"No man knows until the time comes, what depths are within him. To some men it never comes, let them rest and be thankful! To me, you brought it; on me; you forced it; and the bottom of this raging sea has been heaved up ever since...I love you. What other men may mean when they use that expression I cannot tell; what I mean is, that I am under the influence of some tremendous attraction which I have resisted in vain, and which overmasters me. You could draw me to fire, you could draw me to water, you could draw me to the gallows, you could draw me to any death, you could draw me to any exposure and disgrace. This and the confusion of my thoughts, so that I am fit for nothing, is what I mean by you being the ruin of me." ~Charles Dickens "Our Mutual Friend"
Was Dickens writing about love, obsession, or passion? Was it up for the reader to decide? I am unsure because I haven't personally read "Our Mutual Friend." In fact, I came across the quote quite randomly in another book that I was reading called "Drood" supposedly written about the true life events surrounding Dickens last few years of his life and his death by the writer Dan Simmons who is most known for his "Hyperion Cantos." (Which denotes its mythic origins as Hyperion was a Titan who was the father of the sun, moon and dawn....last two books of that series are about Endymion ... included are the words of the incomparable Edith Hamilton who made mythology understandable...
"This youth, whose name is so famous, has a very short history. Some of the poets say he was a king, some a hunter, but most of them say he was a shepherd. All agree that he was youth of surpassing beauty and that this was the cause of his singular fate."
From the poet Theocritus...
"Endymion the shepherd,
As his flock he guarded,
She, the Moon, Selene,
Saw him, loved him, sought him,
Coming down from heaven
To the glade on Latmus,
Kissed him, lay beside him.
Blessed is his fortune.
Evermore he slumbers,
Tossing not nor turning,
Endymion the shepherd."
"He never woke to see the shining silvery form bending over him. In all the stories about him he sleeps forever, immortal but never conscious. Wondrously beautiful he lies on the mountainside, motionless and remote as if in death, but warm and living, and night after night the Moon visits him and covers him with her kisses. It is said that this magic slumber was her doing. She lulled him to sleep so that she might always find him and caress him as she pleased. But it is said, too, that her passion brings her only a burden of pain, fraught with many sighs."
I'm only including all of that because I intend to read the series very soon as I'm interested to see what Dan Simmons did with these two mythological stories. What makes it even more interesting is that he takes Hyperion a male figure of the sun, moon, and stars; and a female character "the Moon" through the story of Endymion and that makes me very curious.
What drew me to "Drood" was a morbid curiosity about the last few years of Dickens life and through the reading of this book (which I have yet to finish because of the near gargantuan size) I learned quite a bit about his life. Especially, through the introduction, where the reader learns that Dickens was on board a train with his mistress on June 9, 1865 and they are returning to London. The train is involved in a major accident completely destroying all of the first class carriages in the valley below except for the one that Dickens was riding in, and supposedly this is where Dickens first encounters a mysterious figure only known as Drood.
And in case you haven't noticed I'm back and planning to write more often, quite a bit more often. There's a whole series and plan in the works.
