The Shape of Time

 

One book I always return to when considering issues of time as it relates to objects, the body and the earth itself is the excellent little book The Shape of Time by George Kubler (1962)

"There is certainly nothing in the history of art corresponding either to a century or to its tenth part. Yet when we consider the conventionally recognized span of Greco-Roman art, we are confronted with 10 centuries--one millennium, from 600 B.C. to 400 A.D., as a possible duration. But no other millenary duration comes to mind, and the Greco-Roman one depends upon arbitrary cuts (italics added) at both beginning and end. Rather than take space to review the cyclical conceptions of 'necessary' historical iterations which belong to another kind of speculation, we might consider more closely the periods that are said to correspond to known 'working' durations and intervals in the history of things. A year is surely valid--it contains the round of the seasons. Many sorts of work fit into its span. The human frame ages perceptibly in a year and forward plans in any detail are put forth year-by-year."