I like to write, but often writing isn’t easy. There is always a tension between what I want to write and what I actually write. Sometimes I wonder if I am revealing too much and other times I wonder if I am not saying enough. And there are times when phrases like this get stuck in my brain:
“Sitting among the remnants of the future.”
Seriously, that’s been in my brain for the last thirty minutes and I have no idea what it means. Perhaps it is a title of a time travel novel or a poem where the speaker laments.
Perhaps it is prophetic and part of some ancient future – some mythology that has formed around pasta machines.
It feels like there should be something profound in the phrase, but it could also be just plain silly. Perhaps it’s a chapter in a post apocalyptic book when the hero finally discovers a ruined shell of a 21st century data center and realizes that no one will ever be able to restart it and recover the vast secrets it holds.
Perhaps, it’s a pen and ink drawing – a spaceship crashed on an alien landscape with a space suited figure collapsed against a rock looking back at the wreckage that has stranded her light years from home.
Or maybe it could be a novel about a man born in the 1950’s told flash backs weaving the story of his life around cause and effect – telling how that choice to drive to the lake became his greatest joy and deepest regret.
“Sitting among the remnants of the future”
“Sitting” implying no movement and being introspective.
“among” More than one thing – in the midst of lots of things. Objects, memories.
“the remnants” Tattered and dusty. Broken and discarded. Incomplete and fragmented.
“of the future” a juxtaposition where past and future merge then fade.
Or it is just a lament of an old man who never achieved all he set out to do?
A writer can never be sure why some words come to disturb the mind and take the story to places he hadn’t intended.
Peace,
Andrew
Pingback: Another Past – Another Future | Andrew's View of the Week
Good phrase, very catching.
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Thanks.
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What a fascinating phrase – no wonder it stuck in your brain. I agree: Writing isn’t easy! (But it’s certainly absorbing.)
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Some day I’d like to know where these thoughts come from.
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I wonder that myself, frequently. I’ll be writing along and the words are flowing; and when I read what I’ve written I think, “Now where did that come from?!?” 😉
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Once or twice a year I’ll read something I wrote and think to myself, “Damn that was good.” Wish I could be more consistent.
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Great post to ponder over, and I think I’ve wondered some of the same things. Posting about my health issues is something I wouldn’t have done years ago. I know I’ve changed over the blogging years. And this is a great line stuck in your head. I have a feeling it will lead to a wonderful, profound piece of writing. Let it sit for awhile; words to follow will come to you when you least expect them. 🙂
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That’s thing I like about writing – you never know where it will lead.
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I enjoy your musings, even when don’t have a conclusion — or maybe it’s because they have no conclusion I enjoy them? In any case, I’m right with you in not understanding where the thoughts come from or what they mean most of the time. It’s what keeps drawing me back, I suppose. 😉
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It’s what keeps me writing – some thoughts only come to me while I’m at the keyboard.
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You know, writing something that doesn’t appear to make sense to the point where others don’t know what it means only makes you sound profound and interesting..:) It happens all the time. Like art!
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It is an art – profound nonsense. Normally I am a boring person, except when touched by the enigmatic muse.
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Pasta machine! Love it!
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Lots of people worship their pasta machines …
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For some reason the phrase brings to me an image if an American Indian Chief sitting near the fire, in full headress smoking a pipe (Don’t know whether it’s a peace pipe). Does that help???
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It does help – interesting image.
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Well, I never said it made sense…
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But sometimes the best stories come from things that make no sense.
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I must say that I find the phrase compelling. It feels like it should lead to something wise and grand! I hope you’ll find a way to use it, and if it’s stuck in your thoughts you probably will! I don’t write much beyond my blog, but I am a “communicator” with a few friends who challenge me towards deep discussion, and I have some of the same challenges and questions about sharing…too much? too little? Is that the best word to use? I suppose I’d rather struggle with words than waste them with nonsense and drivel. 🙂
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It is an interesting phrase – so many ways to think about it.
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Andrew, as a writer, I know exactly what you mean. We spend our time unpacking phrases and ideas that sometimes have no meaning. It’s frustrating and tedious. But it’s so glorious when it all comes together and the meaning is clear. Thank you for an insightful and well thought out post!
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It’s great when it comes together, but before that, not so fun sometimes.
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You captured those words! That’s what writers and poets do. Then we analyze them. It seems all this time travel lands you where you’ve always been. Right in the present moment 😊
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Past, future, just two lenses to view the present.
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Pondering what might have been surrounded by that which will be. A great start (or finish?) – where will it lead, or what has happened before?
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Endings make great beginnings.
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Hmmm. Remnants are old. The future is new. This means you may have gone time travelling. A thought provoking sentence for sure. Let us know where it takes you.
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Time travel would be required as would a view point from outside the story.
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I like the phrase, but it sounds ominous to me. Our society is sitting among the remnants of what would have been our future if we don’t change our direction.
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It is a bit ominous isn’t it.
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Today was the future yesterday. That makes our present state the future if we don’t do anything to alter our circumstances or the surroundings. It’s been a long day and I’m rambling.
Thanks for sharing your phrase and giving us something to think about, Andrew.
Ω
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It is something to think about.
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I like that phrase and what it evokes, though for me, I’d be “terror-stricken by the remnants of the future”, Nothing passive about thriller writers!
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A thriller should be packed with action – I might try that path.
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