An Imaginary Life

"An Imaginary Life" was less an assignment and more like reading for pleasure; it pulled together the ideas that run throughout this course. It encompassed the themes of the eternal return, metamorphoses, honoring the cycle of life through rituals, and Steiner's five principal constants of conflict in the condition of man: men and women, age and youth, society and the individual, the living and the dead, and men and gods. I have enjoyed other readings we've been assigned, I never thought how beautifully they were written, but "An Imaginary Life" made me appreciate how it was written as much as I did the story. Perhaps the lyrical qualities of the other readings were lost when translated and modernized and we do not read them in their original language and form. Another quality that made "An Imaginary Life" so compelling was the contrast between the fast-paced tales of Ovid and the slow-paced metamorphoses written by Malouf.

In Malouf's tale, Ovid slowly transforms from the urban poet whose life is completely of the mind to one who is (re) exposed to the physicality of life - where securing food, shelter, and protection from danger are an integral part of daily life - there is no time to sit and contemplate on other thanwhat is necessary. The Child helps Ovid realize that humans are as much of the earth as the animals and the rest of the natural world, even as Ovid is trying to help the Child connect to his humanness. The entire fifth section of the book tells of Ovid's final transformation - the fluidity of movement that Malouf uses makes Ovid's metamorphosis appear as a possibility, as something that is natural.

Another important theme in both the course and "An Imaginary Life" is the eternal return - the cycle of life through the ages, the seeds of spring bringing new life. This is demonstrated in the rituals of both the women and men of Tomis, the understanding that to pay tribute to the past is to ensure the continuance of the future. When Ovid is in the midst of the field with the impaled horsemen he thinks, "I feel a moment of exhilaration, and am reminded of something- something that my mind just fails to grasp, as if all this had happened before" (45). Being in the presence of the Child, Ovid remembers his childhood, his father and brother, and the Child of the past, the present, and the Child he is; all illustrating the cycle of life, and how life in whatever form, continues.

"An Imaginary Life" ties all of this together in contemporary and yet timeless ways; the past possesses the present, the present retains what is past.