Exploring the Pulps: “The Day Time Stopped Moving” (1940) by Bradner Buckner

 

This particular story is not a time travel tale per se, but rather a-stepping-outside-of-time-to-exist-between-the-seconds kind of story. This time travel tale really felt like an episode of The Outer Limits (The 1990s remake - I absolutely loved that series). “The Day Time Stopped Moving” just had that The Outer Limits “feel” if you know what I mean.

This story also addresses the deeply profound and intimately personal question: What do we do when we come to the realization that the source of our sorrow and pain is ourselves?

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“The Day Time Stopped Moving” by Bradner Buckner was published in the October 1940 issue of Amazing Stories. This story has subsequently been reprinted several times since. 

Bradner Buckner was the occasional pen-name of Ed Earl Repp. He was born on 22, May 1901 in Pittsburgh, PA and passed away on 14, February 1979 in Butte City, CA. Repp was 77 years old.

From the October 1938 issue of Amazing Stories

Repp was a very prolific writer. His first published sci-fi pulp story appeared in 1929. Following World War II, his sci-fi writing waned; he refocused his writing to westerns. Repp was also a screenwriter, specifically westerns, and many successful films were produced from his work. It has even been claimed that Repp conducted the final interview with Wyatt Earp before Earp’s death in 1929. However, I have not been able to verify this. 

Amazing Stories is an American pulp magazine dedicated to science fiction stories; its first issue appeared in 1926. Amazing Stories was the first magazine devoted exclusively to publishing sci-fi tales.

More impressively, despite going through changes including some breaks in print, Amazing Stories is still in publication! The magazine ceased publication after 2005 and returned in 2012 as an online magazine. In late 2018, Amazing Stories became available in print again. 

The Summer 2021 issue (volume 77, number 3) was the most recently published. 

As of the time of this blog post’s publication, I have not been able to confirm whether Amazing Stories is still in publication.

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For some tales, it is necessary that I summarize the story in some detail so that relevant points and themes can be highlighted ( as well as to espouse my own crazy theories.).

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Dave Miller was drunk – again. This time, standing against the kitchen sink with a gun to his head. He had found a letter from his wife calling him a coward and  telling him that she was leaving him. With his business failing, Dave had fallen to drink and gambling. He knew it was his fault she left.

His finger tightened on the trigger. The hammer of the gun fell. 

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And he opened his eyes. 

Dave was standing at the register of his drugstore thinking “what is going on?” How did he get here? Was his suicide only a dream? Pretty quickly, he realized that something was really, really off in his store. People appeared frozen in place, in mid-step or mid-action. Cigarette smoke hung stationary in the air. Dave reached out and touched a lady customer on the cheek. Her cheek was warm but hard as rock. Dave tried shoving her with all his strength to absolutely no effect. The lady did not move or react at all.

Now Dave started to panic! Running out of the drugstore, Dave realized that everything was  not moving. People and cars were frozen in mid-action. A bird appeared to hang in the air. Even flames from an open fire were still. Ending up at his own house, he could not get in. His unlocked door would not open. Not that it was difficult, but rather that it was like a great, immovable door of a bank vault.

*

“Seated on the porch steps, head in hands, he slipped into a hell of regrets.  He knew now that his suicide had been no hallucination. He was dead, all right; and this must be hell or purgatory.

Bitterly he cursed his drinking, that had led him to such a mad thing as suicide. Suicide! … If he just had the last year to live over again, he thought fervently.

And yet, through it all, some inner strain kept trying to tell him he was not dead.” (page 74) 

He had no idea what was going on. Everything was immovable – from rocks to doors to plants to steam in the air – and as solid as a brick wall. In despair, he cried out for his wife. And, something actually answered! Charging out from between parked cars, Dave was tackled by a police dog whose tag read “Major.” Seeing another living thing, both man and dog were excited and happy.

The joy and relief in finding another animate living creature suppressed in his mind the distant sound of sobbing that he had been hearing. The fact that the dog gave no reaction to the sounds either, led this tidbit to slip right out of Dave’s mind.

