Wednesday, March 15, 2006
I Hate Time Travel
Oh how I wish today was Tuesday and I could, under the guise of Positive Tuesday write the post that sprung to my mind when a little something happened to me this morning. You see, if I wrote it today, I'd come off as a pervert, and while I may actually be pretty perverted, I try to keep that my little secret for the most part. So the only way that I could make this post is with the help of a time machine.
And even if I could somehow travel back in time and make that post I wouldn't. Why? Because I hate time machines as plot devices in fiction. In general, if you have a time machine in your story, you can do anything, what challenge is that for the writer. Forgot the toll that allows you to get to the scene of the murder in time to prevent it? No problem, go back in time an additional five minutes, buy a soda at the convenience store (which, if it's in Wyoming can't sell you beer - grrrrr!), take your change, have proper change, prevent murder. It's simple. Too simple if you ask me.
No, I like the author to have to work a little more than that. Having a magic device that allows you to do anything takes the fun out of it for me. It can be used for comic effect though. I didn't generally care for Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide series because of the ridiculous things he had happen because of time travel. I found it conceptually funny, I think he was making fun of the time travel plot device, but it was just annoying to read. Actually that was pretty much what I thought of the whole series, conceptually funny but annoying to read.
I've like time travel in a couple of fictional works and thought it was handeled well. In Harry Turtledove's Guns of the South, South African extremists realize that they need an ally in their time and create a time machine to travel to 1868 and give AK-47's to the Confederacy. Lee wins the Battle of the Wilderness and immediately marches on Washington D.C., war over in six months. The war is also over in about a quarter of the book as the time travel and war aspects aren't really what the book is about. Give it a read some time.
I like how Turtledove handled time travel. The South African extrimists' time machine was a "time tunnel" of a fixed length. Both ends kept moving, so when it was 1868 in the Confederacy it was 2018 in South Africa. When the extremists realized that the Confederacy wouldn't be the ally they hoped in 1870, they couldn't go back in time and not give AK-47's to the Confederacy, because they could only go between 2020 South Africa and 1870 CSA. So they had to deal with the Confederates. Granted they could go to 2020 and bring all of the ammunition back to 1870 that they wanted to. That made things tough on the Confederacy. Time travel making things tough on the author? What a concept!
The other time travel example in Sci-Fi I like is the animated series Futurama. In one of my favorite episodes that was on just the other night, the crew goes back to 1947 Roswell (time travel occurs because metal was put in the microwave while observing a supernova), and Bender becomes the "alien spaceship" that "crashed" there. I also hate Sci-Fi that assumes that the Roswell incident actually occured, but that's for another Wednesday.
At first, following standard science-fiction dogma, the crew attempts not to do anything to change history, but then Fry accidentally blows up his grandfather in a nuclear test then has sex with his grandmother, making him his own grandfather. After that, the crew pretty much says "screw it," rescues Bender and Dr. Zoidberg (the "alien" body at Roswell), steals a microwave radar dish (time travel is impossible without a microwave, duh....) and travels back to 3002. In an interesting side note, because Fry is his own grandfather, he lacks the alpha brain-wave, allowing him to defeat the brain spawn in a later episode.
... I am such a geek....
I'll try to be more "bitchy" next Wednesday
BOJ
And even if I could somehow travel back in time and make that post I wouldn't. Why? Because I hate time machines as plot devices in fiction. In general, if you have a time machine in your story, you can do anything, what challenge is that for the writer. Forgot the toll that allows you to get to the scene of the murder in time to prevent it? No problem, go back in time an additional five minutes, buy a soda at the convenience store (which, if it's in Wyoming can't sell you beer - grrrrr!), take your change, have proper change, prevent murder. It's simple. Too simple if you ask me.
No, I like the author to have to work a little more than that. Having a magic device that allows you to do anything takes the fun out of it for me. It can be used for comic effect though. I didn't generally care for Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide series because of the ridiculous things he had happen because of time travel. I found it conceptually funny, I think he was making fun of the time travel plot device, but it was just annoying to read. Actually that was pretty much what I thought of the whole series, conceptually funny but annoying to read.
