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A Sideways Look at Time
A brilliant and poetic exploration of the way that we experience time in our everyday lives.Why does time seem so short? How does women's time differ from men's? Why does time seem to move slowly in the countryside and quickly in cities? How do different cultures around the world see time? In A Sideways Look at Time, Jay Griffiths takes readers on an extraordinary tour of time as we have never seen it before.With this dazzling and defiant work, Griffiths introduces us to dimensions of time that are largely forgotten in our modern lives. She presents an infectious argument for other, more magical times, the diverse cycles of nature, of folktale or carnival, when time is unlimited and on our side. This is a book for those who suspect that there's more to time than clocks.Irresistible and provocative, A Sideways Look at Time could change the way we view time-forever.
418 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 1, 1999
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1379 people want to read
About the author
Jay Griffiths
31 books135 followersJay Griffiths was born in Manchester and studied English Literature at Oxford University. She spent a couple of years living in a shed on the outskirts of Epping Forest and has travelled the world, but for many years she has been based in Wales.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 57 reviews
January 4, 2009
Can you hear that? It's the sound of an axe grinding for almost 400 pages.
Bet you didn't know that all the evils in the world can be attributed to time! Bet you didn't know that we're all going to hell in a hand-basket because of watches and clocks and so forth. Yep. It's all Time's fault.
Villains like corporations and science and men and christianity and industrialization and Benjamin Franklin and governments and such, yes, they're all bad, according to Ms. Griffiths - but what do they all have in common in their evil plotting? TIME!
Let's all go sit on an iceberg and look at Ladybugs because TIME is one EVIL BASTARD!
sorry. Maybe I'm going a little too far. But this book got on my nerves. I picked it up because I heard the author on RadioLab's show on Time and was fascinated. On the show, I learned all sorts of interesting things about time and power and different kinds of clocks. But the best bits were on the Radio. (really: Just listen to the show: http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/ep...) If I weren't interested in making a piece about time, I don't think I would have continued wading through this diatribe of a book. In addition to it's apocalyptic worldview, it takes weird narrative turns that periodically made me turn the page back and ask "Did I miss the transition somewhere?" There's also a substantial amount of language that I think is supposed to be cute. Or poetic. Or cute poetic. Pun-riffic. Or something. I'm usually all for playing with language - but this author's jokes sort of seem like that guest at a party who tells an off color joke in the middle of someone's tear-jerking story about their battle with cancer.
I'm not saying I didn't learn anything. I learned a lot. But I really didn't enjoy it. Her research is really good and cool. I just think I might have enjoyed reading her source material more than this book.
It's called A Sideways Look at Time. I think it should have been called Hey, Time! What are you looking at? You looking at me, Time?
Bet you didn't know that all the evils in the world can be attributed to time! Bet you didn't know that we're all going to hell in a hand-basket because of watches and clocks and so forth. Yep. It's all Time's fault.
Villains like corporations and science and men and christianity and industrialization and Benjamin Franklin and governments and such, yes, they're all bad, according to Ms. Griffiths - but what do they all have in common in their evil plotting? TIME!
Let's all go sit on an iceberg and look at Ladybugs because TIME is one EVIL BASTARD!
sorry. Maybe I'm going a little too far. But this book got on my nerves. I picked it up because I heard the author on RadioLab's show on Time and was fascinated. On the show, I learned all sorts of interesting things about time and power and different kinds of clocks. But the best bits were on the Radio. (really: Just listen to the show: http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/ep...) If I weren't interested in making a piece about time, I don't think I would have continued wading through this diatribe of a book. In addition to it's apocalyptic worldview, it takes weird narrative turns that periodically made me turn the page back and ask "Did I miss the transition somewhere?" There's also a substantial amount of language that I think is supposed to be cute. Or poetic. Or cute poetic. Pun-riffic. Or something. I'm usually all for playing with language - but this author's jokes sort of seem like that guest at a party who tells an off color joke in the middle of someone's tear-jerking story about their battle with cancer.
I'm not saying I didn't learn anything. I learned a lot. But I really didn't enjoy it. Her research is really good and cool. I just think I might have enjoyed reading her source material more than this book.
It's called A Sideways Look at Time. I think it should have been called Hey, Time! What are you looking at? You looking at me, Time?
March 25, 2015
In the realm of wild nature, there are countless cycles of change. Geese arrive at winter’s end, build nests, raise goslings, and depart in autumn. Apple trees leaf, blossom, fruit, and drop their leaves. The sunlight has daily cycles and annual cycles. The moon and women flow through their monthly rituals. This is circular time, round and round and round. This is wild time.
Once upon a time, the whole world was wilderness, and every creature was free. The planet danced in wild time, and all was well. Wild people caught salmon when the fish came home. They killed reindeer when the herds passed through. They ate blackberries when the fruit was ripe, and gathered nuts as they fell.
