While working on our group project and talking about East Coker, it hit me! The 20 minute lifetime in the Four Quartets is on page 13 of my book at the end of East Coker. Although it was brought to my attention that other people have blogged this passage, it is what I discovered as well: "Not the intense moment
Isolated, with no before and after,
But a lifetime burning in every moment
And not the lifetime of one man only
But of old stones that cannot be deciphered."
19 Inspirerend Tekst Verjaardag Man 60 Jaar
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*Tekst Verjaardag Man 60 Jaar* wensen verjaardagswensen voor 60
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6 years ago
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I agree and disagree. I think It is a 20 minute lifetime (those the cursed words we use strip us of the true meaning!).
ReplyDeleteWhy four quartets? 1,2,3,1
I beleive what we mean by 20 minute liftetime is learning so much in a certain amount of time.
Let me restate, but keep this in mind.
Look into Jennie's Blog about Epiphanies and how she talks about us being unable to describe an epiphany. How it is beyond words.
So all we can do is think about it. and we go through Three stages.
1,2,3, only to understand and come back to where we are, 1,
to realize with clarity what we could not see, which was there the whole time yet we had to become lost in the past, the future, during the present, to come full circle and find what it is.
1,2,3,1
it not not be 20 minutes, it could be 20 years, or 3 years, or 3 days, or ten minutes! TIME IS RELATIVE,.
The Experience once it is learned, if at all, is forever, and will change you forever.
The only way to have a twenty minute lifetime is in the myth of the eternal return, and the only way to have the eternal return is through Dolce Domum. The other two I'm not so sure on, nor really have even applied them. So my loss. Hope my thoughts helped and feel free to argue with me, it's the best way to learn (for me at least).
Cheerio
* It does not need to be 20 minutes,
ReplyDeleteI realize that much of what we are talking about is ineffeble. Epiphany, 20 minute lifetime, etc. (I'm in the epiphany capstone class too) Language limits us, but it is what we have. How else are we supposed to communicate about this to each other? As far as epiphany goes, "what's told [or remembered] is often less than the event." - Dante's The Divine Comedy, Canto IV, line 147. And if time is all relative, then it doesn't have to be 20 minutes (as Dr. Sexson mentioned as well) but rather a moment. William James, his Lecture XVI, The Varieties of Religious Experience: an epiphany, or mystical experience "cannot be imparted or transferred to others." It is personal and we can only remember the experience, but it can only "imperfectly be reproduced in memory." So the idea is that you have the epiphany, and the feeling/emotion that comes with the experience, then you have the knowledge of the experience, then recognize the expereince as significant, and then the experience will effect your ordinary everyday consciousness/life from then on. I like how you connect 20 min lifetime with the eternal return and Dolce Domum. Anyway, I hope I responded in some way that was helpful. The 20 minute lifetime, like you said is learning something in a certain amount of time so that when you come back home, you know the place for the first time. So Picard came back with a knowledge of how to play the flute, but why didn't he share his experience with the crew members on the enterprise, because the experience was so personal and profound. But the idea is that you live a lifetime or learn what you would in a lifetime in a short period, so it feels like a lifetime in a much shorter amount of time. Something like that. Well, anyway, I don't know if I've responded to you in any helpful way.
ReplyDeleteI understand exactly what you are saying. I disagree with everything about Epiphanies not being shared. Or maybe I agree completely but haven't quite come full circle to exactly what it is I want to say. For starters, We want to create epiphanies as writers, but what you are saying is that we cannot share our own? Perhaps this is why art should be for art sake.
ReplyDeleteP.S. I think I understand rambling better than structured paragraphs.