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3.81 AVERAGE
3.81 AVERAGE
SAVING TIME by Jenny Odell is a critical examination of the ways in which we experience and spend time, in the vein of her prior book, HOW TO DO NOTHING. Like the previous effort, SAVING TIME places personal observation in dialogue with philosophers, drawing on a rich cultural tradition of self-examination.
There is a lot to like in SAVING TIME - in today's brisk hustle culture, it's worth a critical examination of why it is that we do what we do. The beginning of the book really shines in highlighting the historical legacy of timekeeping at work and at home, and how it is embedded with the history of slavery and the rise of industrial labor. Multiple examples help demonstrate the ways in which our "objective" sense of time is historically contingent, and I thought the exploration of different cultures' definitions of seasons helped drive home the ways in which our modern structures of time are artificial inventions.
However, I thought that the rest of the book didn't cohere quite as well as HOW TO DO NOTHING did. The interplay of cultural commentary and personal observations didn't come together quite as neatly as the prior book (which was intrinsically about close observation of our world), and it felt like I was reading two separate books rather than one unifying whole, at times. The writing is beautiful throughout, but I found myself skimming more aggressively through some sections.
Overall, I'd recommend this book, particularly the first third, to those looking for a different way to understand how to spend their time in the world, one that challenges conventional notions of "productivity" to consider how we should spend our time doing what matters most to us in the world, and how to exist in harmony with the world around us. I do look forward to seeing what other work Jenny Odell will produce in the future.
There is a lot to like in SAVING TIME - in today's brisk hustle culture, it's worth a critical examination of why it is that we do what we do. The beginning of the book really shines in highlighting the historical legacy of timekeeping at work and at home, and how it is embedded with the history of slavery and the rise of industrial labor. Multiple examples help demonstrate the ways in which our "objective" sense of time is historically contingent, and I thought the exploration of different cultures' definitions of seasons helped drive home the ways in which our modern structures of time are artificial inventions.
However, I thought that the rest of the book didn't cohere quite as well as HOW TO DO NOTHING did. The interplay of cultural commentary and personal observations didn't come together quite as neatly as the prior book (which was intrinsically about close observation of our world), and it felt like I was reading two separate books rather than one unifying whole, at times. The writing is beautiful throughout, but I found myself skimming more aggressively through some sections.
Overall, I'd recommend this book, particularly the first third, to those looking for a different way to understand how to spend their time in the world, one that challenges conventional notions of "productivity" to consider how we should spend our time doing what matters most to us in the world, and how to exist in harmony with the world around us. I do look forward to seeing what other work Jenny Odell will produce in the future.
Listen any book that references the Tim Robinson hot dog sketch and the Ted chiang neopets short story in order to convince me how our western colonial understanding of time has slowly evolved into our all encompassing productivity culture and paralyzing climate dread, and then provides a look into marginalized communities and their alternative perceptions of time to show how we can combat our nihilism and hopefully restore this apocalyptic hellscape into something livable and that we can be proud of, I mean come on it was always going to be extremely my shit
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
I loved the first two chapters and found the conclusion surprisingly moving, but everything in between felt choppy and tedious. I'm very interested in many of the things the author has to say, but they're often presented in a way that feels like she wanted to talk about a series of special interests, instead of building toward some argument or emotional resolution.
I think there are also some turns of phrase that feel too winking or self-satisfied for their own good, like offering these phrases is supposed to be some big "whoa" moment of resolution that really didn't land for me. "If we can keep each other alive, we can also keep each other dead," is one of them (paraphrased from memory). "It makes me wonder if the real meaning of having time is halving time," is another (also paraphrased from memory).
I think there are also some turns of phrase that feel too winking or self-satisfied for their own good, like offering these phrases is supposed to be some big "whoa" moment of resolution that really didn't land for me. "If we can keep each other alive, we can also keep each other dead," is one of them (paraphrased from memory). "It makes me wonder if the real meaning of having time is halving time," is another (also paraphrased from memory).
