bernur

Den vildsint begåvade författaren Ali Smith skriver i dagens The Guardian om den lika vildsint vackert begåvade Lee Miller - jämnårig med Ekelöf - mest känd som fotograf eller musa åt surrealismens snuskiga författare, men i Smiths artikel också framlyft som skribent, med några längre citat som övertygande bevis:
"For an hour I watched a baby die. He was dark blue when I first saw him. He was the dark dusty blue of these waltz-filled Vienna nights, the same colour as the striped garb of the Dachau skeletons, the same imaginary blue as Strauss's Danube. I'd thought all babies looked alike, but that was healthy babies; there are many faces for the dying. This wasn't a two months baby, he was a skinny gladiator. He gasped and fought and struggled for life, and a doctor and a nun and I just stood there and watched ... There was nothing to do but watch him die. Baring his sharp toothless gums he clenched his fists against the attack of death. This tiny baby fought for his only possession, life, as if it might be worth something."

Ali Smiths egen roman The Accidental (på svenska Jag är allt du drömt) är förstås en av senare års överlägset bästa romaner på engelska språket, och hon skriver insiktsfullt om Miller, och hennes tonfall som kunde vara lika skarpt som hennes blick: "Much of her life would be a negotiation between the act of seeing and the act of being seen".