In Praise of “Time travel is not what you think it's like” by C.M. (Flard)

 In general, my blog posts tend to cluster around several themes or foci. But rather than look back at a pulp-era tale, the focus today is on a contemporary story penned as a creepypasta. This post continues my evaluation of time travel tales by exploring and, hopefully, answering an extremely pertinent question raised in my earlier examination of another time travel tale by Stephen King: “The Jaunt.” Namely: When one is trapped between the ticking of one second and the next, just how long can eternity last?

“No matter what happens, I’m grateful that I had you here with me. I couldn’t have been here alone. This place is Hell, but it would’ve been so much worse without you.”

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“Time travel is not what you think it's like” is a creepypasta story written by C.M.(Flard) and released on Reddit/NoSleep on 04 February 2019.

From Wikipedia, a creepypasta is . . .

. . . a catch-all term for horror content posted onto the internet. The subject matter of creepypasta varies widely and can include topics such as ghosts, murder, zombies, and haunted television shows and video games. Creepypastas range in length from a single paragraph to lengthy, multi-part series that can span across multiple media types.

Reddit is a massive collection of forums (i.e. subreddits). And, Nosleep is a subreddit that . . .

 . . . allows authors to post their own realistic, scary stories, to be enjoyed by a community of readers who often engage with the stories as if they really happened.

I have been unable to locate any biographical information regarding the author of this tale. I have no idea what his / her actual name even is. I only know the author’s screen name—C.M. (Flard).

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Briefly, this creepypasta tale uses a common story trope to furnish the instigating action. A poor undergrad, Clark, is asked to participate in a weird, super secret experiment.

Needing the money, he agrees. Joining two other poor undergrads, Emma and Ryan, they all proceed to the experiment site in the north Georgia mountains.

Once there, a Doctor Olsen welcomed them, guiding them into the “house”—a one-room structure with a single large window. Olsen then explained that the experiment they  were going to be participating in was: time travel! The three were to be the first human trials of the time machine. The experiment's objective is to send them three hours into the future. Before leaving, Olsen warned them not to leave the house until he returned for them. It could be very bad if they did.

Following this admonition, Olsen left them to initiate the experiment. Nervously, the three test subjects chat. Then, noticing a light outside, they all stare out the window. Clark turns and looks at Emma’s eyes. At that very instant, there is a bright flash. Then the outside is black, not dark, but utterly black. The three understand that that flash was the activation of the time machine.

Very quickly, they also come to realize that their hearts have stopped and they have no pulse! In addition, they do not get tired, grow hungry, use the bathroom or even need to breathe! Ryan says that this is so, because not even one second has even passed.

Time seemed to drag on, though really they had no idea. Especially when, as Ryan alludes, they are stuck between the seconds.  The three struggle with crippling boredom and depression. At some point Ryan stares out the window. Clark and Emma pay him no mind. After some more time passes (Who knows how long?), Ryan announces that he is going outside. Emma and Clark don’t even care enough to try to stop him.

With no way to gauge the passage of time—more time passes—weeks, months, maybe years. The remaining two struggle to stay sane. Something catches Clark’s attention outside the window and he glances at it, thinking he sees something out in the darkness. Next thing he knows, he is slapped hard in the face! He turns to see Emma crying and near hysterical! She tells  him that he had been staring out the window for days. Yet for Clark, it seemed that only seconds had passed.

And, still more time passes.

Eventually, Emma makes the connection—rightly or wrongly—that if they both look out of the window into the darkness, time might lose its hold over them. Whether a few more minutes or a billion, billion years—it would all be the same to them. And when the experiment finally ended, they would awaken. Or, they might go mad as Ryan did.

Both sat facing the window. Clark turned to glance at Emma’s face—just as he did before. Then, they both looked out the window into the darkness. Clark found himself floating alone in the universe, seeing random and forgotten memories pass in front of him.

All at once, pop! Clark was back!

He was standing (not sitting!), not facing the window but facing Emma. Ryan stood right behind her. Both were looking out the window, just as at the start of the experiment; as if no time had passed. Suddenly, Ryan screamed and, with a piece of broken glass, stabbed himself, and died (smiling). Through all of this, Emma never moved. Even when the Doctor returned after the experiment was concluded.

The project was subsequently shut down.

Regretfully, Emma never returned to herself.

Clark sincerely prayed that Emma was not still trapped in that room.

