Buying Time by Joe Haldeman

Dallas Barr and Maria Marconi's quest to live a thousand years is
threatened by a megalomaniacal fellow Methuselah.

https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/dirt-and-worm
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James Nicoll wrote:
> Buying Time by Joe Haldeman
>
> Dallas Barr and Maria Marconi's quest to live a thousand years is
> threatened by a megalomaniacal fellow Methuselah.
>
> https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/dirt-and-worm

The novel and movies shown below share a similar story (sorted from
oldest to newest):

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Momo_(novel)>
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Price_of_Life_(1987_film)>
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Time>

A previous post pertinent to _Momo_:

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Why _A Wrinkle in Time_ (L'Engle) Fans Should Read _Momo_ (Ende)

Why a Classic German Children's Tale Is Ripe for Revisiting
by Giulia Pines Mar 12, 2018

A 45-year-old fantasy novel by the author of _The Neverending Story_
is in many ways a fitting companion to _A Wrinkle in Time_.

From an early age, many children learn that time is precious,
before growing into adults who see it as a commodity to be
managed at all costs. But literature for young readers often
handles the concept with a greater sense of imagination and
possibility. In Madeleine L'Engle's beloved novel
_A Wrinkle in Time_-whose long-awaited film adaptation hit
theaters Friday-time can be bent (or tessered) to allow
mortals to travel the universe at great speeds. In other
childhood tales, time is a barrier to be broken, or a hidden
door to another world. But what if the seconds, minutes, and
hours of the day could be stolen away? And what if everyone
was too busy to notice?

That's the premise of the strange but beautiful children's
fantasy novel _Momo_, which was published 45 years ago.
Americans might be more familiar with the tale's German
author, Michael Ende, via his book _The Neverending Story_,
which was made into the cult 1984 film of the same name.
Though it never attained name recognition in the United States,
Momo is a classic in Ende's home country and in much of Europe.
And it is, in many ways, a fitting companion to L'Engle's
novel. For one, A Wrinkle in Time and Momo both feature
memorably drawn young heroines who are pulled into fantastical,
time-bending conflicts. But on a deeper level, the two novels
are unapologetically humanist works that teach children to
nurture the kind of quiet, crucial power that comes from being
different, and from understanding what adults very often cannot.

(excerpt)

<https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2018/03/momo-michael-ende-childrens-novel-wrinkle-in-time/555158/>

PRELUDE.
There's a 1986 movie made from _Momo_. An English dubbed version of it
lives out on youtube. [1] The lip synching is atrocious. In some places
a character's mouth opens, closes, and then the audience waits a few
seconds more to hear the uttered words.
A non-youtube English dubbed DVD isn't available in retail channels,
AFAIK. Please share, if you know better.
The movie visuals are but a muddied reflection of the sight seen by
my mind's eye. The movie reminds me of _Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy_
(le Carre). In both cases, it seems highly probable that the movie
storyline can be followed by anyone who does not first read the story.
Below is my favorite passage from _Momo_. It'd be interesting to see
a CGI animation interpretation this passage.
Immediately before the passage, a character in the mold of Father
Time, named Professor Secundus Minutus Hora asks Momo, the protagonist,
if she would like to see where time comes from? Momo whispers, "Yes."

Everything was bathed in a sort of golden twilight.
When her eyes became accustomed to it, Momo saw that she
was standing beneath a mighty dome as big as the vault of
heaven itself, or so it seemed to her, and that the whole of
this dome was made of the purest gold.
High overhead, in the very centre of the dome, was a
circular opening [2] through which a shaft of light fell
straight on to an equally circular lake whose dark, smooth
waters resembled a jet-black mirror.
Just above the surface, glittering in the shaft of light
with the brilliance of a star, something was slowly and
majestically moving back and forth. Momo saw that it was a
gigantic pendulum, but one with no visible means of support.
Apparently weightless, it soared and swooped above the mirror-
smooth water with birdlike ease.
As the glittering pendulum slowly neared the edge of the
lake, an enormous waterlily bud emerged from its dark depths.
The closer the pendulum came, the wider it opened, until at
last it lay full-blown on the surface.
Momo had never seen so exquisite a flower. It was
composed of all the colours in the spectrum - brilliant
colours such as Momo had never dreamed of. While the pendulum
hovered above it, she became so absorbed in the spectacle that
she forgot everything else. The scent alone seemed something
she had always craved without knowing what it was.
But then, very slowly, the pendulum swung back, and as it
did so Momo saw to her dismay that the glorious flower was
beginning to wilt. Petal after petal dropped off and sank
into the blackness below. To Momo, it was as if something
unutterably dear to her were vanishing beyond recall. [3]
By the time the pendulum reached the centre of the lake,
the flower had completely disintegrated. At the moment,
however, a new bud arose near the opposite shore, and as the
pendulum drew nearer Momo saw that an even lovelier blossom
was beginning to unfold. She walked around the lake to
inspect it more closely.
This new flower was altogether different from its
predecessor. Momo had never seen such colours before, but
these colours seemed richer and more exquisite by far. The
petals, too, gave off a different and far more delicious
scent, and the longer Momo studied them the more marvelous
in every detail she found them.
But again the glittering pendulum swung back, and as it
did so the glorious blossom withered and sank, petal by
petal, into the dark and unfathomable depths of the lake.
Slowly, very slowly, the pendulum proceeded on its way,
but not to exactly the same place as before. This time it
checked its swing a little way further along the shore, and
there, one pace from where it had previously paused, another
bud arose and unfolded.
To Momo this seemed the loveliest lily of all, the
flower of flowers - a positive miracle. She could have wept
aloud when this perfect blossom, too, began to fade and
subside into the depths, but she remembered her promise to
Professor Hora and uttered no sound.
Meanwhile, the pendulum had returned to the opposite
shore, another pace further along, and a fresh bud broke
the glassy surface.
As time went by, it dawned on Momo that each new
blossom differed entirely from those that had gone before,
and that it always seemed the most beautiful of all. She
wandered around the lake watching flower after flower
unfold and die.
Although she felt she would never tire of this spectacle,
she gradually became aware of another marvel - one that had
escaped her till now: she could not only see the shaft of
light that streamed down from the centre of the dome; she
could her it as well.
At first it reminded her of wind whistling in distant
treetops, but the sound swelled until it resembled the roar
of a waterfall or the thunder of waves breaking on a rocky
shore.
More and more clearly, Momo perceived that this mighty
sound consisted of innumerable notes whose constant changes
of pitch were forever weaving different harmonies. It was
music, yet it was also something else. All at once, she
recognized it as the faraway music she had sometimes faintly
heard while listening to the silence of a starry night.

The stellar music that Momo hears reminds me of 2017's total
eclipse of the Sun. It's empowering to stare right into the Sun.

Note.

1. https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video;?p=momo+ende

2. Nitpick: The circular opening in a dome has a name. It's called an
oculus. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oculus
Nitpick nitpick: Orwell believed that it's best to use the simplest
words possible to express ideas (eg just leave "oculus" out of it).

3. What though the radiance which was once so bright
Be now for ever taken from my sight,
Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower;
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind...

- Wordsworth

Danke,

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telltale tall tail /, _.. \ _\ (`._ ,. Walk humbly with thy God.
tells tall tales.. `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.' Make 1984 fiction again.