I said that I would quote from a Heinlein story when I had access to my copy. (It was in a room where the carpet was being shampooed.)
"Everybody knows now why the Fizzle War of 1963 fizzled. The bomb with New York's number on it didn't go off, a hundred other things didn't go as planned - all arranged by the likes of me."
Robert Heinlein, "- All You Zombies -" IN Heinlein, The Unpleasant Profession Of Jonathan Hoag (London, 1980), pp. 126-137 AT p. 136.
This is what I mean about how time travelers might act as "guardian angels" to a timeline. But there is more:
"But not the Mistake of '72; that one is not our fault - and can't be undone; there's no paradox to resolve. A thing either is, or it isn't, now and forever amen. But there won't be another like it; an order dated '1992' takes precedence any year." (ibid.)
In the hypothetical "Megamultiverse," the timeline of Heinlein's Temporal Bureau is in the corner with the immutable timelines of Anderson's Wardens & Rangers and mutant time travelers, not with the mutable timeline of his Time Patrol.
Heinlein goes further:
"...it's very hard to recruit anyone in the later years, since the Mistake of 1972. Can you think of a better source than to pick people all fouled up where they are and give them well-paid, interesting (even though dangerous) work in a necessary cause?" (ibid.)
Hold on there, Heinlein. It is hard to recruit after the Mistake but easy to recruit people who are fouled up?
He hints at a lot more that we would like to know like the precedence of orders dated "1992."
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Obviously, it's a good idea to reread some of Heinlein's stories. Starting with me checking to see if I have "All You Zombies" in any of the Heinlein collections I have.
Ad astra! Sean
Post a Comment