Re: time1, retarting the issue of time

Eva Ekeblad (eva.ekeblad who-is-at ped.gu.se)
Fri, 12 Dec 1997 17:03:29 +0100

Naoki Ueno concludes his long and interesting message on Latour and spatial
metaphors of time and society by observing that it is really difficult to
be free from these spatial metaphors.

In the dialogue I had with the message during my reading I found that it is
indeed very difficult: whatever ideas I tried, I had the sense there was
still a spatial _metaphor_ capturing them. Although by no means necessarily
a LITERAL space, where units of time, events or societal organisation are
converted into a fixed spatial metric... just a means to make invisible
moments visible, and to allow us to move in thought where we can no longer
(or not yet) go in body.

I cannot begin to imagine what freedom from the spatial metaphor would be
like. On the other hand, transforming spatial metaphors from a Cartesian
grid placed literally upon all other domains: THAT I can imagine. Is this
what Naoki Ueno proposes to do, or can he suggest another melody? (i.e. a
metaphor from time)

Eva