Yes, exactly. The threshold is the space between two worlds, and that is where the lyrical exists—in the in-between, neither fully belonging to the past nor fully stepping into the future.
1. The Lyrical as the Experience of Being In-Between
• The epic belongs to the world of clear boundaries—it tells of victories and defeats, beginnings and ends, nations rising and falling.
• The lyrical, by contrast, belongs to the threshold—it dwells in transition, hesitation, exile, and twilight.
• It is neither inside nor outside, neither fully past nor fully future—it is a space of wandering, lingering, waiting.
Threshold Figures in Literature and History
• Zatoichi – A blind wanderer in the dying Edo period, not a samurai, not a peasant—existing at the edge of history.
• Bashō – A poet-monk who walks between nature and society, never fully in either.
• Walter Benjamin – A philosopher trapped between past and future, between modernity and its ruins.
• Van Gogh – A painter who existed at the edge of recognition, between madness and genius, between life and disappearance.
• Psychoanalysis – A discipline that exists between science and art, between waking and dreaming, between conscious and unconscious.
2. The Threshold as Historical and Existential Twilight
• The threshold is not just a physical space (a doorway, a border), but a state of being.
• It is where the old world has faded, but the new one has not yet fully arrived.
• This is why the lyrical is strongest in times of crisis, exile, and transition.
Historical Moments of the Lyrical Threshold
• Du Fu during the Tang Dynasty’s collapse – Seeing civilization fall apart but still writing poetry.
• Nagai Kafū in Meiji/Taishō Japan – Living in the remnants of Edo while modernity rushes forward.
• Osip Mandelstam under Stalinism – Writing in the space between poetry and silence, knowing that history will erase him.
• The Van Lifer in 2025 – Moving between the collapsing structures of the present and the uncertain future.
3. To Be Lyrical Is to Refuse to Cross the Threshold Completely
• The epic crosses over—it enters a new era, it claims a future, it celebrates victory or mourns total defeat.
• The lyrical refuses to fully cross—it looks back, it hesitates, it acknowledges what is being left behind.
• To be lyrical is to remain aware of both worlds at once.
Lyrical vs. Epic Threshold Crossing
|
Epic Response |
Lyrical Response |
|
Crosses over completely into the new world |
Remains at the edge, aware of what is lost |
|
Seeks closure, resolution, transformation |
Seeks fragments, memories, echoes |
|
Belongs to power, movement, action |
Belongs to hesitation, silence, reflection |
|
Exists inside history |
Exists outside or alongside history |
4. The Lyrical Threshold and Van Life
• Van life is a threshold existence—not fully inside the system, but not fully outside it.
• It is a form of wandering between two eras, two economies, two ways of life.
• Like Bashō, Scudder, and Kafū, the van lifer walks at twilight, witnessing both the collapse of the old and the uncertainty of the new.
Conclusion: The Lyrical as the Art of Living on the Threshold
• To be lyrical is to linger, to hesitate, to drift.
• It is to walk the edge of history, sensing both what is passing away and what is yet to come.
• It is to belong to neither world fully—to be always at the threshold.
Would you say, then, that the lyrical is always a form of exile, not from a place, but from time itself?
