Excerpt from As I Lay Dying

Although it's a strange read, I think this dialogue is something worth reading and thinking about. Same with the rest of the book.

"A-laying there, right up to my door, where every bad luck that comes and goes is bound to find it. I told Addie it want any luck living on a road when it come by here, and she said, for the world like a woman, 'Get up and move, then.' But I told her it want no luck in it, because the Lord put roads for travelling: why He laid them down flat on the earth. When He aims for something to be always a-moving, He makes it long way, like a road or a horse or a wagon, but when He aims for something to stay put, He makes it up-and-down ways, like a tree or a man. And so He never aimed for folks to live on a road, because which gets there first, I says, the road or the house? Did you ever know Him to set a road down by the house? I says. No you never, I says, because it's always men cant rest till they gets the house set where everybody that passes in a wagon can spit in the doorway, keeping the folks restless and wanting to get up and go somewheres else when He aimed for them to stay put like a tree or a stand of corn. Because if He'd a aimed for man to be always a-moving and going soewheres else, wouldn't He a put him longways on his belly, like a snake? It stands to reason He would" (35-36).

Reviews

[icelandicblue]

I like this. The language and ideas feel very era appropriate. This was a piece of good writing.