Reading Response 10/27

“Life has slowed down so drastically for him that Blue is now able to see things that have previously escaped hos attention.”

What was on display in the short novel GHOST written by, Paul Auster was how uncomfortable people can be with themselves, how much we really don’t like it, how irritating loneliness can be, and the desperation that sinks in when we don’t feel like we have a purpose. Both Black and Blue became victims of their own minds by becoming entrapped in it, due to lack of stimulating interactions with other people. There were many examples in the novel of the great lengths people will go through and where their mind leads them in the presence of loneliness. Also about how much of an importance we put on trying to figure out things even if there’s nothing to figure out. We just can’t let things be it seems. How desperate people get when all they have to deal with is themselves is an interesting concept that this novel focuses on.

A good example of what happens when you spend too much time with loneliness can be found on page nineteen in the novel when Auster writes, “He has never given much thought to the world inside him, and though he always knew it was there, it had remained an unknown quantity, unexplored and therefore dark, even to himself.” It seems like the mind must constantly be working. When the external world slows down and the mind has nothing to process, it gets directed inward in self-reflection. When life slows down, as one knows it, one begins to see who they are. Following the vision are many questions about purpose and the concept of being becomes a thought, and not an unconscious action. Like Blue, many aren’t satisfied with just being, they have to figure out why to all their burning questions, sometimes leading down rabbit holes.