“You know what Augustine says about time? Augustine describes time as a symptom of things in the world not being themselves, having to make their way back to themselves, by moving through time–”

“There’s a paradox there, of course, since what can things be but themselves? In Augustine’s view, we live in what he calls the region of unlikeness, and what we’re unlike is God. We are apart from God, who is pure being, who is himself, who is outside of time. And time is our tragedy, the substance we have to wade through as we try to move closer to God. Rivers flowing to the sea, a flame reaching upward, a bird homing: these movements all represent objects yearning to be their true selves, to achieve their true state. For humans, the motion reflects the yearning for God, and everything we do through time comes from moving–or at least trying to move– toward God. So that we can be our true selves. So there’s a paradox there again, that we must submit to God–which feels deceptively like not being ourselves–in order to become ourselves. We might call this yearning love, and it’s just that we often mistake what we love. We think we love sensuality. Or admiration. Or, say, another person. But loving another person is just a confusion, an error. Even if it is the kind of error that a nice, reasonable person might make–”

– excerpt from short story, “The Region of Unlikeness” by Rivka Galchen, The New Yorker

The fiction selection in The New Yorker magazine is real hit or miss for me. But when it hits, it really hits.

Last Modified : June 6th, 2008 Filed under : Texts, ThinkTank Navigate : Previous post / Next post