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A Complement to Stephen King’s “The Jaunt”

This post not only discusses a time travel story but, more interestingly, how this creepypasta enhances (or complements understanding) a completely different and unrelated tale—a tale discussed on Old Sins Cast Long Shadows in a previous post: Thinking about “The Jaunt” by Stephen King.

And, this is where “The Jaunt” comes in.

To recap, “The Jaunt” is a sci-fi/horror short written by Stephen King — initially published in the June 1981 issue of The Twilight Zone Magazine. A father attempts to calm his wife and two kids before their first “jaunt” or teleportation trip. Telling the story of its history and development, he explains the “one catch” to jaunt technology; that the traveler has to be unconscious in order to jaunt. Otherwise, the traveler goes utterly and completely insane.

His oldest, a son (and a bit of a daredevil) fakes taking the knockout drug and is awake and conscious throughout the jaunt. The teleportation process was nearly instant. Yet for the boy, an eternity had been endured. He repeated over and over: “Longer than you think, Dad!”

King has the father describe his son, following the misguided jaunt, as “a creature older than time” and “the thing that had been his son” and “eyes which were incredibly ancient.” What did King mean by these descriptions? What torments did the boy experience in that eternity between seconds?

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“Time travel is not what you think it's like” was not written to be an enhancement or complement to “The Jaunt;” it is its own quite excellent stand-alone story. To me, that it is a complement to “The Jaunt”  is a happy quirk of my convoluted way of thinking.

In “The Jaunt,” the reader experiences the horror through the eyes of a father. It is the son who actually goes through the horror of enduring an eternity in a single moment. The father only sees what effect this has on his boy. The reader must imagine just what the horror was like for the boy to live through.

In “Time travel is not what you think it’s like,” there is no imagining the horror. It’s right there. The reader shares the experience with the characters in the story. Consider, in “The Jaunt,” teleportation is an instantaneous process—as long as the traveler is unconscious; jaunting while conscious equals insanity. “Time travel is not what you think it's like” explores in grim detail what it was like to jaunt while conscious . . . from the inside.

Throughout the tale, the characters discover that they are trapped between moments in time. While so trapped, they do not age, do not starve. They never need air or water. Unfortunately, they are fully conscious and therefore need to address boredom, isolation and other mental health concerns. The agency of evil in both of these tales is time itself. The monster is the human mind turned in upon itself. The situation presented in both tales is analogous to a prisoner left in solitary confinement.

Furthermore, in “The Jaunt,” the travelers are made to sleep, i.e. rendered unconscious, in order to circumvent the jaunt madness. In the tale here, the three young travelers are wide-awake. In the course of “Time travel is not what you think it's like,” the characters come to discover that by staring out of the window, they could enter a trance-like state. This apparent mesmeric effect rendered the viewer effectively unconscious for all practical purposes. Thus, the individual was able to endure the eternity of time travel with sanity intact. Hence, Clark and Emma survived the experience.

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Finally, I would offer an observation on “Time travel is not what you think it's like” that I had touched on earlier in passing. In the story, as the time travel experiment commenced, the three characters' positions relative to each other were noted.

*They were all standing

*Ryan and Emma were staring out the window.

*Clark was looking at Emma’s face, noticing her eyes.

Prior to the experiment’s conclusion, Clark and Emma decided the only way to survive was for the both of them to stare out the window. So, they sat on the floor next to each other and faced the window.

After some immensely indeterminate non-passage of time, the experiment ended. All at once . . . POP!

*They were all standing

*Ryan and Emma were staring out the window.

*Clark was looking at Emma’s face, noticing her eyes.

The three were, as Clark states: “. . . just as we were before . . .”

Wait!

Hadn’t Ryan run away some time previous? And, now he’s back?

Weren’t Emma and Clark sitting next to each other just a moment before? And, now they are standing?

It is as if the creepypasta’s author was leading the reader to the conclusion that this entire experience took place in their minds only.

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I can sincerely recommend the creepypasta “Time travel is not what you think it's like.” It captivates with its sense of impending insanity, growing feelings of hopelessness, and the despair of living one instant for eternity.

Yet, when one couples this with the tale’s strong association to Stephen King’s “The Jaunt” by exploring what the challenges an eternity spent utterly alone can be like, a hidden depth is revealed which I found deeply satisfying. 

