Is time strictly linear, the clock ticking relentlessly forward infinitely, second-by-second? Or, could time take different shapes, perhaps as a circle, a spiral, or maybe even a more organic form, such as the tributaries of a river? For Orion, Priya Subberwal examines various metaphors for marking time amid end-stage capitalism, man-made suffering, climate change, and queerness, wondering which helps us to gaze into the present and future without looking away.
There’s more than one way to measure the movement of a life through time. Life is not only a linear succession of steps, but also a tension of pluralities and contradictions, negotiations of new terrain, accidental evolutions, attempts to relate differently. All of us are reaching, becoming, unfolding, emerging. Because the present is so unstable, we must constantly balance on new ground. Standing still would mean sinking below the current.
More picks from Orion
The Broken Clock
“It will no longer be enough to look back at what historically grew or lived in a place, but to anticipate, through modeling, what will be there next.”
All Ecology Is Queer
“Nature’s networks, fluidity, and diversity are the keys to our future.”
The Day the Lake Took the Edmund Fitzgerald
“The bed of Lake Superior is part museum, part graveyard.”
