Another interesting consideration of the passage of time in Tristram Shandy:

“Though this has taken up some time in the narrative, it took up little more time in the transaction, than just to allow time for Phutatorius to draw forth the chesnut, and throw it down with violence upon the floor -- and for Yorick, to rise from his chair, and pick the chesnut up.  Though this has taken up some time in the narrative, it took up little more time in the transaction, than just to allow time for Phutatorius to draw forth the chesnut, and throw it down with violence upon the floor -- and for Yorick, to rise from his chair, and pick the chesnut up.” p288

The quote above from Tristram Shandy is yet another allusion to the concept of time in this novel by Sterne. The reader has considered the strange chronology of this sequence of events, as well as a series of flashbacks and divergences. The precluding, slightly vulgar, scene of chaos was detailed at great length and with details and slight tangents. In addition, this quote leads the reader to consider the length of time necessary to describe the circumstances and true nature of the experience, but it makes them consider the length of time that they have spent attempting to understand it. In doing so, Sterne raises a many complex questions about the ability to record the sensations and details necessary to relay the full truth of an experience, the readers understanding of time passing in the text, as well as their own actual time required to read it. It seems that a constant suggestion that life is constantly moving at a pace much too swift for man to record it in any real way without neglecting details that Sterne and Tristram clearly believe are essential. These are patterns and concepts that are multilayered and extremely complex in attempting to understand, but Tristram Shandy delves into the topic with this approach, forcing the reader to consider the elapsing of time from many new points of view.