“Eternity’s a terrible thought. I mean, where’s it going to end?”
~ Tom Stoppard
Time is a tricky, pesky thing. We have no control over it; sometimes we wish for it to go faster, and sometimes we yearn for it to slow down. Often we say we’d like to go back and change just one thing, or we wish we could jump into the future. Each time you read a story about time travel, you get that particular author’s take on what the limitations or rules might be. Here is what happens when certain writers decide to take on this conundrum called Time.
“The Time Traveler’s Wife” by Audrey Niffenegger (2003) is a unique love story about Henry, who has a genetic disorder that causes him to jump forward and backward in his own life. And he can’t take anything with him, even clothes. The wife mentioned in the title is Clare, who loves Henry enough to suffer through his sudden disappearances and reappearances, which are frustrating for both of them. It will strain your brain as you see poor Henry battered about by his condition, and it will also make you ponder the question of free will. Argh! Don’t get me started on free will versus fate!
In a previous column I’ve mentioned “11/22/63” by Stephen King (2011). It’s about a time-traveling teacher, Jake Epping, who goes through a mysterious portal that always takes him to the same location in the late 1950’s. After a few “round trips” Jake makes the decision to remain there, establish an identity and career, and wait around until the time of the Kennedy assassination. He plans to prevent this incident by getting to Lee Harvey Oswald first. Jake learns several lessons during his travels. One is that time (or history) will work against you if you try to tinker with it, and the bigger the change you try to make, the more unexpected and dire the consequences. What you see as a change for the better can have a horrendous outcome later. So it’s a book of dilemmas to be sure.
Published in 1969, “The House on the Strand” by Daphne du Maurier is a old-fashioned gothic tale set in Cornwall, England in the 14th and 20th centuries. Dick Young, an unhappy man visiting a scientist friend, is persuaded to try a special elixir that transports him back in time. He goes to the same place each time and seems to be — for lack of a better word — “attached” to the life of one character, a manservant called Roger. With the help of the elixir, Dick makes several trips back, and with each one he tries unsuccessfully to interact with Roger and to change Roger’s life. He is frustrated by these failures but somehow addicted to the experience. Don’t read this book if you can’t deal with ambiguity!
A recent book you’ve heard me talk about is “Midnight Library” by Matt Haig. In another unique take on the time-travel subject, the protagonist Nora Seed visits portals to her own possible futures, depending on the choices she makes. Haig throws in that much-discussed theory of parallel universes but he doesn’t beat you over the head with it. The book is ultimately a story of self-determination and learning to appreciate the life we have, rather than just sleepwalking through it. (Shades of Ebenezer Scrooge?)
Okay here’s a book that’s tough to read because it takes place in a cruel and barbaric time in our history. “Kindred” by Octavia Butler (1979) is a narrative of slavery wherein a modern African-American woman experiences the period first hand. Dana is a writer who is married to a white man, Kevin, also a writer. Although they experience some prejudice and animosity from their families as an interracial couple, it is not until they spontaneously travel to a plantation in 1815 Maryland that they truly experience hatred to the point of danger. As she makes several trips, Dana learns what it’s like to be considered property, less than human. However, she feels it is her mission to keep traveling back when she realizes that one of the characters on the plantation is her direct ancestor, and she needs to make sure that he survives long enough to reproduce (or perhaps she would cease to exist in the present!). This book will really make you think.
So that’s five views about how time travel would work, should it ever become a reality. For a sixth, try the wonderful “Sea of Tranquility” by Emily St. John Mandel (2022). I’ll probably have more to say about this one later. Meantime, happy reading!
Kaye West retired from the Henry County Library System. She enjoys reading, taking daily walks, and spending time with friends. She lives in McDonough with her husband.
