BLOG POST #6 

Lerner’s 10:04 has an interesting theme of time and space as something that can be manipulated. Through his character, we observe what appears to be rants and obsessive overthinking. These scenes reveal a sort of time slipping in his consciousness as he drifts in and out of the present and projects into the future. There is a pattern of overthinking simple decisions or actions due to the paralyzing fear of the choice having a greater impact. In exercising free will, those choices made inform the layout for how the rest of life is going to turn out. Lerner applies this logic to every trivial decision such as picking a method of sedation, anesthesia or an IV. He questions “I can’t figure out if abolishing the memory of pain is the same thing as abolishing the pain” (63). This overthinking unfortunately triggers an indecisiveness in him that leaves him to procrastinate until the very last moment. He illustrates pareidolia, which we learn is where a perception of meaning is developed in places where there is none. This means that where the audience is recognizing a mundane choice, the narrator sees a more drastic consequence. He says that by getting rid of the pain, the repercussion will be the possibility of the separation version of himself into two different versions. That would be the version of him who does not remember and lives in the present and another version of himself that carries the memory of the experience his dental procedure and aftermath that exists outside of time (64). His worry is that using anesthesia would equate to abandoning this fictional other self. Lerner’s thought process is curious as he leaps from pondering over guilt of not remembering and then exclaims that by actually remembering, he has a false truth. Following his procedure, he remarks, “I do remember the drive, the view, stroking Liza’s hair, the incommunicable beauty destined to disappear. I remember it, which means it never happened” (81). He appears to be wondering if he is in charge of his own story and to what extent does his free will impact the larger picture of his life. The sentiment is in exercising your free will, those choices inform the layout for how your life is going to turn out. Lerner rethinks his identity continuously and as he searches through his memories, trying to assess what it real and what is not. Outside of the narrator’s character, other chatacter have the same surrounding theme of space and time. Noor tells the narrator about her origin story, being adopted and raised by her dad and questioning her right to his heritage. Noor said “…it was my whole life up until that point that had happened but never occurred” (107). In this example, Noor is separated into two versions of herself. One is the version of herself who did not ever learn that she was adopted by her father and the other is the ignorant version of her. Somewhere on another timeline or different location in time and space, is the version of her who never discovers she is adopted. But in her present reality, her mother reveals that the truth she has always known was a fallacy. What is the purpose of this comparison to the narrator and Noor’s experience with separation of self by means of time and space? Well, Lerner does a great job of imploring readers to question if we are in charge of our own story and to what degree do we have free will. Do your choices inform your sense of self? Or are there predisposing factors that shape us? 

When beginning to read this book i found myself very confused because of the sudden change in time. I feel as if the time change is too abrupt and makes me question what’s going on and when. The lack of a name really does trigger my questions also, is he suppose to be anonymous and if so then why? I love that the places he mention are local and easy to picture. Throughout the novel he uses dialogue that helps us imagine and feel the anxiousness he is feeling. Unfortunately I don’t understand the concept of time, I do believe this novel is a bit complicated and more difficult to read.

His fatal heart condition somewhat justifies his rant for me. “Rant” in the sense that he is venting about his life as he comes to understand and worry about his heart condition. His lack of motivation to write relates to his energy towards writing and life in general, or at least that is how i see it. On page 62 “I wanted to wave to you when you came in but I had this coffee in my hands and I was afraid I’d spill it and then I was afraid that by failing to wave I appeared unpleasant and then…” This specific piece stood out to me because I do view the narrator, character as this male figure who gets overwhelmed and worried easily and go on venting. He does have a lot going on, two things that hold a lot of weight. His friend is seeking help from him to have a baby and he is also facing these heart issues. I can only imagine how intimidating it must be when thinking about your health condition and basically having a kid. I think the novel is indeed complex but maybe because out world, time and individuals are also complex.

When it was mentioned that this novel focuses on time I thought it would be the character, narrator going into the future or past. I honestly thought this and look forwarded to it because I thought it was going to relate to Kindred, a novel that goes back into time (slavery) and the main character shares her experiences and obstacles with us. Maybe the focus time in 10:04 is focusing on how life and the world grows, develops overtime. I tried my best to understand the plot here on but I am genuinely concerned on where this plot will lead to.

In 10:04 the construct of time seems all over the pace which is ironic considering the title of the book is time. With picking up the novel and reading the sections I was very confused. I understood the first section of the novel in regard to his medical problem and the fact that his best friend Alex wants kids and would like for him to donate his sperm. The novel does a switch though in the second section of this novel. He writes a story where his life is different, he is with Hannah and  his medical problem is in a different area of his body. The author takes an interesting approach in creating a story within a story. 