Dave decided to head for the town library. Where better to go if one needed some information in 1940’s America. And there, along with Major, he was surprised by an animate elderly, old man, who informed Dave that he himself was the one responsible for all the weird goings-on. The old man introduced himself as John Erickson, head scientist at the Wanamaker Institute, specializing in atomic science.

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In struggling to understand what was going on, Erickson supposed that the dog had been on the point of death (maybe hit by a car) just as the time effect took over. Then, ashamedly, Dave admitted that he had been drunk and had shot himself in the head. He asked Erickson to try to explain what had happened to them. So Erickson told Dave that, as best as he understood,  he switched on his Time Impulsor to full power in the very instant that Dave shot himself and the dog, Major, met his end. Also, Erickson assumed that something bad had happened to himself as well, to put him at the moment of death as the machine powered up.

The three of them (Dave, Erickson and Major) walk the hour-long trip back to the Wanamaker Institute to look at the Impulsor. In Erickson’s lab, they figure out what went wrong and how to fix the machine. They just have to jury-rig another power connection. They understood that as they are trapped in an instant of time, they are free from hunger and disease; but madness lies in their future. 

Following several near failures, Dave and Erickson are able to complete the power connection and get the Impulsor working again. The machines hummed and glowed. “There was a snap in his brain, and Erickson, Major and the laboratory faded from his senses.” (page 80)

Surrounded by blackness, the only sound Dave could hear was sobbing. The same sobbing he had been hearing since he had shot himself. 

*

Dave opened his eyes. 

His wife, Helen, was holding and crying over him. She had come home and heard the gunshot – 6 or 7 minutes ago! It turned out the gun misfired and knocked him out rather than killing him. It had all been a dream. He couldn’t believe it! Dave promised Helen that he would be better from this point on. 

(epilogue)

That evening, Dave read an article in the newspaper concerning Erickson’s death in his lab. The facts of which would trouble Dave for many days. Mysteriously, near his corpse was the body of a German Shepard dog that looked to have been struck by something. Also, there was found a jury-rigged power connection between the machines. 

The Police could not explain it. 

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In Search of Atonement: 

The Meaning Behind Modern Time Travel Tales.

The sins of our past haunt us. 

Time travel tales allow the reader, even if only through fiction, to undo a mistake that haunts everyday of one’s life. This post continues the new occasional series exploring select time travel tales.  This section will expand as more blog posts are added to this series. Each time travel story or film will be as a rung on a ladder leading to a richer understanding of the search for atonement and redemption.

Writing these blog posts covering this subject matter is far more challenging than anticipated. Not because it is so difficult, the theme of this blog series is interesting and intellectually stimulating. Rather, the idea of these stories, conveying the very human desire for atonement, penance and forgiveness, bring out such powerful emotions within this Old Sinner. So much so, that clarity becomes a challenge. Hence, the slow production of blog posts. 

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Interesting Asides

•In like vein as “The Jaunt” and “Time travel is not what you think it’s like” (both covered in previous blog posts dated 07/14/2020 & 12/15/2020), “The Day Time Stopped Moving” touches upon what happens when one is stuck in-between one second and the next. In another interesting side note, the previous blog post covering “The Mosiac” was published in the July 1940 issue of Astounding Science Fiction; while “The Day Time Stopped Moving” was published in the October 1940 issue of Amazing Stories. I have also noticed time-travel-related stories in other pulps from 1940. I don’t know if there is any significance to that, but I do find it curious.  

•“The Day Time Stopped Moving” is the earliest time travel story I have found so far that even comes close to addressing the theme of atonement or remorse and the search for forgiveness as a significant plot element. The “action” in the story is brought down to the individual level. The historical timeline of the entire world is not at stake (see this blog's previous post on “The Mosaic”), only the existence of a single man. 

This tale has four characters (in order of appearance in the story):

*Dave Miller – a drunk and a failure – The Penitent Man

*Major – Police Dog (a German Shepard) – innocent blood

*John Erikson – scientist from Wanamaker Institute – cause of time problems

*Helen Miller – wife, object of atonement.

