More revelations in Burnt Norton

While talking with Adam in the library, we discussed another interesting thought on the Four Quartets.

So much of Burnt Norton seems to be about something about a "still point." It's like a vaccuum in time. A stillness just before something happens but irrelevant to the actual happening, "Caught in the form of limitation Between un-being and being." (20). It's as if in this still point, an action has yet to happen but at the same time has already ended. It is a strange concept.

In Movement 3 in Burnt Norton. Eliot uses Subway imagery (or at least thats what the author of a short introduction on the Four Quartets says). For example "Only a flicker over the strained time-ridden faces Distracted from distraction by distraction filled with fancies and empty of meaning Tumid apathy with no conentration Men and bits of paper, whirled by the cold wind that blows before and after time..." What I find interesting about the Subway imagery and the concept of "Still point" is the idea that when someone stands on a subway platform and a full subway car passes by, for a split second (or "still point"), the person on the subway platform can clearly see each person on the train as they pass even though the car remains in constant movement. For a brief nanosecond, the person on the subway platform and the person directly across from them on the moving car exist in a "Still point" (or at least the closest natural occurrence of a "Still Point.")

I have quite a few more thoughts on this idea however we should be covering them in our group presentation. I wanted to share a little food for thought about Burnt Norton as I discover the tasty tidbits.