# "How long is forever?" **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 10, 2013, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-is-forever/668478 "2013-09-10T05:20:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2013, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-is-forever/668478/21 "2013-09-10T22:13:45Z")
Ever been on a cliffside trail, and slip, and start to teeter out over a forty foot drop to surf-washed cobblestones? Really weird, the way time seems to stop. That one second, while you windmill your arms in desperate gyrations, seems to last…forever. ---
**Author:** ![Flywheel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Flywheel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flywheel)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2013, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-is-forever/668478/22 "2013-09-10T23:18:39Z")
> [@Garrison Keillor](#): > > “Oh Lord to whom a million years are but a moment’s blink, > To whom a million dollars are a single penny’s clink, > Oh Lord to whom these vast things are so minutely reckoned, > Could I have a million dollars?” God said, “Sure, just a second.” … ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2013, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-is-forever/668478/23 "2013-09-11T17:47:41Z")
I found a [source](http://still-she-haunts-me-phantomwise.tumblr.com/page/10) that says it’s from the Burton film, not Carroll’s original work > [@](#): > > ``` > If I see one more quote from the Burton movie being attributed to Lewis Carroll I will start a fucking apocalypse. > > So to avoid this, here is a recap: > > "It is better to be feared than loved." > "The Mad Hatter: Have I gone mad? Alice: I’m afraid so. You’re entirely bonkers. But I’ll tell you a secret. All the best people are." > "If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is because everything would be what it isn’t. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn’t be. And what it wouldn’t be, it would." > "I’m not strange, weird, off, nor crazy, my reality is just different from yours” > ”Alice: How long is forever? White Rabbit: Sometimes, just one second” > > All of these (and I suspect, many others more) are NOT from Lewis Carroll. The person who wrote them has the literary talent of a 14 year-old drunk hipster and it drives me crazy to see them associated with the name of my favorite author. > > (okay, the third one isn’t that bad, but it isn’t from the book.) > > Please, don’t do this anymore. > > ``` As to the question my interpretation would be that to a person who only has one second to live, one second is forever. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2013, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-is-forever/668478/24 "2013-09-11T18:23:13Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#): > > I found a [source](http://still-she-haunts-me-phantomwise.tumblr.com/page/10) that says it’s from the Burton film, not Carroll’s original work Thank you! ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2013, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-is-forever/668478/25 "2013-09-11T18:37:28Z")
Not sure how long it will last, by according to Bonnie Tyler it’s gonna start tonight. ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2013, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-is-forever/668478/26 "2013-09-11T18:40:11Z")
> [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](#): > > “Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. THAT’S relativity.” Attributed to Albert Einstein, but possibly apocryphal. Pretty much what I came in here to say. Reminds me of [this video](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VCtRN2mH9s) (what’s a Swatch minute?) ---
**Author:** ![Uber\_the\_Goober](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/58956e/32.png) [@Uber\_the\_Goober](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uber_the_Goober)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2013, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-is-forever/668478/27 "2013-09-11T20:17:36Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > Ever been on a cliffside trail, and slip, and start to teeter out over a forty foot drop to surf-washed cobblestones? Really weird, the way time seems to stop. That one second, while you windmill your arms in desperate gyrations, seems to last…forever. I believe this was figured out by someone - I think the interview was on NPR. Basically, the physiological response during the “Oh Crap” moment causes our minds to become intensely focused - and to record more data than normal. The memory then ends up replaying in slow-motion, because there’s so much more information there. Like something recorded with a hi-speed camera, at 10,000 frames per second, but replayed at the standard … um … 60 frames per second or whatever it is. Pretty neat interview I thought. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2013, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-is-forever/668478/28 "2013-09-11T20:44:02Z")
OK, so Tim Burton was on drugs. A lot. [sub]For Anaamika’s sake - it’s a joke. The fact tht LC was not a drug user is fairly well established. I have no idea about Burton.[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![Cork\_Top](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@Cork\_Top](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cork_Top)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2013, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-is-forever/668478/29 "2013-12-09T03:49:58Z")
I am almost certain that what it means is this: sometimes a single second can feel like forever. I guess just ONE second is quite a hyperbole (well, so is “forever”), but let’s say you’re waiting to go to the bathroom and you reeeeaally have to go, a single minute will feel like a lot longer. That’s why the quote says “sometimes,” those sometimes are the times when something like that happens that makes a moment seem to stretch out in time and be suspended, like it could be a romantic moment too or the moment right before a car crash when you’re in the car and see the other coming towards you, you might then feel as if that second is lasting, to be hyperbolic, “forever.” With that said, that quote is in neither Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland or Through the Looking Glass, so maybe it’s in a movie adaptation or something, or maybe someone just made it up and attributed it to Lewis Carroll; it’s definitely not the first time I’ve seen that. And a disclaimer: I could be wrong about my interpretation. However, I’m pretty certain that either my explanation is right or that there is no “right” interpretation, and whoever made the quote didn’t mean for it to mean anything except just whatever people thought that it meant because it just sounded cool. ---
**Author:** ![Cork\_Top](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@Cork\_Top](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cork_Top)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2013, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-is-forever/668478/30 "2013-12-09T03:53:35Z")
Ok, so I just read some more of the previous comments, and Uber the Goober and Trinopus basically explained the same thing I was saying, so read their comments if you haven’t yet and still want to know the meaning of this quote. ---
**Author:** ![Dervorin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Dervorin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dervorin)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2013, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-is-forever/668478/31 "2013-12-09T13:45:37Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > Time is relative. Lunchtime, doubly so. Damn you, **Mika**! I wanted to say that! 😉 I’ll have to settle for: “Here we are, trapped in the amber of the moment. There is no why.” ― Kurt Vonnegut ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2013, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-is-forever/668478/32 "2013-12-09T16:27:26Z")
Time is the forward flow of current existing events, usually measured by the ticks of a sweep second hand on a watch or clock. Perception of time is how a human being comes to understand this flow, which is not measurable by any regulated or quantified standard. -If this isn’t plagiarized, then Me. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2013, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-is-forever/668478/33 "2013-12-09T16:48:40Z")
> [@IceQube](#): > > asked Alice. > > “Sometimes, just one second,” replied White Rabbit. > > What does this mean to you? Time is a variable and not a constant. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Mad\_Hermit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b5ac83/32.png) [@The\_Mad\_Hermit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Mad_Hermit)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2013, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-is-forever/668478/34 "2013-12-09T17:54:19Z")
**Loach,** you must have been in a Rush to post that. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-is-forever/668478.md?page=1)