Comments on: Time Tricks

By: Essay Writing

Essay Writing — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 20:18:00 +0000

I found to be quite useful.nThis is really fantastic advice, thank you so much.

By: jennifersims

jennifersims — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:42:58 +0000

My husband, Bill, has been reading “A Short History of Time” by Steven Hawking, and I must say, Bill talks like this when he's trying to explain what Hawking is saying. It doesn't seem linear, and maybe that's the point. Now and then I get glimpses. . . !

By: beverlyeicher

beverlyeicher — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 05:13:03 +0000

“time is what you don't have” or maybe you do. the trick only works if you are not looking.
time surrounds us, envelops us and asks nothing in return. Your thoughts on time
seem to speak to us all.

By: Tara

Tara — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 17:17:11 +0000

Wow, this is great. I'm going to have to read it through again because you've packed it so full of interesting things to think about. It also sounds like your son has the perfect grandparents for him.

I like how you get at our weird relationships with time, our - you, your son, Augustine, people shopping for clocks, etc. Some people have this incredible memory for dates and connecting even insignificant events to the time they happened (Oct 3, 1996 was cloudy with rain in the early afternoon). I don't, I have to keep an agenda to remember anything. Is it just a memory thing, or is it a relationship thing?

I usually think of time as something we live in but your essay makes me want to try to think about it as something that lives in/through us, writing itself on our bodies and then burying us when it's done with us.

By: Amy Meckler

Amy Meckler — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 16:46:33 +0000

You talk about time like it’s equivalent to race: though based on something integrated with all human life and interaction, it’s socially constructed, and defined by each in different and personal ways.
Time, I think, is best defined as the passing of sequential events. Time passes because this happened, then this happened, then that happened. Yet, the experience of the time going slowly or quickly is completely subjective. We believe our dreams take time to unfold, though they may very well flash into our memory in one single moment, then only take time to recount or piece together.
Children are certainly the most salient indicator of time. My nephew is 6 weeks old, and I’ve never been more attuned to what happens in 6 weeks as I have been since he was born.

By: Michael Bennett Cohn

Michael Bennett Cohn — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 02:58:27 +0000

Eric, have you read Longitude? I thought of it while reading this... time as a phenomenon of both nature and culture.

Also, I wonder what time analog clocks were set to when they were the only kind sold in stores? 10:10 perhaps, as a sort of smile?

By: Jane Summer

Jane Summer — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 11:58:44 +0000

I really love this piece. It's intelligent, meditative and yet playful, and the tone is perfect for talking about time--a topic that scholars and lay people alike will each have to untangle on their own because, as the piece points out, there is no definitive answer. If there is anything weirder and yet more essential than time, I have no idea what it would be.

On another note, I love this writer's style; it strikes me as unique. It's a strong yet humble, layered, eclectic voice. I respect Hemingway, but I think he's made many lesser writers think they can write completely forgettable sentences and pass them off as good writing. We seem to accept that a poetic voice will challenge us, but if a prose voice is anything but bland, we cry foul. Why? Are we really that lazy?

Plus, I'm beyond tired of dry academic articles masquerading as personal essay writing, and I'm equally tired of essayist who act like they have found the Rosetta Stone of existence based on one personal experience, without providing any insight to the reader of a historical, cultural or literary context. Don't we all know that life is a mixture of the sublime and the pedestrian, of exclusive, five star restaurants but also the messy fun of homemade toothpick cherry-red ice pops? I wish more intelligent, reflective, well-read writers would stop being so snobby and throw the likes of Aristotle in with Magic 8-balls a heck of a lot more often. Aristotle helps us understand life...but it seems to me that life helps us understand Aristotle, too.

Thank you, Eric, for writing--and don't let anyone water you down your voice or make you doubt that the silly and the serious can work together beautifully.