Time Paradox

"Paradox" is a word that appears in just about every book about time travel that you've ever read.  Our book this week, Kindred, is no exception to that rule.  So what is a paradox?  Why is it such a big deal?

Usually the best way to describe this is the "Grandfather Paradox".  You travel back in time, and kill your Grandfather before he has offspring, but in turn, that means that you were never born.  So you could never go back in time and kill him, which means that he would have kids and, subsequently, grand-kids.  Which means you'd be alive and free to go kill him again.

And so on, and so forth, to infinity and beyond.

You see that in Kindred.  She is pulled back in time to save one of her ancestors, but the question arises, does her ancestor live because she was constantly pulled back in time, or was she pulled back in time because history was changing and she needed to correct it?

There are lots of other books that employ a paradox.  Timeline by Michael Crichton (which you can read our review of) is a book that travels back to medieval France.  The cast of characters end up interacting with the locals and it's the age old question of, is this happening because I am here or am I here because this is happening.

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger also deals with time paradoxes.  Henry constantly is jumping from present, to past, to future.  The first time that he "jumps" through time, he's a little boy and meets his older self.  But we don't find this out until later when his older self "jumps" to the past.  But is it the past if he himself is experiencing it?  Time really is wibble-wobbly.

Favorite Book with a Flashback

Walk Two Moons has always been one of my favorite books.  It's really a book for all ages kind of book, because the girl is 12, so she's not quite a teenager, but she's not quite a kid anymore, which I think just makes the book all that more relatable.

Sal is going on a trip with her grandparents to see her mother (and Sal is going to try and make her come back, though she doesn't tell her grandparents that.)  Throughout the whole trip, she's telling her grandparents about one of her friends, whose mother also left, though for different reasons than Sal's mother.

Through these flashbacks we see the parallels to Sal's life, and Sal's troubles.  She also tells the reader about her life with her mother, and all the things that she grew up with and the places that she used to go.  Inevitably, the story takes place m
ore in the past than it does the present, but it is wonderfully balanced and incredibly written and definitely something that should be read by everyone.

Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five doesn't have so much "flashbacks" as it does "flash-arounds" because the timeline is all jacked up. The protagonist doesn't really stay in a linear timeline so you don't really know when the "present" is. This is the only Vonnegut book I've read, so I can't say whether I'm a fan of his in general, but I do think this is really excellent writing. I can't imagine trying to keep track of everything while writing like this, and I'm impressed, to say the least. There's just something about being able to reveal the right information at the right time that I don't have the hang of, and it's even more difficult when you've basically thrown your story's timeline into a blender and are reaching in for bits and pieces while it's still on.

Review Me Twice - Timeline by Michael Crichton

I read this week's book a LONG time ago.  We're talking 10 or more years.  But, since that first reading, I've probably read this book three or four times now.  Crichton has written a litany of books, but I think that this one ranks as my favorite by him.

As is per usual with Crichton, the books does have some technical jargon and a lot of science backing it up.  But, as a reader, I don't feel lost or confused by it.  He's really good at explaining the science without making me feel like an idiot.

I also LOVE the characters going back.  The action story he created was just fantastic, because it's exciting in the past and in the present.  There are things going on in both that make you just sit on the edge of your seat.  Seeing the effects that the past has on the present and vice versa, is just so well done in this story and something that I can buy.  Is time travel real?  No, but Crichton presents it in such a way that I feel like it could be.  I don't feel like this is so far out of reality, or even the realm of possibility.  This COULD happen.  This COULD be, and very likely WILL be, something that we figure out how to do.

While I will recommend pretty much anything written by Crichton, I think that Timeline is the best, the one that will appeal to the most readers, and certainly the one that I've always loved the most.

Honesty time: I didn't finish this book. It just wasn't the right week for me to read it. But it's not bad.

I agree with Cassy on the plausibility front... I definitely feel like Crichton made it seem like time travel is a totally real thing that I've just never run across in my life.

