"History hath triumphed over time, which besides it nothing but eternity hath triumphed over."
Photo: Francois Guillot
The fires remain unextinguished as I write this.
On seeing the images this afternoon of the Paris skyline with Notre Dame broken-backed and engulfed with smoke and flame, I think the particular shock arises from the proof that even such a work of spirit and craft is transient in the phenomenal world. One is drawn to think that having already endured over centuries, the cathedral should by rights be eternal.
But the experience also came to me with a strong sense of deja vu. Connie Willis had already struck to the heart of this foundational fault of experience and memory with her novelette "Fire Watch," published in 1982.
Of love, and memory, and time. Of what is irredeemably lost, and what can never be lost.
"... what is, like Langby, like all of it, every moment, in us, saved forever."
Of love, and memory, and time. Of what is irredeemably lost, and what can never be lost.
"... what is, like Langby, like all of it, every moment, in us, saved forever."