All of these factors combined to present a superb tale of existential horror.

 

Good night.

 

 

 

References

 

Print Resources

 

Digital Resources

Flard. “Time travel is not what you think it's like.” Reddit NoSleep. Reddit, 04 February 2019, Web. Accessed 30 November 2020.  https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/an0s3x/time_travel_is_not_what_you_think_its_like/

Online Resources

Dodgson, Lindsay. “Reddit's r/NoSleep is a special 'horror bubble' for internet writers that has born book deals and even a Steven Spielberg adaptation.” Insider. Insider Intelligence. 25 June 2020. Web. 05 December 2020. https://www.insider.com/history-of-reddit-creepypasta-horror-sub-nosleep-2020-6

Romano, Aja. “The definitive guide to creepypasta—the Internet’s urban legends.” Culture. Daily Dot. 03 March 2020. Web. 02 December 2020. https://www.dailydot.com/culture/definitive-guide-creepypasta-slender-man/

Strik3r2k8. “Steven King's ‘The Jaunt’, what do you think the ‘limbo’ between the Jaunt portals is?” Reddit, 14 November 2014, Web. Accessed 01 November 2020.   https://www.reddit.com/r/FanTheories/comments/2mcqrn/steven_kings_the_jaunt_what_do_you_think_the/

Wikipedia contributors. "Creepypasta." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 07 November 2020. Web. 30 November 2020. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creepypasta

Wikipedia contributors. "The NoSleep Podcast." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 15 November 2020. Web. 11 August 2020. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_NoSleep_Podcast

Exploring WEIRD TALES – “When the Graves Were Opened” by Arthur J. Burks

This fantastical tale of time travel was a bit of a challenge for me to read and blog about. While I very much enjoy and appreciate tales with a strong spiritual message, I believe that this one could be interpreted as a touch heavy handed by some readers. In addition, not only does it present a unique interpretation of time travel, it also presents an interesting protagonist who is a “doubter” — a doubter both in time travel and in the comfort of faith. 

Here we go.

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“When the Graves Were Opened” by Arthur J. Burks first appeared in the December 1925 issue of Weird Tales magazine and again in 1935, as a reprint. 

The story also was included in a collection of Burks’ tales entitled Black Medicine published in 1966 by Arkham House. To the very best of my knowledge, it has appeared nowhere else. On a side note, I find it noteworthy that this tale is not included in most lists of Burks most well-regarded tales. Nor have I been able to uncover any meaningful write-ups discussing “When the Graves Were Opened.” Interesting omissions...

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Arthur Josephus Burks was not a typical writer of pulp tales, though he was an extremely prolific one. Born on 13 September 1898 in Washington State to a farm family, he married in 1918 and fathered four children. Following his service in the Marine Corps during World War I, Burks was stationed in the Dominican Republic where he was exposed to the practice of voodoo. This led to Burks writing supernatural tales that he would sell to Weird Tales in 1924. "Thus Spake the Prophetess," published in the November issue (under a pseudonym) was the first of many to follow.

His success in getting his stories published afforded him the freedom to pursue writing full-time. He resigned from the Marine Corps in 1927. By 1928, Burks had gained a following due to his tremendous writing output. Over the course of his career, he would publish over 800 short tales (or 1400 – sources differ) in a variety of genres.        

Burks writing slowed down in the late 30s, most likely due to the pressure of having written so much in such a short time. Whether this decision had any effect on his decision to return to active duty, I cannot say. Burks returned to active duty as the US was drawn into World War II. He eventually retired with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.

After the war, in 1948, Burks and his family moved to Paradise, Pennsylvania, where he would live until his death. In the 1960s, Burks shifted the focus of his writing to paranormal and metaphysical matters. Indeed, his involvement in this field grew such that he was giving lectures on the subjects.

On the 13^th of May 1974, at the age of 75, Arthur Josephus Burks passed away.

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 “Jess,” he said, in a voice so low I could scarcely hear it, “my dearest friend, Jess! For years I have listened to your blasphemies—for years I have looked at you in wonder while you propounded your terrible and searching propositions—and always I have watched you spellbound, expecting that the wrath of the Lord would descend upon your head from the heavens, and wipe you off the face of the earth! Why it has not done so, He only knows! Jess, this machine, upon which I have gone a hundred times farther than did Edison on his ‘spirit’ machine, will do just as I have claimed for it. If you wish to go back to Golgotha you will do just that—when I press this little button. Think, Jess! If you believed that it would work would you still wish to go back?”

