Enduring Time

by Lisa Baraitser

The ways in which we imagine and experience time are changing dramatically. Climate change, unending violent conflict, fraying material infrastructures, permanent debt and widening social inequalities mean that we no longer live with an expectation of a progressive future, a generative past, or a flourishing now that characterized the temporal imaginaries of the post-war period. Time, it appears, is not flowing, but has become stuck, intensely felt, yet radically suspended.How do we now 'take care' of time? How can we understand change as requiring time not passing? And what can quotidian experiences of suspended time - waiting, delaying, staying, remaining, enduring, returning and repeating - tell us about the survival of social bonds? Enduring Time responds to the question of the relationship between time and care through a paradoxical engagement with time's suspension. Working with an eclectic archive of cultural, political and artistic objects, it aims to reestablish the idea that time might be something we both have and share, as opposed to something we are always running out of.A strikingly original philosophy of time, this book also provides a detailed survey of contemporary theories of the topic; it is an indispensable read for those attempting to live meaningfully in the current age.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction

217 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 30, 2017

Reviews

[Amber Dickinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked this book, and the whole idea behind it. The cultural examples used to highlight the passing of time through care were so interesting and pertinent. The book was however extremely difficult to read and follow. Definitely for a more advanced philosophical audience.

[Steen Ledet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Far-reaching study of times that don’t pass.

[Neal Spadafora · Rating 4 out of 5]

I ultimately found her vision of queering motherhood unconvincing (and remain influenced and convinced by Edelman's No Future on this point), but I do appreciate that Baraitser has her finger on a serious issue. That is, as much as I wish for a pure negativity akin to Edelman's, there is a need for a normative force that guides questions of birthing, raising children, and social reproduction. It is these normative questions that Baraitser connects (again, I'd ultimately say unsuccessfully) with issues raised by psychoanalysis of a distinctly British variety.

[Beatrice · Rating 3 out of 5]

the next person to say freud's name in my company gets it. also vlebooks i hope you die a painful death when your time comes