The Discovery of Slowness (Die Entdeckung der Langsamkeit) is a 1983 German novel by Sten Nadolny, based on the life of the famous Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin. While on one level it is straight Historical Fiction, on another it is a meditation on the concept of time and especially of slowness. The book's fictionalized John Franklin is slow both in movement and thought, but he finds ways to use this to his advantage and eventually harnesses his slow nature to achieve things quicker people never could.
Tropes in this work include:
- Cold Sniper: At Trafalgar, John shoots a French sniper who has him pinned down in the companionway. He shoots the man, who is hidden in the rigging of the French ship, during a rainstorm, in a heavy sea, just by calmly waiting for the perfect moment even as the man takes potshots at him.
- Historical Domain Character: Naturally many, as Franklin moved in high social circles, so even people not directly associated with the Navy, like Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage, make small appearances.
- The Navigator: Franklin's slowness and attention to detail makes him an ideal navigator.
- No Party Like a Donner Party: Franklin's second expedition to the Arctic (the "Coppermine expedition"
) ends in disaster, with the survivors reduced to eating lichen, their own boots and ultimately (and unknowingly) one of the dead. - Shout-Out/Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: Horatio Hornblower (referred to only as "the Captain of the Lydia") is alluded to once or twice, and late in the novel it's revealed John's childhood friend Sherard is Hornblower's own Lieutenant Gerard from Commodore Hornblower.
