Miesel starts by observing that Anderson had roved past, future and alternative time for over three decades. We must now say for over five decades.
She uses the phrases, "Translation in time..." (p. 245) and "...time transit..." (p. 246), convenient labels for different treatments of time in fantasy and sf, e.g., she mentions, among other examples:
"The Man Who Came Early" (time travel);
Three Hearts And Three Lions (travel between timelines);
Tau Zero (space travel but with time dilation).
These three works are respectively historical sf, heroic fantasy and hard sf.
Miesel argues that:
temporal transitions challenge fictional characters;
"...response to challenge is Anderson's quintessential theme..." (p. 245);
both space travel and time travel "...offer the extension of mastery through knowledge and the enlargement of being through experience..." (ibid.);
also, Anderson saw "...the supreme knowledge [as] that gained through experience." (ibid.);
whereas archaic societies ignore or deny history, modern civilization searches for roots and speculates about growth;
Anderson's historically based fiction addresses this need.
I try to paraphrase but sometimes Miesel's succinct prose is already a summary. I merely summarize because I do not disagree. For discussion of James Blish on his quintessential theme of "knowledge," see here.
In one paragraph on p. 248, Miesel compares Anderson's Time Patrol series with five time travel works and with two parallel timeline novels. Of the five time travel works, I value only Ward Moore's Bring The Jubilee. For discussion of inconsistencies in some time travel fiction, see here. A better comparison for the "Two characters [who] escape to the more congenial nineteenth century..." would have been with Jack Finney's nostalgic time travel fiction.
Miesel lists four of Anderson's works that have "...Holmesian aspects..." (p. 250) but, of these, "Time Patrol" is surely the best both in its presentation of Holmes on a case mentioned but not recounted by Watson and as a new work in its own right. This single story must introduce the variable timeline, the Nine, the Danellians, the Patrol, its Academy, its Temporal language, Manse Everard, his first trips to the past, our first sight of a time criminal, Everard's promotion to Unattached status and his New York apartment that will become a familiar setting as the series progresses.
Miesel also writes:
"Besides composing interesting alternate history scenarios, [Anderson] achieves the subtler feat of historical transubstantiation: in 'Brave to Be a King' events remain the same but the reason they occur changes." (p. 249)
Well, recorded history remains the same although many unrecorded details differ: another man plays the role of Cyrus the Great. "Historical transubstantiation" might better describe some of the stunts pulled in There Will Be Time, with its invariable timeline. A time travel group recruits a handful of prospects, including Havig and Boris, in Jerusalem on the estimated day of the Crucifixion. Later on his world-line, Havig works against that group and sends Boris to Jerusalem to infiltrate it... Thus, we might say that, in Havig's experience, Boris' presence in Jerusalem is transubstantiated. No discernible detail can be or has been altered but the significance of Boris' trip to Jerusalem is inwardly transformed.
Reasons for traveling to the day of the Crucifixion:
to witness the Crucifixion;
to try to prevent it;
to meet other time travelers;
to recruit time travelers;
to infiltrate the group recruiting time travelers.
Boris turns out to have the fifth, not the first, reason.
the Patrol conserves whereas Havig's group liberates;
the Patrol prevents Neldorians, Exaltationists, individual time criminals and quantum fluctuations from changing the past whereas Havig's group prevents the Eyrie from dominating the future;
Patrol agents ride streamlined updates of Wells' Time Machine whereas Havig shares the Time Traveler's experience of external events flickering past;
Patrollers can change past events whereas Havig cannot but instead must ingeniously change their significance;
the Patrol leads to the Danellians whereas Havig's group leads to the Star Masters;
Everard learns that the Patrol, even though it too changes the past, is "The Only Game In Town" (story title) while Havig's recruits learn that "...Havig's was the only game in town." (There Will be Time, New York, 1973, p. 156)
the Time Patrol employs well-briefed agents;
The Corridors Of Time shows "...unprepared people hurled into strangeness..." (p. 246);
There Will Be Time shows time travel by "...psi talent" (p. 247);
The Dancer From Atlantis "...recreat[es] a real historical milieu..." (pp. 247-248).
The Dancer... is more directly about unprepared people hurled into a strange past and The Corridors... also shows well-briefed agents of time traveling organizations. Five time travel stories are mentioned among several other "time transit" works. Thus, "Of Time And The Rover" is a brief but comprehensive survey.
7 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
While I agree, for the most part, with what both you and Sandra Miesel have written about the Time Patrol, I do have a minor quibbles. One being this statement by Miesel: "Nomura is a bit like Steve Matuchek of OPERATION CHAOS--the bumbling but good-hearted male in pursuit of the superior female is a favorite pattern of this gynolatrous author." I disagreed with this because the ingenious solution found by Tom Nomura from saving Feliz from death in "Gibraltar Falls" shows he is not at all a bumbler. The most you can say is that he was simply still very young and inexperienced.
Sean
Sean,
Agree,
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
And, of couse, another difference in your Time Patrol commentary from that of Sandra Miesel's is in whether not "deleted" timelines became non existent. Miesel plainly accepted the view of the characters in the stories that, for example, the Carthaginian universe we see in "Delenda est" was "deleted" when Manse Everard and Piet Van Sarawak prevented Publius Cornelius Scipio and his son of the same name ("Africanus" to be) from being killed at the Battle of Ticinus. Whereas, you later convincingly argued that such timelines continued to exist and simply became inaccessible to the Time Patrol.
Sean
Steve Matuchek was hardly a bumbler, either.
Particularly recall how cleverly he distracted the salamander ("... our servant, that Fire which fears not water!") so Ginny could dispel it -- or that he was the one, when she despaired, who realized they could call the gods -- Thor, Athena, and Quetzalcoatl as it turned out -- into Hell to attack the demons.
She cast the spells both times, but she couldn't have gotten it done in the first instance, and evidently wouldn't have thought of it in the second, without him.
Kaor, Paul!
Good examples of how Steven Matuchek was not at all a bumbler. I should have thought of them myself. I was focused on Tom Nomura. And a former Hollywood actor would not have studied to beome an engineer at a relatively late age if he did not already have plenty of brain wattage!
Sean
H. Beam Piper (I mention him a lot on this site) wrote a short story, "Crossroads of Destiny," involving people planning out a television series which would explore "might-have-beens" of history. And then it turns out one of the participants in the discussion is himself from a reality with a startling difference....
It's available at Project Gutenberg, if I've roused your curiosity. The TV show could've had some fascinating potential, too.
Hi, David!
Yes, I've read a bit, but far too few, of the works of H. Beam Piper. Apparently, he's one of your favorite SF writers. Yes, I might check out Piper's works at Project Gutenberg. Many thanks!
Sean
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