The days spent trapped at home by the bitter cold always passed slowly, though sometimes they passed quickly, too.
That sounded contradictory, but it really wasn't.
Time felt slow because people had no idea what they were supposed to do. Periods when they couldn't concentrate were always unbearably long.
It was like the state of having no desires after masturbating. You might sit there in a daze for quite a while and think an hour had passed, only to look at the clock and realize that barely ten minutes had gone by.
But then again, when you were already sitting on your favorite couch, had prepared a roll of paper, made sure no one was home, and drawn the curtains...
Simply choosing which videotape to put into the video camera might take half an hour.
And you would feel as if you had spent only five minutes on it!
God, did choosing a videotape that could get you excited really have to waste so much time? For those few seconds of pleasure, one or two hours passed like last night's beautiful dream, never truly lingering in your life for long!
So time could be very slow, and it could also be very fast.
For most citizens, time was dull and tedious. The television dramas rebroadcast during the day held no appeal. Even young couples who had just married had lost interest in the little pleasures between husband and wife during the long winter.
Their only amusement might have been watching the news. They couldn't observe the world with their own eyes, so they let the Television Station, let the news channels, show them what had happened during this cold winter.
The programs with the highest ratings every day were news programs. It was absurd, but it also made perfect sense.