"The past is never where you think you left it."
This quote by Steve Erickson suggests that our perception of the past often doesn't align with reality. Memories can be distorted over time, influenced by personal growth, new experiences, and even biases. As a result, when we reminisce about the past, we tend to revisit it in ways that may not accurately reflect how it actually was. The past, therefore, is always evolving, subjective, and often found in unexpected places within our present selves.
"Memory is a labyrinth, and every exit leads back into the heart of darkness."
This quote suggests that our memories are intricate and complex, much like a labyrinth. However, unlike a typical labyrinth where one can eventually find an exit, in the case of memory, each attempt to escape or understand only leads us deeper into the recesses of our own subconscious, potentially revealing difficult or troubling emotions (the heart of darkness). It emphasizes that delving into our past often uncovers layers of complexity and challenges that may not be easy to navigate.
"The only way out is through the dark forest, but even in the darkest wood there are places where the light filters through the trees, revealing glimpses of a beauty that transcends the darkness."
This quote suggests that while facing challenging or difficult times (the "dark forest"), the only solution is to persevere and continue moving forward ("the only way out"). However, even in these darkest times, there are moments of respite and hope ("places where the light filters through the trees"). These glimpses of light serve as reminders of a greater beauty that exists beyond the darkness, encouraging us to keep going on our journey. In essence, it encourages persistence and faith in the face of adversity.
"History is not a straight line but a labyrinth, and its enigmas never entirely resolve themselves."
This quote suggests that history is not a simple progression from one event to another, but rather a complex, intricate maze with many intertwining paths and unresolved mysteries. It implies that understanding history requires exploration, patience, and recognition of its complexity, as not all puzzles are easily solved or neatly tied up. The quote underscores the idea that historical events are connected in various ways, and their implications can be multifaceted and hard to decipher completely.
"In the realm of art and memory, time has no purchase; it's only in the world outside that one place follows another in an unbroken chain."
In this quote, Steve Erickson suggests that within artistic expression and personal memory, the concept of time as a linear progression does not apply. Instead, these realms exist timelessly, where past, present, and future can coexist in a non-sequential manner. Conversely, outside these domains, time flows continuously from one moment to another without pause or repetition. Essentially, Erickson is highlighting the unique ability of art and memory to transcend traditional notions of temporal progression and offer us new ways of experiencing and understanding our past, present, and future.
Part of the process of reading is constantly hitting the pause button, and now and then the rewind button, to ponder a word that's been chosen by the author as exquisitely as the filmmaker chooses an image or a sound editor chooses a sonic clue - the tolling of a bell in the distance to evoke memory, for instance.
- Steve Erickson
The beautifully composed imagery of '12 Years a Slave' underscores the savagery of its subject, which is an American South not of knights and ladies but obscene values and a grotesque pageantry, every gorgeous shot of the languid landscape radiating toxicity like a hyperlush blossom that's poison to the touch.
- Steve Erickson
If Lincoln is among history's truly great men, he didn't achieve that stature until his final three years. This was when his long-held antipathy to slavery cohered into a dedicated hostility that gave larger purpose to the Civil War and also confirmed the logic of Lincoln's destiny.
- Steve Erickson
The notion of artistic responsibility begs questions with no satisfactory conclusions, the most inevitable and ineffectual being that we should just keep thinking and talking about it, given that the alternative - a governmental body monitoring the movies we make and see - is unacceptable.
- Steve Erickson
Americans should be ashamed of how aflutter they get about Downton Abbey - it's unpatriotic. I seem to remember we fought a revolution so as not to put up with this nonsense, where notions of station are so unforgiving that upper and lower echelons are practically different species.
- Steve Erickson
'Downton Abbey' is a pageant, a cavalcade of a time when being born right is the first and most irrevocable career move, and in which an older order - whose passing 'Downton's' creator, Julian Fellowes, clearly mourns - is submerging in icy seas as surely as a grand and extravagant ocean liner.
- Steve Erickson
Created by writer Beau Willimon, who's worked on several political campaigns, 'House of Cards' cannily exploits the current widespread cynicism for our politics, catering to a public scorn that's warranted and also glib in the sort of cheap pox-on-both-houses way that means not having to pay attention.
- Steve Erickson
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