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491st out of 2,087 books
—
3,728 voters
For the Time Being
National Bestseller
"Beautifully written and delightfully strange--. As earthy as it is sublime, For the Time Being is, 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 ke...more
"Beautifully written and delightfully strange--. As earthy as it is sublime, For the Time Being is, 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 ke...more
Paperback, 224 pages
Published
February 8th 2000
by Vintage
(first published March 1st 1999)
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Annie Dillard is the best writer on the planet. Period.
"The sight of a cleaned clay soldier upright in a museum case is unremarkable, and this is all that future generations will see. No one will display those men crushed beyond repair; no one will display their lose parts; no one will display them crawling from the walls. Future generations will miss the crucial sight of ourselves as rammed earth."
"Standing again, rubbing my fingers together, I found more stone stairways, more levels, and the s...more
"The sight of a cleaned clay soldier upright in a museum case is unremarkable, and this is all that future generations will see. No one will display those men crushed beyond repair; no one will display their lose parts; no one will display them crawling from the walls. Future generations will miss the crucial sight of ourselves as rammed earth."
"Standing again, rubbing my fingers together, I found more stone stairways, more levels, and the s...more
Annie Dillard is another in a long, long, long line of writers that examine what death and suffering mean, particularly its implications for the existence and characteristics of God. I enjoyed Dillard's style of writing, and I thought some of her metaphors were telling. Overall, I thought this book was interesting, but I am deeply disturbed that reviewers are calling this book "mind-expanding". Annie Dillard takes the fundamental problem of human existence and "discovers" it. She tries to person...more
Well... juicy bits here and there, but the choppy narrative is challenging. But challenging is good! OK, then, at times it's more than challenging; it stretches credulity and feels contrived or precious or, worse, like paint splattered on a canvas. "Find meaning, or call my bluff!" the artist taunts. "Fuck off, this is shit, this isn't honest!" I yell back.
That said, there are good bits, lovely bits. Much of the natural description, and the spiritual meditations, and most of the historical quota...more
That said, there are good bits, lovely bits. Much of the natural description, and the spiritual meditations, and most of the historical quota...more
3 likes · like · see review
This was a rare book for me - one that made me stop, savor what I had read, and occasionally go back and reread for clarity. Life, death, God, evil, suffering, bird headed dwarves - Annie Dillard delves into them all and weaves her introspection into a something beautiful. I was left seriously pondering my own existence, my place in the world and what more I should be doing to be actively living. So, so many things I loved about this book, but have been particularly fixated on the idea of dirt,...more
Very humbling. It's hard to make readers feel so small while simultaneously making life so meaningful, but Annie Dillard does it here.
In this audacious little book Annie Dillard ponders God, the holiness of newborns, and any individual’s insignificance in geologic time. Her prose is astringent, with wry appreciation for the brilliant and for the genuine among us; with a barely controlled horror at our dillard-for-the-timeanimal fates and our capacity for indifference and evil. She unfolds this meditation in discrete chunks; each of the book’s seven chapters is divided into segments, more or less these and in this order:
• Birth...more
• Birth...more
Another Dillard favorite in a very different way. I think she is the wisest woman on the planet, and I would love if she started a church.
Her themes:
birth-sand-china-clouds-numbers-israel-encounters-thinker-evil-now
Is it not late? A late time to be living? Are not our generations the crucial ones? For we have changed the world. Are not our heightened times the important ones? For we have nuclear bombs. Are we not especially significant because our century is? - our century and its unique Holoca...more
Her themes:
birth-sand-china-clouds-numbers-israel-encounters-thinker-evil-now
Is it not late? A late time to be living? Are not our generations the crucial ones? For we have changed the world. Are not our heightened times the important ones? For we have nuclear bombs. Are we not especially significant because our century is? - our century and its unique Holoca...more
One review begins with two questions posed by Annie Dillard in this book, Why do we exist, where do we come from?" Dillard just thinks so differently - she begins in a obstetrics ward, musing on the numbers of children born into the world, based on 6 billion people on earth. (Later she muses on the number of people dying every hour as well ... - all with their mourners, individual circumstances, etc). She then notes how statistically, of those children born, so many are deformed, or at variance...more
About 20 years ago, I met a guy -- a writer whose opinions I respected, even admired -- whose response to Annie Dillard's writing took me completely by surprise. He hated it. As I recall, he used words like "pretentious," "overrated," and "pretty" (that last may have had quotation marks of its own around it).