It's fairly driving... I do want to eventually go back and read it, but I don't feel compelled to do so as quickly as possible. I think I can pick it up again a long while from now and figure out where I left off without starting over (which says something about how well the writing sticks with me, I think).

Time Travel... Through Time

Time travel is not a new fascination for writers. We've been thinking about and writing about travelling through time for... well, a long time.

Mahabharata. The Mahabharata and the Ramayana are the two ancient epics of Hindu mythology. There are a lot of stories encompassed by them, but there is a tale of King Revaita in the Mahabharata, where he goes to another world to meet Brahma (the Creator) and when he returns, hundreds of years have passed.

Talmud. In the Talmud (the central text of Rabbinic Judaism), there is a story about a man who sleeps for 70 years, waking to find that his grandchildren had become grandparents.

Nihongi (Chronicles of Japan). This is the second oldest book of Japanese history. In it, there is a story of Urashima Taro, a fisherman who saves a turtle, and is rewarded with a trip to see the Dragon God under the sea. He stays for three days, but when he goes home, he has been gone for 300 years.

A Christmas Carol. In Charles Dickens' 1843 story, Scrooge's whirlwind tour of Christmasses past, present, and future are a form of time travel, whether you consider them a dream, a ghostly vision, or literal.

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. Mark Twain's 1889 classic is a humorous tale of an engineer who is transported back to the age of King Arthur and convinces the folks he finds there that he is a magician.

The Time Machine. Do I really need to tell you that this 1895 H G Wells book is about time travel?

Slaughterhouse-Five. This 1969 Kurt Vonnegut novel is about a man named Billy Pilgrim who becomes "unstuck in time." It's told in nonlinear order, because Billy's life jumps around randomly in his personal timeline.

After this, sci-fi abounded, and time travel was everywhere in books, TV shows, films, video games... everywhere.

Some of the Best Time Travel

You should be warned now:  I'm 26 days out from my wedding, so probably a lot of my posts are going to be like today's.  Fun, easy, lists.

That being said, our favorites this week have nothing to do with time travel, and I know we both have favorite time travel books, so I'm just going to list a few of the best right here.

The Time Traveler's Wife

This story is so wonderful and heartbreaking and, despite the fact that time travel is a fantastical thing, it wasn't a fantastical book.  Niffenegger makes it seem like anyone could be a time traveler, could pop in and out of your life just like that.  Henry and Clare's love and their story is just so incredible, you can't help but love this book.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Ok, so the first one isn't really about time travel, but the subsequent stories are.  The third book has the most, where they travel back in time to help with a war, though that wasn't their original intent.  The whole "Trilogy" (it has six books) is fun and sarcastic and very dry humor.  It's a great series, and pretty much loved by Alex.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

This book was recently thrown onto my radar, and my little sister actually gave it to me.  It's a fun story about a kid who grew up listening to stories about fantastical children who could do things like fly and life thousands of pounds with one hand.  His grandfather even showed him pictures.  Despite eventually disbelieving these things, our main character ends up stepping through a portal and FINDING these children.  It's a fun mix of time travel, real life, and fantasy with some old fashioned photos thrown in.

Kindred

I read this book in a class about Octavia Butler.  That's pretty much where I learned to love her.  Kindred was the first I read, about a woman who was constantly sent back in time, to try and make sure that everything went smoothly and she was, well, born.  It's an amazing story about life and family and slavery.  Definitely something I would recommend.

What are some of your favorite time travel books?

By Its Cover: The Time Keeper

It would almost be hard to screw this one up. It's a book about time; use something that represents time. Clocks? Good, let's go home.

More specifically, there is a pocket watch of some significance in the book, so it makes sense to choose pocket watches over digital watches or regular clocks or Big Ben or hourglasses...

Wait, did I say hourglasses? The hourglass in the book is way more significant than the pocket watch. Maybe the cover artist felt that would be too spoiler-alert-y. I think it would have been more effective.

I like the color scheme, but I don't have much to say about it. I just think it's nice. It's not your typical time travel color scheme, but then again, this book isn't so much about time travel as it is about time itself. Slight difference.

