Monday 21 September 2015

Personal Pasts

HG Wells' The Time Machine is about travel to the remote future. Poul Anderson's The Time Patrol is about travel to the historical or, less often, the prehistorical past. However, sometimes Time Patrollers make shorter pastward journeys. Manse Everard travels from 1954 to 1947 to rendezvous with Charlie Whitcomb:

"London, 1947. He sat for a moment, reflecting that at this instant he himself, seven years younger, was attending college back in the States." ("Time Patrol" IN Time Patrol, pp. 21-22)

Later, he goes to London, 1944:

"The younger Manse Everard, lieutenant in the United States Army Engineers, was somewhere across the Channel, near the German guns. He couldn't recall exactly where, just then, and did not stop to make the effort. It didn't matter. He knew he was going to survive that danger." (p. 45)

Wanda Tamberly has a similar experience in 1965:

"On this gentle April afternoon, across the Bay in San Francisco, Wanda Tamberly was being born. Time Patrol agent or no, she must stave off a certain eeriness. Happy birthday, me." (The Shield Of Time, p. 159)

Everard also visits a historical period that is very close. In 1894:

"At this moment, his mother had not been born, his grandparents were young couples just getting settled to harness..." (Time Patrol, p. 24)

Other stories have been written that focused on the potential paradoxes of time travel within a single lifetime. See here. Also, The Time Travelers' Wife by Audrey Niffenegger and  Bid Time Return by Richard Matheson.

No comments: