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Approaching the Sublime

These days I am spending far more time slogging than blogging as I work my way through the 125,000 words of To Make As Perfectly As Possible: Roubo on Furniture Making.  Deadlines, even self imposed ones (I am determined to get through the manuscript with a complete first pass by mid-December) do have a way of reducing the whimsical charm of a project.  But there are moments…

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This evening was one of those times that reinforces the delight of beginning and reaffirms my commitment to the Roubo annotation.  I was wrapping up the general chapter on the making of seating furniture.  The description of upholstery techniques was grand (as soon as I finish the following chapter in the next couple of days I will forward them to one of my readers for confirmation of the descriptions), but the last fifteen pages of the chapter wherein Roubo describes the material technology and techniques of cane preparation and weaving was simply elegant, eloquent even.  The wordsmithing of Andre-Jacob as transmitted by Michele melded into something approaching the sublime for those pages.  I was honestly sad to see them go.

Simply breathtaking.

It made me ever so grateful for the ability to read, to understand and appreciate words and the information and ideas they convey.  I simply cannot comprehend the widespread desire for willful illiteracy, which is all about me outside these walls.   Heck, only a dozen miles away are a legion of belligerent flaks and flunkies whose duty is the eradication of words, or worse, their meanings, surrounded by a populace that apparently welcomes the relief from being responsible for learning, knowing, understanding, and acting.

Down off the soap box now.