Starshipsofa stories vol.., p.28
StarShipSofa Stories: Volume 3, page 28
Hunlun’s aura still angers me. Kinetotherapy still makes me see red. “If Kieran Morella is on to something,” I told Stuart, “then the universe is far more absurd than I could possibly have imagined.”
A Japanese city has been reduced to radioactive embers? No problem. We can fix that with happy thoughts. The Castle Bravo H-bomb test has condemned a dozen Asian fisherman to death by leukaemia? Don’t worry. Just pluck the quantum strings, tune in the cosmos, and the pennies will trickle down from heaven.
“The miracle are the cruellest trick in God’s repertoire,” I told Stuart. “God should be ashamed of himself for inventing the miracle.”
Next Tuesday I’m going to the polls and casting my vote for Bill Clinton: not exactly a liberal but probably electable. (Anything to deprive that airhead plutocrat George Bush of a second term.) The day after that, my eighty-first birthday will be upon me. Evidently I’m going to live forever.
“Don’t count on it,” Stuart warned me.
“I won’t,” I said.
According to today’s Times, the Nevada Test Site, formerly the Nevada Proving Ground, is still open to visitors. They have a webpage now, www.nv.doe.gov. The tour features numerous artefacts from the military’s attempts to determine what kinds of structures might withstand nuclear blast pressures. You’ll see crushed walls of brick and cinder block, pulverized domes fashioned from experimental concrete, a railroad bridge whose I-beams have become strands of steel spaghetti, a bank vault that looks like a sand castle after high tide, and a soaring steel drop-tower intended to cradle an H-bomb that, owing to the 1992 Nuclear Testing Moratorium, was never exploded.
Disney World for Armageddon buffs.
Kieran let me keep the kinetotherapy cassette, but I’ve never looked at it, even though there’s a Betamax somewhere in our closet. I’m afraid those goddamn psychedelic shields will still be there, enswathing my on-screen incarnation. Tomorrow I plan to finally rid myself of the thing. I shall solemnly bear the cassette to the basement and toss it into the furnace, immolating it like the Xanadu work crew burning Charles Foster Kane’s sled. Stuart has promised to go with me. He’ll make sure I don’t lose my nerve.
I simply can’t permit the universe to be that absurd. There are certain kinds of cruelty I won’t allow God to perform. In the ringing words of Hunlun, “My son, this you cannot do.”
-------------------------------------------
Once again I import the Castle Bravo explosion into my living room. I drink my glass of sherry and study the Rorschachian obscenities.
This time I’m especially struck by the second shot in the mushroom-cloud montage, for within the nodes and curls of this burning Satanic cabbage I perceive a human face. The mouth is wide open. The features are contorted in physical agony and metaphysical dread.
Try this at home. You’ll see the face too, I promise you. It’s not the face of John Wayne – or Genghis Khan or
Davy Crockett or Paul Tibbets or the Virgin Mary or any other person of consequence. The victim you’ll see is just another nobody, just another bit-player, another hibakusha, eternally trapped on a ribbon of acetate and praying – fervently, oh so fervently – that this will be the last replay.
Top Ten “Must Read”
Time Travel Works
Amy H. Sturgis, Ph.D.
A transcript of the 23 July 2011 Holodeck Time Travel Workshop presentation
When Tony invited me to contribute a “top ten” list to the Time Travel Workshop, he gave me free rein (always a dangerous move). I therefore decided to make up my own rules for this list and, of course, promptly break them.
On the one hand, it doesn’t take a genre historian to be aware of many of the greatest and most important works that address the topic of time travel. For example, The Time Machine by H.G. Wells (1895) would rightly top any list that celebrates “game-changing” time travel fiction. I personally have lost track of how many times I’ve read The Time Machine; I only know that I find something new and compelling and valuable each time I revisit it. The same can be said for some of the wonderful works it’s inspired, most notably, I would say, K.W. Jeter’s Morlock Night (1979), the novel for which the term “steampunk” was first coined.
That said, I wanted this list to be more than a rehashing of the same old usual suspects. Therefore some of the greats that would deserve mention in any “best of” list – novels such as Lest Darkness Fall by L. Sprague de Camp (1939), Slaughterhouse-Five or The Children’s Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death by Kurt Vonnegut (1969), The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy trilogy in five parts by Douglas Adams (1979-1992), The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers (1983), and The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis (1992), a personal favourite – will not be mentioned in my list. (You can see already how I’m making an end-run around my own rules here, because I have just mentioned these titles anyway.)
Rather than create a “best of” list, then, I’ve opted to share a list of works I consider to be “must reads.” Any “must read” list will, by its very nature, be subjective, and I’m embracing this fully. I am making no claims that these are the only time travel works you should read; obviously, that’s not the case. Each of the titles I’ve assembled, however, is a classic in its own right, important and worthy and thought-provoking, and each sheds new or different light on the idea of time travel. I hope at least some of these titles are new to you. If so, you’re in for some terrific reading.
