Time and Again
A novel by Jack Finney
Despite the fact Time and Again is fictional, it makes one wistful, thinking of how incredible it would be to be in Simon Morley’s place. To be able to see the world exactly as if a day had not passed in the time of 1882, to converse, to touch, to just breathe the air of the past – is merely dreaming.
Author Jack Finney describes how such a thing would come to pass – travelling back in time – and for a moment or more, I could believe every word. However far-fetched or seemingly plausible the novel was, it was told brilliantly, and the sketches helped one immerse themselves more and more into the tale. The novel had the similar effect of Dan Brown’s novels (The Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons, Deception Point) with meticulous research and facts, coupled with smart and abstract characters, and a theory or two, making for a convincing novel. But unlike Dan Brown’s novels, told with much suspense, heroism, and a distinctive hard-edged writing style, Time and Again was spun enthrallingly, but with a softer side, in the way character Simon Morley addressed the reader, almost in a conversational way.
At some point in the story, most major characters had a moment where I felt as if it was truly summing up the character or their feelings, a moment where I truly felt as if I was seeing a depth in the character that was unknown before. Such as Jake Pickering, Julia Huff’s supposed husband-to-be, and his very unanticipated tattooing of JULIA across his chest – in defiance of Simon’s interference and his assertion of ‘owning’ Julia and her love, a very desperate act by a desperate man. Julia herself had many of these defining moments, but what I felt to be the most striking was her initial reaction the present as Simon took her back into his time. Julia’s alien-like wonder at such things as television, and the shortness the skirt Simon bought for her (knee-high). But it is how easily Julia adjusts to the newness all around her, and her innocence and horror at the violence we tolerate that truly made it a very prominent scene. It was a moment to reflect upon how we (North America especially) so easily accept the violence around us. As for Simon, he had many moments with much depth as well, but I found myself feeling very compassionate towards him when he returned back to 1882 for around the third or fourth time.
Ambrose Bierce’s An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, which is a short story released in 1890, gained much popularity over the years. It is most famous for it’s manipulation of time. Though the events in the book only take seconds, the story is over eight pages long. Time seems to slow for the man in the noose and at the same time speed up for the reader. In this way, Bierce presents his manipulation of time in the story.
For it is a commonplace of our understanding of the period that the Victorian writer wanted above all to “stay in touch.” Comparing his situation with that of his immediate predecessors, he recognized that indulgence in a self-centered idealism was no longer viable in a society which ever more insistently urged total involvement in its occupations. The world was waiting to be improved upon, and solved, and everyone, poets, included had to busy themsel...
In The Sword in the Stone, T.H. White uses his talent of persuading the reader that he has already seen the things White describes and that the events are a part of the reader’s memory. White intenti...
In the novel Jane Eyre, it narrates the story of a young, orphaned girl. The story begins shortly after Jane walk around Gateshead Hall and evolves within the different situations she face growing up. During Jane’s life the people she encounter has impact her growth and the character she has become.
...’ (21). These rhetoric questions force readers to stand on her side and to ponder in her direction. She compares the contents of the twentieth-century chapters in current books to ‘a modern-art museum’ (22), which ironically and humorously criticizes the fancy design of the current books. She also directly quotes the original texts to show the changes of current books such as a paragraph from Sellers’ book ‘As It Happened’.
The 1890 story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce was composed with a structure that shows time fluidity. The story illustrated the perceived function of time as beyond reality as it slows down to the satisfaction of the delusions of protagonist, Peyton Farquhar, as he experiences a dying incident on the day of his execution. Farquhar was charged with the crime of an attempted act to destroy or sabotage the Owl Creek Bridge, and was thereafter sentenced to death by the Federal Army. Farquhar believes as he also leads the readers the same that he has escaped execution and has made his way back home. The dying protagonist’s experience was portrayed in a slow flow of time that seemed to exactly fit the many circumstances that occurred just in time for reality to come and take its place in time.
Leavy. The scene that introduces Reverend Russell is at the church after Ben stays with the Wentworth and they go to Sunday mass. The Reverend notices Ben is new, so he invites him to have concessions after the mass. Simon mutters something, and the Reverend asks him to speak up and he responds with “What does coffee and donuts have to do with God?” The reverend responded with that it is normal it is about socializing and talk about upcoming events. Simon escalates the situation which forces the Reverend to yell at him. Simon embarrasses the reverend just from him offering to help Ben meet new people and he turns it into a big scene in front of the whole town. The other crime Simon commits is molesting Marguerite in the Christmas pageant. Simon takes advantage of him playing the baby Christ and Marguerite playing the virgin Mary. He grabs her breast and drags her into the manger which angers Miss Leavy. By doing this, he pushes Miss Leavy over the edge making her take some time off. A hero would not take advantage of another person for their own personal gains and to harm others. He disrespected a tradition in the town with the Christmas pageant by taking advantage of a situation to show heroism by helping out at the pageant, but he uses for his own advantage. Even though he is twelve years old, Simon should know that this act is inappropriate. With these acts Simon shows no respect to almost the whole
Simon was the kind of person who kept to himself and looked at the world from a different point of view. His disease made him take life much more seriously than the rest of the group. The ironic thing about this is that even though he took life more seriously than others, he was the first to die. He was different because he was a member of the choir and unlike the other member of the choir, he did not hunt. Even Ralph was quoted as saying he was funny and queer. But he was right. He did not like the company of the other boys because on page 132 of the book, he is seen in his little bower where he just sits and becomes one with his mind. Most of the other boys are seen playing but not Simon. His maturity level and intelligence were far greater than some adults in this day and age.
Within “The Garden of Forking Paths,” Borges manifests new ideas of time, questions the standard understanding of a novel as well as contemplates the concept of fate. Time, one of Borges’s favorite topics, is easily manipulated. In “The Garden of Forking Paths,” Borges attempts to make a visual model of an abstract idea. Adding to this, the title in itself is a metaphor to aid readers in imagining Ts’ui Pen’s idea of time - infinitely veering (Borges 126-127). Borges works Ts’ui Pen’s notion of time into a rather unique book that not only discusses the idea of time, but does it in a way that causes confusion and chaos among its readers. This textual labyrinth forks in time rather than space, creating infinite futures with completely different outcomes (Borges 125). Through these infinitely different futures, Borges brings up his ideas of fate. By actions and thoughts, it is made obvious that the protagonist is a firm believer in fate, saying “the future is as irrevocable as the past” (Borges 121). All the seemingly unrelated events in his life - Captain Madden, his arrival at Dr. Albert’s house, and the novel itself - all appear to come together for a single purpose, for Yu Tsun to signal where the artillery park was located. This combination of themes had rarely been written about before, leaving Borges as the creator of new
Man must not only remember his past, but also choose to remember it as it really happened—for, to again quote Eliot, “What might have been is an abstraction" (175). Fantasizing about an abstract, idealized past will never give success i...
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Towards the middle of Simon's stay on the island, he started to realize that he truly was different from the others. Every time he tried to talk to the other children, his 'effort fell about him in ruins; the laughter beat him cruelly and he shrank away defenseless to his seat.';(89) Just when he thought he had been accepted he embarrassed himself again, 'When he bashed into a tree Ralph looked sideways impatiently and Robert sniggered.';(104) They were getting restless with his behavior.
memory of the past. In Jane Eyre the character’s name was Jane and in A Room With A
“It was a new discovery to find that these stories were, after all, about our own lives, were not distant, that there was no past or future that all time is now-time, centred in the being.” (Pp39.)