I am only a literary lizard basking the day away
beneath the great sun of Beauty.
If I were a woman, I wouldn’t want myself for a lover.
A one-night stand, yes; but an intimate relationship, no.
I laugh at everything, even at that which I love the most.
There is no fact, thing, feeling or person over which
I have not blithely run down my clownishness,
like an iron roller imparting sheen to cloth.
The day I stop being indignant, I shall fall flat on my face.
There are moments when I am so tired
that I’m liquefying like an old Camembert.
 |
| This bird is not a parrot |
All of the quotes
from Gustave Flaubert
appear in Flaubert's Parrot,
________________________________________________________________________________________________
A parakeet with a good sense of humor
ReplyDeleteIf a parrot had posed
Deletein front of the book,
you wouldn't have
been able to see
the book
The book would be opened since the parrot
ReplyDeletewould be reading from it. As would the parakeet,
but alas, it is way too towering to be easily
handled by lilliputian literary avian.
You're right.
ReplyDeleteFlaubert's Parrot–the novel–
towers easily above almost
all other modern novels.
I can't wait to read another Barnes novel
but first I will be reading Flaubert's
"unfinished" novel: Bouvard and Pecuchet.
French dust
ReplyDeleteIf French dust is one-tenth
ReplyDeleteas good as French toast,
fill my plate!