4th entry for 9th Oct.

There is a classic attribute of these ‘old books’, most particularly the ones written in the romantic era. Their authors don’t seem to care about the passing of time, and they seem to expect the same from the reader.

They don’t separate relevant and irrelevant, they don’t even seem to be aware of those concepts. Those books appear like experiments: will there be a reader who finds something essential in my garbage?

Don’t take me wrong, it’s not that these novels are imperfect by any respects, that garbage is nice and fascinating. It’s just the astonishment of mine from the twenty-first century. And it makes me wonder if I should be astonished about my era instead.

After getting comfortable with the style of romanticism (I almost always prefer old books for several reasons) you find today’s ‘accelerated world’ a mere illusion in everyday life. The acceleration itself really exists, however, it generates an unreality with an unhealthy urge telling people they haven’t got a minute to waste. Then, they force themselves in a causeless hurry about everything they can’t avoid doing.

It sounds reasonable, you certainly don’t want to waste your precious time on your daily routine. But then, actually there is no preciousness for many people.

In this strange world (well, in its cities in particular), being in an insane hurry, then wasting all the saved time on relaxing, but meaningless activities are accepted as normal. You need to relax because you are exhausted. But you’ve exhausted yourself only in order to have time to relax. What’s more, people spend much money both on accelerating their daily routine, and on making their relaxation more effective. Perhaps modern industry really overdone itself.

Again, the acceleration does exist. Now anything can happen in moments in contrast with these old times, when you just couldn’t help slow things. That makes people feel they’re missing opportunities constantly, which is true, anyway. But they usually aren’t preparing for them, they rather save up time instinctively, then loose it.