#//lol if anyone actually studies philosophy please don't judge me if i misunderstand/misrepresent the concept here

[wickedlehane]

//ooc; im about to hit 400 posts (i think this is 399) but please allow me to indulgently talk about how much i love my blog’s title

“Zeno’s Arrow Never Hits the Mark”

technically lifted from a set of lyrics by singer Dessa, from her song “Fighting Fish”

I wanna try, I wanna risk And I don't wanna walk- rather swing and a miss I'm not above apologies but I don't ask permissions Got a lot of imperfections but I don't carry my ambition in them

Zeno's arrow never hits the mark It's always hanging there over its shadow Safe from battle, waste of archer's time and trouble Waste of effort, waste of parts If you don't aim for the center it's a waste of the art

I didn't come looking for love I didn't come to pick a fight

This song is on my Faith playlist and it fits her really well but I love that the Zeno’s Arrow paradox really lines up nicely with a lot of Faith’s character development. Here it is as in my “About Faith” page, pulled from Wikipedia:

In the arrow paradox, Zeno states that for motion to occur, an object must change the position which it occupies. He gives an example of an arrow in flight. He states that in any one (duration-less) instant of time, the arrow is neither moving to where it is, nor to where it is not. It cannot move to where it is not, because no time elapses for it to move there; it cannot move to where it is, because it is already there.

In other words, at every instant of time there is no motion occurring. If everything is motionless at every instant, and time is entirely composed of instants, then motion is impossible.

Apart from being a concept that is FAR TOO COMPLEX for Faith to grasp philosophically, it’s a great way to look at Faith’s idea of lashing out when nothing’s in control and nothing makes sense- she cannot move forward in any one singular moment of time because she’s already where she is. She’s the Slayer, that’s the moment she occupies. Her descent to darkness of course has an arc over the show, but she is so present in every instance and moment, it seems to her that she doesn’t change position. But that’s not how an arrow flies. (talk to me about how badly the coma fucks her up- that the world moves on when she’s literally motionless)

Motion, and therefore personal growth, is impossible if you look at every individual instance as separate in the overall trajectory. And I feel like Faith is so “in the moment” that it does seem to her nothing moves and changes, and big moments are more radical because the motion it took to get there doesn’t occur to her- it’s a micro vs macro view of her role as a Slayer and the greater responsibilities around her.

It’s not until she pulls herself from the arc she’s launched herself through- by turning herself in for her crimes- that she can withdraw and give herself a new trajectory, guided by Angel’s belief in her ability to change. It’s interesting her furthest growth comes in a time of stagnation, in prison.

Zeno’s Arrow is a paradox for a reason and so a lot of this chatter is just stream of consciousness brainthinks but I love how these lyrics pair nicely with/play on a philosophical concept that I think really informs how I write Faith. Caught in a series of moments where she is neither going to where she will be, nor coming from where she started- she is suspended in those moments I write. That’s where she is, and there is no motion when scrutinized separately. But all of those instances put together pull together her true arc, as a character and a hypothetical arrow.