"The time loop story, in which characters repeatedly relive the same span of time, has become synonymous with the 1993 film Groundhog Day, but the idea has much older roots. In PD Ouspensky's 1915 novel Strange Life of Ivan Osokin, the feckless Osokin is given the chance to live his life over again, only to find himself making all the same mistakes. Like Groundhog Day's insufferable Phil Connors, Osokin can change nothing without changing himself."
"Balle's protagonist, Tara Selter, is an antiquarian book dealer from a small town in France who, on a buying trip to Paris, finds herself trapped in 18 November. For everyone else, as morning comes and the day resets, it is 18 November for the first time. They perform the same actions in the same order, unaware of any repetition. Only Tara remembers the November 18ths that have gone before."
The time-loop trope predates the 1993 film Groundhog Day, appearing in earlier works such as PD Ouspensky's 1915 Strange Life of Ivan Osokin, where repetition exposes the need for inner change. Solvej Balle's On the Calculation of Volume reworks the device through Tara Selter, an antiquarian book dealer who alone remembers repeated November 18ths. Some possessions persist across iterations while others vanish. Tara can move in space and interact with people, altering their day's events, but the loop erases their memories each morning. The novels probe love, loneliness and human consumption within this constraint.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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