The Concept of Time

The flow of time is not often unidirectional. It flows backwards as well. It does not mean that time can be rewound and made to tick once more from the beginning. It does not mean that we can reenact the past. It does imply that time is haunted by an ordeal. We often find time reversed even when we are moving forward. We return, we repeat and we relive. But this return, this repetition, this reliving is not to same as when we experience it. Time is neither extracted from the past nor temporalized from the present. There is no primordial time to which we can return. Often primordial time can be comprehended through clock time of our everyday habits. If time is just counting hours and minutes then it is a mere representation, not an actuality.

Literature 

Literature is nothing but confession where the writer confesses and then asks for forgiveness. Whether it is Chaucer, Hemingway, Kafka or any of the modern deracinated writers from Africa or Asia, it is always the same thing—this is my fault, forgive me! I want to tell you this is my fault, forgive me! If you do not confess and have a gung ho bravado of finding fault with others no one will proclaim you, no one will announce you. All proclamations and announcements are made from New York or London. It’s all so very depressing and yet compelling. We are compelled as blood brothers to protect the terrible audacity, this dark sanctity, of the writer speaking to us.