In the Labyrinth of Slow Time: “A Perturbation in the Deep Stream” and “A Perambulation in the Deep Stream”

This work includes two texts on the themes of gardens and slow time presented in a reading with David Mitchell at the University of St Andrews 2017 conference on Mitchell. These works of ‘truthful fiction’ extend from an ongoing project, The Petriverse of Pierre Jardin. Written in dialogue with The Bone Clocks and featuring a collaboration with Mitchell, they explore the Cretan labyrinth as a cultural and topological motif and recount Jardin’s designing a garden with a meditative labyrinth. The afterword situates the texts in a broader context of bringing the ‘slow’ movement to academic institutions and teaching Mitchell’s work in connection with contemplative pedagogies.