"Nexus points do occur, where it matters how the dice fell. They aren't oftenest the obvious ones, either.
"An example bobbed into my memory, like a drowned corpse rising to the surface. An instructor at the Academy had given it as being suitable for cadets out of my milieu."
-Poul Anderson, "The Sorrow of Odin the Goth" IN Anderson, Time Patrol (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 333-465 AT 1935, p. 424.
That drowned corpse is such an appropriate simile. The example is:
Nazism came to power in Germany only "...through the unique genius of Adolf Hitler..." (ibid.);
time travelers could easily prevent the chance affair between Hitler's grandfather and his housemaid.
Thus, the memory of the birth of Hitler with all its consequences is like the rising of a drowned corpse. I considered searching for an image of a drowned corpse but instead chose a book cover (see image) because Carl goes on to quote Churchill's phrase, "the Unnecessary War."
Time travel fiction is one way to discuss history - also the future, the passage of time, the nature of time and the experience of life.
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I can imagine some kind of dictator coming to power in an angry and embittered Germany, but it didn't HAVE to be Hitler. But, still, the combination of Hitler's abilities and the weakness of the Weimar Republic DID lead to his unfortunate rise to power.
Sean
Hitler's life is full of Jonbar points. His survival through 4 years as a "runner" on the Western Front was a miracle of odds-beating, and someone was shot right beside him during the Beer-Hall Putsch in the 1920's.
Dear Mr. Stirling,
I looked up "Jonbar point," and it certainly applies to Adolf! Surviving FOUR years as a runner on the Western Front, arguably the most dangerous job a soldier could have? ASTONISHING! And of the many plots against Hitler's life, some of them came very close to killing him, but he escaped them. Hard not to think the Devil was looking after his own! Or that he had enough of the Shadownspawn "good luck" genes for probabilities to be twisted in Hitler's favor.
Sean
Sean: he liked staying up all night, too. Of course, so did Stalin, Mao... and Churchill.
Dear Mr. Stirling,
Considering MY own "night owl" hours, this is making me uneasy! If the Alberman scale was real, I wonder how high a percentage of Shadowspawn genes ** I ** would be found to have. I would have to take comfort in Churchill's example, that not all night owls are monsters.
Sean
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