This interpretation of the characters is entirely mine and does not necessarily reflect the author’s intent.

To add a further layer of interpretation to the characters and their relation to the story, Dave the Penitent Man is forgiven by Helen, the object of atonement. But, not all the characters are forgiven. Or, indeed even spared. The scientist and source of the time disruption, John Erickson dies by his own experiment. And even Major the Police dog is violently killed and represents the only blood shed in this story. Furthermore, seeing as it was the dog that provided the final piece to fix the machine and free them, it was as if Major paid for that saving piece with his life . . . a sacrifice of innocent blood. 

•There is also the question of ambivalent reality. In other words, did the events in the story actually happen or was it all the trick of a disturbed mind? This concept manifests three times throughout the story. The first two support the idea that this tale is a figment of Dave’s imagination, resulting from the gun misfire. But then comes the third manifestation and everything is thrown into question. 

The first instance is indirect. The tale opens with Dave very drunk. So drunk in fact to attempt suicide! However, over the course of the several hours of the story, he has time to sober up. Yet at the conclusion of the story, Helen informs Dave that only a few minutes had passed since his suicide attempt. Thus, he should still be outrageously drunk. But Dave exhibits no signs of drunkenness. I can only assume the knock to the head and the realization of what he nearly achieved had a sobering effect. 

The second instance is a very subtle blink-and-you-missed-it sort of thing. Since being trapped in time, at the edge of his senses, Dave noticed, every so often, the sound of distant sobbing. Interestingly enough, the police dog, Major, never reacted to the sound and this fact convinced Dave that the sound was just a figment of his imagination. The sobbing is mentioned several times in the text. Finally, as Dave is returned to normal time, at first the only sound he hears is sobbing. It is heavily implied that it was Dave’s wife, Helen, who is the one sobbing as she held his unconscious body. But the text never states the connection outright.

Lastly, this final instance stands opposed to the previous two. The “sort-of-epilogue” to the story is an article from that evening’s newspaper. It reported on the strange circumstances surrounding the death of renowned scientist Jon Erickson in his lab at the Wanamaker Institute: the dead body of a German Shepard dog with a terrible injury was found in the lab and a make-shift power connection was found laid out in the lab. The police could find no reason behind either circumstance. So, if the events in the story were truly the fabrication of Dave’s injured head and he was only unconscious for a few minutes, how then did he accurately recollect the situation in the lab.

And this is why this story has The Outer Limits feel.

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Regret and remorse are their own kind of penance.

The time travel fantasy in these stories gives us false hope: to right some wrong and gain forgiveness from another or from one’s self, to correct some deed done long ago or even to spend more time with a dear loved one long since gone. The pull of such fantasy is deep and profound. And, it is only in fantasy that, sometimes, there can be second chances…and forgiveness.

Good Evening.

Delving into TIMEQUEST (2000): Another Supplement to 11/22/63: A NOVEL.

 

A time traveler goes back in time to stop the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on 11/22/63.

 

Successful, a new world is born.

 

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I have blogged many times about time travel. Works I have discussed concerning the JFK assassination include 11/22/63: A Novel and A Time to Remember. I even established an occasional series of posts on Old Sins exploring this topic in broad terms. I highly recommend this series.

 

This post will delve into time travel and its impact on the JFK assassination and will be the first (but not last) movie that I examine.

 

So . . . Here we go.

 

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Timequest was a film released in the year 2000,  followed by a 2002 DVD release. The film was directed and written by Robert Dyke with an approximate runtime of 95 minutes. It carries a subtitle of What if JFK had lived? – a truthful description of the entire movie.

This film is a simple and fun ride; toying with a historical what-if. But it also provides an opportunity for a two-for-one. Timequest is a time travel fantasy that focuses almost exclusively on the repercussions of a time traveler imparting a bit of information, thereby colossally altering the past. In addition, this film goes to the heart of the 11/22/63 event and reveals what changing the historicity of the event means to the future.

