just finished rereading the great gatsby. i remember why i loved this book so much. sometimes i read a sentence or passage in some book or other and get that fluttery feeling in my stomach just from the sheer beauty of the words, before the meaning or any of the meanings have settled in yet. i think something subconscious recognizes the power of what was written down.
one of my favorite quotations from the book goes: "And as the moon rose higher the inessential houses began to melt away until gradually I became aware of the old island here that flowered once for Dutch sailors' eyes--a fresh, green breast of the new world. It's vanished trees, the trees that had made way for Gatsby's house, had once pandered in whispers to the last and greatest of all human dreams; for a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent, compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity for wonder."
the beauty of that passage is chilling, almost. it's melancholy too, as powerful things so often are. what is the most powerful emotion? maybe melancholy, for how pervasive it is and how long it lasts. but anyway, while mankind's encounter with an unadulterated america can't be recaptured, strictly factually speaking we encounter wildernesses and frontiers all the time. that's what's so beautiful about this. it may talk specifically of the first settlers but what it captures are the feelings that we repeat again and again, generation after generation. we were never the first to experience an emotion and we will never be the last. over and over, we seek thrilling, mysterious, vast unknowns and over and over, we lose them.
what is it that is sad about "last and greatest?" it's Ideological and Romantic in capitalized senses of both words. also, when was the last time an emotion compelled us, without our consent? finally, i strongly disagree with the end of the last sentence, but at the same time, i think it has perhaps the greatest weight out of all that passage. sure, life has to be realistic and it has to contain midterms, cold coffee, recycling that piles up, long boring work days; but life can be so much more meaningful if it also contains cardinal ideals which we think of every now and then. and how more meaningful can it get than to spend our days seeking or experiencing something commensurate to our capacity for wonder.
that being said, i wish i had a brownie to eat
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| 11/4 |
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| Still 11/4 cheating but too pretty |
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| umm 11/1? |
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| 10/31 |