Given that I was in mid-swoon at the time from my first exposure to her work, I couldn't really muster a defense other than of the to-each-his-own sort. Since that time, though, as a non-con...more
Given that I was in mid-swoon at the time from my first exposure to her work, I couldn't really muster a defense other than of the to-each-his-own sort. Since that time, though, as a non-con...more
This book was less immediately affecting than The Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, but it combines Dillard's intense curiosity for scientific fact (particularly anomalous cases) and religious history into a lyrical and beautiful prose style that seems to truly reflect the wonder and awe she finds in nature and life. I imagine Dillard as the sort of writer who spends hours pouring over really dense histories and scientific textbooks, only to pull out exquisite details which she renders into poetic insigh...more
I couldn't get into "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek" but I rather enjoyed this one. The author discourses about 9 different subjects, some more interesting than others. Lots of facts I didn't know. Her life experience is wonderful - so much traveling and involvement in different and unusual areas of life. A lot about Who is God? What is He (not any mention that God could be female), What does he want? How are we involved with Him? What is true? Well, at the end, she doesn't know any more about God than...more
May 29, 2007
Kelly
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
patient people
Shelves:
fiction,
20th-century-postwar-to-late
I genuinely hope that there is no really good book out there by Annie Dillard that I am missing, because I didn't enjoy this one so much in high school and it put me off reading more.
I remember some lovely imagery. The story of the Chinese army particularly sticks out in my mind after all these years, but that's about all I remember except that I was generally quite bored by it otherwise.
I remember some lovely imagery. The story of the Chinese army particularly sticks out in my mind after all these years, but that's about all I remember except that I was generally quite bored by it otherwise.
This is an excellent follow-up to "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek." I would recommend reading "Pilgrim" first, though. Brendan recommended it to me, and read me a few passages while at a bar in Pioneer Square. I got it from the library, and enjoyed it deeply.
It's basically about life-and-death, from the perspective of individuals. That is, do individuals matter? What is the meaning of individual life, if it ends?
Dillard proceeds through a series of stories on a few recurring themes: birth, and birth...more
It's basically about life-and-death, from the perspective of individuals. That is, do individuals matter? What is the meaning of individual life, if it ends?
Dillard proceeds through a series of stories on a few recurring themes: birth, and birth...more
This is a book made up of fragments of history and philosophy, random facts about sand and clouds, and fractured narratives. But it is more than that, too, as Annie Dillard takes these broken elements and tries to weave them together. (You could think of it as a literary version of the Tibetan sand mandala).
She takes on a bevy of big topics: life and death, permanence and eternity, individuality in the midst of billions, and whether God is responsible for calamity. There are no easy answers to t
Feb 07, 2010
Lindsey
is currently reading it
"There were no formerly heroic times, and there was no formerly pure generation. There is no one here but us chickens, and so it has always been: a people busy and powerful, knowledgeable, ambivalent, important, fearful, and self-aware; a people who scheme, promote, deceive, and conquer; who pray for their loved ones, and long to flee misery and skip death. It is a weakening and discoloring idea, that rustic people knew God personally once upon a time- or even knew selflessness or courage or lit...more
It's quite an experience to drown in a book. Unbelievably beautiful. Poetic language throughout, and it explores some serious questions.
"Do you suffer what a French paleontologist called “the distress that makes human wills founder daily under the crushing number of living things and stars?”"
I have to say, it's not a very pleasant book to read. It talked about pain, suffering, and death. I liked how the author is so obsessed about these ideas. Liked that quite a lot.
