The Study of Time: For CoreyBlack by Chipka
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Description
Ultimately, the purpose of a clock is simply to measure the accuracy of another clock. In so many ways, time is little more than a human contrivance inspired by the urge to break reality into small, manageable pieces--a way to put unboxable things into boxes. I think of time quite a lot, but in a less literal sense.
Time, as little more than a sequence of events is something that will probably always fascinate science fiction writers and readers alike. How many time travel stories exist out there? How many episodes of Star Trek involve changes in the temporal continuum? How many silver cars driven by Michael J. Fox dart back into the 1950s or some other romanticized past? How many Time Lords with British accents travel through multiple temporal dimensions in a blue police box that's bigger on the inside than on the outside?
To quote a certain Star Trek bad guy: "Time is the fire in which we all burn," and maybe this identifies the human obsession with time.
For me, time is many things; I seldom write time travel stories. They don't interest me because for me, the nature of time is different. The past and the future are not things you can play around with. They are what they are, and that's all there is to it--and besides, I'm not too interested in time travel. Too many things can go wrong, I could conceivably go back in time and somehow become my own great grandfather, which would essentially lock me into a loop and really ruin my current travel plans. But in thinking of causality loops, the grandfather paradox, and other temporal thingies, I'm reminded of why I find frayed pieces of rope so interesting.
When I see rope of various types, I always see something analogous to time as we understand it. Each fiber of rope is someone's life, or at least a major line of history...extending forward and back from point zero to some far future resolution (or dissolution.) But if the rope is made of nylon and has been left in sunlight and heavy weather, some of those individual strands are broken. Do the breaks indicate a form of temporal closure, or are they simply nothing more than interruption. Each strand remains in place, ultimately, only it is no longer intact, no longer a smooth stretch from Point A to Point B.
I think of these things when I look at rope: especially now. Rope (nylon and hemp based) is so handy when you want to keep a dental chair on a dolly from moving out of control, or when you need to anchor a newfangled x-ray machine that scans your entire head, rather than takes pictures of teeth as you clench those annoying x-ray sensitive plates between them.
The dental industry and temporal physics don't have much in common, on obvious levels...but on closer (boredom-inspired) inspection...time comes to the forefront of my mind when I look at rope and see frayed and broken strands within it. I wonder...whose lives have been interrupted in these ways, and is rope in some metaphysical way, a map of the flow and interruption that so many of us experience.
It's intriguing for me, and I doubt that I'll ever really know the answer to the questions that rope inspires. I like that, however; knowing too many answers takes some of the fun out of life.
***
As always, thank you for viewing and reading and commenting, and I hope you're all on the verge of yet another good weekend. And yes, this is dedicated to CoreyBlack, who has endured many a conversation concerning temporal rope.
Comments (15)
I loved to read what you wrote, about time and its several connections. And about rope too. Really, they connect to one another somehow and i can understand the intersection point. Time is a challenge at life, to me, has to see with beggining and the end of it all,with the pressure of day to day ...with the hapiness and the illness...and, in all these situations, time is related with different meanings and "timings" to things. People wants to live fast..because they want to live it all in a while...well i could put here my neverending thoughts about it...But rope..has something challenging too...Rope brings to me a lot of feelings...and i drew ropes in art school...why? LOL...because its own meaning...rope could be a fun to children and yet a danger ,but could be connected with work, and also with death (in history and in day to day)..then...the rope speaks about time:))) THis way, your picture grabs me, quite a lot in several ways.Thank you for remember so many things:))) Your image is excellent.I love the sepia and the textutes are wonderfully detailed!Thank you.
Excellent shot my friend!!!
Stories of temporal rope? Why yes, yes indeed. I have heard them and they are fascinating,both in and of themselves and especially under the influence of a certian controled substance that shall go nameless at this time but that most of us folks of a certian age are intimately familiar with. This is a lovely shot of a rather intense intersection of temporal rope plying its trade in that way that only rope can do. I mean if we want to get truly metaphysical we could dwell on the pointlessness and potential of unused rope in a static state as opposed to rope that has been knotted and tied together and is presently employed in the job it was seemingly ment to do: the job of holding things together and keeping the universe from falling into millions of constituate parts. Rope, along with its life partner, Duct Tape, are two of the primal forces of nature for both good and evil and must be respected for their awesome powers. Of course, having said that I must add that chewing gum is also not to be trifled with. Anyway, this is a very cool and thoughtful photo that was obviously made with a macro lense set to some rather extreme setting to where it kind of resembles some form of bacteria ( the picture, not the macro lense ) as viewed from an electron microscope. Kind of brings up the whole issue of whether or not things that can't be seen with the naked eye actually exist or if they are some sort of evil Comunist plot cooked up by Dick Clark and Howard Cosell. Makes ya wonder.....