Page 743

 

Before I get into the story itself, I would like  to say a few words about the two principal characters in “When the Graves Were Opened.”

Harvey Hesford is a scientist who invents a time machine. He is also a man of deep Christian faith with a firm belief that science is a means to know the Divine. Harvey Hesford is also dearest friends with Jess Gibbons.

Jess Gibbons, the narrator of the tale, in his own words, is “…an atheist, a blasphemer, an iconoclast…” He is a doubter, both in faith and in the possibility of time travel.

This short story is made of four parts:

•a brief prefatory statement of foreboding,

•an opening section that lays out the instigating circumstances,

•a large middle section where all the action occurs, and finally,

•a small epilogue

As the story proper opens, the narrator, Jess, arrives at the home of his close friend, Harvey.

Synopsis:

Jess arrived at his friend’s house, in response to Harvey’s invitation to see his latest invention. Jess laughed when Harvey explained that he had invented a time machine. Jess insisted that he be the first to try out the machine. And, since Jess was such an avowed and confrontational atheist, he boasted that he wanted to witness the actual crucifixion. In particular, Jess desired to know the fate of those who rose up when, “the graves gave up their dead.”

Before Harvey activated the machine, Jess asked for paper and pencil so that he could make a record of his experience if possible. Then Harvey pressed the button.

Harvey’s time machine kind of worked, indirectly. It had the effect of freeing Jess’ consciousness, leaving his body behind in the lab. Jess’ intent, his will, his desire, sent his “spirit” back to the time and place he wanted—Jerusalem, just prior to the crucifixion of Jesus. In addition, as a disembodied consciousness, Jess could only witness, and therefore not interfere in the events (thereby neatly sidestepping the Grandfather Paradox).

After observing Pontius Pilate wash his hands of Jesus’ fate, Jess then followed the procession to Golgotha and witnessed the scourging and crucifixion of Jesus. For the several long hours of Jesus’ death, what Jess sees agrees with events as recorded in the New Testament; including the final words of Jesus.

Returning to Jerusalem, through one of the city’s cemeteries, Jess comes across shattered graves, open and empty. However, there is no smell of death or corruption. While still on the path to the city, Jess found himself in a throng of people—the people who were the former occupants of the graves. The dead had risen, appearing whole and healthy, if not bewildered, as to what had happened.

Spurred on by his desire to know the fate of these risen people, Jess went with them. Local people ran in fright recognizing the formerly dead. Even a Roman centurion, confronting the crowd, trembled in fear of them. The centurion sent a messenger to inform Pilate. Curious himself, Jess followed the messenger.

Pilate was only concerned with his position as governor. The messenger told Pilate that the dead only want to return to their homes. Pilate wanted to know why the dead had returned at all. An officer put forward that following the death of “he who called himself the ‘King of the Jews’” (page 750), an earthquake cracked open the graves at Golgotha.

It was decided that those newly alive be confined at a nearby leper colony, and thus hidden from public view. Pilate ordered the messenger to return and inform the recently risen of his will. Again, Jess went with the messenger. Upon hearing of Pilate’s decision, the formally-dead returned to the cemetery from which  they rose. Once there, they all knelt to beseech God to take back his gift of life and return them to death. Their wish was granted and Jess was alone in the cemetery.

Curious, Jess willed himself forward in time to the moment of Pilate’s death to observe how Pilate would face the afterlife. Jess saw Pontius Pilate bound to Earth till the end of time. Washing his hands, vainly attempting to clean a stain which could never be cleansed. Jess had seen enough—but try as he might, he could not return to the present time!

Meanwhile, back at Harvey’s house, in trying to bring Jess’ consciousness back to his body, Harvey had accidentally broken the time machine. The police blamed Harvey for Jess’ death. Because of his machine, Harvey condemned his best friend to a near eternity standing next to Pilate as he washed his hands.

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Despite being a novelette, “When the Graves Were Opened” is a complex tale and not at all easy to summarize. In addition, to have such a fundamental episode of Christianity serving as the background to this tale of time travel could well have turned some readers away. It almost did me. To fully appreciate the power of this tale (for those who wisely choose to read it)—it is necessary to mention the Biblical basis of this story. From the King James Bible, Matthew 27:50-54:

50 Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.

