Commentary on Cartographies of Time
As Rosenberg and Grafton point out, it is true that the linear representation of time has been so normalized in today’s society that it is difficult to imagine another way to represent it. I thought it was interesting that even in the case of a digital clock, it is argued that the numeric representation of the display undergoes a subconscious mapping in our minds onto a linear representation. Since our perception of time and the qualities of a line seem to align almost perfectly, it appears to me that it is almost innate for us to find this relationship with such ease. The reading includes the opinion of Sterne, who was a skeptic of the linear representation of time; I understand that a straight line is usually not the most representative way to draw relationships between points in a narrative, but I don’t understand what the problem is with using a line if the goal is to illustrate the flow of time. It makes sense to me if a line is paired with some other graphic representation of the relationship between different parts of a narrative.