man this is frustrating...
I still don't understand why this post won't only shows up under "archives." Hence the reason I've posted it 2-3 times already...pardon the duplicates. I'd delete them, but that doesn't seem to be working either. Man, I am pissed off.Class notes (Friday, 21.10.05), plus misc.
Mood: Perky! :-P
Music: Emo!
etc.
(Isn't that how "bloggers" often start their posts? Lame...)
In the Mountain chapter of Frye's book, he talks about time as a metaphorical construct consisting of four distinct stages: Heaven, Paradise, Earth and Hell. These stages are linked linearly and can be represented pictorially as such (see Frye's table, page 179). I'd rather not delve into Frye's more detailed description, so I'll relate Dr. Sexson's more abbrieviated version here.
Hell, naturally positioned at the bottom of the chart, is associated with time in the demonic and repetitious sense. In other words, time "stands still" in the "Demonic world cosmic level" (Frye's term, not mine).
In the Earth, or "Fallen world of experience" cosmic level, time is linear and cyclical.
The Heaven cosmic level represents the abolition of time, and I assume that the Paradise, or "Unfallen world" cosmic level is somewhere in between Earth and Heaven (astute, yes, but it's very late, and I'm very tired...). Heaven and Paradise consist of sacred time, whereas Earth and Hell contain profane time.
The four cosmic levels can also be related to Frye's and/or Vico's four levels of discourse. Heaven-Kerygmatic-Gods, Paradise-Ideological-Heroes, Earth-Conceptual-Men, and Hell-Descriptive-Chaos. I'm afraid my personal "discourse" in this post is very bottom-rung/hellish/descriptive at the moment.
And now for the assignment: Describe a personal experience in which I experienced time as pure Hell.
hmm...How about yesterday at work? I work at a ranch just west of the Hyalite canyon entrance (off Cottonwood street), and my default task consists of pulling weeds surrounding one of the ponds. Not as tiring as planting trees, digging ditches, etc., but very, very monotonous and repetitious, and thus "Hellish." No exaggeration here; time absolutely stands still while picking weeds. The agony is augmented when I wear a watch, since the temptation to check it every few minutes is overwhelming. I force myself to wait, and when I can stand it no longer, I glance at that ticking instrument of Satan himself, only to find, to my great disappointment, that only a couple of minutes have passed. When I realize that I still have 3, 4, 5, maybe 6 hours left to work, five to six minutes barely register as an increment of time. And that is my personal experience of time as Hell, at least one that comes to mind with minimal of effort...
And just the opposite is time as Heaven, which, if I understand correctly, means that time consists of exuberance and energy and thereby ceases to exist in the traditional sense. I suppose my lunch break counts for this...
Anyway, enough for one night.
If I ever get used to this whole "blogging" phenomenon, maybe then I can stop being so cynical towards it. I must be a Luddite.
posted by Bryan Kelly @ 12:56 AM
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