Summary

Part 3, November, cont’d – Bird of Prey. In present tense narration, the author writes of waking up very early, going to his studio, and trying to work, but instead watching both the dawn and the blank computer screen in front of him. He is about to go inside when a bird of prey lands outside his window, tears into the grass, and then just as quickly leaves. After a moment, he says, he realized what he saw reminded him of – an encounter with a painting in an art museum. This leads him to the suggestion that an experience with art can be like an experience with the bird of prey. “Art,” he says, “opened up the moment, broke through time and created a presence, in the vortex of which everything became meaningful. The exception is a shining light, it casts no shadow” (214).

Silence – The...