Time is the most important commodity we have. We may be able to earn all the money or pleasures we want in this world, but no matter how much time we may earn by medical marvels, we currently cannot live more than 122 years. What we do with the time we are given is what I believe partly makes us ourselves. This includes our hobbies, job, education, etc. It is a form of giving others an impression of ourselves. But what would happen if this would be taken from us? What if we were controlled in what we should be doing at every minute of the day? What if our time was shortened by a considerable amount? How would we possible cope with this?
In the short story “Repent Harlequin, Said the Tick Tock Man” by Harlan Ellison, people’s time was directed to them. They were stuck to a precise schedule. If a person was to be late for anything, they would have as many minutes they would be late taken from their life. If this was not considered bad, the fun of life was also taken away from all life; this left the schedule to only include productive activities. A Harlequin disrupted the daily schedule by releasing many jelly beans into the streets causing chaos. This is not the only story with this plot element. The television show “Jing: King of Bandits” had an episode centered on a demon that controlled a town. Similar to Ellison’s story, anyone who is late is punished. In the episode however, they are executed.
The aspect of time being shortened is also partially explored in Do Robots Dream of Electric Sheep? by Phillip K. Dick and “Bladerunner,” which is based on Dick’s book. The androids have only 4 years to live. This stops them from becoming too powerful and from developing true emotional responses. The aspect of this is explored a little more in the movie. One android, Roy Batty, desperately wants more time and begs his maker to increase his time. Toward the end, when his is minutes from dying he seems to accept his fate, however. This cannot be done due to processes in the manufacturing. The android shows what I consider to be an actual emotion, rage, and kills his maker. This act is similar to humans who discover themselves to their own time on earth shortened by an illness. Typically the initial response someone has is “Why me?” and he/she damns god, his maker. Once at the dying breaths, however, many have come to terms with their fate and accept the inevitable.
In Star Trek: The Next Generation’s episode, “Time’s Arrow,” Data, an android who perceived he would live for what could be forever, came face to face with his death that would occur in the 1600’s. He did not know if he would be transported into the past the next day or in centuries after, but he and the rest of the crew knew one day he would be transported to the past and killed. The crew of the Enterprise was shocked by this, and they were very concerned by this. Because of this, some tried to console Data; others would stop their conversation while Data was around. Even though no one knew how long Data had to live, they still knew he had less time than what they had perceived him to have. Although Data did not have any concern due to him not having any emotions, the crew was very disturbed by this. I believe it is because it is reminding them of their own mortality.
All of these examples are of time being taken from people. The first couple of examples are about society taking time from a person’s life by making them conform to a master schedule. The people lost hope in themselves and most did not fight. They have become accustomed to their life and fate to a point where they do not think they can do anything. This is also shown in my other examples. People have a tendency to eventually accept the situation when time is taken from them. They do fight at first but they do eventually accept that they will die. But why do they do this? I believe it’s because, as I stated in the beginning, time is a commodity. When someone discovers that time has essentially been stolen from him/her, he/she is very angry and wants some sort of justice to be done. Eventually, he/she comes to realize there is no way to get this time back and learns to accept it. This is what I believe is part of what these science fiction writers were thinking while creating these pieces of art.
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