An interesting read. A lot to say about time for someone who doesn't care for time travel. Personally, I like the multiverse solution to quantum mechanics where all probabilities actually happen. You can go back an kill grandpa, no paradox, but then you've split off a new universe. An infinitely fraying rope...
Two thoughts: 1. Time and space, actually. Think about one strand as your life, and follow it around and around. There are other strands with which it will NEVER make contact. But put a knot in the rope, and suddenly that one strand comes in contact with many other strands, as it loops around, that it would never have otherwise touched. Infinite possibilities. If it weren't for whatever paths brought us both to RR, I would not be writing this and you would not be reading it (and I would not be reading Perdido Street), and we would have no history together, no dinner at Reza's, and little chance of future encounters (assuming no future knots). 2. Broken strands (assuming they indicate a person's death or leaving in a now-non-understandable way) are fascinating. People I know who are dead or gone still have a profound affect on me. The break in their strand does not preclude influence and interaction. 3. (Never mind ... I can't count.) If not for the IDEA of time travel, I would have no idea what chronoton particles are. Thanks to Gene Roddenberry, I can have an almost-intelligent conversation about them!
What they all said. And then some, and then some amorphous probably really brilliant thoughts floating around my brain cells... and a FANTASTIC shot, Chip!
Superb capture my friend.The black or darker background makes the object the rope stand out.Focus is spot on as one can see the textures and very fine detail of the rope very clearly.Composition is spot on.To round it of you wrote a superb short story my friend.Outstanding,Outstanding,Outstanding.
I can just shake my head in wonderment (not sure if that's a word)... Amazing text and accompanying image dear Chip! I read, I looked, I like! Bravo as always!!!
Ok, yes, I agree--to whatever you said. Time IS a strange thing. Those moments you wait for so long disappear in a heartbeat. And then there are the long, interminable seconds that seem infinite. For me, it's all about when the sun comes up and goes down; I'm fortunate enough that clocks aren't all that important anymore. But, having said that, well, I think this, duct tape and blue plastic tarps hold the world together. If that makes any sense at all, then we're all living in the same orbit!!
Chip, sometimes I find myself in a hurry...short of time you know...and I look at a picture or an image without reading the carefully written words below. Tonight I've read every word and rolled around in them a bit. Love your thoughts tonight or this morning on rope, weathering effects on individual strands, old movies and TV episodes. Fascinating subject to speculate upon. Oh, and you've captured the essence of the whole thing with your knotty photo. Might it reside in the famous truck yard? Well done!
WOW! This subject has bee a very interesting experience to me. Your Words are deep fascinating. So is the image, but I just had to read all the comments too. All these wonderful thoughts about time... man, that is interesting. I learn alot here. Unfortunately I am not good at writing my thoughts, so I will not try to write something clever too. LOL ! As if I had anything clever to write. ;-)
Wel, that's shaken up the little grey cells, as Poirot would say! A very stimulating discussion with which to start a wet Saturday morning, and I too have read, and, for once, taken in every word. Like Ana I spent much time(!) drawing ropes at Art School, must be our age, they don't do that any more. Like Helle I'm not good at writing my thoughts without prior preparation, including much strong coffee and chocolate cheesecake. This is an outstanding example of two arts perfectly complemently each other..wonderful!
I'd like to comment on this one but I just do not have enough time to approach it properly...
Temporal Dental Floss?? Whoa, I'm thinking its time to go get more coffee! btw...really sweet pic...one can never see to many of these
Having read your thoughts on 'TIME & ROPE', it seems quite deep and meaningful...but then reading everybody else's comment, just goes to show that we are on similar wavelengths, but all with different outcomes... which is very refreshing, we don't have to agree on anything to understand each other, now that would be boring - (no exchange of thoughts anymore) - viva la difference ! *** Stranger things happened here this week, I promised myself to build a really nice balustrade around my upper floor level verandah, on the North-side of our house, East-side Veranda had been completed long ago. For years now, to be precise seven years, I had these very thick ropes tied around, five times and I must say it looked pretty schmig and was very useful, except for the odd visiting friends, who suffered from vertigo and couldn't come to terms with my temporary solution, that one day it would be replaced with something better. Time had taken it's toll and the constant Sun, Rain and Wind have played havoc with the rope, it literally started to disintegrate, bits and pieces started to fall off and began to un-ravel...I had to take it down, around about the time when you posted this, 'TIME & ROPE' story and photo, co-incidence ? maybe ! *** There is no moral to this, just dreaming and thinking, all this intertwines just nicely, pardon the pun. This is my story to complement yours and the other artists here. Cheers BB