Incredibly quotable
Frederick Buechner is probably the most quotable author I've ever read.
Yet he remains the one I quote the least.
Not to say I actually quote him the least of any other author, rather to say that I quote the least amount of his writings with which I can get away and still attempt to convey his meaning.
One would have to quote lengthy passages of his writings for most people to get the gist of what it is he's really saying. So many of his writings are context-dependent. One would have to mangle the actual verbiage so very badly in order to make the quote fit the average person, that the essence of what Buechner means would be lost in the process.
He does, however, have some great little snippets:
"The Gospel in sycamore"
"The unflagging lunacy of God."
"It is the rain, and it tastes of silver; it is the rain, and it smells of christening."
"Wine is booze, which means it is dangerous and drunk-making. . . . As symbols go, it is a rather splendid one."
". . . the Christian position is that there's no such thing as your own business."
". . . sometimes the pious lean so far over backward that they fall flat on their face."
"The original, shimmering self gets buried so deep that most of us end up hardly living out of it at all. Instead we live out all the other selves, which we are constantly putting on and taking off like coats and hats against the world’s weather”
“It is as impossible for man to demonstrate the existence of God as it would be for even Sherlock Holmes to demonstrate the existence of Arthur Conan Doyle.”
“To be wise is to be eternally curious.”
Buechner challenges me. His perspective and mine don't line up, which is to say we have certain glaring theological differences; however his perspective is unique and the creativity of his communication challenges me to think more deeply about matters theological, matters divine, matters human - in short, matters that matter.
I keep a couple of his writings on the shelf in my office, next to Augustine, a couple of biographies, a wordsmithing book, and the stack of Fine Homebuilding magazines.
He's one worth checking out, even if taken with a grain of salt and read with the above caveats.
Yet he remains the one I quote the least.
Not to say I actually quote him the least of any other author, rather to say that I quote the least amount of his writings with which I can get away and still attempt to convey his meaning.
One would have to quote lengthy passages of his writings for most people to get the gist of what it is he's really saying. So many of his writings are context-dependent. One would have to mangle the actual verbiage so very badly in order to make the quote fit the average person, that the essence of what Buechner means would be lost in the process.
He does, however, have some great little snippets:
"The Gospel in sycamore"
"The unflagging lunacy of God."
"It is the rain, and it tastes of silver; it is the rain, and it smells of christening."
"Wine is booze, which means it is dangerous and drunk-making. . . . As symbols go, it is a rather splendid one."
". . . the Christian position is that there's no such thing as your own business."
". . . sometimes the pious lean so far over backward that they fall flat on their face."
"The original, shimmering self gets buried so deep that most of us end up hardly living out of it at all. Instead we live out all the other selves, which we are constantly putting on and taking off like coats and hats against the world’s weather”
“It is as impossible for man to demonstrate the existence of God as it would be for even Sherlock Holmes to demonstrate the existence of Arthur Conan Doyle.”
“To be wise is to be eternally curious.”
Buechner challenges me. His perspective and mine don't line up, which is to say we have certain glaring theological differences; however his perspective is unique and the creativity of his communication challenges me to think more deeply about matters theological, matters divine, matters human - in short, matters that matter.
I keep a couple of his writings on the shelf in my office, next to Augustine, a couple of biographies, a wordsmithing book, and the stack of Fine Homebuilding magazines.
He's one worth checking out, even if taken with a grain of salt and read with the above caveats.
posted by Raymond at Tuesday, November 08, 2011
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