Ghostly pasts and postponed futures: The disorder of time during the corona pandemic

Since the first lockdown in March 2020, time seems to have slowed to a continuous present tense. The Greek language has three words to express different experiences of time: aion, chronos and kairos. If aion is the boundless and limbo-like time of eternity, chronos represents chronological, sequential, and linear time. Kairos, however, signifies the rupture of ordinary time with the opportune moment, epiphany and redemption, revolution, and most broadly, crisis and emergency. This paper argues that the pandemic is impacting how individuals perceive time in two ways: first, as a distortion of time in which individuals are caught between linear time ( chronos) and rupture ( kairos) invoking the state of emergency and second, as an extended present that blurs the passing of chronological time with its seeming eternity ( aion). As a result of the perceived suspension of ordinary time, temporal understandings of the future are postponed, while the past hovers like a ghost over the present.

García Márquez and Magical Realism

This article focuses on why Gabriel García Márquez’s novel One Hundred Years of Solitude is the ur-magical realist text, which put magical realism on the world literary map. Homi Bhabha’s statement that “ ‘[m]agical realism’ after the Latin American Boom, becomes the literary language of the emergent post-colonial world” confirms the prominence of magical realism in contemporary world fiction. However, during the nearly thirty years since Bhabha’s statement, it has spread beyond the postcolonial arena to encompass “First World” fiction as well, suggesting that García Márquez’s text, and magical realism in general, have revitalized international narrative. Investigating that idea enables discovering its essential characteristics, its lasting appeal, and its salient achievement: challenging (even uprooting) the dominant tradition of realism. While they are often intertwined, such characteristics fall under two basic rubrics: literary style—including magical images presented in meticulous detail as real, the use of hyperbole, distortions of chronological time—and cultural work—integration of ancient indigenous and contemporary culture, communal narrative, and liminality as vital cultural space, among others. In discussing these ideas, the article includes extensive citations from the texts, because the richness and ebullience of García Márquez’s prose is an essential factor in its influence on the growth of worldwide magical realism.

Older Adults’ Experience of Meaning at the End of Life in Two Danish Hospices: A Qualitative Interview Study

The aim of this study was to explore how older adults (aged > 65) confronted with imminent death express their thoughts and feelings about death and dying and verbalize meaning. Furthermore, the aim was to investigate how health professionals could better address the needs of this patient group to experience meaning at the end of life. The study applied a qualitative method, involving semi-structured interviews with 10 participants at two hospices. The method of analysis was interpretative phenomenological analysis. We found three chronological time-based themes: (1) Approaching Death, (2) The time before dying, and (3) The afterlife. The participants displayed scarce existential vernacular for pursuing meaning with approaching death. They primarily applied understanding and vocabulary from a medical paradigm. The participants’ descriptions of how they experienced and pursued meaning in the time before dying were also predominantly characterized by medical vernacular, but these descriptions did include a few existential words and understandings. When expressing thoughts and meaning about the afterlife, participants initiated a two-way dialogue with the interviewer and primarily used existential vernacular. This indicates that the participants’ scarce existential vernacular to talk about meaning might be because people are not used to talking with healthcare professionals about meaning or their thoughts and feelings about death. They are mostly “trained” in medical vernacular. We found that participants’ use of, respectively, medical or existential vernacular affected how they experienced meaning and hope at the end of life. We encourage healthcare professionals to enter into existential dialogues with people to support and strengthen their experiences of meaning and hope at the end of life.

A Case of Diffuse Multicentric Metachronous Astrocytoma of Temporoinsular and Intramedullary Location

Multiple gliomas are rare glial tumors with a histology that is typically consistent with high-grade gliomas. A distinction is made between multifocal and multicentric gliomas according to criteria of anatomical continuity, as well as between synchronous and metachronous gliomas according to chronological time of onset. We present the case of a professional saxophonist with a left temporoinsular lesion who underwent awake craniotomy with monitoring of verbal and musical ability as well as primary sensory and motor cortices. Histopathological study revealed an isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 (IDH)-mutant diffuse astrocytoma. After 4 years of complete oncological remission, the patient developed impaired proprioception in all four extremities. An intramedullary lesion was detected at the level of C4 consistent with an IDH wild-type diffuse astrocytoma. We highlight the singularity of this case as it involved two low-grade glial lesions, separated in time (metachronous) and location (multicentric), as well as genetic differences between both lesions (IDH mutant and wild type).

