Seminar 10

Peter Ackroyd: The House of Doctor Dee

1.Comment on Peter Ackroyd’s quotes

1.“And when I was young, did I ever tell you, I always wanted to get inside

a book and never come out again? I loved reading so much I wanted

to be a part of it, and there were some books I could have stayed in

for ever.”

There are some really great and fascinating stories and when we are reading them we
want to be part of the plot, part of the characters’ life. We imagine what we would do
if we were in his or her position. Somebody may “leave” the reality through
imagination, through reading a great book.

2. “The world is a sea in which we all must surely drown.”

If we get too absorbed in worldly things it's like sinking. If we do not recognize in
time that we are distracted by worldly concerns, we can easily drown.

3. “I have liv'd long enough for others, like the Dog in the Wheel, and it is now the
Season to begin for myself: I cannot change that Thing call'd Time, but I can alter its
Posture and, as Boys do turn a looking-glass against the Sunne, so I will dazzle you
all.”

Perhaps the writer thinks he has helped others or dealt with other people's problems
too much. After all, he wants to live his own life.

4. “Under the force of the imagination, nature itself is changed.”

Imagination can change a lot of things, of course nature also.

5. “The best years are when you know what you're doing.”

During the years, we could be tired of robotic days. However when we really enjoy a
day we could surely feel that we are living.

6.“Sometimes the silences, the gaps, tell us more than

anything else.”

Sometimes silence can speak when words can’t. Silence can be an indication of
empathy. When we are really tuning in to how the other person is feeling about what
they're saying, we're listening more to the tone of their voice, cadence and speed
rather than the actual words, and so replying with words may not be the attuned
response.

7. “The ordinary routines of life are never chronicled by the historian, but they make
up almost the whole of experience.”

On the ordinary days nothing special or sensational happen, however small things can
also be highlighted. Highlighted in order to learn from it.

8. “There is no humiliation worse than the consciousness of a wasted

life. It stains the spirit, forestalls hope, and destroys any motive for

action or change.”

It is worst recognition when somebody realise that he or she just wasted his/her life.
In a second we can see our whole life and the very many moments when we did
unnecessary things.

9. “It is strange, is it not, how a person can adore one's soul so much that they adore
one's body also?”

10. “To be insular is to be independent. But it is also to be alone.”

As the Bible says ’God did not create man as a “solitary being,” but wanted him to be
a “social being”.’ I think that we can be independent without being alone. For
example we can be independent financially.

11. “Bigotry does not consort easily with free trade.”

12. “…a lie, once uttered, changes reality just as surely as if it were a great truth.”

Lying is a very dangerous thing. Once it was uttered we could not stop it. It could
happen that a lie can ruin somebody’s life.

13. “I lack the World, for I move like a Ghost through it.”

The writer think he does not live a whole life, something is missing from him.

14. “I am the scourge of God”

15. “Destruction is like a snow-ball rolled down a Hill, for its Bulk encreases by its
own swiftness and thus Disorder spreads.”

Where is destruction, there disorder will soon appear.

16. “I was at peace with a world which afforded so much bounty, and began to enjoy
living at the very end of time.”
The author may found something that was lack from him and feel at peace with
himself

17. “So we may use our books to form a barricade against the world,

interweaving their words with our own to ward off the heat of the day.”

Somebody may “leave” the reality through imagination, through reading a great
book. The heat of the day could symbolise the difficulties of life. Perhaps the author
wanted to show that he could escape from difficulties through a great book.