too deeply interested

today i made it a priority to read for pleasure. and consequently, i finished my book. i was reading "travels with my aunt" by graham greene. its a rather amusing book. its message is exciting.

i like the way this passage expresses the character. the main character is a modern figure. he has worked in a bank for twenty years and retired early with an adequate amount of money for a comfortable, average, modern life. and so he lives, bored with his dahlias, completely devoid of passion or love. merely existing. until he meets his aunt. who travels and is promiscuous, breaks the law, and calls herself a rather unconventional catholic. he gets wrapped up in her world and breathes for the first time. then he finds himself in prison with a potential sentence of 10 years and he thinks:

"I am in a small cell ten feet by six, and I have nothing to sleep on but a piece of sacking. I have no idea what is going to happen next, but I must confess I am not altogether unhappy, I am too deeply interested." 234.

he is finally alive. he is starting to breathe. while he is still not capable of love or passion, he is at least interested, for he finds himself in a situation worth being interested in. he escaped the monotony of the modern world. even if its a physical prison, its better than a mental and spiritual prison of lifelessness.

and here is another quote that i quite liked:

"One's life is more formed, I sometimes think, by books than by human beings: it is out of books one learns about love and pain at second hand. Even if we have the happy chance to fall in love, it is because we have been conditioned by what we have read, and if I had never known love at all, perhaps it was because my father's library had not contained the right books." 203

thanks graham greene. also, everyone should read "the end of the affair" by him, its one of my favorite books.

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ps, this photo is the door of an elementary school across the street from my german class. ive had my eye on that door for awhile, today i finally took the photo. i like the blue.