In absolute terms, every individual human being is important. In practice, some are regarded and treated as more important than others. Sometimes, there is a primus inter pares, a "first among equals."
Guion explains to Manse Everard that some people are important because of the contribution they make but that others may be even more important because of what happens to them. Everard and Wanda Tamberly are important for both reasons. They are highly skilled Patrol operatives and their world-lines appear to impinge on many others.
Guion investigates operatives who are important for the second reason and also "'...anomalous variations in reality.'" (Time Patrol, p. 261) He has almost defined the unpredictable chaos that he is trying to guard against. Most anomalous variations do not affect "'...the structure of the plenum, which we strive to preserve.'" (ibid.) However, if an individual's world-line impinges on many others, then minor changes in his life can change history. Hence, Lorenzo de Conti, whose influence will be counteracted by none other than - Manse Everard and Wanda Tamberly.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul
And I thought, yet again, of the "doomed inheritor," Archduke Francis Ferdinand. Truly tremendous events happened because he was assassinated in Sarajevo in 1914. And equally tremendous events might well have happened if he had NOT been slain.
Sean
Sean,
That could be a quantum fluctuation even if there were no extratemporal intervention.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Certainly! My thought was that Francis Ferdinand could well have been a "causal nexus" in one of Poul Anderson's Time Patrol stories if he had thought of using the Sarajevo tragedy. Like poor Lorenzo de Conti, many world lines might have converged on the archduke.
Sean
Post a Comment