Description
The works of M. C. Escher; the Shaker ritual of dance; the "Marseillaise"; Disneyland; a grasshopper's courtship signals; astrolabes of the Middle Ages; the films of Ingmar Bergman; Paleolithic cave drawings; the works of Copernicus and Descartes, Shakespeare and Donne, Newton and Einstein, and Marx and Freud: they all have something to tell us about our experience of and relationship with the past, the present, and the future. Blending anecdote and scientific observation with charts, illustrations, and lively explanation, J. T. Fraser surveys the enormous breadth of our understanding of time. In addition, he introduces his own theory of time based on a hierarchy of temporalities. The result is a classic interdisciplinary study that will at once entertain, enlighten, and challenge the reader.
The culmination of thirty years' work, TIME, THE FAMILIAR STRANGER examines classical and contemporary theories and conceptions of time. Fraser explores an expansive range of topics: the origins of the universe, the history of timekeeping devices, the biology of aging and death, human perception of time, dreaming us waking reality, expectation and memory, scientists' exploration of time in the physical world, and the ways in which technological rhythms control our lives.