Because I am a historian, I will rank the stories in the way that seems most fitting to me – that is, chronologically.
I’ll begin by bending my own rules once again. Although this is a “top ten” list, I’ll sneak an extra title into my countdown by kicking things off with an honourable mention.
-------------------------------------------
Honourable Mention:
A Tale of the Ragged Mountains
by Edgar Allan Poe (1844)
I give honourable mention to “A Tale of the Ragged Mountains” by Edgar Allan Poe, which was first published in Godey’s Lady’s Book (1844). The next year it appeared in Poe’s Tales. Today you can most easily find it in the collection The Science Fiction of Edgar Allan Poe (edited by Harold Beaver, 1976) or on various sites online. This story follows a wealthy young invalid named Augustus Bedloe, who seeks help for his neuralgia from the elderly Dr Templeton, who treats him with a combination of morphine, psychoactive drugs, and mesmerism.
As a result, Bedloe leaves his body and travels through time, where he has the terrible and visceral experience of dying in a past battle in Calcutta – in exactly the same way the doctor’s friend Oldeb had died forty-seven years earlier. The ambiguity of the relationship between Bedloe and Oldeb (whose names mirror one another’s), the rich descriptions of how Bedloe shifts to and from his disembodied state, and the centrality of mesmerism make this an unforgettable early work.
Now, on to the list!
-------------------------------------------
#10: The Clockwork Man
by E.V. Odle (1923)
At #10 (because it is the oldest work on my list), I offer The Clockwork Man by E.V. Odle (1923). You don’t have to take my word for it, either. Brian Stableford, in Scientific Romance in Britain, 1890-1950, says, “Of the many works of scientific romance that have fallen into utter obscurity, this is perhaps the one which most deserves rescue.” It’s a fascinating story of a man from thousands of years in the future, a cyborg whose mind and body are regulated by a clockwork mechanism implanted in his head. The device goes haywire, however, accidentally sending him back in time, where he materializes in the middle of a local village cricket match in the 1920s. He describes a future in which humanity and its world have changed dramatically.
He also offers commentary on the current world. He notes, “I can’t get used to it. Everything is so elementary and restricted. I wouldn’t have thought it possible that even in the twentieth century things would have been so backward... Why, you have not yet grasped the importance of the machines.”
When another character protests that humans have developed “automobiles and flying machines,” the Clockwork man answers, “And you treat them like slaves… That fact was revealed to me by your callous behaviour towards your motor car. It was not until man began to respect the machines that his real history begun.”
The Clockwork Man demonstrates how time travel literature can give a glimpse of a possible future – perhaps in hope, perhaps in warning – while also providing an outsider’s critique of society and its systems.
-------------------------------------------
#9: The Shadow Out of Time
by H.P. Lovecraft (1936)
For #9, I propose The Shadow Out of Time by H.P. Lovecraft. (You knew Lovecraft would show up somewhere on this list, didn’t you?) The story was first published in the June 1936 issue of Astounding Stories and is now available in multiple Lovecraft collections as well as online. In Lovecraft’s tale, the time travellers aren’t humans: they’re members of the Great Race of Yith, aliens who travel by switching bodies with individuals across space and time, and then collect the information they’ve gathered about various species’ pasts and futures in their vast library city.
This story tells of the experience of Professor Nathaniel Wingate Peaslee of the fictional Miskatonic University, who is “possessed” by one of the Yithians. Peaslee has the opportunity to speak with other “victims” of the Yithians from different points in Earth’s timeline, as well as to learn of the fate of the planet after humankind is gone. Peaslee is one of Lovecraft’s best developed characters, and the Yithians are truly chilling antagonists. Cosmic in its scope, as one might expect from Lovecraft, The Shadow Out of Time has been called “the culmination of Lovecraft’s fictional career” by noted scholar and biographer S.T. Joshi (in his introduction to The Shadow Out of Time: The Corrected Text).
-------------------------------------------
#8: By His Bootstraps
by Robert Heinlein (1941)
At #8, I choose “By His Bootstraps” by Robert Heinlein, published in the October 1941 edition of Astounding Science Fiction (attributed to “Anson MacDonald”) and later included in the 1959 Heinlein collection The Menace from Earth. I’ll admit that this was a tough call, as Heinlein’s novel The Door into Summer (1956) and short story “All You Zombies” (1959) also made my short list.
The story begins with the main character locking himself away in order to complete his thesis on time travel. I hesitate to comment too much about this story, lest I give away details that are better revealed in the reading. I’ll just say that the story deals with some of the paradoxes of time travel in a particularly effective and memorable way. Trust me on this one; you won’t be sorry.
