Modernist Literature, Time, and Inception

The most confusing and at the same time fascinating aspect of modernist literature is that time is subjective.  Most stories follow a logical progression, of time.  Usually, the amount of time that is passed as the story progresses is clear and relevant to the plot of the story.  In modernist literature, time is no longer linear.  Time rather reflects a person’s perspective and how long it feels it has been to a character.

As we watched the movie Inception, the amount of time that was actually passing was hard to follow.  Throughout the movie the amount of time that seemed to pass while the characters were dreaming never matched up with the amount of time actually passing in reality.  At the end of the movie, when all the characters are trying to plant an idea in Fischer’s mind, there are multiple “dream levels” or rather, dreams within dreams.  Time on the first dream level while the characters are in the van seems to pass extremely slow.  Yusuf, the man driving the van, is awake while the others are dreaming in that dream.  Time passing in this scene is based on Yusuf’s perspective since it is his dream.  It makes sense that time is perceived as moving slowly.  When one dreams in real life, one dreams for hours and hours, so if the man driving is awake, it makes sense that he perceives time moving slowly.

When Fischer sees his father at the end of the movie in the third dream level, Fisher's perspective of time differs from the other characters.  While the van seems to be falling very slowly to Yusuf, time seems to be moving too fast for Cobb. Cobb is under a time crunch as he tries to complete his mission of inception.  Time for Fischer, however; seems to move faster than it is for Yusuf, but slower than it is for Cobb and the others who are in a rush to make sure they do not miss the kick to wake up from their dreams.  Fischer is having an intimate moment with his father in the dream so it makes sense that time does not feel to be moving too fast since he is not in a rush like the others.  It also makes sense it is not moving in slow motion, because he is having a heartfelt, yet fairly regular conversation with his dying dad while Yusuf is just waiting for everyone to be done dreaming.

How time feels is more important than how much actual time passes.  Cobb explains to Ariadne that when he and Mal are in Limbo it feels like 50 years have passed.  When one is in limbo one is stuck in the level of a dream that is far down into the person’s subconscious.  Cobb and Mal feel as though they are living and creating a perfect reality or rather “their dream” and they perceive time moving faster than it is in reality.  They perceive that they have been in limbo for years and years growing old together, since they are literally living out their dream together.

There is no clear, linear progression of time.  It is hard to tell how much actual time is passing, but far more important to the story and the character development is how much time seems to be passing depending on the perspective of the character while they are in a particular dream or in reality.

Beauty vs Mind (and Sanity)

In Tender is the Night, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Dick Diver starts out as a well-respected, intellectual, and well mannered doctor (a psychiatrist).  Yet, even he seems to be more interested in women’s beauty and youth rather than their personality or mental stability.  The younger and the more beautiful, the more attractive he finds women.  If someone intelligent and seemingly well-meaning cares more about being with someone with a superior appearance rather than a superior mind or even mental stability, it seems clear that Fitzgerald is saying that women’s beauty and youth in the 1920s was the most valuable attribute.

Dick Diver is working as a psychiatrist when he meets Nicole, a mental patient who is about 16 years old.  Besides knowing that her father sexually abused her when she was very young, all he really knows about Nicole is from what she has written in a few letters to Dick.  As the story of how they met progresses, it becomes evident Dick is attracted by her youth and beauty.  When asked about the patient he responds “‘I like her.  She’s attractive” (138).  She is a patient in a hospital because she is mentally ill, so he seems to mostly be in love with her outer beauty.  Later when he meets up with Nicole, it says that her face “had a promise Dick had never seen before” and that she is “a creature whose life did not promise to be only a projection of youth upon a grayer screen, but instead, a true growing; the face would be handsome in middle life; it would be handsome in old age” (141).  It seems very important to Dick that she has lasting beauty and youthfulness rather than that she is mentally ready to have a serious relationship.  Once they marry it becomes clear that she is still not completely, mentally stable.  Dick Diver pays the price to marry someone who is so beautiful yet mentally unsound.  She has mental breakdowns, sometimes in front of friends and other times in public.  

When Dick Diver meets Rosemary, the brand new American movie star, he is again attracted to her as she is very young and beautiful.  He has just met Rosemary but he is already enchanted by her youth and beauty.  Since he is married he tries to not give in to the temptation to love her but he struggles as he is “remembering too vividly the youth and freshness of her lips” (65).  He is not constantly thinking about how talented she is as an actress, but rather how youthful and beautiful she appears.   

Dick Diver is supposed to be a great man in the 1920s, yet even he seems more interested in women’s beauty and youth than their mental capacities or skills.  Ultimately, his desire for beauty leads to the poor choices causing him to end up unhappy and alone.  F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel Tender is the Night seems to be a critique and warning for men who overlook everything for outer beauty.