2024/036: In the Heart of Hidden Things — Kit Whitfiel

2024/036: In the Heart of Hidden Things — Kit Whitfield

We build our houses with sense and geometry and plough our fields with toil and patience, and all the while, a blink away are the People, dancing and tearing, gifting and stealing, snatching up fury and scattering light, feeding on air. [loc. 48]

In a rural, pre-industrial setting with strong overtones of England, three generations of Smiths are walking through the forest with a friend of the family, Franklin Thorpe. When Franklin accidentally steps off the path, it's Matthew Smith who rescues him from the fairy ring, while Matthew's son John is sent to fetch snails as a gift for the inhabitants of the ring, and Matthew's father Jedediah reproves John for his abstracted air.( Read more... )