I gjære
I august 1969 skrev George Mackay Brown til Stella Cartwright: ‘Dear Stel, not many people have to walk such a hard road. One feels desperate with solitude often; then it is salutary to know that one is not alone, but is “involved with mankind”. And that means, as I understand it, that whenever you are brave, enduring, uncomplaining, then the whole world of suffering is helped and soothed somehow. This is sacrifice, and fulfilment and renewal: an incalculable leavening.’ Julen, Ordets menneskevorden, gjør slik ‘usigelig gjæring’ mulig. Mackay Brown skrev annensteds: ‘in a sense, everyone is the writer’s concern. The whole of humanity is his family and he must participate in their joys and ennuis and sufferings, otherwise what he does would be as meaningless as an endless game of patience.’ Sitatene kommer fra Maggie Fergusson’s George Mackay Brown: The Life. A.N. Wilson sa om boken: ‘Det er den beste dikterbiografi jeg noensinne har lest’.
