The first thing that I noticed when I started reading “The Albertine Notes” was that time was measured kairotically. Time is not measured, but marked by events:

• Before Albertine
• After the blast

The use of kairotic time is justified by the fact that people want to hold on to their memories after an apocalyptic event. By using Albertine, they are able to hold on to memories and by doing so their perception of time becomes altered from chronologic to kairotic. Kevin knows the concept of chronological time (p. 158), but it seems that he no longer understands it. He cannot tell whether two days or two weeks have passed. Because no significant event had happened to mark the time, time has just simply passed without any kind of measurement.

Their lives become marked by these memories, but as a reader you do not know which memory came before the other – especially because Albertine also causes some people to remember the future. Remembering the future is such a weird concept to grasp because remembering implies that the future has already happened. However Strozier argues that in apocalyptic time, the past and present are reversed, so in essence, the future has indeed already occurred.

Deanna’s vision reminds me of the concept of the false prophet. When Deanna brought up her vision to the bishop, he asked insistently whether or not she was sure that the vision had come from God. Albertine would have made it difficult to differentiate from the false prophet from the true prophet because it allowed everyone to see kairotically like John in the Book of Revelation.

The role of women in “The Albertine Notes” reminded me of the role of women in the Book of Revelation. Cassandra and Deanna, two women who have been named in “The Albertine Notes” are not described in the best of light. First of all, both of them are Albertine addicts. Deanna is perceived as a false prophet by the church because of her addiction. On the other hand, Cassandra is a prostitute who is abused by Cortez and his men.

In contrast, the men in “The Albertine Notes” have positions of power. Eduardo Cortez is the leader of the drug ring that distributes Albertine. Other characters that have been given names such as Conrad Dixon had been a former academic. The men have been given more favorable outcomes in this post-apocalyptic world than the women.