“In the burning house you continue to do what you had done before—but you cannot avoid seeing that the flames now show you bare. Something has changed, not in what you do but in the way in which you let it go in the world. A poem written in the burning house is truer, more right, because no one can hear it, because nothing ensures that it can escape the flames. But if, by chance, it finds a reader, then that reader will in no way be able to draw back from the apostrophe that calls out from that helpless, inexplicable, faint clamor. Only someone who is unlikely ever to be heard can tell the truth, only someone who speaks from within a house that the flames are relentlessly consuming.”
Quote by Giorgio Agamben
Work
When the House Burns Down: From the Dialect of Thought
Browse quotes and source details for this work. more
Author
You May Also Like
Source: The Best American Food Writing 2019
Source: Radiant Child: The Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat
Source: The Arts and the Christian Imagination: Essays on Art, Literature, and Aesthetics
Source: Kissing the Muse: A Messy Magical Memoir & Creative Guide
“Umjetnost temeljena isključivo na estetskoj vrijednosti nepotpuna je.”
Source: Walk Through Walls: A Memoir
“Colours are my unspoken syntax.,. they arrange what I cannot afford to explain!”
Source: STILL: The Art of Noticing
“Every artist has a central art, an art that defines their life, keep that art pure and human.”
Source: Hazrat-e Humanity: The Uncultured Polyglot
Source: Heaven's Gate
