The De Granville Files part of the story is narrated by Granville himself in first person, but in the past tense. This means that he is telling us his story from a point in the future. Some parts of the text, however, are written in the present tense. These are the dialogues, which are obviously reenacted as if they were happening again; and other parts in which Granville makes reflections about something that can be somehow connected to the main story, but that is usually not a part of it.
In this chapter we encounter several time references meant to situate the action ocurring during Granville's boat trip in the general timeline.
Again we find a reference to being in the 21st century as a sign of evolutionary superiority in contrast with those people who lived 40.000 years ago whom Granville and his colleages are tracking down:
I know I’m going to get a little criticism for making the journey in a yacht, but this is the 21st Century, and there’s no point in faking primitive conditions. (section Aboard)
Everything in the 21st century is business. (section Business)
The expression 40.000 years is repeated several times as well again:
The wood had been buried there for 40,000 years, give or take a few centuries. (section The find)
Migration 40,000 years ago had a down side. (section Business)
Since there were no submarines 40,000 years ago, I concluded that the migrants used an underwater sail. (section A Concern)
I think it is noticeable the expression 'give or take a few centuries', which expresses how inexact is the timeframe in which they are moving, in contrast with the importance that Granville gives the exact century you are as seen previously. But anyway Granville doesn't care much, as demonstrated by this quote:
A nice thing about telling people what’s going to happen in the distant future, or what happened in the deep past, is that they have no way of knowing whether it’s true or not and no way of verifying what you tell them. (section Long Term)
Therefore we see that despite the importance given to being in the 21st century, time is not all that important, being just an expression of temporal snobbism. The unimportance given to time is also seen here:
They passed ten thousand years, then twenty thousand, and finally thirty-five thousand years and found nothing except animal bones and small rocks. (section Dig Here)
However I think it can be concluded that it is the present that matters, as relatively near past is remembered and given the importance it deserves:
Ernest Shackleton set out from England to cross the Antarctic Continent. In 1915 his ship, the Endurance, was trapped in the Weddell Sea pack ice where it was crushed. After incredible hardship he reached help, returned for his men, and brought them to Punta Arenas, Chile.
True, his expedition failed, but he survived, a hero and an inspiration to generations of explorers. He offers a good example for Cro de Granville to follow.
And now, almost 100 years later, satellite analysis has revealed a current flowing around the Antarctic Continent. It has come to be called the Shackleton Current. (section Shackleton)In this paragraph we are told the story of a man who will somehow model Granville's trip, as both will end stuck in the ice and asking for help, despite the 21st century technology they have available. The numerous narcissistic references to the 21st century, and this paragraph, I think are used to cause a bigger effect on the reader when Granville's mission fails. The message that can be extracted from this I think is that actually past is not really important.
Academic year 2008/2009
© About Time (Rob Swigart/Wordcircuits)
© a.r.e.a./Dr.Vicente Forés López
© Víctor Ortuño Domínguez
vicordo@alumni.uv.es
Universitat de València Press
