Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Barry Lyndon

Epilogue
It was in the reign of King George III that the aforesaid personages lived and quarreled; good or bad, handsome or ugly, rich or poor, they are all equal now.
Wow! If I could time travel to 1975, I’d love to watch the 3-hour epic movie on a big screen. The picturesque scenes would be more stunning in a dark theatre and soundtrack more tuneful even though I consider myself not having the ear for classical music. More compliments would be superfluous, just set aside a weekend afternoon and relive the dramatic life of Barry Lyndon.


Wednesday, March 14, 2012

If the prophecy were true

If 2012 were the end of the world, how would you spend the last 9 months? This may sound like a cliche question, but I can’t help thinking about it. I would quit my job and travel to the continents that I’ve never been to.


Sometimes I wish the prophecy were true, so I don’t need to think about the future, 10 years from now, 20 years from now…Only then can I leave everything behind and never look back or forward. But all I can see now is a blurry picture of the future, myself being overpowered by the daily routines.

Isn’t it good that everything comes to an end all together? We are but a minute particle in the universe. Let me quote the ending of Schopenhauer’s Studies in Pessimism:


If we turn from contemplating the world as a whole, and, in particular, the generations of men as they live their little hour of mock-existence and then are swept away in rapid succession; if we turn from this, and look at life in its small details, as presented, say, in a comedy, how ridiculous it all seems! It is like a drop of water seen through a microscope, a single drop teeming with infusoria; or a speck of cheese full of mites invisible to the naked eye. How we laugh as they bustle about so eagerly, and struggle with one another in so tiny a space! And whether here, or in the little span of human life, this terrible activity produces a comic effect.


It is only in the microscope that our life looks so big. It is an indivisible point, drawn out and magnified by the powerful lenses of Time and Space.