If Someone Came Back From Time

[Lorna Smithers]

I recently posted an article on my blog looking at a scene in Test of the Twins by Margaret Weis and Tracey Hickman where Caramon Majere travels forward in time to an apocalyptic future, sees it as the consequence of the ill-doings of his brother, Raistlin, and manages to make repairs.

It examines how this story is relevant to our world as hurricanes and wildfires imperil the earth in this age of the Anthropocene and poses the question of what we would do if someone came back from time.

I thought it might be of interest to other mythic scribes

If Someone Came Back From Time

 

[Michael K. Eidson]

I love time travel tales without paradoxes. Stories in which time travelers see the future and then go back in time to prevent it from happening do not satisfy me unless the paradox is explained. It seldom is. If the future is prevented, how can the travelers see it to prevent it? This little question, if left unanswered in the story world, lays waste to my suspension of disbelief. For some stories, I can manage to find some enjoyment in other aspects of the tale, and put aside my objections, but I prefer stories that don't cause me to object in the first place.

 

[Dark Squiggle]

This sounds a lot like the prophecies in the Bible. "If you continue in your ways...." the prophet than tells the people this, and averts disaster. Jeremiah is an exception, but that's a story of people who didn't listen to the one who had the foresight which is as good of a story as any other. There is a hidden paradox here, as to how anyone can have choice if there is a being that knows what will happen, but it is a paradox that all but the sharpest will miss, and one that has been explained in many ways by many great minds in the realm of religion. (I hope I didn't just overstep my bounds on the 'religion' and get chucked from MythicScribes.)

 

[pmmg]

I am not sure you can have time travel any direction but forwards without having a paradox or an alternate reality. Plenty of stories have made time travel cool anyway and some have done a better job than others at masking any paradoxes but i think they cannot really get around that they would be there anyway.

 

[Michael K. Eidson]

I have no problem with how time travel was handled in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Thoroughly enjoyed that movie.