Winston Churchill's Afternoon Nap
Winston Churchill's Afternoon Nap: A Wide-Awake Inquiry into the Human Nature of Time by Jeremy Campbell
Chronobiology, time as seen within biological context, is a fascinating subject. What happens when we sleep? Do we also have cycles while awake (when more alert)? What makes us able to understand and participate in conversations and music? What are different ways of perceiving time - must we make spatial analogies, and how do past-present-future interplay? Is there one "master clock" guiding all our processes, which gets reset regularly by external stimuli (light, conversation, etc.), or are there myriad clocks, each guiding its own cycles? Why do some situations seem so much faster or slower than others? (Ten minutes waiting for the dentist doesn't feel the same as ten minutes watching a favorite movie.) Why do some people? What causes time to condense in memory? How do short- and long-term memory interplay with time?
So many interesting things discussed in this book - including differences between episodic memory (events; "I remember") and semantic memory (concepts; "I know") which rang personally close (and definitely validated my sense-making).
And, as is often the problem with "so many interesting things" - the book is dense, dense, dense. It took me FOREVER to slog through it. As the reviewers said, "Chock-a-block" and "everything one could possibly want to know" and "packs between two covers so much information." I found another review on-line that says Campbell beat the topic to death. I'd disagree - but he was definitely exhaustive (and exhausting at times to this reader).
Very much worth reading though. While it's written in accessible prose, some understanding of biological and brain functions would be helpful or else it's quite slow-going. I'd also be interested in a more modern version (I've been carrying this damn book around since 1986 when it was published) that would reflect more up-to-date research - but this was a very good foundational book. I had looked forward to passing this book along as soon as I finished (trying to clear off the bookshelves), but when a friend was over last night I kept alluding to things I'd learned. Guess I should keep it to refer back to. Sigh.
Chronobiology, time as seen within biological context, is a fascinating subject. What happens when we sleep? Do we also have cycles while awake (when more alert)? What makes us able to understand and participate in conversations and music? What are different ways of perceiving time - must we make spatial analogies, and how do past-present-future interplay? Is there one "master clock" guiding all our processes, which gets reset regularly by external stimuli (light, conversation, etc.), or are there myriad clocks, each guiding its own cycles? Why do some situations seem so much faster or slower than others? (Ten minutes waiting for the dentist doesn't feel the same as ten minutes watching a favorite movie.) Why do some people? What causes time to condense in memory? How do short- and long-term memory interplay with time?
So many interesting things discussed in this book - including differences between episodic memory (events; "I remember") and semantic memory (concepts; "I know") which rang personally close (and definitely validated my sense-making).
And, as is often the problem with "so many interesting things" - the book is dense, dense, dense. It took me FOREVER to slog through it. As the reviewers said, "Chock-a-block" and "everything one could possibly want to know" and "packs between two covers so much information." I found another review on-line that says Campbell beat the topic to death. I'd disagree - but he was definitely exhaustive (and exhausting at times to this reader).
Very much worth reading though. While it's written in accessible prose, some understanding of biological and brain functions would be helpful or else it's quite slow-going. I'd also be interested in a more modern version (I've been carrying this damn book around since 1986 when it was published) that would reflect more up-to-date research - but this was a very good foundational book. I had looked forward to passing this book along as soon as I finished (trying to clear off the bookshelves), but when a friend was over last night I kept alluding to things I'd learned. Guess I should keep it to refer back to. Sigh.
posted by NOLA at 9:58 AM
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