Michael Roth

Time Between Summers Michael Roth

In 1995, a visiting assistant professor and some old friends converge upon Ann Arbor, Michigan. Don Quixote for the information age, his brain has been rotted by philosophy so that it could be coerced with technology. Instead of dedicating his energy to a continued search for the perfect job, he gets lost in bizarre entanglements that pull and push him away from his lifelong dream. It slowly becomes clear that he and all those who have helped him along the way have carefully crafted his personality with passion for a goal that he is constitutionally incapable of achieving. Working together they cannot discover any truths through deliberation and reflection, only through their actions do they learn, after the fact, what they were aiming for all along.

Through a collaborative chain of moments, a group of colleagues and acquaintances moves about the streets, spread out and concentrating, analyzing and imagining, teaching and listening. Set against the impossible odds of today's academia, brimming with philosophical insight and foolishness, each confronts the anxiety that comes from having to make choices that will determine who they are to become, without any insight into what they want and what they can achieve. Time Between Summers will challenge your basic notions of freedom, influence, authority, and the moral universe we have built on these fundamental ideals.