October the Twenty Eighth Post

What Triggers Increased Cognitive Awareness, Represented Through Time?

"In the year one thousand seven hundred and eighteen, when this happened, it was extremely difficult; so that when my uncle Toby discovered the transverse zig-zaggery of my father's approaches towards it, it instantly brought into his mind those he had done duty in, before the gate of St. Nicolas;—the idea of which drew off his attention so intirely from the subject in debate, that he had got his right hand to the bell to ring up Trim to go and fetch his map of Namur, and his compasses and sector along with it, to measure the returning angles of the traverses of that attack,—but particularly of that one, where he received his wound upon his groin. . . .
Any man, I say, Madam, but my uncle Toby, the benignity of whose heart interpreted every motion of the body in the kindest sense the motion would admit of, would have concluded my father angry, and blamed him too. My uncle Toby blamed nothing but the taylor who cut the pocket-hole;—so sitting still till my father had got his handkerchief out of it, and looking all the time up in his face with inexpressible good-will—my father, at length, went on as follows." -- Sterne, Tristram Shandy, pages 114 and 116

"Time, with all its celerity, moves slowly to him whose whole employment is to watch its flight." -- Johnson, The Idler No. 21

The amount of time that is spent describing how Walter Shandy reaches into his jacket pocket, and how much time is said to pass while Toby is observing it, recalled this quote of Samuel Johnson's. It's interesting how one specific act so captures the attention of Tristram's uncle, and leads him to a completely unrelated association. Of course, any question of attention, whether divided or not, and related distractions are interesting in the context of this . . . novel. Thing. Especially when Tristram acknowledges how long it is taking him to write his autobiography, and how the pacing will quickly overwhelm him, he advertises the celerity of time when a man is anticipating something, which is intriguing when contrasted to how slowly time is said to move when one is completely engrossed in something. It's a mess of contradictions. The central question that this raises, for me, is the question of perception. How did people perceive time? Were they like me, and they simply cannot fit everything they wish to accomplish in a day, a week, a lifetime? The Idler was particularly enlightening with this, especially since I identified with it. For how much I stress over being so busy, I can't imagine being idle. Stagnation is to deteriorate.