What happens when you can’t move forward?
Hello,
I’ve been thinking about Solvej Balle’s “On the Calculation of Volume” - a seven-part Danish novel about a woman trapped inside November 18th. Not metaphorically trapped, but actually stuck, living the same day on loop, trying to understand what it means to have a future when time refuses to progress.
The premise sounds gimmicky until you read Balle’s work. She doesn’t write characters through deliberate effort - that constructed quality where you can see the scaffolding. Instead, she follows the incidental lines of thought, action, and reaction with such perceptiveness that everything feels not just believable, but totally natural. You want nothing more than to be Tara Selter’s friend, because she feels like someone you already know.
But what makes the series essential rather than just excellent is that it asks what we do when we encounter an absolute threshold. When forward motion stops. When the familiar systems of progression - seasons, years, routines - are no longer available to us.
“If I am to have a future I must have years, and if I am to have years, I must have seasons. Without seasons, no time. If I want seasons, I will have to build them myself. If I am to have a future, I will have to build it myself.”
The first two volumes examine time’s effects on us - how it shapes our relationships, our routines, our sense of self. But the third volume makes a crucial pivot; it asks about our effects on time. What our responsibilities are when we can no longer rely on external structures to carry us forward. What agency looks like when the old rules no longer apply.
This is the work of thresholds. Not just recognizing when we’ve arrived at one, but understanding that sometimes we must construct the passage ourselves. Fragment by fragment. Season by season.
Balle isn't just telling a story about being stuck in time—she's showing us that when we hit a threshold where nothing works anymore, transformation isn't about discovering something entirely new. It's about reconstructing how we understand what's already there. The most transformative work doesn't invent new concepts; it shifts your lens on existing reality.
The question Balle leaves with you—what are you building when the future refuses to arrive on its own?
—Courtney
P.S. If you're new here, welcome. We share stories from the edges of transformation, illuminating the thresholds between emerging technologies and enduring human values. Each month we explore one of four dimensions - culture, craft, ecology, futures.
