Customer Reviews

The Dance of Life: The Other Dimension of Time

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1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book blew my mind back when it was first released, and on third or fourth read, there is still so much information to be gleaned from it.
Issues discussed:
Appointments by time vs. being late because a friend in need is more important.
Queueing for the bus vs. pushing and shoving to the front of the line.
Needing closure vs. pigeon-holing a half-completed but unimportant task, often for months or even years.
But most importantly, the book goes in great detail into how these cultural differences in the perception of time and sequence affect interactions between the races and between nations. I highly recommend Dance of Life not only for international travellers but also for anyone who has to deal with other cultures.

In this book Hall explores how different cultures approach and integrate the concept of time into their lives. He explores in depth how the cultural differences can impact peoples interactions with each other, as well as how we can be more aware of the cultural differences as it pertains to temporal awareness. I felt that this book wasn't as dynamic as his previous works. I still got a lot out of it, but it did seem like he was rehashing a lot of his earlier work. I'd still recommend it, because he a lot of interesting perspectives to raise.

Hall seldom bothers to document, presents his musings as given, has constructed a system and world view which bears little relationship to accepted qualitatitive research in the social sciences. . . so why read this book? Because every chapter has an idea with unusual parallels either to developments in cognitive research, to human-computer interaction, or to linguistics, all of which came about post-publication! Astounding intuitions, oftentimes annoyingly documented.

Seldom do we closely question our cultural notion of time.
Hall gives clear explanations of how time is structured in other
non-Western world cultures. The idea for example that we have of days
and hours being empty boxes to be filled with our accomplishments
contrasts sharply with content-filled time, where
experiencing what natural cycles like seasons offer is central.

Put another way, as Joseph
Campbell used to say, "Is life a problem to be solved, or a mystery to be
lived?' Personally I'll go with the mystery, and I think Hall will too.

This book is a must read. I read it about 20 years ago when I was actively working to defuse ethnic tension -- of which there was a lot -- at a major university. Normally, talking about different cultures' senses of time is a way to get people really mad, but Hall's non-judgmental approach was a great way to get people on both sides of the ethnic divide to better understand what was going on. Unfortunately, intellectual understanding is not the same as being able to move between M-time and P-time (the two basic approaches Hall found). I had minority students who understood the need to adapt to the university's M-time, but who ran into major internal and community barriers. And, when I (from the majority culture) tried to move into P-time, I couldn't do it, even though it clearly was more efficient in those instances. Even though understanding doesn't solve the problem, it is an important first step.

The book is excellent, as most of the works of Edward T. Hall are. For anyone trying to understand the clash of cultures, either from a business perspective or a psycho - social one, the concepts of monochronic and polychronic time are most valuable. However, I was really disappointed by the very, very poor quality of print. Bad mark for Amazon from this point of view. Delivery ok.

Edward T Hall is amazing. If you want to awaken your mind & think newly - read Hall. All his books leave me wide awake, wondering & grateful fo his rare intelligence.

I am a scientist. how these reviewers in "prestige" journals bother normal researchers with their remarks like "seldom bothers to document" or "has constructed a system and world view which bears little relationship to accepted" and their "qualitatitive musings" of the humanitarian social sciences. Or natural sciences. Then they,perhaps, submit THEIR grants with YOUR ideas however...

It is greed, greed of greed and only greed and nothing else as greed. They want more grants, they want more senksual pleasures and excitement. And, more important, THEY DO NOT WANT TO THINK. Only for Money. Like storm-troopers of the Evil Empire. Me do thinks this is a good review of the book. Yours sincerely, Dr Vader.