Friday, July 22, 2005 - losing sight of the forest....

losing sight of the forest....

Reading on the G train on the way to D's, I was way struck by this passage:

"Many errors have been made in the world which today, it seems, even a child would not have made. How many crooked, out-of-the-way, narrow, impassable, and devious paths has humanity chose in the attempt to attain eternal truth, while before it the straight road lay open, like the road leading to a magnificent building destined to become a royal palace. It is wide and more resplendent than all other paths, lying as it does in the full glare of sun and lit up by many lights at night, but men have steamed past it in blind darkness. And how many times even when guided by understanding that has decended upon them from heaven, have they still managed to swerve away from it and go astray, have managed in the broad light of day to get into the impassable out-of-the-way places again, have managed again to throw a blinding mist over each other's eyes and, running after will-o'-the-wisps, have managed to reach the brink of the precipice only to ask themselves afterwards with horror: 'Where is the way out? Where is the road?' The present generation sees everything clearly, it is amazed at the errors and laughs at the folly of its ancestors, unaware that this chronicle is shot through with heavenly fires, that every letter in it cries out aloud to them, that from everywhere, from every direction an accusing finger is pointed at it, at the present generation; but the present generation laughs and proudly and self-confidently enters on a series of fresh errors at which their decendents will laugh again later on."

If you still are reading.. much respect. But this passage totally knocked me on my ass on the G train. It has so many levels to it, not the least the validity of the statement. It is only four sentences. The writing is flawlesss, not to mention that it uses "and" to start a sentence which people are always telling me is gramatically incorrect but I argue it is used to make a point. It applies today as much as it did as it did when it was written in 1842, as it did when it was translated in 1967, and it makes a point. If you read it once, read it again. Gogol knew how to ring the truth. Even on the G spot....