And reading Cold Mountain today I found a quote from the Tao Te Ching: 'folks would choose to stay home... some might live many happy years hearing the bay of a distant neighbour's dog and yet never venture out from their own fields to (investigate)' (p234) This is a quote from chapter 80 of the Tao Te Ching. Here is Ursula Le Guin's translation. The next country might be so close that the people could hear cocks crowing and dogs barking there, but they would grow old and die without having been there.' If you compare the rest of Ruby's thoughts on this page with the Le Guin translation you will see a lot of other similarities.
That chapter of the Tao Te Ching is the inspiration for Ursula Le Guin's book 'Always Coming Home'.
Blimey. Hang on. 'Always coming home' could be an alternative title for 'Cold Mountain', and both are about a person walking home across America in time of war.
Tao is Chinese for 'Way' or 'Journey'. The Odyssey is obviously also about the Journey.
I think Charles Frazier must have been partially influenced by the Le Guin book, and slyly dropped the Tao quote in to tip off the attentive reader.
Re: ;-)
That chapter of the Tao Te Ching is the inspiration for Ursula Le Guin's book 'Always Coming Home'.
Blimey. Hang on. 'Always coming home' could be an alternative title for 'Cold Mountain', and both are about a person walking home across America in time of war.
Tao is Chinese for 'Way' or 'Journey'. The Odyssey is obviously also about the Journey.
I think Charles Frazier must have been partially influenced by the Le Guin book, and slyly dropped the Tao quote in to tip off the attentive reader.