 

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Story Summary

Timequest is a very in depth story involving multiple time jumps back and forth from 1963. Consequently, it is necessary to summarize the story in some detail so that relevant points and themes can be highlighted. This movie is full of fanciful versions of historical moments and tons of historic name-dropping. Timequest is told in a non-linear fashion making this summary far more detailed and far more necessary than usual.

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• black screen, voice over – “Did today really happen?”

• a baby’s hand touches a static-ey TV

• scene – October 18, 1979 – a prisoner transport bus in the middle of a deserted area gets pulled over and two scary men board.

-the men pull Raymond, a prisoner, off the bus.
-a helicopter lands and Raymond boards.
 
 • scene – November 22, 1963 – JFK is discussing security concerns about an upcoming speech to an aide.
-in her room, Jackie is getting dressed in a pink suit. A light appears behind her. . .
-JFK enters the room and Jackie runs to him crying that she just saw him die. She looks behind her and JFK sees an old man wearing what looks like a heavily modified spacesuit.
-JFK steps out to charm some local dignitaries and returns to the shocking matter at hand.
 
• scene – 3N (National News Network) report
-Breaking News! JFK died at his estate in Massachusetts of natural causes at the age of 83! James, JFK’s youngest son, gives remarks. “His death was peaceful with loved ones at his side.”
-JFK wanted no public funeral, but that his remains be placed at the Lunar Colony named after him.
-video shown of a coffin being buried on the Moon.
 
• scene – Raymond shows his girlfriend a painting he has done of a woman – Jackie!
 
• scene – in sound stage that looks like the Oval Office
-William Roberts (sort of an Oliver Stone kind of guy) is making a scandalous movie about the Kennedys.
 
• scene – November 22, 1963 – continued
-at a military airport, RFK boards a fighter jet to rapidly take him to TX.
-at Daly Plaza, gunmen are behind the Grassy Knoll & Zapruder is getting ready to film.
-RFK gets to JFK in the hotel room and finds out about the Traveler.
 
-Flashback to earlier scene – a light appears behind Jackie . . .
-Traveler arrives and shows Jackie the original timeline with the successful assassination.
 

• scene – RFK interrogates the Traveler and refuses to believe the story. Traveler shows RFK his own assassination in Los Angeles, and then shows him the JFK assassination.
 
• scene – Raymond is with his girlfriend when James Kennedy calls him on the telephone.
 
• scene – November 22, 1963 – continuing with the Traveler and JFK.
-RFK still doubts the Traveler.
-Traveler explains that he is the inventor of time travel. He appeared now because the closer it is to the event, the easier it is to stop the event
-The Traveler erects a privacy field to speak with JFK and RFK.
 
• scene – Oval Office soundstage.

-actor portraying 37^th President RFK
-turns out it was a scene from new movie “RFK” by William Roberts (sort of an Oliver Stone kind of person)
-Roberts says in a TV interview that his new project concerns Nov. 22, 1963, when something strange and hidden occurred.
-he relayed evidence from various sources (including Zapruder) of strange goings-on along JFK’s original motorcade route from that day.
-Roberts also told of how Zapruder was walking along the Grassy Knoll and heard multiple gunshots. He started to film and had his camera seized. That film was sealed away for decades.
 
• scene – November 22, 1963 – continued
-Traveler erected a privacy field around JFK and RFK
-he talks about the character assassination of JFK after his death that would soil his legacy
-The Traveler is giving JFK a second chance.
 
• scene – back to William Roberts interview
-they watch the Zapruder film on air.
-they discuss the secret history of the US.
 
• scene – November 22, 1963 – continued
-the Traveler explains that he has no future. A new timeline will be created and his timeline will disappear. He is still present because the change has not solidified yet. At 12:30pm – when the assassination should have happened – when that time passes and JFK lives, everything will change.
-another version of him will live on.
-he dreamed of Jackie as a boy and shows her a drawing of her he made as a boy
-the Traveler and Jackie share a dance together.
 
• scene – October 9, 1979
-Jackie is feverishly painting a large canvas. RFK is watching.
 
• scene – November 22, 1963 – continued – back to couple dancing.

