Robert Grudin
Time and the Art of Living
VII.26
For a while now I have kept, along with our more traditional timepieces, a digital watch which shows hours, minutes and seconds in illuminated Arabic numerals. Such watches, my wife remarks, give their wearers a wholly different idea of time. Looking at them we see a particular time, divorced from its context in the broader picture of the day. The round faces of the older watches and clocks speak to us not only of the present but also of the past and the future--when we woke, when we will work or play or rest, where we have been, where we wish to be or must be. Intricately and persistently they remind us of our existence in a continuum, which includes not only the social and natural world but also our own extending identity in time. The new watches, like many other modern and businesslike thins, ignore such frivolities, demarcating only that particular island of time on which we happen to be stranded.
-- Robert Grudin --
Time and the Art of Living
What sayest thou? Has his wife a valid point?
Do the round faces of the older watches and clocks speak to us not only of the present but also of the past and the future?
Do they remind us of our existence in a continuum, which includes not
only the social and natural world but also our own extending identity in
time?
Does the sweep of the "seconds" hand convey a different picture of time passing than does the sight of numbers increasing one-by-one on a digital watch?.
i take it that what Grudin is actually referring to are the characteristics of time as envisioned in the modern technological age we live in... due to memory and it's relation to the future, people today certainly have a broader conception of time than in the past, when the seasons alone governed human activity... when the first clock was installed in the first church tower, it was a revolution in how our race conducted itself and its affairs... it was the beginning of an awareness of the universe around us that signaled an enormous change in how man regards himself and his role in space/time... in a philosophical way, the digital watch may refer to a return to those days of day to day living...
ReplyDeletea bit too much extrapolation, there, i guess... interesting the ways in which a paragraph can explode in the brain like a flower, leading to all sorts of strange ideations... maybe that didn't happen before clocks were invented...
Mudpuddle--I see the digital watch as portraying each moment of time as a static position, one that jumps independently from one to the next position, without any sense of relatedness. The sweep of that second hand suggests a flowing movement, rather that the static jump.
DeleteYes, that certainly happened to me because of that paragraph. I had completely forgotten about the other watches that I had until Grudin's paragraph. Now I think I will take them in to be cleaned and maybe wear at least one
of them and retire the digital watch.
Great interpretation about "flowing" time versus little "jumps". I do like clocks with second hands. The only watch I currently have is a digital one. I started wearing Casios back in the '70s when I began jogging. As mentioned, you can do so much with them.
Deletemadamevauquer-- I forgot to mention that the digital also tells me the day of the week and the date, which is helpful for me as I'm retired and don't pay that much attention to the calendar.
DeleteThe little "jumps" poses a question: does time flow or move in small jumps, perhaps so small we can't detect them. I get a headache when I start thinking about time.
Yes, the date is especially handy for me and keeping up (trying to anyway) with what I need to do.
DeleteSometimes I think time makes larger jumps. I am at times amazed when I look at the time and see how much time has passed - and not just when I'm on the Internet, but doing anything around the house. Everything seems to take so much longer than expected.
madamevauquer--I'm the opposite. I generally overestimate the time it will take to do something.
DeleteThe exception is reading: I'm surprised to see how much time has passed once I settle down with a book.
R.T.--way back when, in my Levi-wearing days, I carried my father's pocket watch, but later I stopped because no other brand I could find had a watch pocket. I then went to a regular round-faced watch for a while until digital watches appeared.
ReplyDeleteI switched because one could all sorts of things with them: time events, set an alarm, see it in the dark. A minor benefit was that they didn't have to be wound up daily.
Now, of course, being retired, I find that those advantages are no longer important, so I'm now thinking of taking my other watches in for a cleaning and maybe even looking around for pants, besides Levis, that have watch pockets.
These are interesting questions. I think that it is worth noting that old fashioned watches have made a comeback and digital clocks have faded in popularity to some extent. Perhaps people are resisting this "new" sense of time. I also prefer older style clocks and watches.
ReplyDeleteBrian Joseph--as you may have noticed, I'm seriously considering retiring my digital watch and getting my old wrist watch and pocket watch cleaned and ready-to-go. I don't know why, but I started thinking about it after reading Grudin's wife's comments.
DeleteI also understand that vinyl records are making a comeback. I was on a music webpage and it listed CDs and vinyl LPs for sale. These are new recordings too.
I wonder if the old tube radios will show up some day.
R.T.--that's an interesting question. I don't remember anything specific that Frost might have said, but I've read so little of his complete works that I'm sure there's something interesting in there.
ReplyDeleteR.T.--chuckle. . . Both of those will definitely make the time pass, and as you say, exacerbate any tendencies toward headaches.
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing how the simplest statements can so often open up a real can of worms.
I love timepieces. I like the intricacies of their construction. I have different clocks all over my house because I like to maintain an awareness of the time that has passed. Like some others have said, I'm not fond of digital.
ReplyDeleteInteresting post, Fred.
Sharon--thank you for your kind words. The history of keeping time has fascinated me. OOTD I will dig out a history of time keeping devices.
DeleteFred: i once had plans for a pendulum clock made of cardboard... i eventually misplaced it, being otherwise occupied, but it would have been fun to try... plans may still be available on the net... somewhere....
DeleteR.T.--Thanks. I just did a search and found it is the first of a trilogy: The Discoverers, The Creators, and The Seekers. Do you know anything about the other two.
DeleteI have Borstin's books, except the Seekers. I haven't read them yet. Now I need to; at least that section.
DeleteJacques le Geoff has written interesting essays about the measurement of time and how it developed in Europe in the Middle Ages.
Sharon--the public library doesn't have The Discoverers, so I will have to go the InterLibraryLoan route in a few days.
DeleteThat's too bad. I have a couple of copies. I ordered a paperback from Amazon and then found a nice hardback copy at a Used Bookstore (yes, I do that). So you don't have enough and I have too many. :)
DeleteSharon--Ah, well, I shall survive. It's no real problem as I have reduced (attempting to do so, anyway) my book buying and am now relying on the public library.
DeleteI will now buy a book only if I cannot get it from the library in time for a discussion group or if I have gotten it from the library and decided this was one I had to have in my library. So far, this year I have reduced my book buying to only 8 books, a number far below what I would have purchased in past years.
The public library. Yes, that's a great idea in theory anyway. I found that if I get a book from the library and like it, I buy it anyway.
DeleteMy husband has done the math and said that every eight books I read that I already own I can buy another book and that will get rid of the back log. I'm not good at math but in good faith I am trying to practice this.
I have an electronic library on my computer that helps me track this.
Sharon--I'm trying to do the same thing, increase reading of books on Mount TBR and decrease buying or borrowing books.
DeleteMudpuddle--I'm sure that you will probably find another set of the plans. I think that I have heard of others who had made a cardboard clock--which sounds strange as I don't see how cardboard could stand the stress of a pendulum clock. But it would be fun to try.
ReplyDeleteGo for it.