April 20, 2019

T is for Time Fly

        My theme for this year’s April A-Z Blog Challenge is fantastical creatures, celebrating my upcoming book, On the Virtues of Beasts of the Realms of Imagination.  Please check out my Kickstarter Campaign for more information about the project.

        “Time flies are an order of insect that comes in many varieties.  It is thought that they breed in the dust of long-abandoned bell-towers, where the dry fluttering and buzzing of their wings causes slight vibrations in the flow of time around them.  It has been noticed by philosophers that similar vibrations in the flow of time can occur to people engaged in certain activities.  That is to say that during the most engrossing of tasks in which we are utterly absorbed, it sometimes happens that time seems to run the faster past us.  I myself have found that while I am engaged in my own favorite task of studying, writing, and depicting the Realms of Imagination, several hours may pass over me in a space that seems much shorter.  Naturalists may be led to wonder whether such temporal anomalies indicate the presence of a time fly nearby.”

        During which activities do you experience the presence of time flies?  Or do you find yourself more commonly visited by the species that make time stretch out — that’s right, the ones that breed in waiting rooms and droning lectures?

You can read about my process of making the Time Flies block here.

        The other T creature in my bestiary is the troll, and you can learn about my process of
making the troll block here
And don’t forget to read

[Picture: Time Flies, rubber block print by AEGN, 2011 (sold out).]

7 comments:

Kristin said...

The older I get the more time flies hang around. It is Friday before I know it.

Rob Z Tobor said...

Insects are interesting critters. Not only can the Butterfly in the South American rainforest cause a thunderstorm in Europe as a result of Chaos Theory. And humans would all be doomed without the humble bee. We now owe flys credit for time . . . . Luckily I am an insect friendly sort of chap so that's good.


I heard a fact on the radio the other day that stated there are 17 million flies for every human on the planet . . . . So I guess we shouldn't annoy them too much as they seriously outnumber us.

Liz A. said...

Time flies... I'll have to keep a closer look out for them.

Anne E.G. Nydam said...

Kristin, you are so right - time just keeps moving faster and faster.

Rob, if the insects were to unionize, we would certainly have to reckon with them. I hope it will be held in my favor that I try to spare most of them when possible, but I am certainly ruthless with mosquitos and fruit flies.

Liz, good luck in your observations!

A Tarkabarka Hölgy said...

I love all the time fly designs :) Pretty! And yes, they are certainly around when I am reading or researching...

The Multicolored Diary

Deborah Weber said...

This delights me Anne. I have a strong suspicion that I've fallen into the time flies world and am trapped as if in one of those sticky tape contraptions. I blink and a day has gone by; I take a nap and a month has passed. I'm putting out an SOS call - come untrap me if you can.

Anne E.G. Nydam said...

Uh oh, Deborah! Maybe we need to send you a time toad to eat up some of the excess time flies.