This is not a long book and...more
"Do you suffer what a French paleontologist called “the distress that makes human wills founder daily under the crushing number of living things and stars?”"
I have to say, it's not a very pleasant book to read. It talked about pain, suffering, and death. I liked how the author is so obsessed about these ideas. Liked that quite a lot.
This is not a long book and...more
In many ways it is hard to explain or review this work by Annie Dillard without actually experiencing it. In some ways it is a challenging read, it is not structured like many of the books we read. It is woven together with a handful of themes. Through these themes Dillard seems to be exploring our relationship to God. Is there a God? What is He like? Do we have meaning and purpose? If there is a God and we do have meaning how do we account for the suffering, pain, and evil in the world?
These ar...more
These ar...more
I'm really not ready to write about this revelatory little book, so suffice it to say that I checked it out of the library and knew by page 7 that I needed my own copy to mark and mark and mark and make mine. I suspect I'll be coming back to this book for years.
Dillard: There were no formerly heroic times, and there was no formerly pure generation. There is no one here but us chickens, and so it has always been: a people busy and powerful, knowledgeable, ambivalent, important, fearful, and self-...more
Dillard: There were no formerly heroic times, and there was no formerly pure generation. There is no one here but us chickens, and so it has always been: a people busy and powerful, knowledgeable, ambivalent, important, fearful, and self-...more
Twenty-five years after writing "Pilgrim at Tinkeer Creek" Dillard has done it again - an engaging and far-roaming book of tidbits and musings relating natural history to ethics to theology to personal experience. As the book jacket tells it, "here is a natural history of sand,a catalogue of clouds, a batch of newborns [with birth defects] in an obstetrical ward, a family of Mongol horsemen." The reader also encounters Jesuit theologian Teildard de Chardin and Hasidic Judaism.
This is the classic...more
This is the classic...more
“Seeing the open pits in the open air, among farms, is the wonder, and seeing the bodies twist free from the soil. The sight of a cleaned clay soldier upright in a museum case is unremarkable, and this is all that future generations will see. No one will display those men crushed beyond repair; no one will display their loose parts; no one will display them crawling from the walls. Future generations will miss the crucial sight of ourselves as rammed earth.”
“Then before me in the near distance I...more
“Then before me in the near distance I...more
Mar 30, 2013
Patty
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
2013,
essays,
nature,
science,
china,
israel,
jerusalem,
judaism,
women-writers,
non-fiction,
spirituality,
religion,
religion-and-science,
god,
history,
literature,
books-about-books,
travel,
philosophy,
science-writing
Somehow I had missed this book by Dillard, but thank goodness I found it. I spent two days reading then stopping to look something up and then going back to Dillard's writing. This is what I love about Annie Dillard. She introduces me to so many ideas and people that enrich my life - I would never find these without her.
Who else could teach me about sand, Peking man, Jewish thought, babies and clouds? Not only did I learn about these disparate subjects, but Dillard links them so that they don't...more
Who else could teach me about sand, Peking man, Jewish thought, babies and clouds? Not only did I learn about these disparate subjects, but Dillard links them so that they don't...more
The pilgrim at Tinker Creek (last book I read by Ms Tinker)has now become intrigued with the wider world--traveling, suffering and collecting information about religions and their traditions. At least she does not give up on the natural world, so we hear about such things as where sand comes from. I am intrigued because I too love the wideness of our world. And, I can't help but miss the specificity that belonged to Tinker Creek and how wide that world was in its specificity. So, I put the book...more
Ever since I learned that fact in 7th grade about "if the world was one 24-day, humans would have only existed for 3 seconds," the concept of geologic time has kind of freaked me out. Dillard threads her piece with the same dwarfing concept that I elicited my first existential crisis in middle school.
