Light Quote by Samuel R. Delany
““...I looked out the window at walls of moonlit cloud rising beside us as though we we were at the bottom of some, gray and ivory canyon, hung above the moon-smashed sea... But, with whatever hindsight, I suppose the reason that I want to close on a consideration of these words is that the moon-solid progress through high, drifting cumulus is — read them again — at the very opposite of what we perceive on a liquid's tilting and untilting top, and so becomes the other privileged pole among the images of this study, this essay, this memoir. Or perhaps, as it is only a clause whose syntactic place has been questioned by my own unscholarly researches, I merely want to fix it before it vanishes like water, like light, like the play between them we only suggest, but never master, with the word motion.””
About This Quote
Source Memoir: “The Motion of Light in the Water” (1995)
The passage reflects on how perception of motion and light is fluid, elusive, and shaped by language, emphasizing the difficulty of capturing fleeting experiences in words.
In simple terms: Our view of motion and light is fleeting and hard to describe.
Key Takeaway
Embrace uncertainty and the limits of language.
Themes
perception
language
art
memory
epistemology
Mood
reflective
poetic
introspective
Type
literary
philosophical
memoir
When to use this quote
- writing
- visual art
- philosophical reflection
- creative process
Key Concepts
Phenomenology
semiotics
subjectivity
Questions to Reflect On
- How do we convey what cannot be fully expressed?
- What role does metaphor play in understanding motion?
A Different Perspective
Language can never fully capture the fluidity of experience.
