How we cite our quotes: Possession: A Romance. London: Vintage Books, 1991.
Quote #10
He had been taught that language was essentially inadequate, that it could never speak what was there, that it only spoke itself.
He thought about the death mask. He could and could not say that the mast and the man were dead. What had happened to him was that the ways in which it could be said had become more interesting than the idea that it could not. (26.47-48)
In the end, Possession suggests that some forms of knowledge and understanding are only possible when we put aside the perspectives and methodologies that we've learned through formal education. What's your take on that, Shmoopers? Does it ring true for any kinds of knowledge in your own lives?