Meditations on Time in Children's Fiction

Abstract

The philosopher A N Whitehead states that it is impossible to think about time 'without an overwhelming emotion at the limitations of human intelligence' (1920: 73). Certainly any logical approach to time seems doomed to end in frustration and paradox. We talk of past, present and future and understand their meaning, but these can never be factual terms for they depend on our frame of reference. What was once deemed future can actualise, and from another reference point become past; these terms do not refer to actual ontological states. Whatever the measurement of clocks tells us, in our conscious experience time can speed up and slow down and sometimes, for an instant that seems like eternity, even stop. Thus we can live time, and rather than analyse it, we can meditate on its meaning and its truths.