ABSTRACT
This chapter is concerned with questions of time and resilience in Ruth Ozeki’s 2013 novel A Tale for the Time Being. It discusses three main themes that emerge from this book, each pertaining to the tenses into which time is divided: past, present, and future. In concerning itself with the past, this chapter approaches the novel through an examination of the geological and geo-political events that underlie the book, specifically the Fukushima meltdown in Japan and the growth of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Second, and thinking of the present – as well as of presence – this chapter examines the Buddhist underpinnings of the novel. These force readers to see everything in the book as existing in, or in relation to, the present that the paired protagonists Naoko Yasutani (Nao, i.e. “now”) and Ruth both inhabit. Third, this chapter considers the narrative structure of the book itself, because this novel projects itself into an ethical future, one where breaking the logic of the narrative–and the logic of time–might lead to a better world to come. All three of these threads point toward the argument that Ozeki’s novel foregrounds collective resilience in the face of individualistic oppression and alienation.
