Time—He's Waiting in the Wings/He Speaks of Senseless Things/His Script Is You and Me, Boy

[queerbychoice]

So, I was reading about how we should all rebel against the tyranny imposed upon us by the concept of time, and it occurred to me than in order to read the essays properly, I should remove the Windows clock frommy computer screen first. Only, I can't remove the Windows clock. It's unremoveable.

So, yeah.

Oh, and I found this quote. Has anything changed since this was written? Has time really passed?

"We have about 60% of the world's wealth but only 6.3% of its population. In this situation we cannot fail to be the object of envy and resentment. Our real task in the coming period is to devise a pattern of relationships which will permit us to maintain this position of disparity. We need not deceive ourselves that we can afford today the luxury of altruism and world benefaction. We should cease to talk about such vague and unreal objectives as human rights, the raising of living standards and democratisation. The day is not far off when we are going to have to deal in straight power concepts. The less we are then hampered by idealistic slogans, the better."
—George Kennan, head of the U.S. State Department Policy Planning Staff, Document PPS23, 24th February 1948

Anyway. How is everyone this morning? I went to sleep at 6:00 p.m. last night and woke up at 1:00 a.m. and I've been up ever since so my schedule feels all weird now. I can't believe I've been up for ten hours already and I've done nothing in all that time but wander around lazily reading random websites. But!—to say that I've wasted time by doing so would be giving in to the oppressive concept that time exists. I did, after all, enjoy my ten hours of aimless websurfing, so even though it's true that there are other things I would like to get done, why should it really matter when I get around to doing them? Why should I really even worry about whether I end up dying of old age before I do them?

You know, I couldn't really ever get seriously committed to this anti-time protest. Because, among other reasons, I haven't gone a day without a watch since second grade, and now my wrist has this funny pale freckle-less indentation under my watch which would look too weird to me if I didn't keep my watch over it to cover it up.

But I do my part by having absolutely no regular sleeping or eating schedule outside of working hours, I suppose.

When I woke up at 1:00 a.m. I'd been having a dream in which there was some boring old man making a boring old two-hour-long political speech and there were several hundred people sitting in neatly arranged rows with their hands folded like obedient students pretending to listen but really bored half to death and just waiting for the stupid boring guy to hurry up and let them go home; and meanwhile Frank and I were supposed to attend the speech too but instead we carefully sneaked away behind some trees a few hundred feet away where nobody saw us and we spent the whole two hours kissing. Then I woke up and thought, "Hey, that was fun, I want to go back to sleep and dream about that some more." Alas, I didn't succeed in getting back to sleep, but it did make for a happy start to my day. Thanks, Frank . . . I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

Comments

[djpekky.livejournal.com]

Many things in this entry of yours made me think.

Peace!

Pekky

[queerbychoice.livejournal.com]

Including the part about kissing Frank?

[aliendreamer.livejournal.com]

I thought that essay about time was total bullshit. The fact that kids have to be in school at a certain time does NOT prepare them for work in a factory. That's totally absurd. And it was horribly typed - does that guy have a spacebar on his computer?

Gayle were you ever going to respond to what I said about that guy who refused to send his daughter to school? :p

_Imp

[queerbychoice.livejournal.com]

I think there are limits to how much of the "time" essay I can realistically process, but even so it has merits as something to think about.

Yes, I should reply to your comment. I'll try to get to it today. Hopefully even starting right this minute. (You can see that my concept of time has been slipping lately, with all my procrastination.)

Re:

[aliendreamer.livejournal.com]

Excellent. My concept of time has gone flying out the window (or, in the words of Fry & Laurie, "time fell wanking to the floor" - I think they said it was a Bowie quote) lately, I've just been sitting around doing nothing when I should have been working. Lazy Imp.

_Imp

[queerbychoice.livejournal.com]

That's from the same Bowie song ("Time") that I quoted in the title of this journal entry. The song goes:

Time—He's waiting in the wings
He speaks of senseless things
His script is you and me, boy

Time—He flexes like a whore
Falls wanking to the floor
His trick is you and me, boy

Time—in Quaaludes and red wine
Demanding Billy Dolls*
And other friends of mine
Take your time

The sniper in the brain, regurgitating drain
Incestuous and vain, and many other last names

I look at my watch, it says 9:25, and I think, "Oh God, I'm still alive"
We should be on by now

You—are not a victim
You—just scream with boredom
You—are not evicting Time

Chimes—Goddamn, you're looking old
You'll freeze and catch a cold
'Cause you've left your coat behind
Take your time

Breaking up is hard, but keeping dark is hateful.
I had so many dreams, I had so many breakthroughs
But you, my love, were kind, but love has left you dreamless—
The door to dreams was closed. Your park was real dreamless.
Perhaps you're smiling now, smiling through this darkness
But all I have to give is guilt for dreaming.
We should be on my now.

—David Bowie, "Time," Aladdin Sane, 1974
*"Billy Dolls" refers to a singer named Billy from the band The New York Dolls, who were famous largely for dressing in drag at a time when that was still shocking. . . . I have one of their albums.

Oh, and I'm still looking for the entry that you commented on. It appears that quite a lot of Time has passed without my noticing.

[djpekky.livejournal.com]

*Laughs*. Well, not that part, although I could start to think about it, wishing you the best, that is.

Peace!

Pekky

[deathbystereo.livejournal.com]

I absolutely adore that song. Although I adore most Bowie songs, so that's not saying all that much I guess. But that one has an extra special place in my heart. And the NIN song which samples it is pretty groovy too.

[deathbystereo.livejournal.com]

Oh, and this (http://www.chaosmatrix.com/lib/chaos/texts/fotamec2.html) is a fairly interesting piece. Even if you ignore the occult aspects, it provides an interesting perspective on the nature of time.

(By the way, if you get LJ comments emailed to you, ignore my last one - I cocked up the link)

[roxann-ireland.livejournal.com]

Only, I can't remove the Windows clock. It's unremoveable.

Right-click on the toolbar, select Properties, and uncheck Show Clock.

[queerbychoice.livejournal.com]

Wow! You can do anything!

Now I'm impressed.

[foldingspace.livejournal.com]

Not to sound like a complete hedonist, but my idea of time would be lifted from some Greek poet/philosopher/artsy fartsy thinker type guy whose name I can't remember who said that the stomach is the clock, time marked by the passage between meals, and time has only passed when one becomes hungry.

Of course, I can afford to say that because i'm rail thin.