Wild people clustered in flourishing nutrient-rich ecosystems that were scattered here and there across the planetary wilderness. All was well… until the accidents. In a few of these clusters, clever smarty-pants, with wonderful intentions, devised strategies for forcing their land to produce more food. Why be content with paradise? Let’s fix it.
We are finally starting to realize that some incredibly brilliant ideas should be flushed down the loo immediately (probably all of them). Here we are in the twenty-first century, and the world is the opposite of a vast wilderness. It has been reduced to a bruised and beaten landscape by an ever-growing swarm of hungry two-legs. Wildness struggles to survive in scattered shrinking pockets. Wild tribes are nearly extinct.
As civilization became rooted, clock time gradually pushed wild time into the background. Clock time is linear, not circular — a straight path with a starting line (paradise) and a finish line (apocalypse). This throbbing straight line has phallic vibes, the same frequency used by patriarchal empire builders awash in raging torrents of testosterone. It’s a furious dance of endless growth, and it inevitably jitterbugs into a minefield of bleached skeletons.
The incredibly brilliant notion of endless growth should have been flushed down the loo immediately. Endless growth is insane, fantastically irrational, and always ends in tragedy. But it’s a lot of fun at first. Take a deep toke. The endless growth jitterbug is a soaring mania with no off switch. It stops when it dies. Any society that mindfully chooses to quit jitterbugging becomes a helpless sitting duck for its jitterbugging neighbors, who are always hungry for more and more and more.
Jay Griffiths wrote A Sideways Look at Time, which discusses the mutation of time that followed in the wake of domestication, and rapidly accelerated with the emergence of the industrial era. She thinks very highly of wild time, because it is normal, natural, and good. With regard to linear time, she offers this sensible recommendation: “Drown your watch.”
The big three multinational, patriarchal, monotheistic religions run on linear time. Their myths begin in a golden age of innocence and harmony, and go downhill from there, on a dead end road. Griffiths was raised in a Christian home, but she lacked the gift of blind faith. The church taught that God’s creation was a place of evil. The kinky male clergy denounced lust, joyful sex, and women of power. Their icon was a dying man nailed to a dead tree. Wild time, wild people, and wild places were the realm of the devil.
As civilizations grew, years were assigned ID numbers. In Rome, year #1 was the date of the city’s founding. Numbering enabled better record keeping, and provided time markers for historians. Calendars enclosed days and years, and sundials enclosed hours. Later came mechanical clocks, and clanging church bells, factory bells, and school bells. The sweet freedom of childhood was enclosed by rigid schedules, as kids were herded into education factories to have their minds filled.
To keep large restless mobs under control, law and order is essential — police and clocks. Industrial civilization is impossible without synchronizing the mob to march in lockstep to the steady beat of the time machines. All around the world now, the current hour will conclude at the same moment.
Today, the wristwatch people are isolated from nature. They spend their lives in rectangular climate-controlled compartments with artificial lighting. Blackberries, nuts, and salmon are available every day of the year. Clocks and wristwatches were fabulous ideas, if the objective was to elevate stress and anxiety. The Lakota have no word for “late,” and the Micmac have no word for “time.” Native Americans were astonished by the wacky behavior of the colonists, who robotically obeyed the demands of ridiculous schedules.
In stable wild societies, older people became respected elders, folks with long memories who provided wise counsel. They could foresee problems, and recommend solutions. But in the lands of the wristwatch people, speed is of the essence, and the rate of change is dizzying. In modern times, much of the knowledge that older people possess is obsolete and useless. So, the elder’s role is waning, at the same time that people are living longer. Progress has left them behind.
In a culture obsessed with youth, women with gray hair become invisible. Cosmetic surgery is very expensive, and its results are temporary. Tightly stretched facial skin is spooky looking, like “linoleum with lipstick.” Hormone treatments promise the appearance of perpetual springtime. Griffiths laments that many women avoid the elder’s path of wisdom and power. The era of patriarchy has not been kind to the ladies.
In the minds of the wristwatch people, the notion of progress is as real as the Grand Canyon. They have no doubt that the world is always getting better and better, because experts are tireless in their pursuit of continuous improvement. We are so lucky to live in an age of endless miracles.
Actually, progress is a smiley-face mask that disguises a parasite. Progress doesn’t shine on the salt of the Earth. The lands of the U’wa people of Colombia are being destroyed to extract the precious oil needed to fuel the insatiable excesses of the world’s elite. Chinese women are dying from the solvents used to make cell phones, and women in Bangladesh are crushed when their garment factory collapses.
