Time Travellers On A Beach

Poul Anderson, 1990 IN Anderson, The Shield Of Time (New York, 1991), pp. 430-436.

See:

Wanda In Wind And Winter

When that wind shrilled, boomed, coldened faces, tasted of salt and ruffled hair, I should of course have noted that this single sentence addressed no less than four senses. There is more, including the fifth sense, sight:

gulls soar and mew;

wet sand is dark and solid;

shells crunch;

bladders pop;

dry dunes lap cliffs;

waves march from beyond sight;

one lone ship;

a world of whites and silvery grays.

A beach, the border between land and sea, is an appropriate setting for the conversation between Manse Everard and Wanda Tamberly and then between them and the Danellian. Before the Danellian arrives, Everard tells Tamberly:

"'You'll have to learn to accept how little we know and how much less we can ever be sure of.'" (p. 433)

Although I have worked toward some clarity on time travel paradoxes, I have to accept that Danellians and Time Patrollers live in a reality that transcends our understanding. As with quantum mechanics, which they cite, there must be experiences that seem contradictory.

(It is possible to become fascinated with the ways in which we combine letters to form words. "In" is contained in "Wind" and "Winter" and "And" in "Wanda"! This has no bearing on the meanings of the words.)