Zadie Smith

I don't think it's just me.

It felt like all of us were 27 for the longest time, basically until we were 38.

Then suddenly 40 was bearing down on us all like an avalanche.

Time did not seem to be passing at all really until we moved into a new age bracket as defined by advertisers.

And then it seemed to pass all at once in a great panic-inducing swoosh.

We thought our lives would be reasonably paced and tell a story full of meaning.

Instead it's just been one thing after another and there are no neat conclusions except the certainty of death.

And over the years, as each perfectly boring, predictable milestone has been met with dumbfounded shock, from the first grey hairs to the menopause, I have often had the thought, did the ancient Greeks think of time this way?

The Taino Indians?

Do the Maasai?

Are farmers and peasants and monks this amazed to be 40?

Is this reality?

How much of all this is mediated?

And how much mediation is too much?

That's definitely part of it.

But I really mean that about that last question, like how much mediation is too much.

I really don't know.

Like I wrote this book trying to ask myself that question.

I think TV definitely did something to me.

But it was also it's important to think about what TV was replacing and TV was replacing ritual.