On 'The Time Regulation Institute'

Prominent Turkish author Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar’s novel "The Time Regulation Institute" tells us much about the transformation of both people and their surroundings in the context of broader societal change. While reading the book, what struck me most was the contrast and ongoing tension between the old and the new, as represented by the characters Hayri Irdal and Halit Ayarcı – their differing perspectives, ways of thinking and approaches to life. Irdal leads a life deeply intertwined with everything from the past – Nuri Efendi, Seyit Lütfullah, Dr. Ramiz, Tunusluzade Abdüsselam Bey, Aristidi the pharmacist, Naşit the hunter, Ferhat Bey and others. His life is marked by poverty and a sense of drifting from one place to another through these connections. What ultimately brings Irdal and Ayarcı together is the clock, though in the new, symbolic sense that Ayarcı attributes to it.

The people Irdal meets through Ayarcı also embody the new meaning that the clock comes to represent – flesh-and-blood manifestations of this redefined value: “His Excellency was by no means the kind of man who would torment himself with matters of the soul or self-discipline, who would blunt his fortune, or renounce the pleasures of this world for the sake of eternal bliss. On the contrary, he was of the sort who seized what pleased him, took it, consumed it, digested it, and then sought something more – and grew irritated when he couldn’t find it...” Upon his first encounter with this ne