I've like time travel in a couple of fictional works and thought it was handeled well. In Harry Turtledove's Guns of the South, South African extremists realize that they need an ally in their time and create a time machine to travel to 1868 and give AK-47's to the Confederacy. Lee wins the Battle of the Wilderness and immediately marches on Washington D.C., war over in six months. The war is also over in about a quarter of the book as the time travel and war aspects aren't really what the book is about. Give it a read some time.
I like how Turtledove handled time travel. The South African extrimists' time machine was a "time tunnel" of a fixed length. Both ends kept moving, so when it was 1868 in the Confederacy it was 2018 in South Africa. When the extremists realized that the Confederacy wouldn't be the ally they hoped in 1870, they couldn't go back in time and not give AK-47's to the Confederacy, because they could only go between 2020 South Africa and 1870 CSA. So they had to deal with the Confederates. Granted they could go to 2020 and bring all of the ammunition back to 1870 that they wanted to. That made things tough on the Confederacy. Time travel making things tough on the author? What a concept!
The other time travel example in Sci-Fi I like is the animated series Futurama. In one of my favorite episodes that was on just the other night, the crew goes back to 1947 Roswell (time travel occurs because metal was put in the microwave while observing a supernova), and Bender becomes the "alien spaceship" that "crashed" there. I also hate Sci-Fi that assumes that the Roswell incident actually occured, but that's for another Wednesday.
At first, following standard science-fiction dogma, the crew attempts not to do anything to change history, but then Fry accidentally blows up his grandfather in a nuclear test then has sex with his grandmother, making him his own grandfather. After that, the crew pretty much says "screw it," rescues Bender and Dr. Zoidberg (the "alien" body at Roswell), steals a microwave radar dish (time travel is impossible without a microwave, duh....) and travels back to 3002. In an interesting side note, because Fry is his own grandfather, he lacks the alpha brain-wave, allowing him to defeat the brain spawn in a later episode.
... I am such a geek....
....Don't do anything to change the future, unless it turns out you were supposed to do it, then for God's sake do it!
I'll try to be more "bitchy" next Wednesday
BOJ
# posted by Blind Orange Julius @ 10:11 AM 
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I hate time travel, too. Never mind the jet lag...
I have two exceptions as well. Robert Heinlein (his earlier stuff that's more hardware/technology heavy instead of the later dirty-old-man-likes-redheads-and-twins crap)uses time travel in a consistant, logical manner that makes communicating with your earlier self possible.
And in Dean Koontz's novel, Lightening, he puts a whole different twist on time travel that's surprising as well as entertaining.
A few shots of Jag does interesting things to the normal flow of time, but that's more positive than bitchy and should be addressed tomorrow.
I have two exceptions as well. Robert Heinlein (his earlier stuff that's more hardware/technology heavy instead of the later dirty-old-man-likes-redheads-and-twins crap)uses time travel in a consistant, logical manner that makes communicating with your earlier self possible.
And in Dean Koontz's novel, Lightening, he puts a whole different twist on time travel that's surprising as well as entertaining.
A few shots of Jag does interesting things to the normal flow of time, but that's more positive than bitchy and should be addressed tomorrow.
# posted by 
: 3:54 PM
: 3:54 PM
Jag has played some tricks on the passage of time with me as well.
In another episode of Futurama, Fry buys a VW bus. When the someone asks where the device that slows or speeds the passage of time is, Fry says "under the seat" and pulls out a bong.
Futurama, another classic sci-fi series cancelled before its time.....
In another episode of Futurama, Fry buys a VW bus. When the someone asks where the device that slows or speeds the passage of time is, Fry says "under the seat" and pulls out a bong.
Futurama, another classic sci-fi series cancelled before its time.....
Heinlein. He did well. BOJ do you know if there is a certain model microwave that works best? I think I wanna try this time thingy out. I thought Futurama was a documentary.
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# posted by : 5:02 PM
: 5:02 PM << Home
