Status
Checked out
Due 2024-05-28
Call number
Collection
Publication
Thorndike, Me. : G.K. Hall, 1999.
Description
National Bestseller "Beautifully written and delightfully strange...as earthy as it is sublime...in the truest sense, an eye-opener." --Daily News From Annie Dillard, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Pilgrim at Tinker Creek and one of the most compelling writers of our time, comes For the Time Being, her most profound narrative to date. With her keen eye, penchant for paradox, and yearning for truth, Dillard renews our ability to discover wonder in life's smallest--and often darkest--corners. Why do we exist? Where did we come from? How can one person matter? Dillard searches for answers in a powerful array of images: pictures of bird-headed dwarfs in the standard reference of human birth defects; ten thousand terra-cotta figures fashioned for a Chinese emperor in place of the human court that might have followed him into death; the paleontologist and theologian Teilhard de Chardin crossing the Gobi Desert; the dizzying variety of clouds. Vivid, eloquent, haunting, For the Time Being evokes no less than the terrifying grandeur of all that remains tantalizingly and troublingly beyond our understanding. "Stimulating, humbling, original--. [Dillard] illuminate[s] the human perspective of the world, past, present and future, and the individual's relatively inconsequential but ever so unique place in it."--Rocky Mountain News… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member mg.isaacs
Ashamedly, this is the first Dillard book I have read, but reading it definitely affected my reading list. This book should be read more viscerally than cerebrally—to do otherwise would leave a reader without an impression. This quilting together of science, Judaism, Catholicism, clouds, and
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stardust is consistent with purpose of the book. It creates a sense of impermanence in the earth’s ongoing processes and reminds the reader of the human limitation. Dillard's prose finds a profound and subtle way to speak of the cosmos—at least for the time being. Show Less
LibraryThing member ebreezy
Have you ever been to the surround theater at Walt Disney World – the one where you stand in an enormous room while majestic vistas are projected in panorama? I remember walking out feeling dizzy. Annie Dillard’s, For the Time Being, had the same effect.
Reading Dillard made me feel
I had to read the last quarter of the book slowly, digesting each notion, each sentence, and sometimes each word for the beauty and wonder. And though there are universes in every phrase, I did not find her ideas of God to align with my worldview. I do not agree that “God is out of the physical loop” or “God’s hands are tied;” however, Dillard made me think about my existence and perhaps, adjusted my inflated view of self importance.
An excellent read for the quirky awe she inspires.
Reading Dillard made me feel
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infinitesimally small, teetering on the edge of insignificant. She tracks the journey of a grain of sand to a beach, the mass extinction of animals, and inexplicable “acts of god” challenging my delusions of self importance. I am small. And chances are this period of time I am in is not the most critical of all times as I secretly believe. In fact, does my life matter at all? I had to read the last quarter of the book slowly, digesting each notion, each sentence, and sometimes each word for the beauty and wonder. And though there are universes in every phrase, I did not find her ideas of God to align with my worldview. I do not agree that “God is out of the physical loop” or “God’s hands are tied;” however, Dillard made me think about my existence and perhaps, adjusted my inflated view of self importance.
An excellent read for the quirky awe she inspires.
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LibraryThing member AaronB
This is the book I would save in a fire. It's like three-dimensional chess for the mind. Every reading of it yields new discoveries.
LibraryThing member ecevans
A wondrous journey through birth and death and everything in between. Part sociology, part biology, part existential discovery. She manages to talk about a "god" without actually saying so and leaves you wondering if you even need to care.
LibraryThing member myfanwy
For the Time Being is non-fiction. It's not precisely a collection of essays, but rather a smattering of thoughts on a series of widely different topics: the life story of a Catholic archaeologist, birth defects, the history of sand, the first Chinese emperor, visits to the Holy Land. Although she
I'm fond of Annie Dillard's tone. I'm fond of it for totally narcissistic reasons. She seems to think like I think and have the same occasional poetical turn of phrase. I find it very comfortable to spend time in her head, as one does when one reads a book. But this is not her finest. If Pilgrim at Tinker Creak is not the book I read once long ago, then that should definitely be my next attempt with Dillard. FtTB has a good author, but is a lackluster book.
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does occasionally tie ideas together, for the most part I felt like I was adrift in an ocean of flotsam and jetsom. The pieces were of more or less interest to me, but nothing hung together, nothing formed a whole. This book reminded me in many ways of the Natural History of the Senses. That book was similarly a loose assocation of thoughts on a topic with too many facts and too little analysis. Hell, I could write a book if all I had to do was write down the last 1000 things that I found interesting, but it wouldn't cohere.I'm fond of Annie Dillard's tone. I'm fond of it for totally narcissistic reasons. She seems to think like I think and have the same occasional poetical turn of phrase. I find it very comfortable to spend time in her head, as one does when one reads a book. But this is not her finest. If Pilgrim at Tinker Creak is not the book I read once long ago, then that should definitely be my next attempt with Dillard. FtTB has a good author, but is a lackluster book.
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LibraryThing member bordercollie
"Then before me in the near distance I saw the earth itself walking, the earth walking dark and aerated as it always does in every season, peeling the light back: The earth was plowing the men under, and the spade, and the plow." This is my 4th reading of the best spiritual book in the world.
LibraryThing member the_darling_copilots
For the Time Being is a carefully crafted assemblage of stories, facts, and spiritual and philosophical musings, which builds in impact over the course of the book until, by the end, the total effect is astounding. Even when musing in a desultory way about her most abstract and complicated topics,
This one will stay with me.
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her writing is so clear that she is simply pointing at something right in front of you. This one will stay with me.
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LibraryThing member nmele
There are many nuggets of insight and imagination in this short book by Annie Dillard. She draws on many spiritual traditions, including Zen Buddhism, Ignation spirituality, Hasidism, and more. Powerful reflections.
LibraryThing member nicholasjjordan
I will apparently always love Annie Dillard, and I will always give her five stars (although I've not yet read any of her fiction).
LibraryThing member traumleben
Humankind's long trek. The philosophical observations of Jesuit paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. The wonder of our existence. What -- if any -- role does God play in our lives; or does God just play? This book is a loose tapestry with threads none-too-difficult to follow through. Enjoy it
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for Annie Dillard's tone, for her gift of observation, and share in her curiosity. Show Less
LibraryThing member stravinsky
swirling tangents
or
aphorisms, adages, and epigrams.
or
aphorisms, adages, and epigrams.
Subjects
Awards
PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay (Winner — 2000)
Prix Maurice-Edgar Coindreau (2002)
Language
Original publication date
1999
Physical description
202 p.; 24 cm
ISBN
0783886713 / 9780783886718