51 And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;

52 And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose,

53 And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.

54 Now when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God.

Early in the story, Jess mockingly states that he wants to use the time machine to “. . . stand on Golgotha during the Crucifixion.” And Jess goes on to add that he wants to solve the mystery of what happened after the graves gave up their dead.

All this seems rather profound for Weird Tales magazine. Addressing a core tenet of one of the world’s major religions as a major plot point in a sci-fi story is an easy way to offend a lot of readers. That is not to say that Weird Tales had not broached daring topics for its day, but, to my mind, not one quite so . . . sensitive.

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The approach to time travel presented here is one I have not encountered before. It bears a strong resemblance to the idea of astral projection, which, together with Spiritualism, had gained in popularity following the end of World War I in 1918. However, here, the astral projection is achieved via technology rather than occult knowledge.

And, the purpose of this post is not to dissect aspects of Christian dogma, but to treat this tale as an exemplar of early time travel fiction. With that in mind, the means of time travel are actually explored more in “When the Graves Were Opened” than other time travel stories discussed on this blog to date.

There are two perspectives to consider in “When the Graves Were Opened;” that of Harvey, the inventor and Jess, the time traveler.

For Harvey, it is ironic, but it seems that he did not fully understand how his time machine actually worked... He thought that by attaching oneself to his machine, the constraints of time and place were removed. And, by making a wish, the traveler would be sent to when and where he desired.

Jess, the traveler, focuses on his experiences rather than the machine’s workings. After Harvey activated the machine, Jess felt an intense shock surge through his body. Ultimately, he came to realize that he had become a disembodied consciousness.

But I tell you now that I was the me of my corporeal body; that I was a soul that had been released! Perhaps Hesford himself can not explain to you just why this is so; but I, being a free spirit now, can do so. This, then, was what his machine did to me: It merely separated my soul from my body . . . It has no power to project a spirit into the past as Hesford claimed for it—of itself! But I, now, can project myself into the past as you understand the past! For over here there is no such thing as past, present, or future!

Jess realized what Harvey’s time machine actually did. It “separated my soul from my body” (page 744). According to Jess’ understanding, by separating the soul from the body, there was no past, nor present, nor future for his unattached consciousness—only an exertion of will mattered. Since Jess had jokingly expressed a desire to witness the Crucifixion, Harvey’s machine provided the means to manifest this desire.

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To my knowledge, it is rare for one to be a Marine Corps veteran of both World Wars and be a successful writer of pulp fiction. Yet here is Arthur J. Burks and his “When the Graves Were Opened.”  I valued reading his unique interpretation of time travel—as a form of astral projection. More, I appreciated the daring it took for the author to tackle this theme. This story takes the time travel tale to an oft-thought-about-but-rarely-implemented place.

 

Good Evening.

  

 

References

 

Print Resources

 

Digital Resources

Burks, Arthur J. “When the Graves Were Opened.” Weird Tales. Popular Fiction Publishing Co. December 1925. Volume 6 Number 6. [PDF file]. https://archive.org/details/WeirdTalesV06N06192512/mode/2up

Online Resources

~. “Arthur J Burks.” Newspapers.com. Ancestry. 14 May 1974. Web. 06 October 2020. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/55042167/arthur-josephus-burks

Contento, William G. & Phil Stephensen-Payne, Editors. “Burks, Arthur J.” The FictionMags Index. Galactic Central Publications. Web. 18 October 2020. http://www.philsp.com/homeville/FMI/d/d925.htm#A26894

Gallagher, Cullen. “Arthur J. Burks on Words and Writing.” Pulp Serenade. Blogger.com. 02 January 2010. Web. 17 October 2020. http://www.pulp-serenade.com/2010/01/arthur-j-burks-on-words-and-writing.html

Maynard, William Patrick. “120 Years of Arthur J. Burks.” Pulpfest. Pulfest. 10  September 2018. Web. 06 October 2020. https://www.pulpfest.com/2018/09/120-years-of-arthur-j-burks/

Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 13 October 2020), memorial page for Arthur Josephus Burks (1898–1975), Find a Grave Memorial no. 55042167, citing Paradise Mennonite Cemetery, Paradise, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, USA.

