April 1 Word of the Day: Cosy
Reading the letters of Oliver Sacks, recently
published in paperback. His friendship with Wystan Auden tracked via the index.
Arriving at this signoff to a two-page letter dated New York, 31 March 1973,
the year of Auden’s death. Sacks recalls Auden’s ultimate departure from
America the year before: “I remember at the airport, on that painful Saturday,
when a stranger came up and greeted you, I asked you whether you thought of the
world as being a large or a small place; and you replied, “Neither. A cosy
place.” So – the world being a cosy place – I am sure I will see you in
England, Austria or New York within the next few months.”
Knowing full well the abstract meanings behind a
large place (immense, unmanageable, impossibly complex) and a small place
(inhibited, claustrophobic, a dot in the universe), Auden instead personalises
the world, affirms our experience of our world, accepts already that it is
larger and smaller than anything in our experience, but that it is at the least
and importantly, cosy.
Sacks has memorised the word. It deserves our
attention too, as used in their exchange, for surely Auden means cosy in all of
its meanings. The world is comfortable. The world is pleasant. The world is
snug. The world is a homely home. The world is sheltered. He also knows the
opposites of all these adjectives.
Readers of Auden’s biographies are familiar with
his messy, even chaotic living arrangements – whether on socially sunny Ischia,
regulation rundown New York, or ungarbling gemütlich Kirchstetten. This was
always Auden at home and cosy. Humanity moved through the rooms and humanity’s
need for belonging kept being copied by hand onto paper. It’s what we have, so
make the most of it.
His writing too, constantly sharing itself with a
not always understanding world, moved towards someone who connects and
somewhere that is cosy. Which is to say, where readers are at home, can
recognise the place as their own, despite everything. This is done in full
awareness of places that are not cosy. Sacks believes, in this worldview, that
he and Auden will meet again in this world, soon. Instead, he is left with
Auden’s message of faith, hope, and love.
