It is going to be hard difficult to write blog posts while
pretending that I have not already read The
Sense of an Ending, so allow me to come clean: I decided to read this novel
when I took a trip to Boston to visit my brother and attend my dream concert,
read it in three days, and fully annotated it. I couldn't help it.
(If it is a
problem for me to read a novel before it is assigned, let me know, and I will
do my very best to pretend I had never read any of these novels beforehand.)
All confessions aside, let us embark on an analysis of this quaint,
beautifully put-together book.
The first page grips you with a series of memories “in no particular
order”, followed by description of time that I find easy to relate to. I find
it funny that we just switched from a deep lecture regarding our inability to
fully comprehend the infinite universe to reading about a man who understands
fully that according to our own conclusions, time is definitely not linear, and
yet agrees that it is simpler to live life with the linear comprehension of
time that we understand the best. He does not get scientific at all, nor does
he press deep into philosophical arguments. Instead, he states things we have
all either thought of, said, or maybe can realize and relate to- the “funny
facts of life”, if you will.
Time flies when you are having fun, but seems to slow when
pain is present.
We live our youth wishing time would press on at a quicker pace, yet when we do get out of our elementary “holding pen”, we find that our time is running out in our larger, more daunting “holding pen” (Hello, again, Kafka).
The “funny facts of life”, as we best know them. So what does this do for our plot? Time will tell.
We live our youth wishing time would press on at a quicker pace, yet when we do get out of our elementary “holding pen”, we find that our time is running out in our larger, more daunting “holding pen” (Hello, again, Kafka).
The “funny facts of life”, as we best know them. So what does this do for our plot? Time will tell.
On a side note, did anyone else find it funny that Tony’s trio
of friends is focused on denouncing family, the political system, and the “perceived
nature of reality”? This oozes
Kafka/Dostoyevsky, and despite reading it once before, it is only now that I
realized this funny tidbit.
Am I seeing a pattern in your teaching, Mr. Shapiro? Or have
I just been blind to these influences all this time. I think it is a little of
both… ;)
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