How we View the Past

I am starting to like this book a lot now since much of what seemed to be unexplained in the beginning is being explained now. There is finally concrete information letting us know that Phaedrus is not a ghost, and as I had thought, Phaedrus is a character out of Plato's works. While at first I had found it extremely creepy that the main character was so obsessed with Phaedrus and spoke of Phaedrus as this thing that possessed him, I now find it interesting since Phaedrus, as the main character explains hi, is one of the inventors of reason.
I really like the point the main character had about the way we view the past, present, and future. He said that "you look at where you're going and where you are and it never makes sense, but then you look back where you've been and a pattern starts to emerge." I found this to be so compelling because of how relevant and accurate it was with everyday life. I think I speak for most people when I say that the past always seems like a better, more exciting and peaceful time (not during all experiences though). In the moment, most things or situations hardly ever make sense to us. They frustrate us so much that we even begin to hate the present. Then, as we look back retrospectively into the past we see something that makes sense when the present and the future is so foggy. I think this clarity that we can see in what we have already experienced is what makes people long for the past so deeply.
The main character finally explains what his problem with technology is and this explanation made me have a much deeper appreciation, better said an appreciation since I hated him before this, for his way of thinking. I know understand why he judges John and Sylvia so much because he has explained his dislike of technology. Though many do not think about it, technology is, as the main character states, disconnected from matters of the spirit and the heart. Technology is just this thing we use to facilitate our lives and no one thinks about how plain it is because of what it gives us. If it weren't as useful as it is, people would probably criticize technology's disconnected ways constantly. I like that the main character has such a deep appreciation for the arts and for things that really awaken and connect us to our souls (and I say this without trying to sound really mystical and cheesy).

-Talia Akerman