Movement as Medicine and Screendance as Survivance: Indigenous Reclamation and Innovation During Covid-19

Indigenous screendance challenges US settler colonial constructions that drive political, environmental, and global injustices, which the Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated. This article analyzes online workshops taught in 2020 by Rulan Tangen, Founder and Director of DANCING EARTH CREATIONS, as "movement as medicine" and "screendance as survivance." By connecting Tangen's workshops to Indigenous peoples' historical and ongoing uses of dance and the digital sphere for wellbeing and survival, we show how and why these practices provide powerful possibilities to counter settler colonial concepts of anthropocentrism, Cartesian dualism, patriarchy, and chronological time. Tangen's teaching offers ways for humans and more-than-humans—meaning land, cosmos, nonhuman animals, water, and plants—to (re)connect, drawing on the past to imagine the future and building human solidarity, which we theorize as "homecoming." Ultimately, we link our concept of "homecoming" to the Land Back movement because of the vital connections among Indigenous bodies, sovereignty, and survival.

de chrónos à aión – onde habitam os tempos da infância?

This article reflects on childhood times based on the words chrónos, kairós and aión, which the Greeks use to conceptualize time, in dialogue with different authors, such as Kohan (2007, 2009, 2018), Pohlmann (2005), Skliar (2018), Kohan and Fernandes (2020). In the pedagogical field, we explore how Pedagogy of Childhood has focused on the importance of childhood temporality and children’s agency, with contributions from Hoyuelos (2020), Parrini (2016), Aguilera et al. (2020), Barbosa (2013), Oliveira-Formosinho e Araújo (2013), Oliveira-Formosinho (2018), Pinazza and Gobbi (2014). We reflect on what forms of organizing time are possible when we think about children and their childhoods. Would it be a continuous and chronological time, a time of opportunity for the instant (kairos) or the timeless intensity of the aiónic? Would it be possible to open spaces in school for other temporalities, given its immersion in chronological time (chronos), and its extreme emphasis on routine? We seek a relationship between forms of temporality, philosophy, and early education in order to explore alternative possibilities in the relationship between child and the school context, and conclude that, since the child’s is the aiónic time of intense experience, it is in the heightened dynamic immediacy and the multiple symbolic languages of play that it may be possible to create pedagogical structures that provide a dwelling for childhood temporality.

006 The effect of sodium oxybate on cataplexy in orexin knockout mice

Introduction Narcolepsy is a neurological disorder that is characterized by the loss of orexin neurons in the lateral hypothalamus. Cataplexy is a symptom of narcolepsy and is identified by a sudden loss of muscle tone during wakefulness. Cataplexy abruptly interrupts day-to-day activities, and makes activities like driving dangerous and potentially fatal. It is hypothesized that cataplexy occurs due to the intrusion of REM sleep muscle atonia during wakefulness. It has been demonstrated that a GABAergic mechanism is responsible for silencing the REM sleep atonia circuit and preventing REM sleep muscle atonia from occurring during wakefulness. Sodium oxybate (SXB), a low affinity agonist of GABAB receptors, is currently an approved treatment for narcolepsy; however, its mechanism of action in the brain remains unknown. Here, we investigate the hypothesis that SXB prevents cataplexy through a GABAB mediated mechanism by potentially suppressing the REM sleep atonia circuit. Methods We intraperitoneally (IP) injected orexin-/- mice with one of five treatments; either Lactated Ringers Solution, SXB at 50, 100, or 200 mg/kg, or Phaclophen at 10 mg/kg followed by SXB at 100 mg/kg. Cataplexy was assessed by video recordings. We gathered and analyzed data at three distinct chronological time points (i.e, at baseline, after three consecutive weeks of daily dosing with a treatment, and after one week of no treatment). These experiments were designed and conducted to determine whether; 1) SXB reduces cataplexy, 2) the cessation of SXB administration has an effect on cataplexy, 3) SXB is mediated through a GABAB mechanism. Results We first confirmed that mice used were indeed orexin-/- using immunohistochemical analysis to show that no orexin-a expressing neurons were located in the lateral hypothalamus. Then, we determined that: 1) SXB reduces cataplexy compared to time matched controls (unpaired t-test, p=0.0027, n=18); 2) When we stopped administering SXB IP injections, cataplexy levels increased towards control levels (paired t-test, p=0.0024, n=18); 3) it remains unclear if SXB’s effect is solely mediated through a GABAB mechanism. Conclusion Our findings demonstrate that SXB effectively reduces cataplexy in orexin-/- mice. Support (if any) This research was funded by Jazz Pharmaceuticals