To me time is almost seen as an illusion.The narrator jumps to a future time period in this novel where events of his life could potentially just be an illusion. Although I have not completed the novel this future period he imagines could be a potential foreshadowing moment later on in the novel. It’s interesting to see how in the beginning he states he wants a child badly but right after states he wants none at all. (Lerner 47). Then we see this switch in the narrator’s novel where he has a family and seems to love being an uncle. He tells his nephews a bedtime story that quickly puts them to sleep (Lerner 76). This role that he takes on is things a father usually does for their sons. This is ironic considering in the section right after he is rushing to get to the hospital to donate his sperm for his best friend Alex. I believe these two moments specifically might tap into the idea that the sperm donation will work and the type of father he will be if and when Alex has the baby. He also has this interesting dialogue with himself about questions his future kids will be asking when they reach certain points in their life. They are asking questions that he sometimes doesn’t really have the best answer to. He has a lot of anxiety and fears about being a father and the role that he would play but in his novel from section two it offers an inside of the father-like figure he would be. 

The novel to me requires a lot of critical thinking as well as being very meticulous. If you start to stray away while you’re reading you get very confused about what is happening considering the narrator jumps from the present, past, and future a lot. When I first read it, I had to read a couple times to grasp what was happening and even now I am still a little confused about the storyline. The novel to me is a lot about the thoughts going through his head and his anxieties rather than what is actually happening in the present moment and telling a story based on that. 

Post 5: when I started to read the beginning of this chapter I was confused. I saw the name of the book at the beginning of the semester and I thought, why is the title an hour of the day? As I started to read the beginning of the book I was even more confused. The narrator spoke so newly. What I mean by newly is that they spoke so forgiven to what I am used to. like he is trying to confuse the reader. in the first page of the chapter the unnamed    narrator states ” we sat and watched traffic and I am kidding and I am not kidding when I say that I intuited an alien intelligence,…” (Lerner 3). that entire sentence just confused me. made question the language that the entire novel would have. I always judge a book based on the language that I see on the first page. the first page of a novel is always an Introduction that will lay out the floor plan of the novels tone. I knew this book was going to be a challenge and I was here for it. I wanted to read more to see what ways can the other confuse me more. I wanted to see how crazy the main character wanted to be. As I continued to read  I was able to see what else would make me question things, then the narrator said this ” I want to say I felt stoned, did say so to Alex, who laughed and said ‘me too,’ but what I meant was that the approaching to death storm was estranging the routine of shopping….” (19). I had a what the hell reaction reading this because these two things had nothing to do with each other and It made me laugh.

post 6: The one thing about this novel is that time is a big thing. As mentioned in my pervious post, this novel continues to make me confused on what the narrator means when he speaks. The third chapter speaks about them going to the hospital to donate sperm. As the chapter progresses, time tends to confuse me more. After he donates he talks about the future kids that could happen when they use his sperm for Alex. He spoke about how he wanted to speak to his “children” as he made this whole scenario in his head. the tome frame in which he is speaking to these fake kids was a bit wonky as he would speak about when they re an infant, to when they are a rude teenager to when they are young adults. As the chapter goes on he talks about him as a child and when his mother started dating. it’s like flashbacks tend to come at random time and out of nowhere. it makes me confused but that is what makes the book super interesting to me.

The chapter opens up with a narrator having a progressively worse existential crisis on donating his sperm for his friend. He discussed this with his friends who in turn laughed at him saying that he would be fine.  While the opening scene can be construed as comical the narrator has very real concerns about the existential implications of him donating his sperm to his friend to let them have a child. The narrator begins to spiral and does not want to abandon his “obligations” and tries to calm himself before he has to do what he has to. This leads him to imagine his future child trying to explain the whole situation to them. He goes into extensive detail as the child that he is imagining is asking him about the details of their “conception”.

The narrator tells us this story by jumping back and forth from the past and future. His ramblings give us a look into his feelings about becoming a father and how he percives the world. The narrator is a believable and human character, he is a smart person but this also comes with the anxiety that he gets from understanding the world arround him of his consequences. The idea of him having a kid and having to explain the complexcites of him having to go to the “mastubatorium” to make a child. The more he talks to his child the harder the questions become. He is justifying and go through the possible sceineros that he is going to have to face when he decides to go through with this. While he makes all these assumtions for the future he hopes that once he does go through with it, his sperm turns out to be worthless because of all these doubts and axiety. The narrator is riddle with these thoughts and the different possiblities that are coming this way so like any person would he jumps to a time that is far more comfortable for him.

The narrator finishes his narrative with explaining that he finally goes through with giving his sample. The narrator is a believable person for us to follow throughout the story showing us his insecurities on full display about becoming a father. We learn more about his quirks like thinking about everything and about how he feels.This chapter started off great and is exploring the narrator and the rules about the story telling of this novel. Time is a very improtant part of the novel.