Time Enough

'All the Time', also released as 'Time Enough At Last', is an episode in the well-known television series The Twilight Zone that depicts the hapless situation of a bibliophile in a world that seemingly isn't made for him. Henry Bemis is a bookish, awkward bank teller whose favorite pasttime-- and indeed, his only pasttime-- is reading. This creates a lot of friction between him and other people in his life, such as his boss or his wife, who don't understand his obsession with the written word, and constantly prevent him from sitting down and finishing a good book. When a nuclear attack leaves him as the only survivor, he is first overcome by despair and loneliness-- that is, until he realizes that he has all the time in the world to read what he couldn't before. However, just as he's sitting down to do it, his glasses fall and shatter, leaving him nearly blind and unable to do the one thing that could have made life as the last man on earth bearable.

Adapting this kind of situation to the modern age would be a little difficult, but not impossible. While certain contexts may change-- for example, the fear of nuclear attack, while not unfounded, is still less prevalent in this day and age-- it is possible for the story of this episode to make the transition into the contemporary era without too much difficulty. If I were charged with the task of adapting this to the present day, I would first of all keep the character of Henry Bemis. Although the traits of introversion and bookishness (translated into nerdiness in the present) are not considered the norm, the wealth of information about them in the present means that they are, if not wholly accepted, then at least tolerated. However, despite this tolerance, the fast-paced, self-centered world of today still makes it difficult for people like this to interact comfortably.

Using that nerdiness as a jumping-off point, I would then transform Henry Bemis from a bookworm into a more contemporaneous comic book geek. He would have first-edition comic book issues in mint condition, and an almost encyclopedic knowledge of all the Marvel universes and DC character reboots. I would still make him a bank teller, as the increased focus of today's world on money and profit and fast exchange would make life for an introverted comic book nerd pretty difficult. He would be prevented from reading his beloved series perhaps by the need to sell his collection, due to the economic downturn. The nuclear attack, while still feasible, is not nearly as frightening as, say, a contagious disease caused by the mutation of bacteria in the meat supply. Henry Bemis, who given his obsession with comic books would have already read material on the apocalypse several times over, would grow more afraid not because of the sudden loss of people, but because of the slowly escalating extinction of humankind. This would create a dangerous environment for him: a quiet, unconfrotational person, would now be faced with the stragglers of his species and the collapse of society.

Finally, as the last man on earth, he would eventually have the opportunity to go through now-abandoned comic book stores and try to replenish his collection. He could spend years searching for those lost issues, thinking himself to be the only person immune to the disease. And as he finds the last issue he needs, he would eventually discover that the disease had simply been incubating all that time, and that despite finally achieving his wish of a complete collection, he was already slowly dying.

Luisa Narciso
2011-02507