AUSTERLITZ - quote on time...

TIME, SAID AUSTERLITZ IN THE OBSERVATION ROOM IN GREENWICH, WAS BY FAR THE MOST ARTIFICIAL OF ALL OUR INVENTIONS, AND IN BEING BOUND TO THE PLANET TURNING ON ITS OWN AXIS WAS NO LESS ARBITRARY THAN WOULD BE, SAY, A CALCULATION BASED ON THE GROWTH OF TREES OR THE DURATION REQUIRED FOR A PIECE OF LIMESTONE TO DISINTEGRATE, QUITE APART FROM THE FACT THAT THE SOLAR DAY WHICH WE TAKE AS OUR GUIDELINE DOES NOT PROVIDE ANY PRECISE MEASUREMENT, SO THAT IN ORDER TO RECON TIME WE HAVE TO DEVISE AN IMAGINARY, AVERAGE SUN WHICH HAS AN INVARIABLE SPEED OF MOVEMENT AND DOES NOT INCLINE TOWARDS THE EQUATOR IN ITS ORBIT. IF NEWTON THOUGHT, SAID AUSTERLITZ, POINTING THROUGH THE WINDOW AND DOWN THE CURVE OF THE WATER AROUND THE ISLE OF DOGS GLISTENING IN THE LAST OF DAY- LIGHT, IF NEWTON REALLY THOUGHT THAT TIME WAS A RIVER LIKE THAMES, THAN WHERE IS ITS SOURCE AND INTO WHAT SEA IT FINALLY FLOW? EVERY RIVER, AS WE KNOW, SO WHERE, SEEN IN THOSE TERMS, WHERE ARE THE BANKS OF TIME? WHAT WOULD BE THIS RIVER’S QUALITIES, QUALITIES PERHAPS CORESPONDING TO THOSE OF WATER, WHICH IS FLIUD, RATHER HEAVY, AND TRANSCULENT? IN WHAT WAY DO OBJECTS IMMERSED IN TIME DIFFER FROM THOSE LEFTUNTOUCHED BY IT? WHY DO WE SHOW THE HOURS OF LIGHT AND DARKNESS IN THE SAME CYCLE? WHY DOES TIME STAND ETERNALLY STILL AND MOTIONLESS IN ONE PLACE, AND RUSH HEADLONG BY IN ANOTHER? COULD WE NOT CLAIM, SAID AUSTERLITZ, THAT TIME ITSELF, HAS BEEN NON-CONCURRENT OVER THE CENTURIES AND THE MILLENNIA? IT IS NOT SO LONG AGO, AFTER ALL, THAT IT BEGAN SPREADING OUT OVER EVERTHING. AND IS NOT HUMAN LIFE IN MANY PARTS OF THE EARTH GOVERNED TO THIS DAY LESS BY THE TIME EHAN BT THE WEATHER, AND THUS BY AN UNQUANTIFIABLE DIMENSION WHICH DISREGARDS LINEAR REGULARITY, DOES NOT PROGRESS CONSTANTLY FORWARD BUT MOVES IN EDDIES, IS MARKED BY EPISODES OF CONGESTION AND IRRUPTION, RECURS IN EVER-CHANGING FORM, AND EVOLVES IN NO ONE KNOWS WHAT DIRECTION?


W.G. SEBALD, AUSTERLITZ, TRANS. A. BELL (LONDON: PENGUIN, 2001), PP. 141F.