Friday 24 November 2017

Lilith II

Please check out the megamultiverse speculations. Inspired by Poul Anderson's Time Patrol series and Old Phoenix sequence and by James Blish's mini-multiverse, I tried to identify those mysterious characters of literature who might just possibly have traveled between universes in order to observe or intervene at crucial moments while keeping themselves in the background. For example, why do the Time Traveler's dinner guests include the Silent Man? Is he a futurian time traveler who wanted to be present at this pivotal conversation but who also kept quiet in order not to risk altering the course of the dialogue as recorded by the outer narrator?

We have found another candidate intercosmic traveler. Lilith interacts with Adam and demons, manages to keep herself (mostly) out of the Bible and yet looms large in Jewish mythology and some modern fantasy. She is mysterious and interacts with powerful beings in more than one time and place - the perfect suspect.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Dang and drat! I'm chagrined! I've read Wells THE TIME MACHINE more than once and I've NEVER noticed the Silent Man. And you proposed some interesting speculations about him.

I also noticed how that French translation of THE MAN WHO COUNTS chose LE PRINCE-MARCHAND for the title. I think it would translated as THE MERCHANT PRINCE, which is appropriate for Old Nick but not quite what Anderson was trying to do.

Sean