CONTENTS

Introduction

1

PART ONE

1This Point in Time

21

2The Search for the Experiential Present

40

3The Longest Now: A History of the Historical Present

66

PART TWO

4The Present in Pictures

89

5Narrative and the “Unexplained Instant”

109

6The Cinematic Present from Intolerance to Interstellar

136

Conclusion: Here and Now

167

Notes  179

Index  205