Copyright 2004 by M. Uli Kusterer Fri, 29 Nov -1901 11:06:32 GMT Comments on article blog-time-travel-as-storytelling-device at Zathras.de http://www.zathras.de/angelweb/blog-time-travel-as-storytelling-device.htm witness_dot_of_dot_teachtext_at_gmx_dot_net (M. Uli Kusterer) witness_dot_of_dot_teachtext_at_gmx_dot_net (M. Uli Kusterer) en-us http://www.zathras.de/angelweb/blog-time-travel-as-storytelling-device.htm#comment5 http://www.zathras.de/angelweb/blog-time-travel-as-storytelling-device.htm#comment5 I believe the "mister unmarried mother" story you mention is "All You Zombies", by Robert Heinlein. Here's a link to the text:

http://ieng9.ucsd.edu/~mfedder/zombies.html
http://www.zathras.de/angelweb/blog-time-travel-as-storytelling-device.htm#comment4 http://www.zathras.de/angelweb/blog-time-travel-as-storytelling-device.htm#comment4 One of the most intense and to a certain point, where you are left unsatisfied because of a lack in physics, deepest stimulating stories about time travel is found in the low budget production "Primer". Engineers discover by learning and doing that the whole picture is far more complex (including some paradoxa) than I could have anticipated (and followed). Need to watch it again with friends to discuss and no booze. However, very recommendable. Oh Well...cheers!
Bjoern
(oh and if you find that link......
http://www.zathras.de/angelweb/blog-time-travel-as-storytelling-device.htm#comment3 http://www.zathras.de/angelweb/blog-time-travel-as-storytelling-device.htm#comment3 Hi,

Can you show me where i find a link for building a simple time machine.
Thanks
http://www.zathras.de/angelweb/blog-time-travel-as-storytelling-device.htm#comment2 http://www.zathras.de/angelweb/blog-time-travel-as-storytelling-device.htm#comment2 Uli Kusterer writes:
I think you actually told me about some of those stories back when you first read them. I definitely remember the "mister unmarried mother" one, and the "end of eternity". But yeah, once I'm through 1984, I might check that out before I move on to "brave new world". I never got round to reading those two, so I thought it's about time I try those...
http://www.zathras.de/angelweb/blog-time-travel-as-storytelling-device.htm#comment1 http://www.zathras.de/angelweb/blog-time-travel-as-storytelling-device.htm#comment1 Ruth Less writes:
Have you ever read The End of Eternity by Asimov? That's one time travel story I quite liked. It contains a tinge of self-correction an a hint of a parallel dimension:

There is a dimension outside time called Eternity. There is a way to enter this dimension and you are not affected by time while being there (Asimov does not explain how they can _act_ in this timeless world though). They speak about time as we speak about going to different floors in a house, and they can change events as easily as stepping out of an elevator and picking up an object from a room. So instead of exploring space, they do secret business with other ages on earth (e.g. importing trees from one age in exchange for antidotes from another).

The discoverers of this dimension recruite young talents from all ages and teach them how to "correct time" to make the world "better". There are many specialists involved in the process of calculating and executing the minimum change to cause a maximum effect. All data about changed ages is recorded (so they might talk about he 47th version of the 92th century etc) and only the inhabitants of Eternity remember all versions.

Of course they also face some problems: For example their carefully designed corrections tend to spread out like waves first, but then always trickle away quickly without any further impact on history. Also, there are ages where they cannot step out of the "elevator" at all. It seems, some other group was there "first", trying to prevent them from changing some sections of time... Eternity had a beginning, so can it have an end...?

Or there's this other one, ("mister unmarried mother" or something like that?), that's making fun of all those paradoxa: It's about a pregnant hermaphrodite who turns out to be simultanously her own husband, wife, mother, father, child, the narrator, AND the person initiating the time travel that caused all that. o_O

Or they one about the chess playing pair of time travelling kings... Or The Six Fingers of Time (why is the clock based on the number six?)... I've got lots of those, I can find the books for you when we meet next time...