All in all, I like the cover. It caught my interest, it's appropriate, and it's aesthetically pleasing.

I agree with Alex about the pocket watches; they're significant to the book.  It was pretty easy to guess that the book has something to do with time (not only are there clocks on the cover, it's call The Time Keeper.)

I think the pocket watches are a nice effect because they're something old, something hardly used, something that's still around but if you have one, it's something that's from a different time really, which I think is great for representing our main character.  He's essentially from a different time.

It's a pretty basic cover, nothing to write home about, but not bad either.

Review Me Twice - The Time Keeper by Mitch Albom

I really like Mitch Albom.  I think he's written some amazing books that are moving and thought provoking and just all around awesome.  However, The Time Keeper really fell short of all those expectations.

At the end of the day... I just didn't really care about anyone.  Dor (who inevitably becomes Father Time) is our main character and is basically punished by God for discovering time.  AKA, being inquisitive.  He was punished for being smart, essentially, which I'm not really sure how I feel about that.

6,000 years later, he's allowed to come out of the cave he was trapped in and experience time... but he has to teach two people to basically appreciate it.  One wants to end her time (Sarah), another to have an endless amount of it (Victor).

But honestly, these just end up being two more characters I don't really get to know and I don't really care about.  Sarah is a typical teen, and while suicide is nothing to be trifled with, I feel like I'm missing a lot of her story.  Victor is just a jerk that you never really learn to like.

Inevitably, the point is to tell you to appreciate the time that you have, but honestly, I just don't think it was executed that well and certainly not up to his usual standards.

Despite all that, Albom is still a good writer.  It's enjoyable to read his writing, if the book itself wasn't up to par.  And the book wasn't TERRIBLE, just nothing to really rave over.

My Bottom Line 3 out of 5

In a word: Predictable.

In three words: Predictable, but good.

It is immediately apparent from the beginning of the book (or perhaps from just reading the summary on the back of the book) what the lesson of this story is. Everyone needs to better appreciate the time they have. Good lesson.

I feel like the characters could have been deeper, but this is a short book. I had the large-print version from the library (it had a shorter hold list!) and it was still a fairly thin book. If it were longer, perhaps Albom could have fleshed out all three main characters a little more, and made me care.

It's good writing, though; what's there is very good, even if it's obvious where it's going. I've never read any of Albom's books before, but I can see why he's popular, if all his writing is like this.

Favorite Time Travel

Because this week's review book, The Time Keeper by Mitch Albom, deals so heavily with the concept of time, we are talking about our favorite time travel books today.

Mine is Douglas Adams' The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, the second book in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series.

The first part of the book deals with Zaphod's experience with the Total Perspective Vortex, which has little - if anything - to do with time travel, so I will skip it. After that ordeal, everyone goes to the restaurant at the end of the universe.

The titular restaurant is Milliways, which exists at the end of the universe regarding both space and time, and is therefore only accessible through time travel. (Unless you're Marvin, the paranoid android, who gets there by his powers of extreme patience.) It's very expensive, but you can afford to eat there by depositing a penny in a bank account during your present time, and the interest will compound enough to pay your bill by the time you arrive for your reservation.

After the scenes at Milliways and several other things happen, Arthur and Ford find themselves back on Earth, but in prehistoric times. They got there on a Golgafrinchan Ark Fleet B ship, which contains a bunch of hairdressers and telephone sanitizers that turned out to be the real ancestors of modern man (not the Neanderthals that they find there).

One of my favorite scenes in the entire series takes place in this setting, with Arthur trying to coax The Question out of a bag of Scrabble tiles. (This question being the one that goes with Deep Thought's Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything, which was the disappointing: 42.)

Arthur manages to spell out "what do you get if you multiply six by nine" before he runs out of tiles. (You may notice that 6 x 9 is actually 54, but in base 13, 6 x 9 is actually 42. Adams swore he didn't mean to do this, and the math was meant to be incorrect.) A Neanderthal spells out "forty two" but this goes unnoticed, and is meant to be an indication that the Neanderthals were part of the Earth computation (built by Deep Thought to find the Question) but the Golgafrinchans were not.