The parasite devours anything in its path, and never rests. The single thought on its mind is more now, more now, more now. Only the present matters, a mindset that Griffiths calls “chronocentric.” Bleep the future. The grandchildren will simply have to adapt to living with radioactive wastes that remain highly toxic for 100,000 years. It’s not our problem.
Of course, it’s heresy to voice doubts about progress. Doing so transforms you into a knuckle-dragging mouth-breathing dolt. The sacrifices needed to radically reduce the harm we cause are just too great. It is our God-given right to indulge in every imaginable excess to the best of our ability. It says so in the constitution. Well, it’s time for gifted shamans to perform a magic act on our worldview — swap the dunce cap to progress, and the halo to sustainability. It’s OK to be respectful to unborn generations of all species. It’s normal.
So, that’s a little peek into where this fascinating book takes us. Griffiths helps us remember what has been lost. Unlike the predicaments of peak cheap energy, peak food, and climate change, our time problems are nothing but ideas, and ideas can be flushed down the loo. A healthy life does not require seconds, minutes, and hours. We can do just fine with sunrise and sunset, full moon and new moon, solstice and equinox, wildness and freedom.
Hark! The bell has rung. This review is over. It’s a cool book.
Once upon a time, the whole world was wilderness, and every creature was free. The planet danced in wild time, and all was well. Wild people caught salmon when the fish came home. They killed reindeer when the herds passed through. They ate blackberries when the fruit was ripe, and gathered nuts as they fell.
Wild people clustered in flourishing nutrient-rich ecosystems that were scattered here and there across the planetary wilderness. All was well… until the accidents. In a few of these clusters, clever smarty-pants, with wonderful intentions, devised strategies for forcing their land to produce more food. Why be content with paradise? Let’s fix it.
We are finally starting to realize that some incredibly brilliant ideas should be flushed down the loo immediately (probably all of them). Here we are in the twenty-first century, and the world is the opposite of a vast wilderness. It has been reduced to a bruised and beaten landscape by an ever-growing swarm of hungry two-legs. Wildness struggles to survive in scattered shrinking pockets. Wild tribes are nearly extinct.
As civilization became rooted, clock time gradually pushed wild time into the background. Clock time is linear, not circular — a straight path with a starting line (paradise) and a finish line (apocalypse). This throbbing straight line has phallic vibes, the same frequency used by patriarchal empire builders awash in raging torrents of testosterone. It’s a furious dance of endless growth, and it inevitably jitterbugs into a minefield of bleached skeletons.
The incredibly brilliant notion of endless growth should have been flushed down the loo immediately. Endless growth is insane, fantastically irrational, and always ends in tragedy. But it’s a lot of fun at first. Take a deep toke. The endless growth jitterbug is a soaring mania with no off switch. It stops when it dies. Any society that mindfully chooses to quit jitterbugging becomes a helpless sitting duck for its jitterbugging neighbors, who are always hungry for more and more and more.
Jay Griffiths wrote A Sideways Look at Time, which discusses the mutation of time that followed in the wake of domestication, and rapidly accelerated with the emergence of the industrial era. She thinks very highly of wild time, because it is normal, natural, and good. With regard to linear time, she offers this sensible recommendation: “Drown your watch.”
The big three multinational, patriarchal, monotheistic religions run on linear time. Their myths begin in a golden age of innocence and harmony, and go downhill from there, on a dead end road. Griffiths was raised in a Christian home, but she lacked the gift of blind faith. The church taught that God’s creation was a place of evil. The kinky male clergy denounced lust, joyful sex, and women of power. Their icon was a dying man nailed to a dead tree. Wild time, wild people, and wild places were the realm of the devil.
As civilizations grew, years were assigned ID numbers. In Rome, year #1 was the date of the city’s founding. Numbering enabled better record keeping, and provided time markers for historians. Calendars enclosed days and years, and sundials enclosed hours. Later came mechanical clocks, and clanging church bells, factory bells, and school bells. The sweet freedom of childhood was enclosed by rigid schedules, as kids were herded into education factories to have their minds filled.
To keep large restless mobs under control, law and order is essential — police and clocks. Industrial civilization is impossible without synchronizing the mob to march in lockstep to the steady beat of the time machines. All around the world now, the current hour will conclude at the same moment.
Today, the wristwatch people are isolated from nature. They spend their lives in rectangular climate-controlled compartments with artificial lighting. Blackberries, nuts, and salmon are available every day of the year. Clocks and wristwatches were fabulous ideas, if the objective was to elevate stress and anxiety. The Lakota have no word for “late,” and the Micmac have no word for “time.” Native Americans were astonished by the wacky behavior of the colonists, who robotically obeyed the demands of ridiculous schedules.
