Three makes a trend, they always say, so I'm wondering why storytellers are obsessed by the idea of time right now. Three bestselling books explore time in a literary fashion: Life After Life, by Kate Atkinson (Une vie après l'autre), The Bone Clocks, by David Mitchell, and now How To Be Both, by Ali Smith (the last two are awaiting translation). Not to mention the film Interstellar, whose greatest plot twist hinges on the effects of time dilation. Even the forthcoming Jurassic World owes its dinosaurs to scientists who want to turn back the clock.
Perhaps it's something to do with technology. As we master our world in all sorts of complex ways, we worry about the elements over which we have no control. For once, there's no app for that. Einstein unleashed the possibility of time travel, but despite all the science fiction, time for us continues to advance in a linear, plodding way. We get older, and so does our world. Or maybe it's the desire to escape. As war and disease ravage the planet, we have a strong urge to be elsewhere, to get away from it all. But we can't. We're trapped here, now, on a battered little earth that, thanks to the internet, feels smaller every day. So we rely on storytellers to let us slip the moorings of time and play with the most mysterious force in the universe. Luckily, books and films are two things I always have time for.
