Time and Distance Overcome

Essay about ”Time and Distance Overcome”

by Eula Biss

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The essay “Time and Distance Overcome” is written by Eula Biss in 2008. The main focus in the text concerns the effect and consequences of the new telephone poles, invented in 1876.

Eula directs attention to the extreme and harsh influence the new invention had on the society and it’s separation of people.

In my assignment I will comment on the composition of the text, divide it into three sections and compare the divided part to each other. Afterwards I will mention some of Eula’s argumentations and comments on the subjects in each section.

As part two I will point out what Eula’s intention with the text is and what affect is has on the reader. For the last part I have chosen to focus on language to influence us, and how different the tones she uses are.

But how is it that a simple and evolutionary invention as the telephone, can affect the societies and communities in such excessive way?

The text is divided into three sections. Each section is lead off by three stars and has their own focus and tone.

The first section, from line 1 to 65, gives us an introduction to the main plot. We hear about different opinions on the subject and what the households have to entrust to the authorities, for the common use of the poles. There are very different things clarified and people went to the extremes to cut down the telephone poles in their arias, just to prevent their nature and homes from getting destroyed. As a countermove to the poles being chopped down by citizens, Bell Telephone Company began to station a man on the top of each telephone pole, until it they were wired together with the rest of the poles.

“ Soon, Bell Telephone Company began stationing a man at the top of each pole as soon as it had been set, until enough poles had been set to a string a wire between them, at which point it became a misdemeanour to interfere with the poles.” (Page 2, line 48-50)

The New York Times reported a “ War on Telephone Poles” in 1889, they pointed out that there were so much, related to both the concern for private property and the dislike of how the poles destroyed the landscape, that could be debated. And they put in a punch line; “ An then perhaps there was also a fear that distance, as it had always been known and measured, was collapsing.” This part presents a lot of fact to the readers and Eula is very objective on the matter.

The second section, from line 65 to 135, has a much darker tone to it and brings the separation between the people into focus. Eula starts by writing about a number of murder cases, where black people are getting hanged. These small paragraphs are getting repeated several times in the text, with a paragraph of summarized facts about the subject. This section is much more negative than the previous one, and as a reader we begin to feel some compassion towards the black people. The murders are getting repeated throughout this section, getting more and more intense and crucifying.

An example of how extreme and inhumane the stories of the murders got, as a reader you wince only by reading it. There were made postcard with photos of burned black men with their limbs cut of, and they were sent as greeting and warnings. On them there was written text’s like; “ this is the barbecue from last night.”. A postmaster General then, in 1908, declared the cards “unmailable”.

In the last section, line 136-145, we hear about a flashback from Eula’s younger life. This part is very different form the other two sections, because here we read about her experiences and how she sees the telephone pole “situation”. She writes that it was unavoidable not to get some sort of unrepentant feeling in a case like this.

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