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*Thanks to Random House Publishing Group - Random House and NetGalley for the ARC!*
Ugh - I'm not enamored with Saving Time. The book feels very disjointed, like it's lots of thoughts without concrete conclusions, and felt very negative in overall tone. While I still highlighted some things and saved some passages, it just felt like it was more of little pieces rather than one full piece of work. Overall, I much prefer How To Do Nothing, and I'll recommend that but probably not this one.
Ugh - I'm not enamored with Saving Time. The book feels very disjointed, like it's lots of thoughts without concrete conclusions, and felt very negative in overall tone. While I still highlighted some things and saved some passages, it just felt like it was more of little pieces rather than one full piece of work. Overall, I much prefer How To Do Nothing, and I'll recommend that but probably not this one.
challenging
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
In the author acknowledgements Odell thanks her editor Hilary Redmond for her, "...ability to render my language more accessible." Although in general I found the book engaging, meaningful and a worthwhile read, I could have used more 0f Hilary Redmond's attention.
Odell's style is sometimes poetic, sometimes academic, and sometimes a mix of the two. I'm not sure why I found it hard to parse, maybe because no single mode of reading worked for the whole book. Whatever the reason, I often found I'd read a paragraph or a page without anything really registering.
That notwithstanding, there were sections that really hit home and made me question my relationship with time, especially in the context of work. From the introduction: “[T]he roots of modern [time] management can readily be found on West Indian and Southern U.S. plantations in the 18th and 19th centuries.” Odell observes that capitalism dehumanizes time to make it fungible and priceable, and in so doing necessarily dehumanizes the lived experience of working. I’ve had the privilege for most of my career of doing work I enjoy doing, for purposes I believe in, at companies that have a very enlightened conception of time management. But even then I’ve often felt a kind of induced meaningless to work that, until reading this book, I had a hard time describing.
I particularly appreciated the first chapter (“Whose Time, Whose Money”), chapter three (“Can There Be Leisure?”), and chapter four (“Putting Time Back in Its Place”), but would recommend the book (with the reservations noted above) for anyone interested in contemplating, as Odell invites us to do, how our relationship with time structures our lives.
Odell's style is sometimes poetic, sometimes academic, and sometimes a mix of the two. I'm not sure why I found it hard to parse, maybe because no single mode of reading worked for the whole book. Whatever the reason, I often found I'd read a paragraph or a page without anything really registering.
That notwithstanding, there were sections that really hit home and made me question my relationship with time, especially in the context of work. From the introduction: “[T]he roots of modern [time] management can readily be found on West Indian and Southern U.S. plantations in the 18th and 19th centuries.” Odell observes that capitalism dehumanizes time to make it fungible and priceable, and in so doing necessarily dehumanizes the lived experience of working. I’ve had the privilege for most of my career of doing work I enjoy doing, for purposes I believe in, at companies that have a very enlightened conception of time management. But even then I’ve often felt a kind of induced meaningless to work that, until reading this book, I had a hard time describing.
I particularly appreciated the first chapter (“Whose Time, Whose Money”), chapter three (“Can There Be Leisure?”), and chapter four (“Putting Time Back in Its Place”), but would recommend the book (with the reservations noted above) for anyone interested in contemplating, as Odell invites us to do, how our relationship with time structures our lives.
I really enjoyed this book, it was educational through incorporating cultural histories and perspectives as well as existentially spiritual, providing answers and new questions for the reader to explore in their own life. I appreciate the way Jenny Odell stitches interdisciplinary connections and curiosities as an artist for the reader to take in and reflect on. I loved the first person commentary on moving through space in the Bay Area and how that wove into themes through the chapters. Thank you for writing this book. It made me feel many complex emotions and see the way I move through the world differently. Please keep writing these types of explorations!
Fine book, most concepts already explored in previous books I've read but good reminders of other ways of relating to time.
Totally subjective, not for me. Not sure I bought into the central premise sufficiently.