{"id":516,"date":"2016-01-11T02:07:38","date_gmt":"2016-01-11T09:07:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/a1lieblang\/?p=516"},"modified":"2016-01-11T02:07:38","modified_gmt":"2016-01-11T09:07:38","slug":"time-before-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/a1lieblang\/2016\/01\/11\/time-before-death\/","title":{"rendered":"Time Before Death"},"content":{"rendered":"

Early on in The Idiot,<\/i> Prince Myshkin tells the story of a man about to be executed who has an epiphany. When faced with the imminence of death, the convicted man felt time slow down to a point where \u201cfive minutes seemed \u2026 an infinite term\u201d (64). The man became frustrated at this thought, thinking that if \u201clife were returned to [him, he] would turn every minute into an entire age\u201d and never waste a moment of his life (64). Despite this epiphanic moment, he still found that he \u201cwasted many, many moments\u201d after his life was spared. <\/span><\/p>\n

While this is an extreme example of an epiphanic moment before an absolute sentence, I find that a similar realization often occurs in our everyday lives. Albeit on a much smaller scale and a more trivial matter, often I find myself feeling the same sense of mystical clarity the night before an assignment is due.<\/span><\/p>\n

With an imminent deadline and an incomplete essay just hours before it is due, \u201cthe whole awful torture lies in the fact that there is certainly no escape\u201d from it; there is no chance for an extension or aid of any sort (24). In such scenarios, I also find myself similarly dividing the remaining time: two more hours for writing, then thirty more minutes to review, a quick break for perhaps a cup of tea \u2014 then the final read before submitting.\u00a0 <\/span>These minutes seem \u201ca vast wealth\u201d of time, and I promise that with the next assignment \u201cI would count every minute, and wouldn\u2019t waste a thing for nothing\u201d (65). However, much like the convict described in Dostoevsky\u2019s The Idiot<\/i>, I find with each passing week that I have not learned at all, and with many other assignments, \u201cwasted many, many moments\u201d (65).<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Early on in The Idiot, Prince Myshkin tells the story of a man about to be executed who has an epiphany. When faced with the imminence of death, the convicted man felt time slow down to a point where \u201cfive … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35118,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/a1lieblang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/a1lieblang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/a1lieblang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/a1lieblang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35118"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/a1lieblang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=516"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/a1lieblang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":517,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/a1lieblang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516\/revisions\/517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/a1lieblang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/a1lieblang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/a1lieblang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}