This whole situation brings us one of my favorite quotations ever:

"Six by nine. Forty two."

"That's it. That's all there is."

"I always thought something was fundamentally wrong with the universe."

 

My most favorite time travel book is something very different from Alex's (which... I've noticed that our favorites are usually pretty different. Which is kind of the point of this blog.) I really love The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.

 

Henry can time travel, has been able to since he was six years old, but he has no control over when it happens or where he goes.  The only thing he knows is that he's going to travel somewhere in his own timeline.  Frequently, he runs into himself.  He also can't take anything with him.  So he has to steal money and food and even clothes.

During his time travel, he meets Clare.  He's an adult when he begins to visit Clare (who is just a young girl herself), but the first time they meet in the present, Henry doesn't even know who Clare is, despite the fact that she has known him most of her life.

The story, however, is not so much about the time travel.  It's more about the fact that Clare frequently doesn't know where her husband is and she can't participate on his adventures.  She has to deal with the fact that it's something only he can experiance.  Also, there are a lot of times that time traveling takes him away from her when she needs him. 

One of the scenes I love best is when they get married.  Henry, stressed out and therefore increasing the chances he'll jump, ends up traveling just an hour or so before their wedding.  However, a future version of himself travels to the past.  It's a future Henry that marries Clare (which she knows the second he gets to the altar, though no one else does), and later they have a small, private ceremony when he returns.

The book is incredibly well written, sweet and even a little heartbreaking.  It's a book you should really pick up and read.

Passage of Time

Passage of time is a big deal in most books.  For Albom, in The Time Keeper, it's essential.  Albom shows the passage of time in a very condensed form, because his main character is forced to watch for hundreds of thousands of years the passage of time, but then slows it down when the character has to live in time.  His character also creates time, which really makes you think.  We automatically register the passing of time; there are clocks everywhere.  We're obsessed with it, but there was a point in history when this wasn't so.

There are some books that you read the entire book, but only one day has passed.  A great example of this is James Joyce's Ulysses.  It's a book that ranges anywhere from 600-1000 pages (depending on the edition) but only one day, June 16th, passes in the book.  Dicken's A Christmas Carol is probably one of the most famous books that takes place in a single day. 

J.K. Rowling's new book, A Casual Vacancy (which we'll be covering in April), takes place within the span of a week.  Rowling indicates the time passing by heading up her chapters with the day of the week it is.  But then, interestingly enough, she stops and we have to deduce the day of the week ourselves.  It feels like months have passed, but in reality, it's a very little amount of time.

There are books where the time lines DON'T match up.  Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy is famous for this kind of miss-match.  Though no actual dates are referenced in Tolstoy's book, lots of major events are.  He often tell us that "three months have passed" or something of the like.  Frequently, events don't match up with the passage of time he's provided.  One assumes it was done on purpose, but no one really knows for sure, or why.

In some ways, A Christmas Carol is also like this.  Each ghost come at the stroke of one. Presumably, on subsequent nights.

"Expect the first tomorrow, when the bell tolls one."
"Couldn't I take `em all at once, and have it over, Jacob?" hinted Scrooge. "Expect the second on the next night at the same hour. The third upon the next night when the last stroke of twelve has ceased to vibrate. Look to see me no more; and look that, for your own sake, you remember what has passed between us!" -A Christmas Carol

Marley tells Scrooge that the ghosts are going to come but, supposedly, over three nights.  And what's more, Scrooge ends up going forward and back in time in his life.  Something that should have, at minimum, taken three nights, only took one night to do.  So the time that passes doesn't match up with the day Scrooge wakes up.

Time travel can also be an interesting way to handle time.  In The Time Traveler's Wife, Henry travels sporadically with no control over it, and often runs into people he hasn't met yet.  Or is asked to recall events that haven't actually happened to him yet.

Authors handle time in all sorts of ways, but inevitably, time actually becomes an extremely important factor in a lot of books, even if you the viewer doesn't necessarily notice the passage of it.