Quentin and Benjy

We said that Quentin has the best concept of time, even that he is obsessed with time. This may be true. I think, however, that Quentin does not want to have this notion of time. Quentin hates time; we said that he doesn't want it to pass.

I would even take it a step further to say that Quentin wishes he had Benjy's concept of time. At least, Quentin wishes his life had the constancy that it first appears Benjy's life had. . . .To say the Quentin hates time is really to say that Quentin hates change. In reality, Quentin has the utmost respect for time. He dissasembles his watch carefully. It seems that he even wants to figure out how it works -- he seems like a typical Harvard student performing a dissection. Not too much later, Quentin appears insane and obsessed. He's given up figuring everything out; he wants it to end.

We wonder how a watch can help somebody forget time rather than remember it. What it does is remind somebody of the present. Of what is happening now and what time it is now. In theory, this what help someone forget the past. This is what Quentin really wants.

It's interesting, and very true, that we think about time when we're bored, not when we're engaged in something. This, I think, is because time is always there, always ticking. It's the one thing that's constant (though not to Benjy), that we can always think about. Quentin's fed up with time and at the same time (pun not intended) obsessed with it...maybe he wishes he had Benjy's notion of time so that he wasn't always thinking about it. I hope you could follow my train of thought in this post...