Gradually, then suddenly.
I love that phrase. It's from a Hemingway novel, The sun also rises. There's something so simple yet profound about those three words. It comes up in a conversation among a few characters in the book, when one of them says, 'I went bankrupt', and the other guy asks, 'How did that happen?' and the guy says, 'Well, gradually, then suddenly'.
Stunning simplicity.
And it applies to almost any situation in life. '
How did your relationship end?' 'Well, gradually, then suddenly'.
'How did your career nosedive?' 'Well, gradually, then suddenly'.
It captures the dull and all too easy routine people fall into and the accompanying indifference that makes you impervious to the inevitable, so that when it happens, you knew it was happening for a while, that the end came before you actually realised it.
It's not about craft this line. It's about having seen and experienced a lot.
Like a Kannadasan song. (He was a genius poet/lyricist for movies in south India.
Stunning simplicity.
And it applies to almost any situation in life. '
How did your relationship end?' 'Well, gradually, then suddenly'.
'How did your career nosedive?' 'Well, gradually, then suddenly'.
It captures the dull and all too easy routine people fall into and the accompanying indifference that makes you impervious to the inevitable, so that when it happens, you knew it was happening for a while, that the end came before you actually realised it.
It's not about craft this line. It's about having seen and experienced a lot.
Like a Kannadasan song. (He was a genius poet/lyricist for movies in south India.
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