-as they dance, Jackie is weeping. They stop.
-RFK asks what is to stop another from making a time machine and undoing the changes.
-the Traveler says there is nothing stopping this. It is a sword of Damocles hanging over them.
-RFK reminds them that it is getting close to the time of the assassination.
 
 • scene – November 22, 1963 – Daly Plaza – 12:29pm
-sniper’s nest in School Book Depository
-Zapruder is preparing to film.
 
• scene – November 22, 1963 – continued
-Jackie asks to know the Traveler’s name. He said that it is better that they don’t know.
-RFK hands the Traveler a glass and proposes a toast to the world to come.
-Traveler takes the glass and thanks Jackie for the dance . . . and vanishes!

-the glass shatters.

• scene –
-on Air Force One, JFK and LBJ have a tense discussion.
-RFK mobiles his forces to strike.
-RFK and secret service take down two assassins behind the Grassy Knoll.
-Zapruder catches RFK on his film.
-at the same time in the School Book Depository, a secret service strike team captures Oswald.
-RFK interrogates Oswald. There is some conflict over jurisdiction.
-Ruby tries to kill Oswald but the secret service kills Ruby. Oswald lives!
 
• scene – on Air Force One
-JFK and Jackie remember what the Traveler showed her.
-Jackie wonders “Did today really happen?”

-JFK reminds her that she was the inspiration for the Traveler to do what he did.

 
• scene – news report on Warren Commission Report
-presented to Pres. Kennedy on the activities of the CIA
-JFK signed order to dissolve the CIA
 
• scene – December 3, 1963
-J. Edgar Hoover plays a recording of JFK and Marilyn Monroe to RFK.
-RFK shows images of Hoover in a dress and engaging in homosexual acts.
-RFK tells Hoover that JFK will confess and people will forgive him.
-video tape shows JFK and Jackie confessing on TV
-RFK calls Hoover’s bluff
-Hoover caves, RFK forces him to resign.
 
• scene – January 11,1964
-LBJ argues against ceasing involvement in VietNam.
-JFK gives a graduation speech to class of 64 about going to the Moon.
-he wants it to be a cooperative effort between the US and USSR
-also proposes disarmament to Khrushchev.
 
• scene –
-JFK watches a rocket take off
-a US astronaut and a USSR cosmonaut together plant flags on the Moon.
 
• scene – April 22, 2001 – at Kennedy residence
-Raymond Mead arrives and is met by Janice Kennedy.
-while waiting for James Kennedy to appear, Raymond sees a painting on the wall . . .
 
-Flashback – February 7, 1994
-when he was 31 years old, Raymond held an unsuccessful gallery opening for his paintings.
-A mysterious old, frail woman showed up after closing and purchased a painting.
-the same painting that Raymond sees in the Kennedy residence
 
• scene – January 8, 1964
-RFK and Jackie search for the ID of the Traveler. They know he was born on 11/22/63.
-a piece of the glass that shattered when the Traveler vanished left a fingerprint.
 
• scene – April 22, 2001 – continued at Kennedy residence
-James Kennedy appears, commenting to Janice that Jackie had gotten the eyes right.
 
• scene – August 17, 1964
-Jackie watches JFK playing with his daughter.
-they discuss that because of the Traveler and Oswald, they now know who JFK is up against.
 
• scene – April 9, 1971
-in elementary school, teacher is talking about time dilation
-Raymond, as a student, is there and drawing a picture of Jackie. The same drawing that the Traveler would show Jackie in 1963.
 
• scene – October 8, 1979
-Pres. RFK is talking to Martin Luther King, Jr.
-he is informed that the Traveler has been ID'd at long last via his fingerprints.
 
-Flashback – October 5, 1979 – 3 days previous
-security camera footage shows
-Raymond was arrested for breaking into a shop.
-Raymond’s criminal record contains his fingerprints
 
• scene – October 8, 1979 – continued
-RFK is shown a drawing that Raymond did of Jackie when he was a boy in school.
-Martin Luther King, Jr. is RFK’s Vice Pres.
 
• scene –
-Jackie is painting on a large canvas
-RFK tells her that the Traveler has been found.
 
