Mouth's Journey part of the story is narrated in 3rd person. We do not know who the narrator is, but he/she is talking in the past tense, therefore is situated in some point in the future after Mouth's adventures. Dialogues are logically in the present tense, with the exceptions to some references to the past. During the unravelling of the story we will encounter several independent sections which will tell us about past events that are related to the story, but which are independent from the main storyline.
If years are defined by the rainy seasons, and months by the moon phases, logically days are defined by the sun:
The sun was almost overhead before Mouth convinced everyone that they’d better get in or they were going to be left behind. "I’ve seen it," he told them. "It’s really, really green." (section Departure)
In this case the narrator is talking about a moment prior to midday, which we can guess because he is telling us the position of the Sun. Therefore not only they are capable of perceiving time in a day-to-day basis, but they are able to differentiate the moment of the day they are in. But this sense of time is somehow disrupted due to their trip to the South, because depending on the latitude in which they are situated. Because they are unaware of the reason why this happens they are compelled to explain it with a simple tale.
They slept in. Later they figured out that the reason they got up so late was because the sun had to climb up from behind that really big mountain, and it took a long time. (section Dawn)
This need to explain things is, I think, the result of the linear perception of time. If they had an overall view of time unfolding they probably wouldn't have that need, because they would not expect things to repeat over and over again.
In the end the story of Mouth takes a short giant's leap, telling us how his descendants would continue to explore the world up to 36,500 later.
Over the next several thousand years Mouth and Forgnogno’s few descendents wandered over what seemed an endless series of mountains, deserts, jungles, plains, forests, hills, rivers and swamps.
36,500 years later one of them, a man named Lunch, encountered a small band of new people.
"Well," he said. (section Dawn)The number of years I think is significant, because although it's a round number, it's more exact than the cyphers that Granville uses in his story, therefore giving more importance to the small changes of time.
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
