What is Time?

What is Time?

This past week or so, we have discussed the concept of time in different religions, time periods, and cultures. Also, we watched the film ‘ Memento’ where the main character has short-term memory which means he can’t hold on to new memories. This film can have a lot of different interpretations such as: The main character, Lenny, has no sense of time, has no control over time because he’s being manipulated by others, or he has only some control over time and the rest is manipulated. We did in-class activities: drawing twenty different lines, how we got here, and loose drawings.

I want to elaborate a little bit on the film ‘Memento’ I will admit I was still somewhat confused at the end of the movie and left with many questions. I feel that time is a very broad subject as well as a concept, but I think the film definitely makes you question the reality of time as well as dreaming because I realized a few days ago that my dreams do rewind and go forward again with different things happening. Some people believe that time is important, our sense of time is controlled individually, time is manipulated by others or certain people or events in society, or time doesn’t exist. Nobody is right or wrong in their interpretation of time just like Art.

We were given two excerpts to read: What is Time? By G.J. Whitrow . The first excerpt was about the origin of the idea of time. Similar to the definition of Art; Time is also a subject that is open to everybody’s interpretation and even though we understand what time is we can’t define it. It’s difficult to say how the concept of time actually began because there are so many different theories such as: linear progression in the sense of using a clock and a calendar, part of the cycle of nature, use of planets, a journey, or followed religious rituals such as Christmas. I think there is no correct date or place to say where the origin of time came from. The second excerpt, was about time and ourselves. People often use their memory to remember passage of time: past, present, and future events or experiences. However, if one has a faulty memory or has brain damage and therefore there memory becomes distorted does that mean there concept of time is distorted as well?

Questions to consider:

1) Our the dreams we have an alternate reality?

2) If there are many different time zones around the world which time is right?

I want to know more about how the scriptwriter of the film ‘Memento’ process in writing the script.

Info found: The script of the film ‘Memento was inspired by the director’s brother Jonathan Nolan idea for a short story called “Memento Mori.” The director; Christopher Nolan and his brother both worked on the story and the script independently of one another for the most part. The basis of the film Memento is that memory is unreliable and sometimes we chose to use our memory for our advantage or disadvantage.