Tuesday, 12 June 2018

They See Themselves

"'It will be strange,' she said slowly, 'to see our young selves go by. I wish you could be with me then.'
"'Will the sight hurt you?'
"'No. I will give them our love, that pair, and be glad for what they have ahead of them.'"
-Poul Anderson, The Corridors Of Time (Frogmore, St Albans, Herts, 1975), CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE, p. 195.

"'Erissa,' he said to her. 'go. Endure. Know that in the end I'll call you back to me.'"
-Poul Anderson, The Dancer From Atlantis (London, 1977), CHAPTER NINETEEN, p. 166.

(Duncan, addressing young Erissa, has already met the older Erissa and the two Erissas have coexisted.) 

"Dim amidst swirling vapors, [Havig] glimpsed himself hurrying down to the waterfront, hooded against the damp, too frantic to notice himself."
-Poul Anderson, There Will Be Time (London, 1973), XII, p. 131.

Later, Havig is trapped in a cell by a wire rope connecting a ring around his ankle to a staple on the wall. Seeing in the dark with a pencil flashlight, Leonce saws through the wire. She tells him to time jump ahead to sunrise to receive his breakfast, then to return to her, in order to make the Eyrie think that he has escaped later. Returning, he recognizes the moment by the beam of light, arrives to hear the end of his conversation with Leonce, then hears the air filling the vacuum after he has departed. Thus, he was in the room with them before he departed. Leonce, used to time travel all her life, accepts this.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Very mind numbing, these end runs around time! I recall how dazed Elissa was seeing or meeting her younger self.

Sean