In stable wild societies, older people became respected elders, folks with long memories who provided wise counsel. They could foresee problems, and recommend solutions. But in the lands of the wristwatch people, speed is of the essence, and the rate of change is dizzying. In modern times, much of the knowledge that older people possess is obsolete and useless. So, the elder’s role is waning, at the same time that people are living longer. Progress has left them behind.
In a culture obsessed with youth, women with gray hair become invisible. Cosmetic surgery is very expensive, and its results are temporary. Tightly stretched facial skin is spooky looking, like “linoleum with lipstick.” Hormone treatments promise the appearance of perpetual springtime. Griffiths laments that many women avoid the elder’s path of wisdom and power. The era of patriarchy has not been kind to the ladies.
In the minds of the wristwatch people, the notion of progress is as real as the Grand Canyon. They have no doubt that the world is always getting better and better, because experts are tireless in their pursuit of continuous improvement. We are so lucky to live in an age of endless miracles.
Actually, progress is a smiley-face mask that disguises a parasite. Progress doesn’t shine on the salt of the Earth. The lands of the U’wa people of Colombia are being destroyed to extract the precious oil needed to fuel the insatiable excesses of the world’s elite. Chinese women are dying from the solvents used to make cell phones, and women in Bangladesh are crushed when their garment factory collapses.
The parasite devours anything in its path, and never rests. The single thought on its mind is more now, more now, more now. Only the present matters, a mindset that Griffiths calls “chronocentric.” Bleep the future. The grandchildren will simply have to adapt to living with radioactive wastes that remain highly toxic for 100,000 years. It’s not our problem.
Of course, it’s heresy to voice doubts about progress. Doing so transforms you into a knuckle-dragging mouth-breathing dolt. The sacrifices needed to radically reduce the harm we cause are just too great. It is our God-given right to indulge in every imaginable excess to the best of our ability. It says so in the constitution. Well, it’s time for gifted shamans to perform a magic act on our worldview — swap the dunce cap to progress, and the halo to sustainability. It’s OK to be respectful to unborn generations of all species. It’s normal.
So, that’s a little peek into where this fascinating book takes us. Griffiths helps us remember what has been lost. Unlike the predicaments of peak cheap energy, peak food, and climate change, our time problems are nothing but ideas, and ideas can be flushed down the loo. A healthy life does not require seconds, minutes, and hours. We can do just fine with sunrise and sunset, full moon and new moon, solstice and equinox, wildness and freedom.
Hark! The bell has rung. This review is over. It’s a cool book.
June 18, 2020
This book takes you on a journey of how time evolved from being free to restricted. It reminded me about how much I appreciated my time living in Liberia, West Africa because I needed to wear no watch. I loved how being unscheduled allowed you to get things done. There were no deadlines, no pressure, and no headaches. Our creativity sparks when we allow moments for "play" and we should allow more of this in our lives.
January 9, 2015
I really enjoyed reading this book. It's at times overblown but it's still fun and refreshing to read something so staunchly and eloquently argued.
April 7, 2019
DNF
I'll keep this short as I had to read this for a class, but while Jay Griffiths presents intriguing arguments about the logic of time, she overextends her writing to the point of me putting the book down with an eye roll and a huge "nope." What could be condensed into 100 pages, is, instead, drawn out for an additional 300. She picks an argument for each chapter, then proceeds to beat the reader over the head with the same line for the next forty pages of text. Unnecessary. Interesting, but unnecessary. Keep it simpler "next time."
I'll keep this short as I had to read this for a class, but while Jay Griffiths presents intriguing arguments about the logic of time, she overextends her writing to the point of me putting the book down with an eye roll and a huge "nope." What could be condensed into 100 pages, is, instead, drawn out for an additional 300. She picks an argument for each chapter, then proceeds to beat the reader over the head with the same line for the next forty pages of text. Unnecessary. Interesting, but unnecessary. Keep it simpler "next time."
June 13, 2009
It's not often that I will actually STOP reading a book, on purpose, once I've started. Sure, sometimes I'll put it down for a while and come back to it later, but like leaving in the middle of a movie, putting down a book--for good--without finishing it is something I just don't do.
Well, now I have.
The premise of this book intrigued me, with its vague intimations of a philosophic and Zen inspired discourse on time--how we perceive it, and how we might get back to a better relationship with it. Presumably, that discourse exists somewhere within the book, but I wasn't able to slog through the first few chapters to get to the meat of it.
The author is apparently of an American school of writing influenced heavily by the Beats. His prose attempts that Kerouackian stream-of-consciousness that Jack managed to pull off with energy and weight, but which this author only stumbles around with, coming off as amatuerish and disjointed. The book feels like a first draft, with the author repeating the same ideas several times in the course of several paragraphs, and revisiting them again later in the same chapter. By the third reading of the same statement, the reader is left saying "OK! I get it! Can we move on!"
