Passages of Time
These men [and women], subjected both externally and internally to so many ungovernable forces, lived in a world in which the passage of time escaped their grasp all the more because they were so ill-equipped to measure it. — Marc Bloch, Feudal Society, Vol. I, p. 73
Our concept of time — specifically, our mechanical, abstract sense of time — is an artificial (cultural) construct. Time outside of the abstractness brought on by the mechanical, or, now digital or even atomic, clock, should be seen as a different concept altogether. For those looking to develop rich and realistic worlds or universes for fiction, for gaming, or for the sake of passing the time, one must be able to conceptualize time. Not all cultures, even in the modern age with atomic clocks and time-keeping servers, have the same conceptualizations concerning the nature of the passage of time. This has led to several cultural conflicts. If you don’t believe me, consider this. When I worked as a tutor at the local university, we had several tutors who were from all over the globe — China, India, Eastern Europe, and even Japan. Their conceptualizations of time were vastly different than many of the American tutors. Being on time, at least in a U.S. context, is a sign of professionalism and respect. Whereas, in other regions of the world, this isn’t always so.
In the West, the development of what I will term abstract time can be linked to the rise of the capitalist economic system of the early modern period. According to Moishe Postone, abstract time was developed to be independent of those external forces or events we all experience living on planet Earth — Think: lunar cycles, seasonal rotations, night and day, etc. The separation of concrete events from time itself created an abstract conceptualization of time that was easier to control, easier to measure, and, if we’re honest, made it easier to exploit the masses through the new capitalist economic system.
It is a frequent circumstance of history that a culture or civilisation develops the device which will later be used for its destruction. The ancient Chinese, for example, invented gunpowder, which was developed by the military experts of the West and eventually led to the Chinese civilisation itself being destroyed by the high explosives of modern warfare. Similarly, the supreme achievement of the ingenuity of the craftsmen in the medieval cities of Europe was the invention of the mechanical clock, which, with it’s revolutionary alteration of the concept of time, materially assisted the growth of exploiting capitalism and the destruction of medieval culture. — George Woodcock, “Tyranny of the Clock”
Thus, in the West, the concept of time is bifurcated into abstract and concrete. Abstract time suggests measurability and predictability to time. There is, in a sense, a feeling of linearity when it comes to abstract time. (However, Postone points out that concrete time, especially among pre-industrial societies like Israelites of the Old Testament, has its linear measurements of time.) Concrete time — that is, time linked to external, concrete events — is inextricably linked to the natural world and its cycles, phases, and patterns. This bifurcation of time creates a rather interesting disconnect between Westerners and the natural world, as pointed out by Aldous Huxley in “Time and the Machine”:
Acutely aware of the smallest constituent particles of time — of time, as measured by clock-work and train arrivals and the revolutions of machines — industrialized man has to a great extent lost the old awareness of time in its larger divisions. The time of which we have knowledge is artificial, machine-made time. Of natural, cosmic time, as it is measured out by sun and moon, we are for the most part almost wholly unconscious. Pre-industrial people know time in its daily, monthly and seasonal rhythms. They are aware of sunrise, noon and sunset, of the full moon and the new; of equinox and solstice; of spring and summer, autumn and winter. All the old religions, including Catholic Christianity, have insisted on this daily and seasonal rhythm. Pre-industrial man was never allowed to forget the majestic movement of cosmic time.
The disconnection between what Huxley calls “machine-made time” and “natural, cosmic time” has had serious political, cultural, and ecological consequences. To be in tune with the natural reference point of time is to be living in the Dark Ages. Moreover, those who refuse to abide by “machine-made time” are ridiculed, and, in many cases, people are penalized either politically, socially, or economically for their lax attitudes toward the accepted norm of time. Our disconnection from “natural, cosmic time” has led to the severe degradation of the natural world. However, our adherence to “machine-made time” has allowed for rapid urbanization, industrialization, and even globalization. The capitalist world order would not exist without the abstractness of the clock. Thus, without the abstractness of clock time, I wouldn’t be here writing this essay.
One of the many crimes of world-building, for me at least, has been the complete lack of imagination on the part of writers when it comes to a fictional society’s conceptualizations of time. Time is an important factor. It is the marking of natural events. It tells people when to plant their crops, when to sacrifice to their gods, and when to go to war against their enemies. The passage of time is important in that it can help us understand the thinking within a fictional (or even real) culture or society.
I will conclude by paraphrasing Marc Bloch’s wonderful anecdote in Feudal Society (Vol. I) concerning the concept of time in medieval European society (which is (likely) relevant elsewhere in pre-industrial societies). Bloch relays a story about a proposed duel that was to take place at a given time. One duelist showed up, while the other did not. The duelist who showed up asked the convening authorities to call it and have it marked in the record that his opponent did not appear by the agreed-upon time. The officials were unsure if the predetermined time had indeed passed. They deliberated and even talked with members of the local church that maintained the bells. After a serious debate, the officials agreed the predetermined time for the duel had indeed passed. What’s the moral of this story? Before industrialization, time is (largely) malleable given the different cultural contexts.
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