By Jenny Odell
£10.99 paperback
This looks like a classic self-help book, one designed to help the reader prioritise, or perhaps to be more mindful. I did find it helpful, and it was much more radical in argument and approach than I was expecting.
Odell explores the invention of time as much of the world experiences it today, showing the need for capitalist societies to have specific forms of time measurement. I was familiar with ideas about railway time and factory shifts, but Odell made me think about the values implied by enforced compliance with these constructions of time.
That there is nothing natural about the way many of us experience time is evident. She shows that cultures experience time differently, and that this affects all aspects of life. The impact of current Western thinking about time on the climate emergency and extinction of species features throughout. She cites Riverside favourite Robin Wall Kimmerer trying to explain to a project manager creating a garden for a ‘money no object’ client that mosses grow where they choose to, and that you can’t just decide to have instant mature mosses in particular spaces. Returning to the same site later, she finds that mature mosses have been transplanted in just this way, likely leading to their deaths. Despite her efforts to explain, there is no understanding that the desired human timescale just may not work for plants.
Issues of gender, class, disability, and race and ethnicity feature throughout. Odell discusses the racialised nature of incarceration in the US, and how time is weaponised by removal of opportunities for prisoners to undertake formal learning. Some people manifestly have more power to control their own time than other. Odell’s discussion of those who have campaigned on related issues is interesting – I particularly liked the section on Wages for Housework.
This is a usefully disruptive and readable exploration of how we frame our days.
Review by Bethan