-------------------------------------------
#7: Vintage Season, a novella
by C.L. Moore and Henry Kuttner (1946)
My #7 pick is Vintage Season, a novella by C.L. Moore and Henry Kuttner (under the joint pseudonym of “Lawrence O’Donnell”), first published in the September 1946 issue of Astounding Science Fiction. Scholars and critics suggest that most if not all of the credit for this haunting work goes to C.L. Moore. These days you can find the story in multiple anthologies, including The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Two: The Greatest Science Fiction Novellas of All Time, edited by Ben Bova, 1973. It was also published as a 1990 Tor Double along with Robert Silverberg’s sequel story, “In Another Country.”
The novella is told from the contemporary point of view of American Oliver Wilson, who comes to realize that the tenants renting lodging from him are, in fact, time travellers, as are the potential buyers who wish to purchase the house. Why are all of these people converging on this one place at the same moment, competing to be in his old mansion during the month of May? As it turns out, these time travellers are connoisseurs of the best seasons in time, and they savour great disasters. Needless to say, this doesn’t bode well for Oliver. If you haven’t read this, do so.
-------------------------------------------
#6: The Big Time
by Fritz Leiber (1958)
At #6 is the kind of novel that makes one say, “Why didn’t I read that sooner?” The Big Time by Fritz Leiber began as a serial in the March and April 1958 issues of Galaxy Magazine before being published as a standalone novel in 1961. It won the Hugo Award for Best Novel or Novelette in 1958. The Big Time introduced what became known as Leiber’s Change War series, a loose collection of stories about a temporal war fought through time by two factions known as the “Spiders” and the “Snakes.” Individuals from the past and future are drawn into the war as both soldiers and support personnel, from medical staff to entertainers of every variety.
The Big Time reflects Leiber’s theatrical background, as it reads very much like a compelling play. All of the action in the novel takes place in a single room, The Place, which exists outside of reality and provides a haven for the battle-weary before they return to the front lines and try to strike at the enemy by changing the events of history. Leiber is witty and thought-provoking as he brings together representatives of different times and places, from ancient Romans to futuristic aliens, and gives them time to rest, relax, and reflect on the big and not-so-big questions of existence.
-------------------------------------------
#5: The Time Quintet
by Madeleine L’Engle (1962-1989)
For #5, I offer a classic young adult series that has served as a “gateway drug” to bring many readers into the Science Fiction fold, a series that continues to delight adults as well as children. The Time Quintet Series by Madeleine L’Engle includes A Wrinkle in Time (1962), which won the prestigious John Newberry Award in 1963, A Wind in the Door (1973), A Swiftly Tilting Planet (1978), Many Waters (1986), and An Acceptable Time (1989).
All five of the novels involve the concept of time travel as the Murry family – most notably Meg, the mathematical whiz, and her genius brother Charles Wallace, both the children of scientists – attempt to thwart evil. For example, in my favourite of the series, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Charles Wallace attempts to avert nuclear war in the present day by journeying through the past, diving into the lives and perspectives of those who lived before us, and resolving key turning points in very personal histories. L’Engle’s writing is quite philosophical, even theological, and each of the stories and their use of time travel can be understood on multiple levels as the author explores the nature of free will, responsibility, cause and effect, and good and evil.
-------------------------------------------
#4: The House on the Strand
by Daphne du Maurier (1969)
My choice for #4 comes from a classic author who is often associated more with Gothic literature than with Science Fiction. In 1969, Daphne du Maurier – the author of great works such as the novels Rebecca and Jamaica Inn and the short story “The Birds”, all three of which were adapted to film by Alfred Hitchcock – turned her attention to time travel in the novel The House on the Strand. This novel haunted me for a long time after I read it, and I recommend it at every opportunity.
Unlike many works that involve the issue of changing the past, The House on the Strand considers the effects of being influenced by the past without being able to influence it. The protagonist, a man whose life has become stalled and uninspiring, agrees to serve as a guinea pig for his biophysicist friend’s new experimental drug. While vacationing near a Cornish village, he takes the concoction, which allows him to experience the same place in the fourteenth century. The lives he witnesses there – or, rather, then – become more real to him than his own, and he develops a full-fledged addiction. This is a psychological work with a masterfully ambiguous ending that puts a very different and rather chilling spin on the time travel motif.
-------------------------------------------
#3: The Man Who Walked Home
by James Tiptree, Jr (1972)
At #3 I place “The Man Who Walked Home”, a short story by Alice Sheldon, writing as James Tiptree, Jr, first published in the May 1972 edition of Amazing Stories and now available in the Tiptree collection Her Smoke Rose Up Forever (1990). This elegantly crafted apocalyptic work tells the story of how the science of time travel might go wrong – badly wrong. This story unfolds backwards, just as a time traveller or chrononaught might move through time, so I hesitate to reveal the details. Believe me when I say it is a stunning tale of unintended consequences, and most definitely a “must read” work in the time travel subgenre of Science Fiction.
-------------------------------------------
#2: Kindred
by Octavia Butler (1979)
