Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Table of Contents
- List of illustrations
- List of permissions
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I Wanting the past
- 1 Nostalgia: dreams and nightmares
- 2 Time travelling
- 3 Benefits and burdens of the past
- Part II Disputing the past
- Part III Knowing the past
- Part IV Remaking the past
- Select bibliography
- Index
- References
2 - Time travelling
from Part I - Wanting the past
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 November 2015
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Table of Contents
- List of illustrations
- List of permissions
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I Wanting the past
- 1 Nostalgia: dreams and nightmares
- 2 Time travelling
- 3 Benefits and burdens of the past
- Part II Disputing the past
- Part III Knowing the past
- Part IV Remaking the past
- Select bibliography
- Index
- References
Summary
Is it not possible … that things we have felt with great intensity … have an existence independent of our minds; are in fact still in existence? And if so, will it not be possible, in time, that some device will be invented by which we can tap them? … Instead of remembering here a scene and there a sound, I shall fit a plug into the wall; and listen in to the past … Strong emotion must leave its trace; and it is only a question of discovering how we can get ourselves again attached to it, so that we shall be able to live our lives through from the start.
Virginia Woolf, 1938What if you could live your life over again? and again? and again? and again? Most of us would die for a chance to replay.
Ken Grimwood, 1988When he awoke, the dinosaur was still there.
Augusto Monterroso, 1959The pull of the past transcends nostalgic longing for a fanciful or surrogate yesteryear. Revisiting some actual past has long been a fond desire. Many would pay handsomely to relive a year of their personal lives, most to retrieve a day or an hour, especially from youth. ‘O for one hour of youthful joy! / Give me back my twentieth spring! … / One moment let my life-blood stream / From boyhood’s fount of flame!’
The allure of time travel mirrors that of reincarnation. That the past should be irrevocably lost seems unbearable. We crave its recovery. Is there no way to recapture, re-experience, relive it? Some agency, some mechanism, some faith must let us know, see, sense the past. We will feel afresh the daily life of our grandparents, the rural sounds of yesteryear, the deeds of the Founding Fathers, the creations of Michelangelo, the glory that was Greece.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Past Is a Foreign Country – Revisited , pp. 55 - 79Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2015
References
, ‘A sketch of the past’, in Moments of Being (Chatto & Windus, 1976), 61–139 at 74
, Perceiving Time: A Psychological Investigation with Men and Women (Wiley, 1976), 222–4Google Scholar
, ‘The old man dreams’ (1854), in The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table (Boston, 1859), 76Google Scholar
, According to Mark (Heinemann, 1984), 110
, Joseph Smith and the Origins of The Book of Mormon, 2nd edn (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2000), 17Google Scholar
, ‘Old Masters’ spirits took over, says Tom Keating’, Telegraph, 2 Feb. 1979
, ‘When is a fake not a fake? When it’s a genuine forgery’, Guardian, 2 July 2005
, Three Thousand Years of Deception in Art and Antiques (Jonathan Cape, 1961), 223–5
, ‘History as repetition in Thomas Hardy’s poetry: the example of “Wessex Heights”’ (1972), in Tropes, Parables, Performatives (Duke, 1991), 107–34 at 127
, Studies in Human Time (1949; Johns Hopkins, 1956), 185–200
, The Ninth Bridgewater Treatise, 2nd edn (1838), in Works (NYU Press, 1989), 9: 36–8
, Man and Nature (1864; Harvard, 1965), 464–5n
, History of the Conflict between Science and Religion (1873; Cambridge, 2009), 111CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, ‘Theses on the philosophy of history’ (1940), in Illuminations (New York: Schocken, 1969), 253–64 at 254
, ‘The power of an endless life’ (Heb. 7.16), in Sermons for the New Life (New York, 1858), 304–25 at 310–11
, The Culture of Time and Space 1880–1918 (1983; Harvard, 2003), 41–2
, The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Lives of the Cosmos (Knopf, 2011), 48Google Scholar
