You've got no time at all, but it seems like you've got forever. You've got nothing to do, but it seems like you've got everything.You make coffee and smoke a few cigarettes; and the hands of the clock have gone crazy on you. They haven't moved hardly, they've hardly budged out of the place you last saw them, but they've measured off a half? two-thirds? of your life. You've got forever, but that's no time at all.
In Jim Thompson's "The Killer Inside Me," the protagonist grapples with the paradox of time. He feels an overwhelming sense of eternity despite the reality that his life is slipping away. This duality reveals a deep existential crisis, where mundane activities like drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes contrast sharply with the ticking clock that seems to mock him. The hands of time appear still, yet they signify that life is fleeting,...