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You could extinguish a star

robinsloan.com · 3,544 words · saved by 1 readers

As a reader, I’m skep­tical of attempts to pin sen­sory expe­ri­ence to the page. The “better” the descrip­tive lan­guage, it seems to me, the more it actu­ally obscures the expe­ri­ence. That’s obvi­ously true when the lan­guage is flowery, but I believe it’s also true when the lan­guage is ultra-precise — so “perceptive” as to be show-offy. Notice me, noticing this. There’s a bal­ance, of course, between (1) the lit­erary back­flip and (2) the cliché so dull it makes you doubt the writer expe­ri­enced any­thing at all. Writers seek that bal­ance — I seek it, some­times — and they miss it, and that’s okay; that’s the game. This is all to say: the expe­ri­ence of a total solar eclipse is unsayable, impos­sible to capture. It blazes across every sen­sory channel. There’s sight and hearing, sure, but also time and temperature. Is boredom a sense? Anticipation? There’s cosmic proprioception: the pow­erful aware­ness of your posi­tion in space. I mean, the shim­mering photos are gorgeous …

You could extinguish a star From: Robin Sloan To: main newsletter Sent: April 2024 You could extinguish a star Egret in the rain, 1925-1936, Ohara Koson As a reader, I’m skep­tical of attempts to pin sen­sory expe­ri­ence to the page. The “better” the descrip­tive lan­guage, it seems to me, the more it actu­ally obscures the expe­ri­ence. That’s obvi­ously true when the lan­guage is flowery, but I believe it’s also true when the lan­guage is ultra- precise -  so “perceptive” as to be show-offy. Notice me, noticing this. There’s a bal&

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