Tolerance For Temporality
From Omnictionary
Tolerance for Temporality is a 2004 novel by William S. Wright. It tells the story of Alf, a young marine biologist, who discovers a way to modify and control the DNA of a certain type of fish. It won the 2005 Dopley Award for Literature, and was included in Ichthyology Quarterly’s All-Time Greatest Fish-Based Novels List.
Plot summary
In the cold winter of 2003, Alf Hertpew is working in the marine laboratory at which he works. For several years he has been working on a way to take control of fish DNA, and he is very close to finding the secret. On this particular day, however, he unlocks the secret of life, and modifies the fish's genetic code so that it is ten weeks younger than before. Having realised that he has uncovered the secret of life, Alf then proceeds to develop his discovery for humans, and tests this development on his little sister Julia. After this cruel act, Alf rampages around his town, injecting anyone he can find with his revolutionary creation. But he is soon arrested, and the rest of the novel is concerned with the trial. Alf is eventually put into a mental institution.
Alf's motivations
The novel is in the first person, in the form of diary entries. This is very clever, for it allows us to really see into Alf's mind and discover what exactly drove him to these desperate and senseless acts. He writes, "I have grown dissatisfied and annoyed with time, and age. Every day I see these poor old fish dying before my eyes, and I wish beyond comprehension that there was some way that I could help them." But was he truly insane? Was it fair to put him in a mental hospital? Peter Serulop wrote in 2006, "Alf's actions were one of a misguided intellect with a foolish desire to see a change in time, something which can never be modified by human hands."
