Total Time: Are We Drawing Closer to It?

One of the enduring strengths of dystopian fiction is that it rarely invents entirely new ideas. Instead, it takes existing trends, follows them to their logical conclusion, and asks readers whether the future it depicts is really as impossible as it first appears. George Orwell did not invent surveillance, Aldous Huxley did not invent consumerism, and Margaret Atwood did not invent religious extremism. Each simply imagined what might happen if those forces continued unchecked.

 The same question can be asked of Total Time, the fictional employment system operated by Schelldhardt in The Path of Good Response and The Gap. Schelldhardt is the world's largest corporation, one whose relentless pursuit of growth overrides every other consideration. Within its organisation there is no concept of a working day, no weekends, no public holidays and no recognised religious festivals. Christmas Day is simply the twenty-fifth of December. Easter becomes another date in the calendar. Time itself no longer belongs to individuals but to the company.