Freud’s short essay provides us with an excellent feeling for how the Great War affected a generation of men and women. Copy one line from the essay that particularly sparked your interest and write a few sentences about that line (what we would call a close read of that line), being attentive to specific words or phrases used.
For this round, I’d like you to answer the prompt here on our home page, but in the future I’d like everyone to have their own blogs@baruch site so you can customize your own space. Under bookmarks, see a link to create your blog.
“But this demand for immortality is a product of our wishes too unmistakable to lay claim to reality”
As I was reading Freud’s “On Transcience” this one line up above really stood out to me. It really made me begin to think about the way in which we think about certain things. How often do we as people look at things the way we want to see them and as a result not always see things in reality of the way that they in fact are in reality. We dream about immortality but this dream has no place in reality. In reality all things must come to an end and that is nothing more than the sad truth about the world we live in. Our wishes and hopes have no impact on the reality of the world we live in.
“All that he would otherwise have loved and admired seemed to him to be shorn of its worth by the transience which was its doom.”
This line in Freud’s “On Transience” seemed very important to me. As I read this line, I immediately thought about how many of us do not appreciate the things that we have while we have them. We often overlook the value and beauty of things, until we don’t have them anymore. When we are deprived of these things, for example, something as simple as scenery in nature, that is when we start to really appreciate them, however it is too late. In Freud’s piece, Freud’s friend is not able to enjoy the beautiful scene in front of him because its beauty is compromised by the fact that it won’t last forever; when the seasons will change, the scenery will change, as well. Like many of us, unfortunately, he didn’t allow himself to really appreciate the beauty of something he loved for fear that someday it would change.
There’s a saying that goes “all good things most come to and end” and that is exactly how the poet felt. “They felt their enjoyment of beauty interfered with by thoughts of its transience”. It’s a sad fact, but when we do have an appreciation for something, it doesn’t last forever. The reason can be because the object will soon diminish, or because the excitement of something will fade. In this piece by Frued, it is his friend, the poet, who struggles with this issue. There is a similar idea in the movie Tuesday’s With Morrie that can be incorporated here. Morrie on his deathbed tells us that we don’t allow ourselves “to be loved because we’re to afraid of giving ourselves to someone we might loose”. This is not the way one should go through life. This is a life that is void of love and appreciation. I don’t think the poet ever loved nature at all because of how caught up he was with its transience. This piece shows that people in the time of war wouldn’t enjoy anything life had to offer because they were thinking about when the enjoyment was over.
“Limitation in the possibility of an enjoyment raises the value of the enjoyment.”
When something lasts a short time, it truly is more popular than when it lasts forever. For instance, when something like a fair comes to town or a sale starts in a shop, people rush over there to capitalize on the opportunities. If a there was a fair in a town all year round, the typical loud fair environment wouldn’t exist, instead replaced by a crowd of few people. Something else to note is how Freud phrases this sentence. It is more simply written than most of his other lines, and it is written like a fact. He, I believe, was making sure that this line was easily understood and short so that his main point wouldn’t go unnoticed by the readers
“It destroyed not only the beauty of the countrysides through which it passed and the works of art which it met with on its path but it also shattered our pride in the achievements of our civilization, our admiration for many philosophers and artists and our hopes of a final triumph over the differences between nations and races.”
The quote above stood out to me because of how aptly it describes one aspect of the ramifications that wars have even after the final battle is over. It is seen time and time again that man has a natural tendency to spread his proverbial wings and test the boundaries of one’s environment. In times of peace, technology, education and the arts, are pushed to the forefront especially when the base needs of survival are more than met. It isn’t until we reach a certain level of complacency do men become gods, challenge one another and destroy rather than build. And it’s far later do we realize that rebuilding isn’t moving forward and bridges to academia and the future collapse with bullets. We build a tower of Babel and just as we approach the top God, or god like man, tear down the combined accomplishments with one grandiose declaration or insult.
“since the value of all this beauty and perfection is determined only by its significance for our own emotional lives, it has no need to survive us and is therefore independent of absolute duration”
The quote above fascinated me because it values all the beauty and perfection of everything by their significance and their influence on people’s emotional lives. This quote led me back to my art history classroom where I saw a significant amount of beautiful creation decayed or destroyed, but the absolute beauty of the works never fade away by their evanescence. Western art in particular, every change of art forms means a decay of a empire or dynasty; however, the beauty of all the masterpieces throughout the history remains as how it is to us.
