To be a possessor, to own, to have, to control a thing, is a
power extreme and true to the core. You
cannot fake possession; to have a thing at your complete and utter will is not
an earthly gift, but divine. Of the few
concepts that could fall into this divine category, time is now of
question. Does the past possess the
present? In Night Sea Journey, Barth creates a cycle of life in which, without question, the
present is completely dependent upon the past.
A sperm
tries to reach an egg. He swims and
swims through an endless night, his comrades falling dead, drowning, all around
him. He despises this journey, his faith
in the “shore” lessening with each fallen brother, however he continues to pull
through. His will cannot overcome the
call of nature, of the past of creation.
“’I am love
all love. Come!’” She (the egg) whispers, and I have no will.” The sperm admits
his submission.
In the past
was born this sperm with the birth of its human. The past created this present sperm. The past cycle of life, of endless swimming,
created the current cycle, an endless call to nature which none of the sperm
can overcome. The past will continue to
create the cycle of life which possesses the future generations of eggs, sperm,
and humans. It is endless.
This
endlessness drives the swimming sperm insane.
He cannot stand to watch another one of his comrades die at the expense
of, in his view, a pointless journey merely because it is what has always been
done. He is possessed by the past into
an incredulous madness, a madness that is a part of his genetics, his genetics
also created by the past.
The sperm
is a victim of his this never-ending past.
It is the past, present, and future of life. Our life.
Are we, therefore, victims of our paths?
Are we no better than the sperm that created us, swimming the cycle of
life- breathing, sleeping, eating, birthing- until we drown in our own
death? Is there anyway to liberate our
present selves from our pasts of human nature?
I should
think not.
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