pynchon-l-digest V1 #674

[Doug Millison]

I happened to be in China in 1986, the first year the PRC instituted
daylight savings time. On the day of the time change, and for several days
afterwards, people were clearly confused, felt that they had "lost" an
hour, and wound up finding a way to get it back -- they just shifted
starting times of everything so that even though the hour on the clock
would be different than before, they were still doing things "at the same
time of day as before." Quite confusing (it became difficult to be "on
time" for anything, because published starting times weren't always the
same as the real starting time), and the sense of lost time quite palpable,
and the effort to retrieve it, quite concerted.

-Doug

At 7:57 AM 7/1/97, EBURNS 351-1-343-2517 wrote:
>Foax:
>
>for those collecting little snippets of "things connected to pynchon," i
>submit:
>
>Robert Chote writing his "economics notebook" in Monday, June 30's
>Financial Times, pg 9 of the European edition, on "The Reality of Money
>Illusion"
>
>to wit:
>
>"When the Gregorian calnedar was adopted in England in 1752, the switch
>meant that September 14 fell immediately after September 2 that year. "Much
>discontent was provoked among uneducated people who imagined that they were
>being defrauded of the omitted days," according to one account. Mobs rioted
>with cries of "give us back our 11 days".
>
>This confusion arose because people found it easier to think in the
>"nominal" terms they were used to - in which one day of the month follows
>another in numerical order - rather than recognizing the underlying reality
>of what "days" measure, namely the passage of time."
>
>To react like this may seem ridiculous with hindsight..."
>
>(rest of it is Chote on how people respond to changes in prices over time,
>interesting in its own right but not related)
>
>i'm just curious who that unnamesd account is - any guesses? or has choate
>been doing his summer reading like the rest of us?
>
>cheers, Erik


D O U G  M I L L I S O N ||||||||||||| millison at online-journalist.com
         "The Metropolis strives to reach a mythical point
          where the world is completely fabricated by man,
          so that it absolutely coincides with his desires."
                                              --Rem Koolhaas