, ‘About mortality in amber’, New Scientist, 3 Apr. 1975: 37
, ‘The grisly folk’ (1921), in Selected Short Stories (Penguin, 1979), 279–98 at 297–8.Google Scholar
, 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968; New American Library, 1999), 185
, ‘News vs. fiction: reflections on prognostication’, in et al., eds., Storm Warnings: Science Fiction Faces the Future (Southern Illinois, 1987), 211–31 at 229
, ‘To forget or not to forget’, New Scientist, 24 Oct. 2009: 48–9
and , Total Recall: How the E-Memory Revolution Will Change Everything (Boston: Dutton, 2009Google Scholar
, Suspira de Profundis (1845–54; Constable, 1927), 246–7
, ‘Why distant objects please’ (1821), in CW (Dent, 1930–4), 8: 255–64 at 257
, ‘Timelessness and romanticism’, JHI 15 (1954): 3–22
, ‘Remembering, repeating and working-through’ (1914), in CPW (Hogarth Press, 1966–74), 12: 148Google Scholar
, La Pensée et le mouvant (1907), in Oeuvres, 3rd edn (Presses Universitaires de France, 1970), 1316Google Scholar
, ‘Some mechanisms of consciousness discovered during electrical stimulation of the brain’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 44:2 (15 Feb. 1958): 51–66 at 65CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, ‘The permanent record of the stream of consciousness’, Acta Psychologica 11 (1955): 47–69 at 67, 69
, Memory: Fragments of a Modern History (Chicago, 2012), 75–102
and , ‘On the permanence of stored information in the human brain’, American Psychologist 35 (1980): 409–20 at 410CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, ‘Reverse phylogeny’ (1937), in , ed., Science Fiction Adventures in Dimension (London, 1955), 31–43 at 33
, The House on the Strand (1969; London: Pan, 1979), 196
, ‘Explaining “memories” of space alien abduction and past lives’, Journal of Experimental Psychopathology 3:1 (2012): 2–16
, ‘The double life of Om Seti’, IHT, 26 Apr. 1979: 14
, ‘Watch on the Nile’, IHT, 5–6 May 1979: 4
, Multiple Identities and False Memories (American Psychological Association, 1996), 135–40Google Scholar
et al., ‘The cognitive neuroscience of true and false memories’, in , ed., True and False Recovered Memories (Springer, 2012), 15–52 at 24
’s Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (Granada, 1979; rev. edn with John Clute, Orbit, 1993)
, ‘Time bandits: what were Einstein and Gödel talking about?’ in and , eds., E = Einstein (New York: Sterling, 2006), 250Google Scholar
, The History of Science Fiction (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006), 195–218
, Understanding Contemporary American Science Fiction (South Carolina, 2005), 109
, ‘Ten thousand children in need of a sponsor’, National Trust Magazine, no. 35 (1981): 8–9
, ed., Museum Time-Machine (Routledge, 1988), 6, 17, 143
, The Dream (Collins, 1929), 236
, The Five Books of Gargantua and Pantagruel (1535; Modern Library, 1944), bk IV, ch. 56 (649–51)Google Scholar
, ‘In a museum’, in Collected Poems (Macmillan, 1948), 404
, A Traveller in Time (1939; Puffin, 1978), 106
, Time and Again (Simon & Schuster, 1970), 52, 63
, Time Machines: Time Travel in Physics, Metaphysics, and Science Fiction, 2nd edn (Springer, 1999), 110–23
, Black Holes and Time Warps (Norton, 1994)
, Feral: Rewilding the Land, the Sea, and Human Life (Penguin, 2013), 33–34, 207
, The Devil in Velvet (Penguin, 1957), 9
, The Maps of Time (London: MacRae, 1983), 91, 123
and , ‘“Doing it in style”: the narrative rules of the Back to the Future trilogy’, in , ed., Worlds of Back to the Future (London: McFarland, 2010), 232–54
, The Great Time Machine Hoax (Grosset & Dunlap, 1963), 35
, ‘Doing Lennon’ (1975), in and , eds., Visions of Wonder (New York: Tor, 1996), 253–62 at 255
, An Age (Faber & Faber, 1967), 18
, The Specious Past: Historians and Others (Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1972), 171
, The Time Machine (1895; Signet, 2002), 6
, ‘Time’s arrow’ (1950), in Reach for Tomorrow (Corgi, 1976), 132–48 at 139
, The Year of the Quiet Sun (1970; Boston: Gregg, 1979), 107
, To Your Scattered Bodies Go (1971; Boston: Gregg, 1980), 44
, The Lincoln Hunters (Hodder & Stoughton, 1979), 112
, October the First Is Too Late (Penguin, 1968), 96
, ‘Histronaut’, Columbia University Forum 4:3 (1961): 4–8
, Nine Hundred Grandmothers (New York: Ace, 1970), 7–19 at 10
, Catface (1973; Methuen, 1978), 163
