There exists a quality of a book that I do not have a name for; it is approached by terms like “mode” and “voice” and “the writer’s world-view”, but isn’t quite any of these. I short-hand it as, “What kind of head-space am I going to be stuck in now?” And is it one I that will enjoy being stuck in? We seek out, I think, any favorite writer’s other books, even if they are varied, in the hopes of entering that agreeable head-space again.I like that ... "head space." Of course, she is precisely right. This is from the review that got me to try the series, way back in 2015.
Lois Bujold, reviewing Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch
Tuesday, August 5, 2025
What kind of head-space am I going to be stuck in now?
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I like this. Just as I like Bujold's head-space. I think of it as the furniture of the mind (not original to me, I think I encountered that phrase in a Josef Pieper essay back in college). It's the underlying set of assumptions and attitudes about life/man that shapes the movement and shape your thoughts take in the same way furniture arrangements shape the movement and 'atmosphere' of your home.
ReplyDeleteIn Bujold's case, I love her writing, even though I suspect that she and I have fairly different opinions on a number of things, and different 'world-views'. But I think that there is something even more fundamental that makes the furniture of her mind comfortable and familiar to me, so that when I read the interactions between Miles and Ivan, or between Miles and Mark, or Mark and Cordelia, there is a sense of recognition that is both comforting and challenging, since it comes to me associated with all of these other trappings that are less familiar.
Yes. I like that. I think "head space" gets at something that "world view" doesn't quite convey, though both are useful terms.
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