These were the first moments of a new existence, a strange one in which she already glimpsed the element of timelessness that would surround her. The person who frantically has been counting the seconds on his way to catch a train, and arrives panting just as it disappears, knowing the next one is not due for many hours, feels something of the same sudden surfeit of time, the momentary sensation of drowning in an element become too rich and too plentiful to be consumed, and thereby made meaningless, non-existent.
In the initial moments of a transformative experience, the protagonist encounters a sense of timelessness that alters her perception of existence. This shift echoes the sensation of someone who, in a frantic bid to catch a train, arrives just as it departs. Their anxious countdown transforms into a stark realization of a void, plunging them into an overwhelming abundance of time that renders it both rich and unwieldy.
This feeling emphasizes the paradox of time, where the urgency and frantic pace of life can suddenly dissolve into a vastness that feels both liberating and disorienting. It mirrors the broader themes of existential exploration found in Paul Bowles' "The Sheltering Sky," illustrating how moments of realization can shift one’s understanding of reality and the passage of time.
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All the things you can talk about in anyone's work are the things that are least important.
Race of Cain, ascend to heaven, And cast God down upon the earth!