For The Time Being is, as most great books are, complexly layered. The layering in Dillard's book is more intentional, however, as her work hinges on the composition of the various strata of the ea...more
For The Time Being is, as most great books are, complexly layered. The layering in Dillard's book is more intentional, however, as her work hinges on the composition of the various strata of the ea...more
So, lots of fascinating tidbits, stories and observations here. She's especially good on numbers and the scale of the world and our place in it, and doing her best to make you feel humble and insignificant, which is nice. And the stuff about birth defects is eye-opening (and eye-watering).
Less interesting, for me at least, was all the stuff about theologians' debates about the nature, powers and attitudes of God. And the way she hopped from one story or thread to another in the space of a few li...more
Less interesting, for me at least, was all the stuff about theologians' debates about the nature, powers and attitudes of God. And the way she hopped from one story or thread to another in the space of a few li...more
This is a fascinating book. It consists of a wide range of thoughts from Annie Dillard about subjects like culture, the origin of sand, birth defects, deaths, the buried soldiers in Xian, archaeology, religions, God, and a bunch of other disparate topics. She also describes the life of Pierre Teilhard, an exiled French Jesuit priest in the early 20th century who was also a paleontologist (especially in China), and a world traveler. She discusses very large and small numbers, including in astrono...more
I only finished this book a week ago (or so) and yet I actually needed to think really hard about whether I actually finished it. Then I recalled the accomplishment of having gotten to the last page, but no recollection of what I had read.
In other words, I'm not sure why I'm giving it two stars instead of just the one. Maybe because I'm a fan of philosophical musings and pretty sentences, and both are in abundance here. And yet...
From the beginning the book put me in an unpleasant place. It star...more
In other words, I'm not sure why I'm giving it two stars instead of just the one. Maybe because I'm a fan of philosophical musings and pretty sentences, and both are in abundance here. And yet...
From the beginning the book put me in an unpleasant place. It star...more
I recently blogged, I have a crush on Annie Dillard. Everything I've read by her has been astounding, eye opening, inspiring. Her thoughts and experiences on life, spirituality, nature, and God, in this unusual collection of essays argues both our insignificance in a grand, unknowable universe and our roles as gods in our own lives and the lives those we encounter. Droll and quirky commentary on her travels to Israel and China follow countless quotes from preeminent Kabbalist rabbis, palentologi...more
Audio. I'm not sure whether I should have read this or not - it's a bit non-linear for audio, unless you're willing just to let the words wash over you and not necessarily follow along religiously - and she doesn't give answers, just poses questions in the form of musing. I like Dillard for her moments of poetry and insight, those moments when she illuminates a topic in a new, unique slant of light - there are a lot of them in this one, which is very contemplative. A powerful examination of the...more
I found this book a bit challenging to read...which I think says more about my limitations than about the book itself. Specifically, reading the book felt to me like reading someone's journal. Trying to follow the author's meandering thoughts, cerebral discussions of various diverse topics back to back, and the significance numerous insights/reflection, actually felt burdensome at times...likely because I was not always in the right mental place or state for heavy thinking. Being more of on the...more
Reading Pilgrim at Tinker Creek when I was 16 was a transformative experience. I'd been a bookworm for years but hadn't yet realized how powerfully the use of language itself, deliberately chosen, could be. I've read most of Dillard's other works and while I've enjoyed them, not been nearly so moved by them, so it's wonderful to find one I hadn't yet gotten around to, and have it resonate with and move me so powerfully. This is a sparser and more fragmented volume, but full of the same fascinati...more
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“We live in all we seek.”
—
34 people liked it
“There were no formerly heroic times, and there was no formerly pure generation. There is no one here but us chickens, and so it has always been: A people busy and powerful, knowledgeable, ambivalent, important, fearful, and self-aware; a people who scheme, promote, deceive, and conquer; who pray for their loved ones, and long to flee misery and skip death. It is a weakening and discoloring idea, that rustic people knew God personally once upon a time-- or even knew selflessness or courage or literature-- but that it is too late for us. In fact, the absolute is available to everyone in every age. There never was a more holy age than ours, and never a less.”
—
17 people liked it
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Feb 16, 2013 08:55pm