Johnyxxx
Senior Member
- Joined
- Oct 28, 2014
- Member Type
- Interested in Language
- Native Language
- Czech
- Home Country
- Czech Republic
- Current Location
- Czech Republic
Hello,
I do not understand in what sense the word desirability is used here?
He stood up and began to pace back and forth across the rug. I remembered thinking for the first time that he was looking his age. “I’m going to find out. This day of all days is the one to begin. This morning you said that people have always believed that we saw again those whom we have .. . lost. Presumably, you meant by that, after we ourselves have died?”
“Yes. Something like that.”
“Well, I’m not going to wait for death.” His voice was calm, but there was purposefulness behind it. “It will take time, but I think I shall succeed.”
His attitude troubled me. The bitterness that was driving him into this project was all too apparent. “Listen, Julian,” I began quietly, “I admit what you say as to the desirability of this thing you have in mind. But is a psychologist, even if I can’t tell you anything about what you want to know, I can say positively that you ire starting on it at the wrong time, when your emotion is obsessing your mind. Wait a while before you begin. Rest for a month. Perhaps take a trip somewhere with Anne. Then come back to it if you want to, with a reasonable amount of detachment.”
William Sloane, Edge of Running Water, 1939.
Thanks a lot.
I do not understand in what sense the word desirability is used here?
He stood up and began to pace back and forth across the rug. I remembered thinking for the first time that he was looking his age. “I’m going to find out. This day of all days is the one to begin. This morning you said that people have always believed that we saw again those whom we have .. . lost. Presumably, you meant by that, after we ourselves have died?”
“Yes. Something like that.”
“Well, I’m not going to wait for death.” His voice was calm, but there was purposefulness behind it. “It will take time, but I think I shall succeed.”
His attitude troubled me. The bitterness that was driving him into this project was all too apparent. “Listen, Julian,” I began quietly, “I admit what you say as to the desirability of this thing you have in mind. But is a psychologist, even if I can’t tell you anything about what you want to know, I can say positively that you ire starting on it at the wrong time, when your emotion is obsessing your mind. Wait a while before you begin. Rest for a month. Perhaps take a trip somewhere with Anne. Then come back to it if you want to, with a reasonable amount of detachment.”
William Sloane, Edge of Running Water, 1939.
Thanks a lot.