Von Ruff, Al. “Summary Bibliography: Arthur J. Burks.” The Internet Speculative Fiction Database. ISFDB. Web. 15 October 2020. http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?1155

Von Ruff, Al. “Title: When the Graves were Opened.” The Internet Speculative Fiction Database. ISFDB. Web. 30 September 2020. http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?85731

Wikipedia contributors. "Arthur J. Burks." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 09 May 2020. Web. 30 September 2020. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_J._Burks

 

 

 

 

Exploring WONDER STORIES – “The Branches of Time” by David R. Daniels

  

With “The Branches of Time,” I want to take a slightly different approach from my usual review and summation of a tale. Ironically, it was an editor’s note that gave me the inspiration. 

This post explores David R. Daniels’ “The Branches of Time”—a thoughtful, deep-dive of a time-travel tale from a little known author. The editors of Wonder Stories included a statement alongside the story to express their opinions.

To say that this short story contains some revolutionary time-travel theories would be putting it exceedingly mild.

When the author, new to our magazine, submitted this story to us, his accompanying letter stated that in it he had settled the time-travel question once and for all. We must admit that a broad, unbelieving grin spread over our countenances when the author dared make this assertion.

 

BUT—the smile soon left our faces after we had perused well into the yarn—for, to our chagrin, Mr. Daniels had really propounded so many brand new ideas about time and time-travel, and such logical ones—that he has not left one loophole in his argument!

 

You are perhaps smiling at this, as we did at first, but all we ask of you is to read the story, which task you will not find hard, for it is filled with as many thought-provoking theories as any science-fiction novel you have ever read and you will sit for long after finishing it, pondering upon the fantastic possibilities of this new kind of time-travel…

Page 295

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“The Branches of Time,” written by David R. Daniels,  initially appeared in the August 1935 (volume 7 Number 3) issue of Wonder Stories.

Both the editors and I initially viewed the story through the lens of mere time-travel fiction. Only later came the realization of just how extremely unlikely it was that a 20-year old would be well-versed enough (with Ph. D.-level physics) to condense contemporary time-travel theories into a short story for a pulp-sci-fi magazine’s audience. Particularly, since the physics describing what is happening in the story would only be made public 22 years AFTER “The Branches of Time” had been published.

David R. Daniels was born in 1915 (though there is some question to this) and died on 17 April 1936. He is credited with publishing six short stories/novelettes; five appeared in Astounding Stories and one (“The Branches of Time”) in Wonder Stories. Each of his tales, with the exception of his final, appeared in 1935.

Daniels died, under questionable circumstances, from a self-inflicted gunshot wound; either via accident or suicide.

Daniels was 21 years old.

§

There is almost no biographical information readily available on Daniels. I could not ascertain, where he was born or even where he died, with any certainty. There is, however, one source that purports to reveal the grave marker of a David R. Daniels who is buried in Ignacio Cemetery East in Colorado

If this record is to be believed, this David R. Daniels was born in 1914, not 1915 (no month or day) in La Plata County, Colorado. He died in 1936 (again, no month or day) in Ignacio, La Plata County, Colorado.

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Amazing Stories, by Hugo Gernsback, was among the first science fiction pulp magazines and began publication in 1926. After he lost Amazing Stories to bankruptcy, he founded Wonder Stories in 1929. Wonder Stories was an early science fiction magazine that appeared under several titles from 1929 through 1955. In 1936, Gernsback sold Wonder Stories to Beacon Publishing under the new title, Thrilling Wonder Stories. This title continued publication until the end of 1955, when it ceased due to the decline in the pulp magazine market.

The Pulp Magazine Archive at archive.org is a truly comprehensive source for pulps. In addition to countless other pulp magazines, it contains a good portion of the Wonder Stories print run in PDF format.

§

Synopsis:

James Bell and the narrator are two friends from school who haven’t seen each other in years. Bell has something important to share with his friend that has a lot to do with their mutual love of science fiction stories.

Bell excitedly tells his friend that he has invented a time machine that actually works! While the narrator is amused and makes jokes, Bell is serious. While never explaining the actual workings of his time machine, Bell states that at first he could not time jump faster than one year per hour of his time because of power limitations. He had to slowly time travel to 1987 in order to acquire an “atomic engine.” By this means, he was able to jump up to a hundred thousand years per second of his time at its “top speed.”  Bell describes the look of his time machines in their several iterations; and how he settled on a flying machine from the 21^st century due to ease of use and comfort.

