Tuesday 19 July 2022

Twentieth Centurians In The Past

In Jerusalem on the first Good Friday, Jack Havig is asked:

"'Es tu peregrinator temporis?'"
-Poul Anderson, There Will Be Time (New York, 1973), VI, p. 62.

He is recognized because:

"His height was unusual in this place, and he had left his head bear to show the barbering and the Nordic features." (ibid.)

Later, Havig and Robert Anderson think of other ways to recruit time travellers in Jerusalem, like:

"...passing through the streets, singing lines from the Greek mass -'
"'And the Latin.'" (XIV, p. 153)

In Tim Powers' The Anubis Gates, a twentieth centurian in nineteenth century London hears someone whistling a familiar tune and realizes that it is Yesterday...

When Manse Everard enters the household of two Time Patrol agents in Tyre, 950 BC, their bearing, posture, gait, facial expressions and tones of voice change. He would have recognized them as from his century without being told.

5 comments:

S.M. Stirling said...

Though there are tall blond people who are native to the area; I saw some in Arab villages in Galilee on a trip once, and 'twould have been the same 2000 years ago.

There just aren't all that -many- of them, relative to the total population.

S.M. Stirling said...

Things like style of walking differ between different populations. I know people who can recognize whether someone's Mexican or Anglo simply by their walk (Anglos lift their feet more).

Incidentally, Germans do it more than Anglos.

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

You're pulling my leg!

S.M. Stirling said...

Paul: not the one with bells on it... no, that's actually the case. I have a betareader who grew up in Mexico (family Estonian in background, of all things) and she could spot the difference. Took me a while to see it.

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

I know! I was attempting Wodehouseian humour.