Much fantasy and sf answers two questions:
By what means or mechanism does the hero, or do the characters, travel from here and now to there and then, another world, planet or time?
What do they find there?
There is no necessary connection between the answers to these questions. A flying carpet or a magic wardrobe might take you anywhere. However, sometimes there is a coherence:
in The Time Machine by HG Wells, the Time Traveller learns what will become first of a class-divided civilization, then of life on Earth;
in Tau Zero by Poul Anderson, an accelerating relativistic spaceship takes its crew to the end of this universe and the beginning of the next universe.
In both these cases, the author not only answers but also connects the two questions.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Problem is, I find Wells speculations about society and "class" too simplistic and unnuanced to take seriously. What he said does not truly fits in what we actually see in human history and lives.
Sean
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