Beginning. Middle. End.

Per lor maledizion sì non si perde,
Che non possa tornar l’ eterno amore,
Mentre che la speranza ha fior del verde.
- Purgatorio, III

by Christopher Myers

The benefit, of course, of seeing through everything is that not much is lost on you, and Franzen has an amazing ability to skewer hypocrisy and to layer everything in irony. In reading the novel though, I couldn’t help but be reminded of C. S. Lewis’s observation that to see through everything is to ultimately see nothing:

The whole point of seeing through something is to see something through it. It is good that the window should be transparent, because the street or garden beyond it is opaque. 

Click the title/link to read the rest.

Posted at 9:27pm and tagged with: Franzen, C.S. Lewis, Abolition of Man, Till We Have Faces, Freedom, cynicism,.

  1. sethwieck posted this

Notes:

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