• scene – Kennedy residence
-James informed Raymond that the Kennedys own many of his paintings.
 
-Flashback – October 18, 1979 – continued from opening scene
-Raymond is taken off a prisoner bus.
-a helicopter lands – inside Raymond meets Pres. RFK.
-they talk and mysteriously RFK thanks Raymond
-RFK then gives him a new life.
 
-in a voice over, Raymond states his record was wiped clean and he was given a lot of cash. He had no idea why.
 
• scene – Kennedy residence – continued
-James shows Raymond around and comes to Jackie’s art room.
-here James wants to tell him the real reason why the Kennedys have looked out for him.
-James in particular owes him everything.
 
-Flashback – nine months after Nov. 22, 1963
-a news report – something has happened involving the Presidential motorcade in Dallas.
-motorcade rushed to Parkland Hospital
-later JFK comes to announce that James was born.
 
• scene – Kennedy residence - continued
-in Jackie’s gallery, James uncovers Jackie’s large painting of the Traveler and shows it to Raymond.
-it is a painting of the Raymond that never was - the Traveler.
 
• scene – a fantasy scene
-in 1963, Jackie and the Traveler shared a dance.
-in this dream-like sequence, the Traveler is superimposed with Raymond who now shares the dance with Jackie.
 
 • scene – August 22, 1964 – nine months after Nov. 22, 1963 – continued
-TV news report – Jackie coming out of hospital with newborn James
-as a baby, Raymond is watching this on TV
-Baby Raymond reaches out and touches the image of Jackie’s face
 

END

 

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A Supplement to 11/22/63: A Novel

 

This blog post is part of an occasional series intended to enhance the reader’s experience of Stephen King’s fantastic work of time travel fiction, 11/22/63: A Novel. Other works with similar themes will be investigated; perhaps discovering potential influences on King. Also explored are subjects tangentially connected to King’s masterwork, such as interviews and other related topics.

 

I began my exploration of time-travel fiction, in a very large part, because I was so impressed, so moved by Stephen King’s 11/22/63: A Novel. King is one of the few authors who, in a novel entirely concerned with the Kennedy Assassination, can make the reader forget about the Kennedy Assassination. And, I have a thing or two left to say concerning that novel in this occasional “A Supplement to 11/22/63: A Novel” series. This blog post is the latest entry in this occasional series intended to enhance the reader’s experience of Stephen King’s fantastic work.

 

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There is an awful lot going on in this movie with many moving parts. The actual incidence of time travel occurred almost right at the start of the film. The remainder of the film detailed the repercussions of that initial time travel.

 

Interesting Asides

•Allow me to begin with a point of clarification concerning the differences between “time travel” stories in general and “time machine” stories in particular, including the confusing degree of ambiguity in the usage of these terms – of which I am certainly guilty.

 

In this Occasional Series, I do not include  tales such as Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, H. G. Wells The Sleeper Awakes and others like it; for the very simple reason that these tales did not involve a willful act to time travel. Mark Twain’s protagonist gets knocked out and wakes up in Camelot; while Wells’ main character goes to sleep for 200 years and awakens into a new world. There is no conscious or willful act of time travel. It is more like an accident of fate.

 

I am exclusively exploring the “time machine” story in this series. For example, the Time Traveler in H. G. Wells’ The Time Machine has to activate a machine. In King’s 11/22/63: A Novel, Jake has to step through the rabbit hole – a relic device from an unknown and ancient race. Here, willful and deliberate acts utilizing a mechanism are required for time travel – whether built by the time traveler or just used by him.

 

While next to nothing is known of the means of time travel in Timequest, it is most certainly an apparatus invented by the Traveler. Ultimately, this detail is utterly unimportant. The method or means of time travel is just a plot device to get the Traveler to where he needs to be.

 

•The assassination of JFK left a deep scar on the American psyche and led directly into the bloodbath of the Vietnam War. In 11/22/63: A Novel, the impetus for the Protagonist to step through the Rabbit Hole (aka the time travel machine) and save JFK was to stop the Vietnam War. In the novel, in the final instance, this comes to naught. The conflict cannot be stopped. However, in Timequest, the Vietnam War is ended, peace is made, and a new world is born. In the movie, there does not seem to be any kind of “Obdurate Past” at work at all, unlike in Stephen King’s work.