Sigmund Freud states one of the most obvious truth of nature – “All that he would otherwise have loved and admired seemed to him to be shorn of its worth by the transience which was its doom” (PP1). For many, it is crystal clear that the beauty of nature that exists today may not exist tomorrow. This unfortunate truth brings despair to many, like the poet in Freud’s essay. The poet was unable to enjoy the beauty knowing that it is transient. However, many others find it too hard to digest this reality and long for immortality. Freud explains two different perspectives of people and how each can cause despondency. Freud questions the joy in immortal beauty. For instance, if summer was the only season, nobody would eagerly wait for summer nor would it be exciting. This statement essentially has a deeper meaning to it – knowing that the beauty of nature is transient, one should not long for immortality nor should one be in despair, rather one should enjoy every aspect of it to the fullest.
“But this demand for immortality is a product of our wishes too unmistakable to lay claim to reality: what is painful may none the less be true. ”
The quote above drew my attention because it is telling the truth that seems to be kind of unacceptable but unavoidable. As claimed in the former passages, the beauty of nature or niceness is going to fade away someday. People are unwilling to be aware of that, but nobody can prevent those beautiful things from just disappearing out of our sights. We always try our best to achieve and keep what we admire and value, so witnessing the precious vanishing, without doing anything but just watching, undoubtedly would be much more “painful” for the facticity and irreversibility of its transience. However, just because nothing is immortal, we should more cherish what we have right now instead of immersing in worry and sorrow of those magnificent but fugacious things.
“The beauty of the human form and face vanish for ever in the course of our own lives, but their evanescence only lends them a fresh charm”
Beauty fades but brain stays. The saying goes, “beauty is only skin deep”, by unknown author. Most people are very dependable on their physical appearance because they believe that is what they can be identified with. When people first look at you, what do they observe? It is your outside beauty, your physical appearance, because that is someone’s first attraction to you. But nevertheless as time moves on in one’s life, their beauty begins to fade but their personality then defines their true self. The question one begins to ask is, what is my true self? Their true self is what is on the inside that bypasses the physical eye. Your inner self then becomes your identity that emerges into your ultimate charm . This becomes the persons’ new attraction; their physical appearance is no longer what defines them but their inner self which is the ultimate beauty that never ceases to exist.
“The poet admired the beauty of the scene around us but felt no joy in it. He was disturbed by the thought that all this beauty was fated to extinction, that it would vanish when winter came…”
This quote stood out to me because it represents the same level of pessimism I see among many of my peers whenever there is a discussion about our plans for the future.The dark cloud of future responsibilities such as taking care of a family, paying bills and/or grad school often overshadows the freedom and opportunities they have right now to explore and live their lives to the fullest. A friend of mine who loved soccer, for example, often opted out of invitations to play because he felt as though he could use his time to do something more academic; such as join the math team, or join an engineering club, not because he loved it, but because he felt as though it would soon be time for him to grow up, and soccer wouldn’t be a big part of his adult life. He knew that though he was still young and had all this time, it would soon come to an end once he left home for college.
“A time may indeed come when the pictures and statues which we admire to-day will crumble to dust, or a race of men may follow us who no longer understand the works of our poets and thinkers, or a geological epoch may even arrive when all animate life upon the earth ceases; but since the value of all this beauty and perfection is determined only by its significance for our own emotional lives, it has no need to survive us and is therefore independent of absolute duration.”
This quote from the essay definitely piqued my interest. Many of us have come to the unfortunate conclusion that the world as we know it will cease to exist. All of the works of art we so dearly admire, our way of thinking, even life on earth will not last forever. It may or may not be in our lifetime, but they will reach their inescapable demise. However, that shouldn’t hinder us from enjoying those things while we still can. Thinking about the inevitable will only lessen our pleasure for such things. The value or significance of the things that we love shouldn’t be diminished simply because of its ephemerality. All that should matter is its meaning to us and how it affects our lives mentally, spiritually and physically. Once we truly realize the transiency of what we love is insignificant, that is when it will fully become irrelevant to us.
“What spoilt their enjoyment of beauty must have been a revolt in their minds against mourning.”
As I was reading Freud’s “On Transience,” I could not but help realize the truth behind this line. Things and people may show beauty on the outside, but we cannot overlook the contents underneath. A cake might look good on the outisde but if it is made of bugs, one would propbably not eat it. Afterwards, it would be hard to eat cake without thinking about the bugs.
The word revolt displays that in people minds, there is a consant debate on whether or not the beauty is enjoyable if there is death. Since Freud uses the word spoilt, it tells the readers that death has a negative connotation and many do not associate death with enjoyment and beauty. If any negative idea such as death is associated with another topic, it would be difficult to seperate the two.
Freud stated, “What spoilt their enjoyment of beauty must have been a revolt in their minds against mourning.” This quote on transience captured my attention as it shows that human beings have an innate and inherent aversion against pain or in this case, mourning. Due to this human nature, Freud’s friend and the poet could not find joy in the simple pleasures of viewing the scenic countryside knowing that it was only transient. It conveyed to me that transience, death, halted them from having an attachment. However, all things in life will cease to exist and mourning is an inevitable part of life.