Coupled with repeated assertions, the author employs broad, seemingly faulty interpretations of events or social phenomena to support his ideas. The first few times these weak arguments show up, the reader may be willing to overlook or forgive. But with each additional instance, the reader's patience is tried and the author begins to seem like a buffoon.
Ultimately, as I said, I only made it through the first few chapters before I had had enough of the faux-progressive prose and faulty logic. The book comes across as something that might have been an interesting idea for a 10-20 page essay, which has been expanded--to its great detriment--into a full-length book.
For the premise alone, I wish I could recommend the book... but I can't. Don't buy it, spend your precious time on something worthwhile.
Well, now I have.
The premise of this book intrigued me, with its vague intimations of a philosophic and Zen inspired discourse on time--how we perceive it, and how we might get back to a better relationship with it. Presumably, that discourse exists somewhere within the book, but I wasn't able to slog through the first few chapters to get to the meat of it.
The author is apparently of an American school of writing influenced heavily by the Beats. His prose attempts that Kerouackian stream-of-consciousness that Jack managed to pull off with energy and weight, but which this author only stumbles around with, coming off as amatuerish and disjointed. The book feels like a first draft, with the author repeating the same ideas several times in the course of several paragraphs, and revisiting them again later in the same chapter. By the third reading of the same statement, the reader is left saying "OK! I get it! Can we move on!"
Coupled with repeated assertions, the author employs broad, seemingly faulty interpretations of events or social phenomena to support his ideas. The first few times these weak arguments show up, the reader may be willing to overlook or forgive. But with each additional instance, the reader's patience is tried and the author begins to seem like a buffoon.
Ultimately, as I said, I only made it through the first few chapters before I had had enough of the faux-progressive prose and faulty logic. The book comes across as something that might have been an interesting idea for a 10-20 page essay, which has been expanded--to its great detriment--into a full-length book.
For the premise alone, I wish I could recommend the book... but I can't. Don't buy it, spend your precious time on something worthwhile.
January 9, 2012
Men. Men DID IT ALL, ALL THE BAD THINGS!
Egad, this killed me, because there are so many interesting things in this book, lots of little factoids and perspectives I was tremendously curious about. And I would have enjoyed it a lot more, if she could have quit finding different ways to say how the "witchy, twitchy blood flow of the she-goddess moon" was repressed by The Men. Bloody fucking hell. Around page 130 I just gave up and started writing notes in the margins for the next lucky reader. You're welcome, whoever you are!
Also, Jay, I get your bone with Christianity. I was raised by a pagan mother. But a day came when I realized the worldview I'd been presented with was a little one-sided. To say it was "Christianity that did it!" neglects the fact that the Butler/Christianity was just once piece in a larger puzzle. It made you miss how revolutionary the early Church was, and it also made you miss a really good opportunity to point out how The Patriarchy and Empire took over the Church and messed it up. It would have been nice to see you discuss how The Truce of God in the Calendar year protected peasants and women from the ravages of the aristocracy. There are multiple forces at work in history, for good and ill, and I would say the destruction of other ways of looking at time came (and comes about - the new Calendar of Reason thing freaks me out) from those eternal sources the wise have warned about through the centuries - Power, Greed, Empire, the Will to Dominate and Control. Women can be as susceptible to them as men. And as much as I love a good Beltane celebration, I find a better explanation of why those urges exist inside humans from Christianity and the ancient philosophers.
Egad, this killed me, because there are so many interesting things in this book, lots of little factoids and perspectives I was tremendously curious about. And I would have enjoyed it a lot more, if she could have quit finding different ways to say how the "witchy, twitchy blood flow of the she-goddess moon" was repressed by The Men. Bloody fucking hell. Around page 130 I just gave up and started writing notes in the margins for the next lucky reader. You're welcome, whoever you are!
Also, Jay, I get your bone with Christianity. I was raised by a pagan mother. But a day came when I realized the worldview I'd been presented with was a little one-sided. To say it was "Christianity that did it!" neglects the fact that the Butler/Christianity was just once piece in a larger puzzle. It made you miss how revolutionary the early Church was, and it also made you miss a really good opportunity to point out how The Patriarchy and Empire took over the Church and messed it up. It would have been nice to see you discuss how The Truce of God in the Calendar year protected peasants and women from the ravages of the aristocracy. There are multiple forces at work in history, for good and ill, and I would say the destruction of other ways of looking at time came (and comes about - the new Calendar of Reason thing freaks me out) from those eternal sources the wise have warned about through the centuries - Power, Greed, Empire, the Will to Dominate and Control. Women can be as susceptible to them as men. And as much as I love a good Beltane celebration, I find a better explanation of why those urges exist inside humans from Christianity and the ancient philosophers.
