Many try to force the past to change.
Posterity--the forlorn child of nineteenth century optimism--grows ever harder to conceive.
After a moment of shrinking back, we domesticate the grotesque.
Wallace Stevens: the Platonist celebrates endless change, but with regret.
Ironic and jittery, we are puzzled by the old heroes with their fighting, boasting, and cocksure lovemaking.
Pity drowns in numbers.