"A cold lucid indifference reigned in his soul. At his first violent sin he had felt a wave of vitality pass out of him and had feared to find his body or his soul maimed by the excess. Instead the vital wave had carried him on its bosom out of himself and back again when it receded: and no part of body or soul had been maimed but a dark peace had been established between them. The chaos in which his ardour extinguished itself was a cold indifferent knowledge of himself."
James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (via gaws)
One of my favorite songs begins with a quote from “A Portrait…”
I need to read this. The words have a congruency and consistency that intrigue me, or perhaps it’s my affection for the pretentious and prolix?