 

11/22/63: A Novel explores the reality of what saving JFK from assassination would mean for the future and the dark world that saving JFK would birth. In the book, the protagonist (i.e. the time traveler) is an outsider who enacts various changes to the timeline. And, once these changes are achieved, he leaves; returning to his own time at nearly the same instant he left. However, in Timequest, in contrast to the book, the Traveler simply relays his message. Following that, he has no more direct involvement in the story . . . sort of. It is the Kennedys themselves who carry out the changes to the timeline after the Traveler’s warning.

 

The central thesis of both 11/22/63: A Novel and Timequest was what would happen if JFK had lived. In 11/22/63: A Novel, JFK’s survival gives birth to a dystopian nightmare. In stark contrast, Timequest presents a very positive and hopeful future born out of JFK’s survival. In a sense, Timequest is a positive and uplifting reflection of the darkness that runs through 11/22/63: A Novel.

 

•In the realm of time travel fiction, Timequest presents a rather significant conundrum. Is what goes on in Timequest a violation of the Grandfather Paradox? A breakdown of logical consistency or an example of the Many-Worlds Theory involvement in time travel stories? Or, something else entirely?

 

The closest I have come to categorizing the conundrum in Timequest is as basically a variation on the Grandfather Paradox known as the Killing Hitler Paradox. Though it sounds melodramatic, it is quite simple. It states that if a time traveler eliminates Hitler before he rises to power and World War II doesn’t happen, then there would be no reason for the time traveler to go back to kill Hitler in the first place. Thus, Hitler would live to rise to power. A paradox.

 

So for example, in the movie, if the Traveler’s actions lead to the salvation of JFK, then Raymond would not invent time travel, become the Traveler and go back and save JFK in the first place. And therefore, there would be no one to invent time travel and save JFK. A paradox.

Thus, in the case of Timequest, the Grandfather/Kill Hitler Paradox did not occur. I see this as a glaring failure of logical consistency in the storyline.

 It doesn’t mean I enjoyed the movie any less.

•This point has nothing to do with history and certainly nothing to do with time travel. The reason that I enjoyed TimeQuest so much and that the film spoke to me so strongly was the portrayal of Jackie Kennedy by Caprice Benedetti.

There have been many actresses that have played Jackie Kennedy in film and TV. However, no film or TV interpretation of Jackie could hold a candle to Caprice Benedetti’s portrayal of her in my opinion. She brought sensitivity and gentleness to the role that other actresses in other versions could not match.

Apparently, the film’s director also realized Benedetti’s strength by bookending the film with her. At the very opening of the movie, over a black screen, a voice over said “Did today really happen?” Much later in the film, it was revealed that these words were spoken by Jackie, of course played by Benedetti. And again, the last image of the film was of a close-up of Jackie Kennedy on a TV screen.

By her opening and closing the movie, the director is signaling that the film revolves around the character of Jackie Kennedy rather than JFK and the assassination plot. It is his devotion to her that leads the Traveler, a.k.a. Raymond, to invent time travel and travel back to warn them. The Traveler’s motives could almost be seen as an attempt to protect Jackie, and JFK by extension, because he feels some connection to her. It is also telling that when he time travels, the Traveler appears to Jackie before anyone else. The Traveler’s warning is relayed through her to JFK and RFK. And his last words before being erased from the timeline were to thank Jackie for their dance.

There are many more interesting points I could bring up, but I think this is enough for now.

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The past haunts us.
 
The time travel fantasy in these stories gives us false hope: to allow us to correct some deed done long ago. The pull of such fantasy is deep and profound. And, it is only in fantasy that, sometimes, there can be second chances…
 
 
Good Evening.

Exploring “The Mosaic” (1940) by J. B. Ryan

 

In the previous post, the tale discussed reflected the modern interpretation of time travel stories – that is “as a means of finding redemption”. The story under consideration here, J.B. Ryan’s “The Mosaic,” is a more traditional time travel tale. This tale treats time travel as more than just some techno-oddity. It is a driving force behind the story. 

