Time-Frame: Einstein’s Dreams Triptych

• 22 May 1905

Dawn. A salmon fog Ioats through the city, carried on the breath of the river. The sun waits beyond the Nydegg Bridge, throws its long, reddened spikes along Kramgasse to the giant clock that measures time, illuminates the underside of balconies. Sounds of morning drift through the streets like the smell of bread. A child wakes and cries for her mother. An awning creaks quietly as the milliner arrives at his shop on Marktgasse. An engine whines on the river. Two women talk softly beneath an arcade.

As the city melts through fog and the night, one sees a strange sight. Here an old bridge is half-1nished. There, a house has been removed from its foundations. Here, a street veers east for no obvious reason. There, a bank sits in the middle of the grocery market. The lower stained-glass windows of St. Vincent’s portray religious themes, the uppers switch abruptly to a picture of the Alps in spring. A man walks briskly toward the Bundeshaus, stops suddenly, puts his hands to his head, shouts excitedly, turns, and hurries in the opposite direction.

This is a world of changed plans, of sudden opportunities, of unexpected visions. For in this world, time Iows not evenly but 1tfully and, as consequence, people receive 1tful glimpses of the future.

When a mother receives a sudden vision of where her son will live, she moves her house to be near him. When a builder sees the place of commerce in the future, he twists his road in that direction. When a child brieIy glimpses herself as a Iorist, she decides not to attend university. When a young man gets a vision of the woman he will marry, he waits for her. When a solicitor catches sight of himself in the robes of a judge in Zürich, he abandons his job in Berne. Indeed, what sense is there in continuing the present when one has seen the future?

For those who have had their vision, this is a world of guaranteed success. Few projects are started that do not advance a career. Few trips are taken that do not lead to the city of destiny. Few friends are made who will not be friends in the future. Few passions are wasted.

For those who have not had their vision, this is a world of inactive suspense. How can one enroll in university without knowing one’s future occupation? How can one set up an apothecary on Marktgasse when a similar shop might do better on Spitalgasse? How can one make love to a man when he may not remain faithful? Such people sleep most of the day and wait for their vision to come.

Thus, in this world of brief scenes from the future, few risks are taken. Those who have seen the future do not need to take risks, and those who have not yet seen the future wait for their vision without taking risks.

Some few who have witnessed the future do all they can to refute it. A man goes to tend the museum gardens in Neuchâtel after he has seen himself a barrister in Lucerne. A youth embarks on a vigorous sailing voyage with his father after a vision that his father will die soon of heart trouble. A young woman allows herself to fall in love with one man even though she has seen that she will marry another. Such people stand on their balconies at twilight and shout that the future can be changed, that thousands of futures are possible. In time, the gardener in Neuchâtel gets tired of his low wages, becomes a barrister in Lucerne. The father dies of his heart, and his son hates himself for not forcing his father to keep to his bed. The young woman is deserted by her lover, marries a man who will let her have solitude with her pain.

Who would fare better in this world of 1tful time? Those who have seen the future and live only one life? Or those who have not seen the future and wait to live life? Or those who deny the future and live two lives?

 

Book Title: Einstein’s Dreams

Author: Alan Lightman

Chapter: May 22nd, 1905

 

My chapter is about fitful time. Because time does not flow evenly but fitfully, people receive fitful glances of the future. I described this aspect of the chapter by attaching the first few pages of a book on a piece of paper in order, while having one page that was in the later part of the book randomly placed among the other pages.

 

Some people who have seen their future decide to accept their fate. For instance, a young girl decides not to go to university when she gets a glimpse of her future as a florist.

 

I wanted to make my triptych in the form of a book because, like the characters of a novel, the people who are living in this world of fitful time live according to a decided ending.

 

However, not everyone in this world are submissive to their future. Some few who have seen their destiny do everything to go against it. These people believe that the future can be changed, and that thousands of different futures are possible.

 

My artwork was mostly focused on the people who refuse to accept their fate, particularly of a young man who decides to go on a vigorous sailing voyage when he sees that his father would soon die of heart trouble. The man wants to prove to himself that fate does not exist, and that his father will live despite going through the harsh trip. In time, the father dies of his heart, and the son has to suffer from self-hatred due to the fact that he did not keep his father in bed.

 

Throughout reading the chapter, I was touched by the pure belief of those who refuse to live their life based on a decided path. I thought that it was beautiful how some people chose to believe that there were million different futures instead of one. However, it seems like the result of their idealistic beliefs had led them into disappointment and regret. In the end, they are painfully forced to accept their future.

 

I felt sympathetic toward the young man because he now has to live in self-hatred.

I admire his spirit of trying to rebel against his destiny, however, it seems like in the process of trying to destroy his fate, he has also destroyed a crucial part of himself.

 

I expressed this aspect of the story by illustrating a boat ripping through the pages of a book to describe how the young man is trying to go against his “decided ending”.

But the long spear on the boat that tore through the pages of the book, ends up tearing through his heart.

 

I placed the ‘text’ portion of the triptych on the front page because I wanted to introduce the universe in which the story takes place. I placed the man and his heart on the second page and the boat on the third because I wanted the spear from the boat to penetrate the man’s heart.

 

 

 

 

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