, Bring the Jubilee (1955; London, 1976), 164
and , Back to the Future (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), 85–7
, The Earthly Paradise (London, 1868), 3
, ‘Hobson’s choice’ (1952), in Starburst (New York: Signet, 1958), 133–48 at 147–8
, The Lincoln Hunters (Hodder & Stoughton, 1979)
, Time’s Last Gift (Ballantine, 1972), 79, 137
, The Archaic Revival (Harper & Row, 1992)
, Confessions of an Eco-Warrior (New York: Harmony Books, 1991), 63
, Earth First! Environmental Apocalypse (Syracuse, 1995), 84
, ‘Back to the Future: Oedipus as time traveller’ (1987), in Ní Fhlainn, ed., Worlds of Back to the Future, 29–48 at 34, 30
, 11.22.63: A Novel (Scribner, 2011), 247, 368
, Maps of Time (1983), 58, 123
with , Berkeley Square (Longmans, Green, 1929), 37–8
, Pawn of Time (Holt, 1957), 437
, Guardians of Time (Pan, 1977), 68
, Three Faces of Time (New York: Ace, 1955), 33
, Love-Hate Relations: A Study of Anglo-American Sensibilities (Hamish Hamilton, 1974), 191
, ‘Convergences’, NYT Book Review, 11 Mar. 2012: 10
, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1889; California, 1983), 17, 62–3
, ‘Two Sams’, Asimov’s SF, May 2000
, ‘The theory and practice of time travel’, in All the Myriad Ways (Ballantine, 1971), 123
, ‘Time-warped power’, IHT, 30 Oct. 1981: 16
, Allan and the Ice-Gods (London, 1927)
, Twice in Time (New York: Galaxy, 1958)
, ‘Envoy extraordinary’ (1956), in The Scorpion God (Faber & Faber, 1971), 115–78
, Lest Darkness Fall (1939; London: Sphere, 1979)
, Typewriter in the Sky (1940; London: Fantasy, 1952)
, ‘Compounded interest’ (1956), in , ed., SF: The Best of the Best (New York: Dell, 1967), 199–213Google Scholar
, A Rebel in Time (New York: Tor, 1983)
, Making History (Hutchinson, 1996)
, ‘Quantum Leap: the postmodern challenge of television as history’, in , and , eds., Television Histories (Kentucky, 2001), 59–78 at 65–72
, Behold the Man (Fontana/Collins, 1980), 37
, ‘Unguided tour’, New Yorker, 31 Oct. 1977: 40–5 at 40
, ‘The good provider’ (1952), in , ed., Science Fiction Adventures in Dimension (London, 1955), 167–71 at 170
, ‘About New York: old neighborhoods visited mainly in memory’, NYT, 18 Aug. 1977: B15
, Time Machines: The World of Living History (AASLH, 1984), 52
, The Devil on the Road (Macmillan, 1978), 156
, ‘Through other eyes’ (1960), in Nine Hundred Grandmothers, 282–96 at 282–4
, Pawn of Time (Holt, 1957), 57
, The Sense of the Past (Scribners, 1917), 337–8
, Generation X (St Martin’s, 1991), 11
, The Giver (1993; HarperCollins, 2003), 99, 131
, The Connecticut Yankee in the Twentieth Century: Travel to the Past in Science Fiction (Greenwood, 1991)
, Past into Present: Effective Techniques for First-Person Historical Interpretation (North Carolina, 1998), 67
, Dinosaur Beach (New York: Daw, 1971), 100
, ‘1992 house’, New Yorker, 17 Jan. 2005: 49
, ‘Convergences’, NYT Book Review, 11 Mar. 2012: 10
, ‘Dream On’, New Scientist, 22 Sept. 2007: 25
, ‘Vincent Van Gogh’ (1970), in and , eds., Aliens, Travelers, and Strangers: The Best of Soviet SF (Macmillan, 1984), 51–118 at 100–1Google Scholar
, ‘Such interesting neighbors’ (1951), in The Clock of Time (London: Panther, 1961), 5–20 at 16–18
, Discours de la méthode (1637; Paris, 1947), 5–6
, Bring Out Your Dead: The Past as Revelation (Harvard, 2001), 194
, The Big Time (1957; New York: Ace, 1961), 57
, ‘A sound of thunder’ (1952), in R Is for Rocket (Pan, 1972), 73–86 at 77
, ‘Sea gulls, butterflies, and grasshoppers’, American Journal of Physics 72:3 (Apr. 2004): 425–7)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, ‘The deadly mission of Phineas Snodgrass’ (1962), in The Gold at the Starbow’s End (Ballantine, 1972)Google Scholar
, ‘Gun for dinosaur’, in Best of L. Sprague de Camp (Ballantine, 1978), 272–302
, ‘The men who murdered Mohammed’ (1958), in The Light Fantastic (Gollancz, 1977), 113–29Google Scholar
, ‘Bananas enough for time travel?’ British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 48 (1997): 363–89 at 374CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, ‘Henry James’s The Sense of the Past’, Forum for Modern Language Studies 17 (1981): 201–16 at 210CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, ‘The “Quasi-Turn-of-Screw effect” … : The Sense of the Past’, in Literature as Conduct: Speech Acts in Henry James (Fordham, 2005), 291–326CrossRefGoogle Scholar