November 11, 2012
This is an absolute must-read book. You may have noticed that I've only given it three stars; that's for a whole bunch of reasons, the most striking of which is an editing failure. This book is wonderful for its content, and leaves a lot desired in terms of its technical execution: a good editor would have resolved most of them.
While this book examines time, it is itself a beautiful depiction of the limitations of time. Written before the turn of the century, the content is time-bound, even though its content rails against the notion of being time-locked.
In terms of the research and argumentation behind most of the claims of this text, it's hard to fault Pip Pip. I'm certainly not going to; I learned a vast amount about the nature of the time that restricts our daily lives, and how it came into being. I wish Griffiths had taken it further, looked more deeply into this element of time; however, deducing it myself it makes it rather easy to see where so much dissatisfaction and stress comes from. The manipulation of time.
Given the book was published before smartphones, there is another element to this too: the notion that your time can be altered without you even knowing. This gives a rather new slant on the wristwatch timepiece that Griffiths discusses in relation to other issues.
Further, Pip Pip is a textual work that captures and frames all sorts of times: woman's time, pagan time, wild time. It made me yearn for the timelessness of hills in the bush; for the quiet slowness of time in rural Australia.
Every person needs to read this book. And the fact that it is itself time-locked is simply another paradox of time, and one that should not dissuade anybody from reading it.
December 30, 2018
I thoroughly enjoyed this book as it lead me to understand so much of what has confounded me with regards to how differently we all think about and hold time. Highly recommend it to anyone who ever wants to explore their relationship with timing time timelessness time-out and the constructs they may of come from.
November 26, 2017
While it's a book full of wonderful anecdotes about time, this work is largely an extraordinarily problematic fiction of misremembered history, loosely followed logic, and narrow shallowness -- all masquerading as broadest possible scope and deepest profundity. You don't have to be a student of history, culture, biology, or engineering to notice and overturn the authors teetering assertions and legions of strawmen. Page after page the author shares convoluted interpretations of language, symbols, and events that are more clearly and soundly the reverse of what's insisted. Often when a positive reading could be made the author instead works hard to formulate and then demand the negative. But it's worse than that. There are even examples of excruciating bias (the worst kind, disguised as virtue) where the author claims certain people (individuals, cultures, races, and genders) have superpowers they simply do not -- and then insists not only that we venerate them for this make-believe omnipotence but that, as stated or inferred, these people also be expected to live up to such brutal expectations. Damn. In this way, this book is a glowing example of bias and pretension pretending to be scholarship and illumination.
July 9, 2020
A bit of a screed at times, and Griffiths has a chip about Western Christianity about a mile wide (understandable, but sometimes much), but I've also got four pages of notes from this book. Griffiths agility with words is pretty amazing. Nearly every page has some kind of witty wordplay on it and there are an equal amount of valuable insights about the nature of time and how our perception of it is rooted in culture. One I'll keep on the shelves.
"Would society be different if its profoundist models of time were not structured in past-to-future narrative at all, but if time were seen as an *unarrowed* thing - if, for example, the Bible began with the rhapsody of a psalm and ended with the sashay of the song of Solomon?"
"Would society be different if its profoundist models of time were not structured in past-to-future narrative at all, but if time were seen as an *unarrowed* thing - if, for example, the Bible began with the rhapsody of a psalm and ended with the sashay of the song of Solomon?"
Read
October 22, 2019I rarely quit on a book but I quit on this one. That time has been viewed differently by different people at different times is interesting enough but the leaps and somersaults along the way that Jay Griffiths takes seems less brilliant and poetic then just chaotic, especially when she implies that this is a critical reflection on our current view of time. There is plenty of insight to be gained by looking at history and diverse cultures but there is a thinly veiled political agenda here that you either buy into or resent. (I admit to the latter)
January 28, 2023
I reached only at 10% and got exhausted of reading. Endless cumulative arguments are piled. I wouldnt say that this book could have brought the message in one page, but it doesn't seem to care about the time and attention of the reader. Enough is enough. There's more to do with the time that we have left. If it only had white pages from tie to time, this book. I experience the book as a complete "contradictio in terminis". Save some time for quality of life and don't read it.
October 24, 2021
beautifully written with lovely thought provoking quotes so it takes some time to realize no new thoughts are arriving through the many, many pages and we realize no air is coming into the prison of life portrayed as bound by the clock in the power of the rich as dictated by christianity which has stamped out life giving paganism. it think that sums it up.
January 20, 2022
Really interesting, deeply researched and hard to read. I always come away from Jay Griffiths feeling like I have been worked over with a cricket bat - not in a good way - and this book was no exception, possibly worse than others of hers I have read. Intriguing but preachy. Informative and possibly misleading all at the same time. Worth the effort? The jury is out.
