A Watched Pot: How We Experience Time

by Michael G. Flaherty

Overview

Time, it has been said, is the enemy. In an era of harried lives, time seems increasingly precious as hours and days telescope and our lives often seem to be flitting past. And yet, at other times, the minutes drag on, each tick of the clock excruciatingly drawn out. What explains this seeming paradox?
Based upon a full decade's empirical research, Michael G. Flaherty's new book offers remarkable insights on this most universal human experience. Flaherty surveys hundreds of individuals of all ages in an attempt to ascertain how such phenomena as suffering, violence, danger, boredom, exhilaration, concentration, shock, and novelty influence our perception of time. Their stories make for intriguing reading, by turns familiar and exotic, mundane and dramatic, horrific and funny.
A qualitative and quantitative tour de force, A Watched Pot presents what may well be the first fully integrated theory of time and will be of interest to scientists, humanists, social scientists and the educated public alike.
A Choice Outstanding Academic Book.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780814726877
Publisher:	New York University Press
Publication date:	01/01/1999
Pages:	190
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Michael Flaherty is Professor and Chair of Sociology at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

-,

"An engaging and profound analysis of a central aspect of the human condition, for, as Flaherty shows, our experiences of the world around us affect how we experience time."

-Qualitative Sociology,Vol. 24, No. 3, 2001

"Flaherty invites us to the fascinating world of the phenomenology of time. Particularly sensitive to the inherent tension between the standard and the idiosyncratic, he offers a cross-situational, generic analysis of the circumstances when there is a considerable discrepancy between clock time and our subjective experience of duration such that we feel that time is either compressed ('flies') or protracted ('stands still'). . . . Clearly conceptualized and elegantly written, A Watched Pot is phenomenology at its best."

-Eviatar Zerubavel,author of Hidden Rhythms and The Seven Day Circle

"A highly original and colorful book, filled with compelling, real life and fictional examples."

-Jack Katz,UCLA

"Masterful. This is arguably the most comprehensive inquiry to date by a sociologist on the perception of time, its passage and duration."

-Barry Glassner,University of Southern California

Barry Glassner

Masterful. This is arguably the most comprehensive inquiry to date by a sociologist on the perception of time, its passage and duration.
—Barry Glassner, University of Southern California

Jack Katz

A highly original and colorful book\, filled with compelling\, real life and fictional examples.
—Jack Katz, UCLA

Eviatar Zerubavel

Flaherty invites us to the fascinating world of the phenomenology of time. Particularly sensitive to the inherent tension between the standard and the idiosyncratic, he offers a cross-situational, generic analysis of the circumstances when there is a considerable discrepancy between clock time and our subjective experience of duration such that we feel that time is either compressed ("flies") or protracted ("stands still"). His examination of such temporal anomalies draws on equally-compelling fictional and real first-person accounts. Clearly conceptualized and elegantly written, A Watched Pot is phenomenology at its best. (Eviatar Zerubavel, Professor of Sociology at Rutgers University and author of Hidden Rhythms and The Seven-Day Circle)

Editorial Reviews

"An engaging and profound analysis of a central aspect of the human condition, for, as Flaherty shows, our experiences of the world around us affect how we experience time."

Qualitative Sociology

"Masterful. This is arguably the most comprehensive inquiry to date by a sociologist on the perception of time, its passage and duration."

Barry Glassner

"Flaherty invites us to the fascinating world of the phenomenology of time. Particularly sensitive to the inherent tension between the standard and the idiosyncratic, he offers a cross-situational, generic analysis of the circumstances when there is a considerable discrepancy between clock time and our subjective experience of duration such that we feel that time is either compressed (‘flies') or protracted (‘stands still'). . . . Clearly conceptualized and elegantly written, A Watched Pot is phenomenology at its best."

Eviatar Zerubavel

"A highly original and colorful book, filled with compelling, real life and fictional examples."

Jack Katz

"An engaging and profound analysis of a central aspect of the human condition, for, as Flaherty shows, our experiences of the world around us affect how we experience time."

-Qualitative Sociology,Vol. 24, No. 3, 2001

"A highly original and colorful book, filled with compelling, real life and fictional examples."

-Jack Katz,UCLA

"Masterful. This is arguably the most comprehensive inquiry to date by a sociologist on the perception of time, its passage and duration."

-Barry Glassner,University of Southern California

"Flaherty invites us to the fascinating world of the phenomenology of time. Particularly sensitive to the inherent tension between the standard and the idiosyncratic, he offers a cross-situational, generic analysis of the circumstances when there is a considerable discrepancy between clock time and our subjective experience of duration such that we feel that time is either compressed (‘flies') or protracted (‘stands still'). . . . Clearly conceptualized and elegantly written, A Watched Pot is phenomenology at its best."

-Eviatar Zerubavel,author of Hidden Rhythms and The Seven Day Circle

From the Publisher

Sociologist Flaherty distills a decade of empirical research to explore the human experience of time. From a large survey, he ascertains the extent to which the perception of time is influenced by such factors as suffering, violence, danger, boredom, exhilaration, concentration, shock, and novelty. In the course of the study he constructs a theory of time. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Booknews

An engaging treatise that assesses why a certain duration sometimes seems to go by in a flash and at other times seems interminable.

Choice