I’m checking what’s in the world. What’s left. What’s discarded. What’s no longer cherished….You’ll look. You’ll stray. You’ll lose track of time…It always takes more time than you think. Then you’ll be late You’ll be annoyed with yourself…You’ll be tempted. You’ll be repelled. The things are grimy. Some are broken. Badly patched if at all. They will tell me of passions, fancies I don’t need to know about. Need. Ah no. None of this do I need. Some I will caress with my eye. Some I must pick up and fondle…Desire leads me.
(From The Volcano Lover, Susan Sontag, p.3/4, 1992)
These toys are in the Model and Toy Shop and Museum in Todmorden. When I went in there and talked to Mike about all the toys and models he has accumulated I felt breathless to be surrounded by all these things that had been infused with a passion now lost. Empty of desire that they were once filled with. I spent two hours there and found it hard to leave. A little world of big worlds.
They seem to me to be still loaded with that passion, but it has nowhere to go. No-one to give it to.
ReplyDeleteOh, that doll on the fourth picture down is breaking my heart! I mean really, I want to weep!
ReplyDelete