Things Seen
Annie Ernaux
Vincent Van Gogh, in a letter: "I seek to find a way to express the desperately swift passing away of things in modern life."
Today, for a few minutes, I tried to see all people I ran into, all strangers. It seemed to me that, as I observed those people in detail, their existence suddenly became very close to me, as if I were touching them. Were I continue such an experiment, my vision of the world and of myself would turn out to be radically transformed. Perhaps I would disappear.
The sensation of time passing is not inside us. It comes from outside, from children who grow up, neighbors who leave, from people growing older and dying. Bakeries that close and are replaced by driving schools or television repair shops. The cheese department moved to the back of the supermarket, which is no longer called Franprix but Leader Price.