No Time to Age: Uncoupling Aging from Chronological Time

Multicellular life evolved from simple unicellular organisms that could replicate indefinitely, being essentially ageless. At this point, life split into two fundamentally different cell types: the immortal germline representing an unbroken lineage of cell division with no intrinsic endpoint and the mortal soma, which ages and dies. In this review, we describe the germline as clock-free and the soma as clock-bound and discuss aging with respect to three DNA-based cellular clocks (telomeric, DNA methylation, and transposable element). The ticking of these clocks corresponds to the stepwise progressive limitation of growth and regeneration of somatic cells that we term somatic restriction. Somatic restriction acts in opposition to strategies that ensure continued germline replication and regeneration. We thus consider the plasticity of aging as a process not fixed to the pace of chronological time but one that can speed up or slow down depending on the rate of intrinsic cellular clocks. We further describe how germline factor reprogramming might be used to slow the rate of aging and potentially reverse it by causing the clocks to tick backward. Therefore, reprogramming may eventually lead to therapeutic strategies to treat degenerative diseases by altering aging itself, the one condition common to us all.

No Time to Age: Uncoupling Aging from Chronological Time

Multicellular life evolved from simple unicellular organisms that could replicate indefinitely being essentially ageless. At this point, life split into 2 fundamentally different cell types: the immortal germline representing an unbroken lineage of cell division with no intrinsic endpoint and the mortal soma which ages and dies. In this review, we describe the germline as clock-free and the soma as clock-bound and discuss aging with respect to 3 DNA-based cellular clocks (telomeric, DNA methylation, and transposable element). The ticking of these clocks corresponds to the stepwise progressive limitation of growth and regeneration of somatic cells that we term, somatic restriction. Somatic restriction acts in opposition to strategies that ensure continued germline replication and regeneration. We thus consider the plasticity of aging as a process not fixed to the pace of chronological time but one that can speed up or slow down depending on the rate of intrinsic cellular clocks. We further describe how germline factor reprogramming might be used to slow the rate of aging and potentially reverse it by causing the clocks to tick backwards. Therefore, reprogramming may eventually lead to therapeutic strategies to treat degenerative diseases by altering aging itself, the one condition common to us all.

right under our noses: the postponement of children's political equality and the NOW

Responding to the invitation of this special issue of Childhood and Philosophy this paper considers the ethos of facilitation in philosophical enquiry with children, and the spatial-temporal order of the community of enquiry. Within the Philosophy with Children movement, there are differences of thinking and practice on ‘facilitation’ in communities of philosophical enquiry, and we suggest that these have profound implications for the political agency of children. Facilitation can be enacted as a chronological practice of progress and development that works against child, in terms of political agency. This paper theorises practices of facilitation grounded in philosophies of childhood that assume listening to child/ren as equals, as already able to philosophise, and against sameness. We explore the political and ethical implications of the radical posthumanist reconfiguration of the ‘zipped’ body in the light of including the disciplinary, imaginative and enabling energies of chronological time through the concept now/ness. We shift from ethics to ethos, and from ‘zipped’ to ‘unzipped’ bodies, through the notion of affect to explore the temporal and spatial dimensions of facilitation in Philosophy with Children and children’s political agency. We re-turn to David McKee’s Not Now Bernard (1980), getting ‘inside the text’, and attending to the postponement of equality in Philosophy with Children.