Here the reader may pause: No ancient Roman V? Wasn’t Venus a Roman goddess? Wasn’t there an Italian volcano called Vesuvius, a Roman emperor named Vespasian?
The answer is that the Roman letter in those examples was never V. It was U, only written as V and pronounced as “w.”
To represent their “w” sound, the Romans used the letter U as a consonant. That was U’s second job. Its main job was as a vowel. It was a vowel when placed before a consonant letter or at a word’s end, in Latin words like murus (wall) and manu (by hand). But before a vowel letter, Roman U was recognized as consonant “w.” The word quercus (oak tree), pronounced “kwair-cus,” demonstrates both uses: U first as a consonant, then as a vowel.
“How do you compare sadness that takes over like an erupted volcano to sadness that stays inside one, still as a still-born baby?”
How do volcano eruptions begin? Pressure. And it’s brewing inside of me. The fiery magma is rising, thickening with hatred, growing denser with bloodlust.
Eventually, I’m going to fucking explode, and I promise I will burn this entire goddamn house down with me.
The paradox of volcanoes was that they were symbols of destruction but also life. Once the lava slows and cools, it solidifies and then breaks down over time to become soil - rich, fertile soil.
She wasn't a black hole, she decided. She was a volcano. And like a volcano she couldn't run away from herself. She'd have to stay there and tend to that wasteland.
She could plant a forest inside herself.
On my volcano grows the grass, —
A meditative spot,
An area for a bird to choose
Would be the general thought..
Başlangıçta doğa vardı...
Human life began in flight and fear. Religion rose from rituals of propitiation, spells to lull the punishing elements. To this day, communities are few in regions scorched by heat or shackled by ice. Civilized man conceals from himself the extent of his subordination to nature. The grandeur of culture, the consolation of religion absorb his attention and win his faith. But let nature shrug, and all is in ruin. Fire, flood, lightning, tornado, hurricane, volcano, earthquake—anywhere at any time. Disaster falls upon the good and bad. Civilized life requires a state of illusion. The idea of the ultimate benevolence of nature and God is the most potent of man’s survival mechanisms. Without it, culture would revert to fear and despair.
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