In the American classic Giovanni’s Room, James Baldwin described how he viewed the relationship between time and the individual.

One of the main characters of the novel, the unfortunate Giovanni, tells the narrator of how he experiences the temporal context of human existence, in which all thoughts, deeds and actions are carried out:

 

“Time is just common, it’s like water for a fish. Everybody’s in the water, nobody gets out of it, or if he does the same thing happens to him that happens to the fish, he dies. And you know what happens in this water, time? The big fish eat the little fish. That’s all. The big fish eat the little fish and the ocean doesn’t care.“

In just a few sentences, Baldwin captured the sense of anxiety and powerlessness a person can experience when faced with the seemingly indifference of time, relentlessly moving in the same direction, always at the same pace.

We live, we die, but in a larger perspective, none of it really seems to matter.

In 1948, Baldwin moved to Paris (from New York), hoping for a more peaceful existence in France than what was possible – as a black, gay man – in the US at the time.

He would come to live in Paris for nine years, while continuously publishing in the US, including Giovanni’s Room. In the novel, the protagonist David is in Paris while his fiancée Hella is abroad.

One day, he meets Giovanni in a gay bar, and the two grow increasingly intimate. In many ways, the theme of the novel is quite traditional:

The clash between the restraints of puritanism and the impulse for adventure, leading to the protagonist’s loss of innocence.

Soon, David moves in with Giovanni, in his room. The two struggle with their relationship, as David is resistant to living out his bisexuality by being with a man, while things become increasingly complicated as Hella suddenly announces her imminent return to Paris.

The story takes a dark twist, as Giovanni, in a fit of desperation, murders the owner of the bar where they met, and is now facing execution.