Hello blogging world! I never thought that I would ever get dragged into this kind of thing, but alas I find myself blogging and soon to be tweeting as well. Man, the things that BYU will trick you into doing are amazing. Humanities, surprisingly enough, is the main motive for my first entry ever. Try not to pay to much attention to the horrific format. Just know that I'm doing my best and we will all get through this together . . . . and maybe learn some sweet stuff about Latin American Humanities as well.
"When man was exiled from that eternity in which all times were one, he entered chronometric time and became a prisoner of the clock and the calendar. as soon as time was divided up into yesterday, today and tomorrow, into hours, minutes and seconds, man ceased to be one with time, ceased to coincide with the flow of reality. When one says, 'at this moment,' the moment has already passed. These spatial measurements of time separate man from reality - whic his a continuous present - and turn all the presences in which reality manifests itself, as Bergson said, into phantasms."
(Octavio Paz, The Labyrinth of Solitude, 209)
The quote found above is from Octavio Paz's book The Labyrinth of Solitude. This was my first encounter with this kind of Literature and was honestly not what I was expecting from a Humanities class at all. The chapter entitled, "The Dialectic of Solitude," seemed to have more of a philosophy content than anything else. The chapter was loaded with great one-liners and plenty of captivating insights in regards to the nature of solitude and it's innate importance to humankind.
Octavio Paz's insights on time really caught my attention because, as the reader, I was able to recall numerous times when I had had the exact same thoughts and feelings yet was completely unable to put my emotions into words. I remember distictively being nine years old and in the second grade. One day I was walking to school and started thinking about the length of eternity. Everyone has had these kinds of feelings, but they were especially strong for me in this moment. I desired immortality, yet at the same time wanted to cease to exhist, only to, once again, realize how crazy it was to want such a thing. Who made time? When did i start to exhist? How long is eternity? Will I move around? Will I get bored without time? These thoughts troubled my young mind and every day on the way to school for the next three years (the elementary school only acommodated grades K through five) when I passed that spot on the sidewalk my mind would begin to race.
What I most appreciate and admire about this quote is the apparent ability that Paz has in putting the deepest emotions of the human soul into easily understandable writing. Not only does he confirm my thoughts and feelings in his analysis of time, but he opens the door to new ideas as he references the false world that is time and how it manifests itself in "phantasms." The ever fleeting idea of the present is merely a wish as far as Paz is concerned and humanity will forever finds themselves trapped in ever spinning wheel in the chase for real and pure moments.
Not the easiest thing to make a commentary about, but I expect to only improve as far as this blog is concerned!
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