June 11, 2017
Interesting, feminist look at time. I got a lot out of it, but the author seemed to be angry at times, and she got preachy.
July 20, 2017
Though often repetitive and merging the book offers some interesting ideas and philosophies on time and its impact on us as individuals and society at large.
November 23, 2020
Incendiary, inimitable, and unforgettable.
October 2, 2021
Has stayed with me for years.
October 26, 2021
Always like to read Jay Griffith's stuff. Was nice to hear she lived here in Wales aswell.
Tho I won't say oggi oggi oggi etc. Lol
Tho I won't say oggi oggi oggi etc. Lol
March 7, 2017
Unique balance of incisive critical research and creative liberties. Griffiths analyzes Time as a socio-cultural construct, involving histories of the various methods through which time has been conceptualized and measured. There's a consistent thesis theorizing the ways in which Time has functioned as a tool of colonialism and Western modernity.
March 15, 2014
This book has an fascinating premise, which I suppose is in the form of a question: is time an external, mechanical thing? And if so, must we submit to it even though our perceptions of time vary with the way we are experiencing the events that are happening to us "in" time? Jay Griffiths in no uncertain terms casts her lot with the small towns who favored "local time" over "railroad time" (in the late 19th century, as the railroads expanded west, American towns that had established local "time zones," meaning that the time in New York City wasn't the same as the time in Philadelphia - which I suppose would be true from a Physics point of view - wanted to be free of the strict schedule of the railroads of the east). I don't disagree with this sentiment; there is a need for a personal time separate from time's mechanical and unceasing march. But I also realize that any type of organization (a meeting, a party, a conference) relies upon our ability to meet at a certain time and place. And in order to do that, we must all agree on how to read time. They are both fascinating ideas, and I hope that reading theoretical physicist Lee Smolin's book Time Reborn will give me more insight into the idea of mechanical time because A Sideways Look at Time spends most of its pages railing against this concept and even insulting - not rebutting - Newton. Ultimately, the anecdotes and bits of information in A Sideways Look at Time are interesting, but because there is no real content organization they are difficult to remember. Probably a good tagline: an interesting read that you won't remember tomorrow.
October 22, 2014
Ugh! Unreadably annoying! I couldn't even get through the first chapter before becoming heartily sick of the self-important diatribe against all things modern. The author's primary thesis seems to be that having a globally agreed-upon way to measure time is inherently evil and has destroyed the world. The Titanic would not have sunk if only we hadn't settled on Greenwich Mean Time, nor would the World Trade Center have been destroyed...in fact all would be right with the world if only we still thought of time by what flowers we can smell blooming or what fruit is ripe tat the moment. While I have nothing at all against those ways of thinking about time, in fact they are rather lovely and do help us stay attuned to the world around us, there are also many wonderful things about modern life that benefit from having a globally agreed-upon system of keeping track of time. If I actually believed that the author happily met up with friends only if they both happened to smell the roses at about the same time or that he would be perfectly happy to wait around the airport for days on end until a flight happened to be going where he wanted, it might be slightly less irritating. But, since I suspect that like most of us, the author appreciates being able to make specific arrangements with friends and to know when to get to the airport, it reads as hypocrisy.
January 11, 2017
Sometimes the width of a book from merely looking at it gives you that initial sense of judgment--mainly, if it's worth going through all of those pages and getting something relevant at least. With this book however, while the first chapter had a bit of a slow start, the succeeding chapters gained power as one reads various takes on the author regarding Time and how it was utilized by man throughout the centuries, while looking at its effects in various cultures.
Griffiths treads on an interesting mixture of social and political history that led to a worldwide appropriation--for instance, there are certain connections between the Mayan, Julian, and Gregorian calendars that takes off from each of the culture's warfare and trade industry. What I enjoyed is the author's crisp language, where instead of simply providing the reading with bits of historical facts intertwined with their application in a typical cold manner, there is a rather romantic appeal to the narration, particularly how each of the chapter ends. And while some of the author's propositions and statements are grandeur in nature that it seems absurd at times because it specifies the perils of time management in each of the Western ideology, one can take away a number of food for thought as to how Time makes a slave out of everyone.
Griffiths treads on an interesting mixture of social and political history that led to a worldwide appropriation--for instance, there are certain connections between the Mayan, Julian, and Gregorian calendars that takes off from each of the culture's warfare and trade industry. What I enjoyed is the author's crisp language, where instead of simply providing the reading with bits of historical facts intertwined with their application in a typical cold manner, there is a rather romantic appeal to the narration, particularly how each of the chapter ends. And while some of the author's propositions and statements are grandeur in nature that it seems absurd at times because it specifies the perils of time management in each of the Western ideology, one can take away a number of food for thought as to how Time makes a slave out of everyone.
