"'Causal loops are often very subtle things,' he said."
-Poul Anderson, "The Sorrow of Odin the Goth" IN Anderson, Time Patrol (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 333-465 AT 1935, p. 448.
Carl Farness seeks the source of a story about Odin. Carl Farness is the source.
Janne Floris travels into the past to learn what inspired Veleda to become a prophetess. Janne Floris did.
When Wanda Tamberly arrives in 13,211 BC, Ralph Corwin has just learned, by checking a few years uptime, that the Cloud People, despite having apparently settled happily at their current site, will continue to migrate eastward the following year. Maybe Tamberly will find out why? She won't just find out. She will cause the Cloud People to move on.
Thus, Tamberly does not change but causes prehistory.
Subtle, indeed.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
And the Danellians had to tolerate these causal loops--because the actions of Farness, Floris, and Tamberly were themselves parts of the history leading to them.
Ad astra! Sean
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