The title of this post may seem a little odd, but that will be explained later on. The subject of this post starts with Ernest Hemmingway, an author who wrote several diverse culture novels. We were discussing this in English, and the teacher explained why the dialogue is so odd in The Old Man and the Sea. He said it reads in such a boring way because it emphasises romanticism. Romanticism is said to be the fusion of man and nature. This meant that the old man in the story is only named near the end so that he retains his archetype and highlights his romanticism with the sea, as the same description applies to both the old man and the sea. The teacher then singled me out, and asked me to describe what it felt like when I was 'in the zone' while fencing. This is now where I discuss it.
When I get in the zone, I don't feel very energetic. It's not really a sort of 'Eye of the Tiger' mood, despite what people expect it to be. It is basically, an example of romanticism. I feel very peaceful, aware of everything going on around me, and not just in the environment, but part of it. All the troubles and trivia of the world are brushed aside when I'm on the piste. I don't have to think, because my brain and my body are perfectly co-ordinated. They don't stop to think, and they are not harboured by the limits of the physical anatomy. Everything just seems to flow. A second seems like a minute and vice versa. My mind never stops, and only remembers that I am a person after the bout. Before that I am just a fencer. So when people ask me what happened at points in the fight, if I have been in the zone, I can't honestly remember. My mind will not have stopped to consider it, as it will have automatically responded.
Romanticism for me happens very rarely, but when it all snaps into place, it feels great. Maybe that's why I fence. To achieve a state of mind that men search for over decades of meditation and philosophy. Perhaps.
