this subject from the desire I have to make the society of an English Yahoo by any means not insupportable; and therefore I here entreat those who have any tincture of this absurd vice, that they will not presume to come in my sight.

Hunger (Knut Hamsuné)
I was lying awake in my attic and I heard a clock below strike six. Out in the fjord I dragged myself up once, wet with fever and exhaustion, and gazed landwards, and bade farewell for the present to the town--to Christiania, where the windows gleamed so brightly in all the homes.

Love In The Time of Cholera (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
It was inevitable: the scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of the fate of unrequited love. ''Forever,'' he said.

Middlemarch (George Eliot)
Miss Brooke had that kind of beauty which seems to be thrown into relief by poor dress. But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.

Remembrance of Things Past: Swann's Way (Marcel Proust)
For a long time I used to go to bed early. But scarcely had daylight itself–and no longer the gleam from a last, dying ember on a brass curtain-rod, which I had mistaken for daylight–traced across the darkness, as with a stroke of chalk across a blackboard, its first white correcting ray, when the window, with its curtains, would leave the frame of the doorway, in which I had erroneously placed it, while, to make room for it, the writing-table, which my memory had clumsily fixed where the window ought to be, would hurry off at full speed, thrusting before it the mantelpiece, and sweeping aside the wall of the passage; the well of the courtyard would be enthroned on the spot where, a moment earlier, my dressing-room had lain, and the dwelling-place which I had built up for myself in the darkness would have gone to join all those other dwellings of which I had caught glimpses from the whirlpool of awakening; put to flight by that pale sign traced above my window-curtains by the uplifted forefinger of day.

To The Lighthouse (Virginia Woolf)

"Yes, of course, if it's fine tomorrow," said Mrs. Ramsay. Yes, she thought, laying down her brush in extreme fatigue, I have had my vision.

''Old''

 

Memory of the Garden at Etten (Ladies of Arles) - Van Gogh (1888)

Old. 

Aged. 

Ancient. 

Decrepit. 

Elderly. 

Gray. 

Tired.

These are a few of the synonyms I got for the word ''old'' when searching on thesaurus.com. I believe these words (and ideas) reflect society's view on old age: it is out-of-date, retrograde, used.

To have vs. To be
I recently spent a great deal of time reflecting of what it is and what it means to be old. To ''be'' old.
The use of the verb  ''to be'' suggests that ''old,'' in a person, isn't merely an accessory of one's identity, but at its very core. When you ''have'' something, you can easily change it or replace it, or so it seems. When you ''are'' something, changing is trickier.

Objects vs. People
I don't like how the use of the adjective ''old'' sometimes suggests an objectification of people. Let me explain.
Things get old. In this post-modern world, we buy, consume, and throw away. We are increasingly witnessing the phenomenon of obsolescence, and even planned obsolescence, in which technologies last for a limited time only and must then be replaced by newer, more effective ones.
 
People aren't like this. People don't become obsolete. There is no such thing as becoming useless because of age. On the contrary, the elderly have an incredible amount of science and wisdom to share.

Body vs. Soul
My real question is, can one really get old? I mean, the body sure gets old, and eventually dies. But can the soul be old? Can one's mind be old? I would say I don't think so.

It is mostly experience that differentiates generations and how they reflect on things and ideas. Experience, and a different historical background. Older people don't necessarily have an ''old'' perception of the world we live in, but one that takes into consideration their past experience.


This short post is by no means exhaustive of my thoughts on the subject. The point I want to get across is that we need to rethink our conception of ''old.'' There need not be an absolute dichotomy between ''old'' and ''new;'' these might just be different stages, degrees or perceptions in the wide spectrum of the human experience.

Inspiration (ou manque de)

The Walk, Woman With a Parasol - Monet

L'inspiration. Je n'en ai pas pour écrire depuis un certain temps déjà.
Je me pose plusieurs questions par rapport à ce que c'est que l'inspiration. D'où nous vient cette idée, cet éclair de clarté venu de Dieu sait où, cet élan qui nous vient à la fois de l'intérieur et de l'extérieur.

C'est une muse capricieuse qui ne se montre qu'à son meilleur, et que lorsqu'elle en a envie. C'est peut-être pour cela qu'elle nous garde constamment accrochés. Nous sommes impatiemment dans l'attente de l'heureux jour où elle nous fera l'honneur de nous visiter à nouveau, de revoir son visage.

Elle ne vient pas sur demande et même à prix d'or on ne peut l'acheter. C'est précisément en dehors du cadre matériel des choses qu'elle habite, et elle est souvent donnée aux plus contemplatifs.

L'inspiration ne peut se commander mais elle vient néanmoins plus spontanément lorsque nous sommes dans un certain état d'esprit. La pression, les attentes, les échéanciers ne sont pas suffisants pour la séduire toujours. Elle vient, elle part, on ne sait quand sera son prochain appel, alors on reste accroché au téléphone.

L'inspiration, qui vient en quelque sorte de l'extérieur de notre pensée et qui s'y greffe, a besoin d'espace pour se mettre à l'aise. «Inspiration» rappelle l'acte de prendre en soi quelque chose qui nous est extérieur. Un esprit plein, occupé et saturé jusqu'au débordement n'aura pas assez de place pour lui donner un nid. Il faut cultiver un espace libre des préoccupations et des contraintes, tel une chambre d'ami, à laquelle on lui donne la clef et où elle sait être bienvenue quand l'envie lui prend.

Si on ne peut l'accueillir, elle trouvera bien un autre endroit, un autre ami.