Am I supposed to be reminded that the book is in conversation with elements of culture from the past? Am I supposed to remember that other people have thought the same thoughts, maybe more neatly than this book or my interpretation of it will arrive at? Do I disagree?
I think that the place for a quotation is after all is said and done. I don't want to read a chapter contextualized by a sentence, but I will react to a sentence based on the chapter. In fact, when I finish a chapter or a book I almost want something to react to. Not to tie a bow, exactly, or even to "hammer it home." To use the hammer metaphor, I think that reading a book can feel like tapping a nail, slowly sinking it into wood. Maybe the climax strikes a little harder. But at the end of a book, the nail is never all the way into the wood. A quotation at the beginning of a book makes me wonder if I should start hitting. A quotation at the end of a book would be a final swing with extra follow-through. I think that this jolt might shake me in a way that makes the whole nail more important.
I feel like writing because I have been reading and because I am still so destabilized from my nightmares.
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