NOTES ON A THIEF OF TIME

   by Tony Hillerman

A Review by Gary. C. Moore.
2003.

This book and author touches on a number of themes I have considered throughout my life. The major motivation for each and every and all human endeavor might be described as changing time, changing the meaning of the past consciously and unconsciously, definitely changing the meaning of the future, and both therefore, in a very, very complicated way, changing the meaning of the present. It would possibly be helpful if one has dealt with the tremendous difficulties and profound and unresolved emotional turmoil of Nietzsche's totally irrational but simultaneously terrifyingly rational 'theory' of "the Eternal Recurrence of the Same," but actually that may complicate things unnecessarily for some people. For academic people that can only understand things academically, of course, none of this will make any sense whatsoever.

The nature of time, to express it bluntly, unforgivingly, and cruelly, is the bringing back to life of the beloved dead, of changing the present hated nature of those one once deeply loved by means of twisted philosophical interpretation, of firmly predicting and truly believing in a future where justice will be served, the evil properly punished and the good rewarded, the beloved dead brought back to life, and the twisted and lost beloved untwisted and found, thereby giving the present fullness and meaning. It means returning things to the 'same' where the 'same' was when "the world was as it should be" and everyone was happy and loving each other. This isn't the "case" as Wittgenstein would say unforgivingly. Wittgenstein had the advantage - or disadvantage - of not having such a 'same' to return to. "Unforgiving" is the best way of describing his thinking. He was neither cold nor cruel in his unforgivingness, but was very passionate in it and many times deliberately desired to deeply hurt others and never ever regretted this motivation. That he thoroughly understood the central, key motivation of the irrational/rational "Eternal Recurrence of the Same" was expressed by him when he wrote in his private notebooks that he would never believe in God until he was redeemed first. The utter irrationality and impossibility of this desire perfectly expresses what Nietzsche also was impossibly after and the whole concept of time as I expressed it above that every human being, including obviously Wittgenstein also, shares at least to some extent, shares in constant necessary rejection if nothing else. You might even say it is the core grammar of language - except some languages and cultures escape it to some extent. Definitely NOT the Western, white man's culture of the value and language of success.

Hillerman's series of Navajo mysteries has two Navajo Tribal policemen as heroes. Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn and Sergeant Chee. Hillerman implicitly, but clearly intentionally, states he has discovered a Navajo metaphysics and philosophy that is definitely reflected through these two characters. Their primary characteristic is that they are "cool." Not utterly detached and uncaring, but able to stand back and observe and control their passions. In LISTENING WOMAN, Leaphorn, while apprehending a Navajo wanted for stealing white men's sheep ("They won't miss them," he says though obviously they did, but sheep are of fundamental importance to Navajos who rely only upon "the sufficient" to survive and do not understand nor desire - as tribal Indians -either profit or success or wealth - which is why the white man and Indians who take up "the white way" call tribal Indians ignorant and lazy), stops a Navajo driving a new Mercedes Benz for speeding, who smiles at him and says the traditional "What's the problem officer?" and then, when Leaphorn turns his back for a moment, tries to run him down and escapes. Of course Leaphorn is thoroughly pissed, but in the search he deliberately erases all other motives than solving the puzzle of why someone would try to kill him for a simple traffic violation. He even deputizes the sheep stealer and gives him a gun and who promptly escapes when the search comes to a dead end, kindly leaving the gun behind. With both Leaphorn and Chee they deliberately erase, not just forget, interfering, trivial emotions and concentrate on what is important, on "What is the case." This is a constant throughout the series. In other words, they ALWAYS have a clear idea of what the "case" is. Things white people would always be intensely obsessed with, they simply drop with the greatest of ease because they are "lazy" and "ignorant" Indians, savages, without culture, without history, without intelligence or ambition, or even cleanliness.

That is, they are always concerned primarily, above absolutely anything else in the universe, with balance within their own characters. Of course they have a history and a culture. But it is oral, not written, with all of its advantages and disadvantages, but most especially the psychology of an oral culture. They take Aristotle's teaching about "the golden mean" and the general Delphic Greek saying "Nothing in excess" to the extreme. This includes happiness and close personal loss. This includes living in the middle of trash, of a yard full of weeds, and a rusted car body on blocks. Not exactly the image of the affluent yuppy. In ethics and primary motivation this means they are not interested in judging others in the vengeful white man's way of justice. Even the police have a relaxed attitude toward what is considered "property." They can work around Kropotkin's "All property is theft" while compromising with the white man enough that he thinks his property is protected. But property is never a primary value to them by any means.

