A brief exchange between me and author Nina Schuyler

Hi Nina,

From James Salter again, also from his novel Light Years.
>
> "The air overhead, glittering, infinite, the moist earth beneath--one could taste this earth, its richness, its density, bathe in the air like a stream."
>
> Before launching into this lovely sentence, Salter first establishes time, "In the morning the light came in silence. The house slept. The air overhead, etc." Then he covers the other elements, "air, earth, water," while expanding the idea of air into something infused with light "glittering," then expands it further into an abstract idea, "infinite," then returns from the abstract to the sensual, "richness" and "density," before utilizing that amazing simile that catches one off-guard, making air and light something you can swim around in, "bathe in the air like a stream."
>
> Love it,
>
> S

And her response:

What a beautiful sentence! I also like the surprise of "taste this earth." He's not afraid to repeat--we have "air" and "earth" twice in this short sentence.
Such exuberance here, such a love of the world.

N