JZ's post

Although we probably all discussed the topics explored in Flaubert's Parrot in our respective classes, I feel that I expound on some of the topics we discussed in period 2. Although our conversation evolved from coincidence to interstices and finally to what constitutes the difference between humans and other mammals, I found the most interesting topic to be the relationship between absence and existence. I came to realize that these two are much more congruous than I once believed. Truly, you cannot have one without the other. If you only have absence, what do you have absence from, if there is no existence? On the contrary, what constitutes existence if there is no absence to base that existence off of? I have begun to like this book a lot more, because Barnes explores these issues as they relate to literature. Truly, this realtes back to the original question: why are we randy for relics? Why do we dwell on the books authors don't write? I say, we shouldn't.