February 27, 2011
This book gives me very mixed emotions.
I was excited to start reading it. The subject matter is very interesting and it sounded great when I heard about it on Radiolab. Griffiths' writing style is very clever while still accessible (although at times unnecessarily highbrow). She makes an interesting argument, rich with really great annotations and perspectives.
My complaints about this book start with the digressions she makes into subject matter that doesn't seem pertinent to the book. She brings an anti-imperialist, feminist, anti-west perspective to every argument she makes. It is very distracting and seems unnecessary. I agree with her opinions, so someone who may disagree may be completely sidetracked by her soapbox proclamations.
Griffiths seems to be trying to shock people rather than educate, She writes in extreme hyperbole which discredit her valid points. She cites many ridiculous examples that fail to represent counter opinions.
Additionally, I find her staunch anti-west, pro-native stance to be patronizing at times. The picture she paints of essentially what is the classic "noble savage" is degrading.
Despite it's glaring down sides, I would recommend this book, if for no other reason than that it provides really good suggestions for further reading.
I was excited to start reading it. The subject matter is very interesting and it sounded great when I heard about it on Radiolab. Griffiths' writing style is very clever while still accessible (although at times unnecessarily highbrow). She makes an interesting argument, rich with really great annotations and perspectives.
My complaints about this book start with the digressions she makes into subject matter that doesn't seem pertinent to the book. She brings an anti-imperialist, feminist, anti-west perspective to every argument she makes. It is very distracting and seems unnecessary. I agree with her opinions, so someone who may disagree may be completely sidetracked by her soapbox proclamations.
Griffiths seems to be trying to shock people rather than educate, She writes in extreme hyperbole which discredit her valid points. She cites many ridiculous examples that fail to represent counter opinions.
Additionally, I find her staunch anti-west, pro-native stance to be patronizing at times. The picture she paints of essentially what is the classic "noble savage" is degrading.
Despite it's glaring down sides, I would recommend this book, if for no other reason than that it provides really good suggestions for further reading.
October 23, 2010
Finished! Finally! I enjoyed Wild: An Elemental Journey, her second book, but a little Jay Griffiths goes a long way; her prose is wild itself, stuffed with puns and playful redefinitions of words. It's hard work keeping up with her. She has an anarchic spirit and writes anarchic books.
This book is theoretically about time and the way it has been captured and distorted in the capitalist west, but she manages to cram in all sorts of subjects, addressing every aspect of life and death. Her message is broadly that we should slow down, not be restricted by time sliced up with clocks. Paradoxically, she can give the impression of having the attention span of a flea, leaping crazily from one topic to the next, but really it's because to her, everything is connected. And the final chapter clearly prefigures Wild. Not for everyone, and if you only read one of her books I would recommend the other one more wholeheartedly.
This book is theoretically about time and the way it has been captured and distorted in the capitalist west, but she manages to cram in all sorts of subjects, addressing every aspect of life and death. Her message is broadly that we should slow down, not be restricted by time sliced up with clocks. Paradoxically, she can give the impression of having the attention span of a flea, leaping crazily from one topic to the next, but really it's because to her, everything is connected. And the final chapter clearly prefigures Wild. Not for everyone, and if you only read one of her books I would recommend the other one more wholeheartedly.
April 10, 2013
There's an excellent, five-star book buried in this lengthy tome. Editing out the over-simplified generalizations would shorten this volume to about the right size. It is thought provoking, however, and rewards the patient reader. Jay Griffiths annihilates the western perspective of time moving in a straight line from start to finish and offers alternatives views from other cultures. Mythological time and the universe, according to modern physics, moves in cycles, spirals and waves, while we try to time everything to the second. We should resist the tyranny of clock time by following our own rhythms and those of nature. While it is true men do not generally feel the moon as strongly as women, I think it is wrong to blame men for the emphasis of sun time in calendars. Ms. Griffiths spends too much time in that blame game, instead of moving forward with her main ideas.
February 9, 2017
Tedious does not even begin to describe this book. I wanted to like it, I really did. But it reads like a teenager's Tumblr blog, or an annoying conversation you overhear at a Starbucks. It gets two stars from me because it contains a few interesting facts about clocks...
October 6, 2009
Griffiths articulates what it's like to live in modern techno-time better than anyone else I've read on the subject, and gives a sense of what we're missing -- no mean feat to write so eloquently from both inside and outside one's own culture. She is by turns brilliant, say, when describing forest time, and exasperating, devolving at times into diatribe and rant. She is lucid bordering on genius in picking out the historic strands of the cultural shift toward linear clock-time. It would be very difficult to read this book quickly or to digest it all the first time through.
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