Friday 3 February 2017

Temporal Perambulators

We referred here to Lancaster quay so I thought that it was time for a picture. Lancaster Priory Church can be seen in the background. A fantasy or sf reader can imagine walking along the quay into Lancaster's maritime past which is remembered in a museum on the quay.

Poul Anderson coined the evocative phrase, peregrinator temporis, time traveler. Alan Moore goes further and refers to "...the temporal pedestrians..." (Jerusalem, London, 2016, p. 982)

Moore's ambulatory time travelers find whales that have grown legs and adapted back to land. This reminds us of "land-whales" mentioned by Anderson! (I can find obscure cross-connections anywhere if I am determined enough.)

3 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Hmmm, whales (and the other cetaceans) were once four legged mammalian animals which retro-evolved back into the sea to become marine mammals.

Sean

Paul Shackley said...

Sean,
So Moore asks: when the seas recede, could the cetaceans come back onto land?
Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I can imagine that possibly happening, with the caveat I see the oceans receding ONLY when our Sun starts expanding and getting hotter. About a billion years from now?

Sean