Man patīk tās 2 grāmatzīmes - viena tekstam, bet otra - komentāriem.
Bet Bārnsam gan šādi gājieni ir raksturīgi. Piemēram, te būs par filozofijas stāvokli Francijā, kur viņš jau vairākus gadus dzīvo:
"Spare a glance for la belle France. Philosophy here is a
wonderful thing. On the one hand, more of it is written,
bought, and read in France than in any other country in
the world. Tell a pretty girl conducting an SNCF sondage
that your profession is philosophe and—unlike her
English counterpart—she’ll look neither shocked nor
embarrassed nor puzzled: philosophers are a normal
part of life and a part of normal life. On the other
hand, the first French philosopher, the unfeminist
Favorinus of Arles, was a eunuch and a rhetorician;
and philosophy in France has apparently taken its cue
from Favorinus. The philosophical sky is covered with
thick and woolly clouds, its monotonous greyness
pierced here and there by flashes of brilliant sun-light.
So in ancient philosophy: there are flashes, sharp and
bright; but they flash through a caliginous gloom.
Most of the things published by my chers colle`gues
are bad for my blood-pressure. Brought up from the
lyce´e to think that hot air is the very substance of
philosophy, they can scarcely fail to suppose that Plato
and Company took the philosophical flights each in his
own montgolfie`re."

Grāmatzīmes un to daudzums, protams, ir gaumes jautājums. Ja nepatīk, tad var nelietot. Man pietiktu ar vienu - kamēr lasu, tikmēr to ieliktu pie komentāriem.

Bet Bārnss, cik nu noprotu, ir ekscentrisks ne tikai dažās savās rakstu izpausmēs, bet arī dzīvē. (Starp citu, kur ir fiksēts viņa izteikums, kad viņš jūtot savu nāves stundiņu, lūdza atdot grāmatu, kuru viņš bija aizņēmies?)

Tas šeit http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/Nothing-be-Frightened-Julian-Barnes/9780099523741
Precīzu vietu tagad nepateikšu. Tur ir diezgan daudz stāstu par viņu.