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Ian O’Shaughnessy

Quotes · Paul A. Zahl

“If he would express the sight in colour the artist would use soft pastels for the plains to the west and south, harsh black-purple for the cliffs to the north and east. To express it in music the conductor would bring out the soul of the strings for the west and south, and force the brass to explode and the percussion to thunder for the north and east. To put it in words the poet would create a sigh for the west and south and a hostile fatalism for the north and east. To report on it technically the geologist would describe rolling, grass-covered savannas to the west and south, ending abruptly in two gigantic rock table-moun-tains to the north and east.”

– Paul A. Zahl, To The Lost World, describing the sight of Mt. Roraima from Venezuela’s Gran Sabana, 1940.

From volume X of the file · Book · 20th century

Themes: beauty & art · exploration & travel · mountains