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The unwisdom of age
(4)She had come to that state where the horror of the universe and its smallness are both visible at the same time—the twilight of the double vision in which so many elderly people are involved. If this world is not to our taste, well, at all events, there is Heaven, Hell, Annihilation—one or other of those large things, that huge scenic background of stars, fires, blue or black air. All heroic endeavour, and all that is known as art, assumes that there is such a background, just as all practical endeavour, when the world is to our taste, assumes that the world is all. But in the twilight of the double vision, a spiritual muddledom is set up for which no high-sounding words can be found; we can neither act nor refrain from action, we can neither ignore nor respect Infinity.
—E. M. Forster, A Passage to India, (Harcourt, Brace, and World, Inc., 1922)
4 Responses to “The unwisdom of age”
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Interesting. Quite the opposite of Blake’s mystical wisdom.
To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour. -
No, Helen, I think the mystical aspect of Indian culture is part of what confounded the British in Forster’s eyes. The British prided themselves on their pragmatism, poets like Blake excluded of course. Writing, as Forster did, in the period between the two World Wars, I’m not sure he had much to say for heroic endeavors. And yet, he was making art..
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Sam L. Martin January 28th, 2008 at 1:28 am
Perhaps the bipolarity of the English language is at work here. Double vision, not triple vision or multivision. Heaven, hell. Heroic, practical. Act, refrain. Ignore, respect. Of course, we could add lots more: Democrats, Republicans. Good, bad. One man, one woman (marriage). Right, wrong. Black, white. And all the other either-or efficiencies in our language. But we eventually turn gray, and we have to agree with Forster because we are our language, our bedrock definition. Perhaps we attempt to infuse the world of the heroic endeavour into the world of practical endeavour. Maybe we must. When I hear a businessman say, “I can’t wait for the polar ice cap to melt. That’ll give us much easier access to our Asian markets,” it’s time for the heroes to get involved.
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At long last, the Northwest Passage. Sheesh!
Thanks, Sam. We are in accord. I have a hero on this one. His name is Gore.
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