This article was automatically translated from the original Turkish version.
Humanity’s awe at words that surpass human power emerges under the title “Ways to Stop Time.”
Our protagonist Tom Hazard suffers from a condition called anageria, which is more accurately described as a curse or a beauty: he is born centuries ago and reappears in the present day as a history teacher. A society known as the Albatross, which believes people with anageria must remain unknown to others, helps Tom and those like him periodically relocate and assume entirely new lives. Although the novel’s plot is not as powerful as the emotions it evokes or the questions it raises, Tom’s existential reflections—triggered by his leaps through time—sustain the narrative.
The moments in Tom’s life when time seems to slow down arise through his relationship with Rose. These moments originate in the early years of his life and gradually come to dominate his entire existence. The emotional and chemical bond between Tom and Rose—their love—transcends Rose’s death and drags Tom into eternity.
As Tom reflects on Rose amid the flow of life, something happens, and thoughts about the “moment” overwhelm me. I try to imagine the opposite: eternity seems a fitting quality; the idea that everyone and everything has a moment brings me face to face with eternity. But then I set aside my small reasoning and realize there are things I have not accounted for—or cannot account for—and I drift away from eternity. Perhaps I should say “lifetime,” which feels closer in quantitative terms. I pause and return solely to my own moment, the building block of life. While reading the book, I frequently revisit my own moments and my own lifetime.
As I continue reading, I place myself in the shoes of our protagonist Tom and feel the sense of belonging that his absence embodies. His feeling of belonging to Rose, his thoughts of her while living within the ordinary flow of life, make time tangible; he becomes aware of how his present moment is intertwined with the past, and then he detaches himself, disrupting the linear progression of life with cycles—a pattern that feels anything but foreign to our century.
I conclude my humble writing with the poem by Shakespeare, referenced in the book, through which Tom gains the chance to grasp the same moment from distant pasts;
All the world’s a stage
And all the men and women merely players
They have their exits and their entrances
And one man in his time plays many parts