{"id":825,"date":"2016-02-18T23:31:40","date_gmt":"2016-02-19T04:31:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/?p=825"},"modified":"2016-02-18T23:31:40","modified_gmt":"2016-02-19T04:31:40","slug":"ambiguous-time-and-form","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/2016\/02\/18\/ambiguous-time-and-form\/","title":{"rendered":"Ambiguous Time and Form"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Written on the Body<\/em>, time is nonlinear and unstable. Rather than adhere to a predictable framework of time, the narrator shifts from moment to moment with only the barest hints of an ordered chronology. This ambiguous timeline is contrived in order to force the reader to experience time in the same no normative manner as the narrator. The narrator experience what Judith Halberstan refers to as Queer time. The narrator flits through the moments of their life in pursuit of love, however any love they find is doomed. Most of their relationships are begun with the understanding that they are temporary and certainly deviate from normal behavior. The narrator speaks of love, but not of family or aging. At the same time they obsess over black holes and, after learning of Louise\u2019s sickness, the slow wasting of diseased flesh towards death and decay. But, for the narrator, that is the basic rule of essence. To the narrator, \u201ctime always ends\u201d (Winterson 18).
\nEven if the narrator accepts the dream of a \u201csaggy armchair of clich\u00e9s\u201d (10), they do not have a form that would fit in normative time. As obsessed as the narrator might be with bodies, their own body is formless. Without the markings of gender or sexuality, they cannot slip into this normalized time. Just as the narrator seems to exist in an ambiguous moment, or string of moments, in time, they also inhabit an ambiguous space. Unable to slip into a more traditional lifestyle, the narrator could even inhabit their own \u201ctime without end\u201d(18), at least for a moment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Written on the Body, time is nonlinear and unstable. Rather than adhere to a predictable framework of time, the narrator shifts from moment to moment with only the barest hints of an ordered chronology. This ambiguous timeline is contrived in order to force the reader to experience time in the same no normative manner … Continue reading Ambiguous Time and Form<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2264,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[123782],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2016-blog-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2264"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/825\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}