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bluejayreads's review against another edition
3.0
I keep forgetting that Jenny Odell writes works of philosophy, not how-to books - although to be fair, her titles are incredibly misleading on that point. I read and enjoyed her book How to Do Nothing, but was mildly disappointed to find that it wasn't actually about "how to" anything. I don't know why I expected anything different from her second book, but I did in fact have the ridiculous expectation that this book might tell me something about discovering a life beyond the clock. Instead, just like with How to Do Nothing, I got only philosophy, in this case philosophy of time. Admittedly, quite a bit of it was interesting. The section discussing how our modern concept of time came to be what it is was quite fascinating. But much of it is about how other cultures conceptualize time differently, how nature's time scales are different than the ones we humans created during the Industrial Revolution, and mostly about how much climate change is destroying everything. It was something I noticed in How to Do Nothing too, but it's much stronger here. I hesitate to call it "climate despair," but Jenny's writing is clearly and overwhelmingly influenced by fear and grief over the climate crisis. This in itself isn't necessarily bad. What I struggled with most was actually connecting anything this book said to, well, anything. It could very well be nothing to do with the book and just be about me, but so much of this felt difficult to grasp, and whatever I did grasp felt abstract. There was a lot of information here, but it didn't feel like a coherent narrative so much as an acquaintance handing me a box full of papers, each one containing a variety of facts and opinions about time. My reaction to that scenario would probably be the same as my reaction to this book: "Great, thanks! But what am I supposed to do with this?" And that's a question that Saving Time never really answers.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Ableism, Racism, Colonisation, and Classism
Minor: Animal death, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, and Pandemic/Epidemic
zosiablue's review
hopeful
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
4.25
"Initially, I set out to try to find a conception of time that wasn’t painful—"
I'm always looking for an Annie Dillard-esque modern author who writes smartly about nature and time and Jenny Odell is it. I love her first book, love this one. I can't wait to see where she goes next - you can feel her growing confidence in this one compared to her first.
There are too many takeaways to sum up, but one that's sticking with me is we do ourselves a disservice when we behave like the world is ending. Not in the way that minimizes suffering and pain and hardship. But in the way that believes we need to see a horrible future as inevitable. A world that centers humans, that thinks there's only one world to begin and end, is one possible timeline. There are so many other timelines.
"But just as ladder-climbing ambition is only one form of desire—one that exists on and reinforces a specific plane—there are many forms of frustration beyond what is trivially referred to as burnout. Some of those frustrations, whether you are advantaged or disadvantaged, include the following: having to sell your time to live, having to choose the lesser of two evils, having to say something while believing in another, having to build yourself up while starved of substantive connection, having to work while the sky is red outside, and having to ignore everything and everyone whom, in your heart of hearts, it is killing you to ignore."
I'm always looking for an Annie Dillard-esque modern author who writes smartly about nature and time and Jenny Odell is it. I love her first book, love this one. I can't wait to see where she goes next - you can feel her growing confidence in this one compared to her first.
There are too many takeaways to sum up, but one that's sticking with me is we do ourselves a disservice when we behave like the world is ending. Not in the way that minimizes suffering and pain and hardship. But in the way that believes we need to see a horrible future as inevitable. A world that centers humans, that thinks there's only one world to begin and end, is one possible timeline. There are so many other timelines.
"But just as ladder-climbing ambition is only one form of desire—one that exists on and reinforces a specific plane—there are many forms of frustration beyond what is trivially referred to as burnout. Some of those frustrations, whether you are advantaged or disadvantaged, include the following: having to sell your time to live, having to choose the lesser of two evils, having to say something while believing in another, having to build yourself up while starved of substantive connection, having to work while the sky is red outside, and having to ignore everything and everyone whom, in your heart of hearts, it is killing you to ignore."
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Grief, and Classism
Minor: Racism
bella_cavicchi's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
4.5
4.5 stars. I have a feeling that Jenny Odell and I would make fast friends. I loved HOW TO DO NOTHING—have been known to call it "life-changing"—and SAVING TIME lands with a similar impact. For me, it is really an introduction to post-humanism and how we can think and move and be in a world beyond the binaries in which we currently exist. There's a lot I want to write in response to this book / I'm sure there's an essay in me, somewhere, but for now, I'll settle for this: I love a book that engages the (radical) imagination.
One I'll certainly be returning to.
One I'll certainly be returning to.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation and Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Death and Grief
Minor: Ableism, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, and Sexism
karcitis's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Grief, Pregnancy, Colonisation, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Minor: Animal death, Cancer, and Chronic illness
savvylit's review against another edition
hopeful
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.5
I was only a third of the way through this e-ARC when I realized that I had to pre-order a physical copy of Saving Time. I had already found myself highlighting so many sentences and quietly saying "yes" under my breath. If How to Do Nothing was a meditation on the realms in which we focus our attention, then Saving Time is a deep dive into the myriad ways that we can and do experience literal time.
Odell begins Saving Time by diving into the history of the clock and the twenty-four-hour day. From there, she connects time standardization to a broad cultural obsession with work, productivity, and "making the most of our time." Odell dissects the idea that many of us have unknowingly absorbed: that productivity can be equated with morality. She then explores how that particular cultural norm and others all regarding time ultimately uphold colonial, puritanical, and capitalist structures that are harmful to vast swaths of humanity. Odell reminds us that our work is not our worth and that the phrase "time is money" is a damaging capitalist lie.
As a whole, Saving Time is a reminder to consider alternative ways of how we perceive our time here on earth. By exploring working-class burnout, the liminality of prison sentences, the creeping pace of geological shifts, indigenous experience, mortality, and so much more, Odell does more than merely ask us to reconsider how we view time. Rather, she shows us a wide variety of temporality and offers us a chance at new approaches to everyday life.
Saving Time is a hopeful and deeply empathetic read. This book gave me a much-needed push into experiencing a more ecological and global sense of time - and of living. I'm already looking forward to reading this book again.
Thank you to @netgalley & @randomhouse & @jennitaur for the advanced reader copy of Saving Time in exchange for my honest review! All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Odell begins Saving Time by diving into the history of the clock and the twenty-four-hour day. From there, she connects time standardization to a broad cultural obsession with work, productivity, and "making the most of our time." Odell dissects the idea that many of us have unknowingly absorbed: that productivity can be equated with morality. She then explores how that particular cultural norm and others all regarding time ultimately uphold colonial, puritanical, and capitalist structures that are harmful to vast swaths of humanity. Odell reminds us that our work is not our worth and that the phrase "time is money" is a damaging capitalist lie.
As a whole, Saving Time is a reminder to consider alternative ways of how we perceive our time here on earth. By exploring working-class burnout, the liminality of prison sentences, the creeping pace of geological shifts, indigenous experience, mortality, and so much more, Odell does more than merely ask us to reconsider how we view time. Rather, she shows us a wide variety of temporality and offers us a chance at new approaches to everyday life.
Saving Time is a hopeful and deeply empathetic read. This book gave me a much-needed push into experiencing a more ecological and global sense of time - and of living. I'm already looking forward to reading this book again.
Thank you to @netgalley & @randomhouse & @jennitaur for the advanced reader copy of Saving Time in exchange for my honest review! All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Racism, Grief, Colonisation, and Classism
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