Time and Again
A novel by Jack Finney
Despite the fact Time and Again is fictional, it makes one wistful, thinking of how incredible it would be to be in Simon Morley’s place. To be able to see the world exactly as if a day had not passed in the time of 1882, to converse, to touch, to just breathe the air of the past – is merely dreaming.
Author Jack Finney describes how such a thing would come to pass – travelling back in time – and for a moment or more, I could believe every word. However far-fetched or seemingly plausible the novel was, it was told brilliantly, and the sketches helped one immerse themselves more and more into the tale. The novel had the similar effect of Dan Brown’s novels (The Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons, Deception Point) with meticulous research and facts, coupled with smart and abstract characters, and a theory or two, making for a convincing novel. But unlike Dan Brown’s novels, told with much suspense, heroism, and a distinctive hard-edged writing style, Time and Again was spun enthrallingly, but with a softer side, in the way character Simon Morley addressed the reader, almost in a conversational way.
At some point in the story, most major characters had a moment where I felt as if it was truly summing up the character or their feelings, a moment where I truly felt as if I was seeing a depth in the character that was unknown before. Such as Jake Pickering, Julia Huff’s supposed husband-to-be, and his very unanticipated tattooing of JULIA across his chest – in defiance of Simon’s interference and his assertion of ‘owning’ Julia and her love, a very desperate act by a desperate man. Julia herself had many of these defining moments, but what I felt to be the most striking was her initial reaction the present as Simon took her back into his time. Julia’s alien-like wonder at such things as television, and the shortness the skirt Simon bought for her (knee-high). But it is how easily Julia adjusts to the newness all around her, and her innocence and horror at the violence we tolerate that truly made it a very prominent scene. It was a moment to reflect upon how we (North America especially) so easily accept the violence around us. As for Simon, he had many moments with much depth as well, but I found myself feeling very compassionate towards him when he returned back to 1882 for around the third or fourth time.
Man must not only remember his past, but also choose to remember it as it really happened—for, to again quote Eliot, “What might have been is an abstraction" (175). Fantasizing about an abstract, idealized past will never give success i...
Ambrose Bierce’s An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, which is a short story released in 1890, gained much popularity over the years. It is most famous for it’s manipulation of time. Though the events in the book only take seconds, the story is over eight pages long. Time seems to slow for the man in the noose and at the same time speed up for the reader. In this way, Bierce presents his manipulation of time in the story.
For it is a commonplace of our understanding of the period that the Victorian writer wanted above all to “stay in touch.” Comparing his situation with that of his immediate predecessors, he recognized that indulgence in a self-centered idealism was no longer viable in a society which ever more insistently urged total involvement in its occupations. The world was waiting to be improved upon, and solved, and everyone, poets, included had to busy themsel...
The setting is London in 1854, which is very different to anything we know today. Johnson’s description of this time and place makes it seem like a whole other world from the here and now....
In The Sword in the Stone, T.H. White uses his talent of persuading the reader that he has already seen the things White describes and that the events are a part of the reader’s memory. White intenti...
In the novel Jane Eyre, it narrates the story of a young, orphaned girl. The story begins shortly after Jane walk around Gateshead Hall and evolves within the different situations she face growing up. During Jane’s life the people she encounter has impact her growth and the character she has become.
“It was a new discovery to find that these stories were, after all, about our own lives, were not distant, that there was no past or future that all time is now-time, centred in the being.” (Pp39.)
The 1890 story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce was composed with a structure that shows time fluidity. The story illustrated the perceived function of time as beyond reality as it slows down to the satisfaction of the delusions of protagonist, Peyton Farquhar, as he experiences a dying incident on the day of his execution. Farquhar was charged with the crime of an attempted act to destroy or sabotage the Owl Creek Bridge, and was thereafter sentenced to death by the Federal Army. Farquhar believes as he also leads the readers the same that he has escaped execution and has made his way back home. The dying protagonist’s experience was portrayed in a slow flow of time that seemed to exactly fit the many circumstances that occurred just in time for reality to come and take its place in time.
memory of the past. In Jane Eyre the character’s name was Jane and in A Room With A
Simon was the kind of person who kept to himself and looked at the world from a different point of view. His disease made him take life much more seriously than the rest of the group. The ironic thing about this is that even though he took life more seriously than others, he was the first to die. He was different because he was a member of the choir and unlike the other member of the choir, he did not hunt. Even Ralph was quoted as saying he was funny and queer. But he was right. He did not like the company of the other boys because on page 132 of the book, he is seen in his little bower where he just sits and becomes one with his mind. Most of the other boys are seen playing but not Simon. His maturity level and intelligence were far greater than some adults in this day and age.
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Towards the middle of Simon's stay on the island, he started to realize that he truly was different from the others. Every time he tried to talk to the other children, his 'effort fell about him in ruins; the laughter beat him cruelly and he shrank away defenseless to his seat.';(89) Just when he thought he had been accepted he embarrassed himself again, 'When he bashed into a tree Ralph looked sideways impatiently and Robert sniggered.';(104) They were getting restless with his behavior.
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...n time and place’ in Woodhead, M. and Montgomery, H. by John Wiley & Sons LTD/ The Open University