Bell goes on to tell his friend of an apocalyptic war in 2083 between the US and Japan. Tragically, in the end, all of humanity is extinguished—every last human. Bell hoped mankind would rise again. But aside from a weak insect culture, there was no dominant race.

Millions upon millions of years later, Bell watched the moon fall into the Earth.

So far, “The Branches of Time” is  a pretty straight-forward time-travel-type tale. But, now it takes a significant turn. As Bell tells his friend: “Now,” he began, “comes the really hard part.” (page 299)

I think so, too.

§

From this point on, I want to cease my detailed summation of the tale and instead,  focus on a concept first put forth by Bell to his friend at this point in the narrative.

As Bell himself states, this concept centers on the fact that:

. . . the world has innumerable dimensions in the Cosmos, and that each one of those dimensions seems very different to us who see only three dimensional cross-cuts of them at a time. We and our world are like things seen by some one dimensional being. What, for instance, could such a creature make of an automobile, being able to see no more than a line along its surface. That’s how we look at infinity.

I live, and yet I’ve seen the world which is this planet peopled by nothing besides races of reptiles, a world into which I couldn’t possibly be born. And probably somewhere—in the Cosmos—there is a me, a James Bell who never invented a time-machine, but lived a normal twentieth-century life as the other men around him did. However, I know nothing of that, since at present—in absolute time— the ego-which-I-am inhabits the body of the Bell who did travel into time.

But that there are other Bell-egos, I know. For instance, there was the me I took the revolver from. Both men were Bell, yet in my consciousness there is no memory of that incident when the gun was taken away from me. And as to what that Bell did after that, I have no idea.

Very probably there is a you, John, who has traveled in time with me, whether you ever do in this consciousness of yourself or not. And as far as that goes, there may have been a planet Earth which fell into the sun ere it cooled, or was stolen by a passing star.

Well, this absolute theory of time-traveling, which must be the right one, takes away certain of the paradoxes which have baffled imaginative people.

 (Page 302-303).

I would like to draw the reader’s attention to the third paragraph from the above quote that begins “But that there are other . . .” In particular, I want to highlight the sentences: “Both men were Bell, yet in my consciousness there is no memory of that . . . And as to what that Bell did after that, I have no idea.”

Bell is pointing out that the two versions of himself were distinct beings – united up to a point and then split apart to live distinct and unique existences!

Two individuals, who up to some previous point in time, had been one and the same being.

Holy Smokes! This is Many-Worlds! More than 20 years before Everett put forward his Many-Worlds Theory!

§

As “The Branches of Time” wound down to its conclusion, Bell stated to his friend that he intended to travel into the far future where he hoped to encounter beings that could satisfy his questions concerning the nature of reality and time. As it turned out, if Bell had only time traveled to 1957, his questions might well have been answered.

Of course, I am being flippant here. But this does provide a neat segue into what did occur in 1957.

A widespread and common definition (or explanation) of The Many-Worlds Interpretation is:

. . . an interpretation of quantum mechanics that asserts the objective reality of the universal wavefunction and denies the actuality of wavefunction collapse. Many-worlds implies that all possible alternate histories and futures are real, each representing an actual "world" (or "universe"). In layman's terms, the hypothesis states there is a very large—perhaps infinite—number of universes, and everything that could possibly have happened in our past, but did not, has occurred in the past of some other universe or universes.

The Many-Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics was first laid out by Hugh Everett in his Princeton University 1957 doctoral dissertation, “The Theory of the Universal Wavefunction.” The history of the development and understanding of quantum mechanics is complex and interesting. Even how it intersects with Everett and his incredible theory is a layered and multifaceted subject. While this aspect is beyond the scope of this blog post, I strongly encourage interested readers to pursue it. It will richly reward your efforts.

§

I believe there are several relevant points concerning Everett that  deserve closer scrutiny. As a side note, all the information in this section is taken from a biographical sketch found on the web page of the MIT Kavli Institute (MKI) for Astrophysics and Space Research, located in Cambridge, MA.

Hugh Everett was born in 1930. He wrote, in 1955 and presented in 1957, his dissertation introducing the Many-Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics. Yet, it would not be until 1976, when general readers and especially readers of science fiction were introduced to Everett’s theory, initially, via the December 1976 issue of the sci-fi magazine, Analog.

