June 15, 17,18, 20 & Interlude

1. June 15, 17,18, 20 & Interlude Brittany Ptak, Julia Solazzo, Katie Marquart, Sydney Martin, Michael Bower

2. 15 June 1905 Time is a Visible Spectrum • “Just as one may look off in the distance and see houses, trees, mountain peaks that are landmarks in space, so one may look out in another direction and see births, marriages, deaths that are signposts in time, stretching dimly into the far future”(103). • Some are afraid to go too far away from a comfortable moment • Some go quickly into the future without contemplation • Some live at a constant pace In Polytechnic in Zurich, a man sits doing research with his mentor and wonders how he will do when he is on his own • He steps minutes into the future but quickly pulls back as its “cold and uncertainty” • He decides it’s “much better to stay in this moment, beside the warm fire, beside the warm help of his mentor. Much better to stop movement in time”(104).

3. 15 June 1905 An unhappy girl jumps into the future and misses her life. • It seems as if her life flies past her and she can only see glimpses of moments • She stops and is a 50 year old women, trying to remember her life • If you lived in this universe, would you want to travel into your future or stay in the present? What issues would this bring up if you choose to travel into your future? • Do you think these people could go back to the past before they were born? If we could do that today, would it be an advantage or disadvantage to us? • When a person in this universe travels to their future, does their future then become their present?

4. Sound and Fury Connection Benjy • “Some people fear traveling far from a comfortable place”(103). • Benjy mentally travels back into a time when Caddy was still with him just as the people in this universe can travel back to moments in their life • Benjy does not voluntarily go back to these moments where as the people of this universe can voluntarily move to these moments Quentin • He decides to kill himself because he does not want to move on from thinking about Caddy • The man doing research chooses to stay in that moment in the library because he doesn’t want to move on to working without his mentor • Are there any other similarities or differences you see with the people in this universe and these characters?

5. 17 June 1905 5 Time is discontinuous • The World Stops every few minutes for minuscule amounts of time • The pauses are so small that they are nearly imperceptible • When time stops, so does all movement • “So tiny are the disconnections in time that the gaps between segments are practically imperceptible...On occasion, very slight displacements occur (109).” The two lovers • He is watching her for signs that she loves him back • Time stops; a vacant look comes over her face as a new thought enters her mind • He takes it to mean that she does not love him back • “Time stops and restarts...somewhere in the in the deep pools of the woman’s mind, a dim thought has appeared that was not there before (110).”

6. Sound and the Fury Connection 6 Any connections?? • Jason: migraines • Disrupt his day • Gets headaches in the natural pauses in his day: while he is driving • Benjy: trips to the past • As he relives the past, he is unconscious of the present • If Benjy were aware of himself, his feelings, and his surroundings, his slips into the past would be recognizable to everyone. His demeanor would change. • Does this slight pause in time ever seem to happen to you? Are there ever any unexplainable moments that could be caused by these slight pauses in time?

7. Interlude Besso and Einstein are Fishing in a River • Einstein can not fish in any location • They stop fishing • Talk about shapes they see in the clouds • He hesitates to tell Besso about his dreams • "Einstein is looking through the Alps, into space…Einstein… is staring at galaxies" • What do you think is going on at this point in Einstein's mind?

8. 18 June 1905 People line up to pay tribute to the Temple of Time • 12 pilgrims “The pilgrims chant with each minute subtracted from their lives. This is their sacrifice” (117). • Vatican City analogy Time was previously measured based on nature • “Long ago, before the Great Clock, time was measured by changes in heavenly bodies: the slow sweep of stars across the night sky, the arc of the sun and variation in light, the waxing an waning of the moon, tides, seasons” (117).

9. 18 June 1905 A Man in Italy invented the clock • It was faced with admiration and fear • The people had the man build the Temple of Time then… • Killed him • Destroyed all other clocks • “In some ways, life goes on same way as before the Great Clock”(118). • “They had been trapped by their own inventiveness and audacity and they must pay with their lives”(119). Does the ticking of the clock remind you that the seconds of your life are disappearing? If so, would natural cycles in life (body, environment) do the same?

10. Sound and The Fury Connection Quentin: After the invention of the clock • Attempts to control time, but becomes a slave to time. • “And each person knows that at some time he must confront the loose intervals of his life, must pay homage to the great clock” (119 Lightman). • “Only when the clock stops, does time come to life” (85 Faulkner). Dilsey: Before the invention of the clock • Does not rely on the mechanical clock for time. • “Long ago, before the Great Clock, time was measured by… heartbeats, the rhythms of drowsiness and sleep, recurrence of hunger” (117 Lightman). • “A cabinet clock ticked, then, with a preliminary sound as if it had cleared its throat, struck five times. ‘Eight o'clock,’ Dilsey said” (274 Faulkner). Do you feel as though, in attempting to conquer time, we have become controlled and enslaved by it?

11. 20 June 1905 • “In this world, time is a local phenomenon. Two clocks close together tick at nearly the same rate. But clocks separated by distance tick at different rates, the farther apart the more out of step”(120). • Each person’s perception of time remains the same. Traveling between cities does change this as their hearts and brains modify to the conditions of time. (faster universe faster heartbeat) • The pace of time in cities differs drastically. For instance the traveller from a “fast” time city journeys to a “slow” time city. If he returns, he will find his family his family dead and everything he knew to be quite different or non-existent. • “It is then that the traveler learns that he is cut off in time. As as in space. No traveler goes back to the city of his origin”(122).

12. 20 June 1905 • Some believe their city to be the best, others question travellers endlessly. • “These lives do not nurture each other. The abundances caused by isolation are stifled by the same isolation”(123). • Commerce between cities is completely cut off and irrelevant as the time discrepancies make business impossible • What are some other inherent problems with a universe such as this? • In concurrence with Einstein's Theory of Relativity, it has been partially proven that time on other planets may be slowed or sped up by the strength of the planet’s gravitational pull, relative to earth. On the smaller scale, to what degree does the rate time between our cities differ?

13. Sound and The Fury Connection Quentin • Quentin is a traveler in space and time. Just as in this universe he never returns home, and if he did he would most likely find Caddy gone and his family in shambles. His perception of time as completely mechanical differs to that of his brothers. Islands in Time • You can imagine each character as an island of time, just as these cities. Each has their own perception of time, and each isolates himself to a certain degree. • Quentin: Mechanical and Incessant. • Benjy: Sent back mentally against his will. • Jason: Linear – Just as commerce in June 20th universe, his inability to be successful on Wall Street can be attributed to the distance in space and time. Can each of us be considered an island of time, flowing at our own rate?