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Motifs
Definition of Paradox
A paradox is a figure of speech that seems to contradict itself, but which, upon further examination, contains some kernel of truth or reason. Oscar Wilde's famous declaration that "Life is... read full definition
A paradox is a figure of speech that seems to contradict itself, but which, upon further examination, contains some kernel of truth or reason. Oscar... read full definition
A paradox is a figure of speech that seems to contradict itself, but which, upon further examination, contains some kernel... read full definition
Part I, Chapter 9: Nao
Explanation and Analysis—Then and Now:
“If you’ve ever tried to keep a diary, then you’ll know that the problem of trying to write about the past really starts in the present,” Nao writes in her diary in Part I. So begins the paradox that she spends the better part of the entry unpacking:
No matter how fast you write, you’re always stuck in the then and you can never catch up to what’s happening now, which means that now is pretty much doomed to extinction…So saying now obliterates its meaning, turning it into exactly what it isn’t. It’s like the word is committing suicide or something. So then I’d start making it shorter . . . now, ow, oh, o . . . until it was just a bunch of little grunting sounds and not even a word at all. It was hopeless, like trying to hold a snowflake on your tongue or a soap bubble between your fingertips. Catching it destroys it, and I felt like I was disappearing, too.
Related Themes:
Part III, Chapter 7: Haruki #1’s Secret French Diary
Explanation and Analysis—Self and Selflessness:
Haruki #1’s French diary becomes the site of a paradox in Part IV. As he braces himself to die through killing, he reflects on the transience of life and the ethics of living well. Dōgen’s words spring to mind:
Unlock with LitCharts A+To study the Way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be enlightened by all the myriad things.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Coming and Going:
The self is a paradox of its own. In Part IV, Haruki #1 contemplates the mutability of his body in his French diary entry as he suffers and struggles through the trials of military training camp. The search for life's meaning depends partly on understanding the self. But that self is hardly stable, he realizes in a paradox:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Both life and death manifest in every moment of existence. Our human body appears and disappears moment by moment, without cease, and this ceaseless arising and passing away is what we experience as time and being. They are not separate. They are one thing, and in even a fraction of a second, we have the opportunity to choose, and to turn the course of our action either toward the attainment of truth or away from it. Each instant is utterly critical to the whole world.
Related Themes:
