‘The systematic elusiveness of “now”’

"The problem with the aesthetic is that although we are in one sense tied to the present, in another sense the ‘now’ always eludes us. One no sooner refers to the ‘now’ than that moment recedes into the past. To bastardize a phrase from Gilbert Ryle, we can call this ‘the systematic elusiveness of “now”’. It is this feature of the present which is the source of the dissatisfaction of the guests at Constantine’s banquet. They are all in their various ways ‘dedicated to or ensnared in immediacy’ but that means all that they live for is constantly slipping into the past. They can never keep hold of anything they value, except in memories, which also fade."