From Barbara Kingsolver's Prodigal Summer

[create_destiny]

"She could never explain how it was, the undercurrent of tragedy that went with farming. And the hallelujahs of it, too: the straight, abundant rows, the corn tassels raised up like children who all knew the answer. The calves born slick and clean into their leggy black-and-white perfection. Life and death always right there in your line of sight. Most people lived so far from it, they thought you could just choose, carnivore or vegetarian, without knowing that the chemicals on grain and cotton killed far more butterflies and bees and bluebirds and whippoorwills than the mortal cost of a steak or a leather jacket. Just clearing the land to grow soybeans and corn had killed about everything on half the world. Every cup of coffee equalled one dead songbird in the jungle somewhere...."

Comments

[honeywoney.livejournal.com]

the undercurrent of tragedy and the hallelujahs too. i wonder if Kingsolver sat back from the table after writing those words and felt like she got it right. The entire paragraph is great, but those words together are fresh and startling.

btw: i've never read any Kingsolver!

[createdestiny.livejournal.com]

I've only read this one and The Poisonwood Bible. I highly recommend her.

[nodressrehersal.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the reminder....you chose a beautiful paragraph to spotlight Kingsolver's writing skill.

(But wasn't some manly character thrown into the story for the seemingly sole purpose of adding sexual tension? My memory says he had some sort of ulterior motive for being in her neck of the woods. That's the part that seemed out of place for me.)

[createdestiny.livejournal.com]

Yeah, he was there to hunt coyotes.