Punishment and restoration (time, bringing things back to the way they were, which in a partial sense is what punishment is suppose to do --- to restore the balance of time

--- if you cannot bring back the dead then kill the killer and restore temporal balance) are never their goals. In this they deeply reflect Nietzsche's thought on revenge as the root of morality --- and revenge as simultaneously the root of all evil - an obsessive Western white man's way of thinking. Maybe, then, there is something true to calling Nietzsche a Buddhist. It is something so-called philosophers and scholars should have already seriously considered but have rarely touched on and never in a thorough and consistent fashion. This extreme desire for balance, for harmony within oneself, disregarding any balance in 'objective reality', is also found in another great American philosophical novelist, Thomas Harris, in his HANNIBAL and SILENCE OF THE LAMBS when Doctor Lector retreats into his memory palace to escape disturbing and distorting emotions and situations, and calmly and rationally considers his situation, so by the end of HANNIBAL, one realizes he is a person who is 'good' without in any way being 'good' and thus puts the whole question of traditional ethics in a totally ludicrous aspect.

The Navajo solve murders primarily because they are puzzles. At least these two policemen are obsessive about connecting rational cause with effect and truly understanding "What is the case." They solve murders because the murderers may hurt more people. They do not solve murders simply "to bring people to justice" and punish them, i. e., to hurt them as they deserve. In fact at one point in A THIEF OF TIME Leaphorn, being escorted to his execution by the murderer, while talking about anthropology and genetic drift (you learn a lot about the anthropology of Southwest Indians from Hillerman who has not only won a literary prize from the French but and award from the Navajos as "special friend of the Navajos"), can easily confuse the reader because both Leaphorn's and the murderer's motives for being in this situation are exactly the same - the murderer's love for a living woman and Leaphorn's love for a dead woman.

"I am not sure of your motive for all this. Killing so many people."

"Maxie told you that day," Elliot said. The good humor was suddenly gone, replaced by bitter anger. "What the hell can a rich kid do to impress anyone?"

"Impress Maxie," Leaphorn said. "A truly beautiful young woman." And he was thinking, maybe I'm like you. I don't want this to go wrong now because of Emma. Emma put little value on finding people to punish them. But this would really have impressed her. You love a woman, you want to impress her. The male instinct. Hero finds lost woman. The life saved. He didn't want it to go wrong now. But it had. In a very little while, wherever and whenever it was most convenient, Randall Elliot would kill Eleanor Friedman-Bernal and Joe Leaphorn. He could think of nothing to prevent it.

Pp. 312-313, Harper paperback, 1988.

This should remind one of the prosecutor's interrogation of Raskolnikov.

Leaphorn and Chee explicitly denigrate the motive of punishing others. They just don't want it "to go wrong." They easily 'forget' smaller crimes to explain and prevent major crimes. And they even 'forget' major crimes in the past if it saves lives in the present. They deliberately keep their motives clear and uncomplicated. They understand what they truly consider important and what the price is to be paid for that. That means dropping things that most people consider of overwhelming importance. In other words, they have absolutely no interest in changing time.

The Navajo 'religion' has no belief in an afterlife or a personal god. The sprits they 'believe' in are definitely mortal in the long run. Lieutenant Leaphorn believes in nothing. He is explicitely an atheist in Navajo terms and let us not even bring up Christianity. He once believed in specific people but they are all dead. Exactly Nietzsche's problem. Sergeant Chee explicitly knows his people's religious heritage which he is hesitantly and haltingly learning is superstition, but he also realizes it helps him keep balance and harmony in his character. Being 'white' or being 'Indian' is not a matter of skin color or racial characteristics or cultural inheritance. They are ways of living which they must freely chosen between. Just like Sartre or Heidegger at the pure moment of authenticity, a moment that is merely mythical in everyday reality, but on the other hand, is almost impossible to not assume as somehow valid, however that may be. Without any supporting external autonomous moral standard telling them what is the 'good' way and what is the 'evil' way is. "The white way" is clearly recognized as not only something that bestows great and wonderful benefits if used properly, but also is force an Indian has to recognize, deal with, and accept to some extent even to stay a true tribal Navajo. Chee has the opportunity to become a very successful white man in the white man's world. He has not only graduated the FBI Academy, and had his application accepted, but when he turns down the opportunity, they repeatedly ask him to reconsider. This is of course fictional. But Hillerman clearly makes Chee lay out for himself what he will be giving up if he becomes a "white man." He gives up the rusted car bodies. He gives up the unkempt weeds. He gives up the trash. He gives up the valleys and the mountains and singing a hymn to the rising sun in the morning and the healing songs he has learned. He can see that in one sense this is the 'right' and 'smart' thing to do --- if one wants to be successful. But tribal, traditional Navajos do not believe in success, point blank, up front, explicitly, so obviously that the white man cannot even begin to understand them. Therefore they are "lazy" and "ignorant."

Gary C. Moore