Subscribe for 2 free books!
Newsletter Form (#1)

Join the mailing list for 2 free books!

The Hysteria of Bodalís + The Return of the Operator

You'll also access the weekly newsletter and find out about new book releases.


Marcos Hernandez Avatar
Subscribe for 2 free books!
Newsletter Form (#1)

Join the mailing list for 2 free books!

The Hysteria of Bodalís + The Return of the Operator

You'll also access the weekly newsletter and find out about new book releases.


This description of the nature of conversation between two people is too wonderful not to share. Maria Popova wrote it as an introduction to her essay Telling Is Listening: Ursula K. Le Guin on the Magic of Real Human Conversation. I enjoyed the quotes from Le Guin but this was my favorite passage of the entire essay:

“Every act of communication is an act of tremendous courage in which we give ourselves over to two parallel possibilities: the possibility of planting into another mind a seed sprouted in ours and watching it blossom into a breathtaking flower of mutual understanding; and the possibility of being wholly misunderstood, reduced to a withering weed. Candor and clarity go a long way in fertilizing the soil, but in the end there is always a degree of unpredictability in the climate of communication — even the warmest intention can be met with frost. Yet something impels us to hold these possibilities in both hands and go on surrendering to the beauty and terror of conversation, that ancient and abiding human gift. And the most magical thing, the most sacred thing, is that whichever the outcome, we end up having transformed one another in this vulnerable-making process of speaking and listening.”

The Aymara people of Bolivia are unique in their belief about the spatial conceptualization of time. In their language, the word for front is understood to mean the past and the word for back is a understood to mean the future. Even their gestures indicate this belief, with speakers of the language gesturing further ahead of their body when talking about points further in the past. It makes sense if you think about it since everyone can see what lies ahead of them and they can also look back at history while they can’t see behind them and also can’t see the future.

Reminds me of the quote from Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll and popularized by the psychologist Carl Jung regarding synchronicity: “It’s a poor sort of memory that only works backwards.”

Let me just say I can’t find the quote anywhere so I can’t give credit where credit is due. I have found it applies to my writing lately and it goes something like this:

When working with clay, the sculptor starts small and makes the shape bigger. With stone, the sculptor starts large and takes pieces away.

A good way to understand this is to think about scuplting a human mouth. With clay, the first thing to do would be to make a small hole and slowly expand the space until the mouth is formed. With stone, the mouth is made by carving out a large section then whittling away until only the mouth is left.

This concept has been in my mind as I write my third book and the words are pouring out. During my second pass I will have to distill all this material down to the essential. Writing my first two books was the opposite. With each I started with a shorter draft and had to expand the world by adding more details during the rewrite. I’m curious to see how the quality of this third book stacks up to the first two!

If anyone knows where this quote comes from please let me know so I can attribute it to the source.

Subscribe for 2 free books!
Newsletter Form (#1)

Join the mailing list for 2 free books!

The Hysteria of Bodalís + The Return of the Operator

You'll also access the weekly newsletter and find out about new book releases.


crossmenu linkedin facebook pinterest youtube rss twitter instagram facebook-blank rss-blank linkedin-blank pinterest youtube twitter instagram