Ahmet Tanpinar - The Time Regulation Institute

“May your work come easily, Beyefendi.”

Without looking up at me, he replied:

“Yes, that’s it! The regulation of time will always vary according to occupation. For example, just have a look here: laborers, menial workers, civil servants, and clerics are more exacting in their regulation of time, and teachers are the same, whereas businessmen, housewives, and in particular servants — in other words, those who in fact don’t really work, which is to say, those with no work apart from their actual work…”

I was baffled by this last expression: “those with no work apart from their actual work.”

“In other words, those people who don’t do anything save the work they have been instructed to do, or, to put it another way, those who devote all their time to one particular job. For example, a woman who knows how to read and write and who enjoys music will feel the need to finish with her domestic duties quickly, because she has other things to do. So for such a person time is a valuable commodity; the same goes for a housewife who works outside her home, as well as for servants who work day shifts, but as for the others, the concept of time is less pronounced.”

Halit Ayarcı bent over his diagram.

“The colors are wonderful, aren’t they? Nermin Hanım did them. I explained the method to her, and she prepared all this in just one night. Now it’s up to me to find an occupation for every colored column.”

This was perhaps the strangest thing I had ever heard or seen.

I tried to object:

“But, sir,” I said, “shouldn’t this be done in just the opposite way? That is to say, first a survey is conducted, and then the figures, or rather the results, are collected. Then columns that represent these results are arranged accordingly. At least that’s as much as I know about—”

Halit Ayarcı looked at me as if for the first time.

“The old method,” he said. “Obsolete and absurd, and it gobbles up a terrible amount of time, offering no conclusive evidence. This method is far more reliable. Here the margin of error is reduced as there’s no possibility for any verification. For example, have a closer look at this little yellow column between the red one and the purple. It’s shorter than all the others. Nermin Hanım may not have consciously considered this, but she made it this way all the same. And so there must be a reason. I asked her about it this morning, and she told me that she really didn’t know, and that it just came to her like that. So it was a flash of inspiration. And inspiration is never wrong. So then it falls to me to assign a function to this column, and I’ve been racking my brains for half an hour trying to do precisely that: I cannot imagine a mathematical equation capable of uncovering a more suitable occupation than the one that will eventually emerge from my cudgeled brain. Numbers are deceptive. They lead us to absurd and faulty results. In any case, it’s impossible to count anything properly. I’d believe in statistics if human beings were one-dimensional. But humans are complex beings, forever in a state of flux. And if that’s the case, then why get bogged down in tasks so arduous? I’m setting aside this yellow column for patients with grave illnesses, as they are less concerned with the regulation of time. The fact that it is six times smaller than the columns next to it attests to this discrepancy. And this single black line shows that the dead are no longer concerned with time.”

“Yes, I see — but is it really necessary to include that in the diagram? It seems only natural…”

“I believe so. In fact it is vital that we include it in this diagram. If we don’t, how will we teach the public to understand that true consciousness in a human being derives from the relationship between timepieces and time? But how strange, it’s as if you’ve forgotten the very reason our institute was established. We are challenging the order of society itself. We are here to serve the common good. Or did you assume I haven’t got anything better to do?”

“I don’t know about you, but for me there’s nothing more important. And never has been. Of this I am convinced.”

He made a few final changes on the chart and then turned to me.

“Forget about such questions. You’ll get used to these things in time. One day they’ll be like second nature. What you said to the mayor the other day was entirely and absolutely wonderful.”

“Oh, but it was what you said that was truly admirable.”

“We’re old friends. We went to school together and we’ve been close ever since.”

“It’s just that…”

“Yes?”

“That whole discussion about our ‘success’ rather surprised me. We haven’t done anything yet!”

“Well, you’re wrong about that, Hayri Bey. Just to start is success in itself. Think about it: we have established ourselves in this little office, and we have managed with these conditions, sacrificing ourselves to do this vital work. Is this not success?”

Suddenly he stopped; looking me directly in the eye, he asked, “Hayri Bey, don’t you believe in what we’re doing?”

I glanced at the personal effects I had arranged around the edge of my desk. I thought it might be time for me to collect myself and my things and leave. When he realized what I was thinking, he smiled as if to reassure me.

“Don’t worry. I don’t intend to let you go. There’s still so much work waiting for us at the institute. But still I’d like to know why — why don’t you believe in what we’re doing?”

“It’s just that we don’t seem to be engaged in meaningful activity.”

“What do you mean by meaningful? Are the meanings we share not plucked from the air at a moment’s notice? Take a porter, for example. There’s a piece of furniture, and he has to carry it from one place to another.”

“Is that all?”

“But to your mind, or rather your logic, everything and anything can be refuted! Thinking about any kind work for ten minutes, no five, even three, can render it utterly absurd. You need but ponder something closely to extract it from any system of logic.”

For more than a moment he was lost in thought. Then he leaned back over his diagram. Then he got up to have a look at the chart from a distance. Wheeling around to face me, he declared:

“My good man, first there was man and then work. Work was created by man to be executed by man. And we have created this. Are you suggesting that because no one ever thought of such a thing before, or approached the idea in such a way, our endeavor cannot be construed as meaningful work? We are indeed engaged in work, and work that is vital. Work is a matter of mastering one’s time, knowing how to use it. We are paving the way for such a philosophy. We’ll give our people a consciousness of time. We’ll create a whole new collection of adages and ideas, and spread them all over the country. We shall declare that man is first and foremost a creature who works, and that work itself is time. Is this not a constructive thing to do?”

He really seemed rather distraught just then. He was nearly out of breath, and panting as if he’d just put down a heavy load.

“I sense that you limit yourself to timepieces and neglect that which lies beyond. A clock is an instrument, a tool, albeit a very important one. Progress begins with the evolution of the timepiece. Civilization took its greatest leap forward when men began walking about with watches in their pockets, keeping time that was independent from the sun. This was a rupture with nature itself. Men began following their own particular interpretation of time. But that’s not all. For a timepiece is time itself, we mustn’t forget that!”

The best I could do was fall back on my usual refrain.