'/> Uncommon Hours: Paint it black
Blogging on culture, politics, and the environment since 2008.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Paint it black

I came across this passage recently in Italo Calvino’s compelling (and prescient) 1983 novel, Mr. Palomar:

“In greasy, multicolored glints the skin of oil spreads out, rippling on the water; a material consistency can be doubted in the glint of the sun, but not in this trace of the physical presence of man, who scatters excess fuel in his wake, detritus of combustion, residues that cannot be assimilated, mixing and multiplying the life and death around him.”

Just seemed to resonate, for some reason.