It is not known whether Everett ever read Daniels’ tale. But, it is known that his mother was a writer of stories and poetry. Further, while attending university in the early fifties, Everett became friends with Karen Kruse, a student of Philology. Later in life, she would become a famous writer herself and marry Poul Anderson, physicist, noted sci-fi author, and a “great fan” of Everett’s Many-Worlds.

All this is fascinating from a history-of-science perspective. But, it still does not address Daniels and his relation to the origin of the Many-Worlds Interpretation.  Therefore, I propose that the ideas or concepts underlying the Many-Worlds Interpretation were percolating in the popular zeitgeist, especially in the realm of pulp science fiction. Thus, almost making the appearance of the Many-Worlds Interpretation as a formal scientific theory seemingly inevitable.

But when did it all start? In the aforementioned biographical sketch, it is reported that the earliest known example of a story referencing ideas or concepts that would become Many-Worlds was 1938. It states: “As usual, it seems that writers invented it all before the scientists. Fans have found in a 1938 story by half- forgotten . . .” Moreover, the statement continues by claiming that these early stories, and the ideas espoused: “. . . were more anti-Everettian than either pre- or pro-Everettian . . .”

Please recall Daniels’ “The Branches of Time” was published in 1935. His notions of what-would-be Many-Worlds far predate any other such tale in pulp sci-fi, to the best of my knowledge. And not only that, he does it by presenting a uniquely positive take on Everett’s ideas.

§

Once again, very briefly (extremely basically) and in my own words, The Many-Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics implies the entire universe is fundamentally connected on a quantum level. Extrapolating from that, when confronting a choice—left or right, let’s say—only one choice can be taken. However, Many-Worlds Theory postulates that while one may determine to go left (continuing the example above), in an alternate universe/reality, one may determine instead to go right. From that point of determination, a new and wholly separate universe is split off.

The  illustration above is an excellent visual representation of what I am talking about. From a place of decision, a split occurs, with a new reality encompassing each possibility and with each reality distinct from each other.

In essence, this is The Many-Worlds Theory. And, this is exactly what Daniels has his protagonist, Bell, express: “Both men were Bell, yet in my consciousness there is no memory of that . . . And as to what that Bell did after that, I have no idea.”

§

In many ways, “The Branches of Time” is a very enjoyable time-travel tale. But, there is a lot more going on here as the editors pointed out. Those editors realized they had something special.

In addition, I believe this tale laid the groundwork for many subsequent time-travel tales, especially those that draw heavily from our current understanding of quantum mechanics and do not rely upon some mysterious technology to explain the means of time travel. In particular, I am thinking of Blake Crouch’s Dark Matter: A Novel from 2016. And, of course, Stephen King’s 11/22/63: A Novel from 2011. . .

 

Good Evening.

 

 

 

 

References

 

Print Resources

 

Digital Resources

Daniels, David R. “The Branches of Time.” Wonder Stories. Continental Publications. August 1935. Volume 7 Number 3. [PDF file]. https://archive.org/details/Wonder_Stories_v07n03_1935-08/mode/2up

 

Online Resources

Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 13 August 2020), memorial page for David R Daniels (1914–1936), Find a Grave Memorial no. 67888599, citing Ignacio Cemetery East, Ignacio, La Plata County, Colorado, USA ; Maintained by Frank Klein (contributor 47200843) .

Shikhovtsev, Eugene. “Biographical Sketch of Hugh Everett, III.”  MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research. 2003. Web. 09 August 2020. https://space.mit.edu/home/tegmark/everett/

Shoemaker, Dave. “The Many Worlds Theory is Wildly Fascinating.” Shoe: United. WordPress.com. 08 August 2017. Web. 10 August 2020. https://shoeuntied.wordpress.com/2017/08/08/the-many-worlds-theory-is-wildly-fascinating/

 Von Ruff, Al. “Summary Bibliography: David R. Daniels.” The Internet Speculative Fiction Database. ISFDB. Web. 5 August 2020. http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?1771

Von Ruff, Al. “Title: TheBranches of TIme.” The Internet Speculative Fiction Database. ISFDB. Web. 5 August 2020. http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?87537

Wikipedia contributors. "Many-Worlds interpretation." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 12 July 2020. Web. 30 July 2020. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Many-worlds_interpretation

Wikipedia contributors. "Wonder Stories." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 09 July 2020. Web. 11 August 2020. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wonder_Stories