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“The Mosaic” by J. B. Ryan was published in the July 1940 issue of Astounding Science-Fiction for the first and (to the best of my knowledge and research) only time. 

The pulp magazine, Astounding Science-Fiction, has an involved and detailed publication history extending till today. Originally titled Astounding Stories of Super-Science, the inaugural issue was published in January, 1930.

In early 1931, the title was shortened to Astounding Stories. The magazine would go through multiple editors and owners. Today, this “pulp” magazine is found under the title Analog Science Fiction and Fact. The November/December 2022 issue being the most recently published.

J. B. Ryan is one of a group of pulp authors from those early days; in that there is absolutely no information available about him (again, to the best of my knowledge and research). This story is Ryan’s one and only published work.

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“The Past, my young friend, is a closely interrelated mosaic, and to remove any of the bits anywhere changes the shape and pattern of all the subsequent pieces.”

Story Synopsis:

First Section

The story opens with two friends, Abdul ibn Fhaij (an elder scholar) and Ismail (an Emir – a military commander) meeting after a long time. The old teacher had asked his former student to visit him. They are in the city of Far Damascus in the land of Atlantea, north of Maya. Fhaij is a world renowned scientist and inventor; famous for numerous technological creations including artificial light. They are waited upon by Fhaij’s Algonquin slave.

Fhaij takes Ismail to his laboratory and reveals to Ismail his latest wonder – a time machine! Fhaij sends a rabbit back in time to show the machine’s workings to Ismail. But something is not right; the rabbit cannot be brought back to their present. Fhaij sent for Ismail, his most promising student to help solve this problem.

In talking over the various possibilities why the test subjects were not returning, Ismail, ever a man of action, decided that he himself would be the next to travel back in time. They determined to use the time machine to place Ismail across the Atlantic into Europe, a thousand years in the past. 

Side Note Regarding Dates, part 1

The dates presented in this story are vital to the progression and outcome of this tale. First, the story opens with a date in the Muslim calendar – Rabi ul-thani 29, 1359. Using a calendar conversion app (www.islamicity.org), this date converts to the Gregorian calendar date of June 5, 1940. Therefore, this story’s first section takes place on June 5, 1940 in our calendar. Please keep this in mind. 

Second Section

This next part opens with Ismail instantly transported from Fhaij’s laboratory to lying in a grassy field. He is at once approached by a group of men armed and garbed from a thousand years before. To Ismail, they looked European, but these men did not appear to be part of the great Moslem pan-European state. They looked far more barbaric. Ismail greeted the men in Arabic. The men rushed Ismail and subdued him, thinking him to be a Saracen spy. 

The thought occurred to Ismail that Fhaij had sent him to the wrong time. In talking to his captors, Ismail realized that he had gone farther back in time than he originally thought. He discovered he was in the year 732 – before the Muslim conquest of Europe – when war still raged!

Ismail’s life was spared by Duke Charles Martel. Then Ismail realized the exact date of his arrival in the past:

“This was the eve of the great battle of Tours in which the followers of the Prophet were to annihilate the army of the Franks.” (Page 46)

Later, Ismail found himself admiring Duke Charles and wished he could warn the Duke of his impending death. Ismail knew from his study of history that Charles was fated to die in a few hours. And thus, Duke Charles would not be alive to command the Frankish armies against the Moslem at the battle of Tours. 

Over dinner, Charles treated Ismail as an honored guest; going so far as to allow Ismail to carry Charles’ own sword as Ismail’s own. They parted for the night.

Later, Ismail was awoken by sounds outside his quarters and saw three men hiding in the shadows. He had wondered how Charles died on the eve of this battle. Now he knew – Assassination!

Ismail confronted the three assassins, fought and slew them at the very moment Charles should have died at the traitor’s hand. As the last assassin expired, Ismail was gone, history was rewritten and Charles now lived to command his armies against the Moslems the next day.

“And with him into nothingness, across the gulf of Time; went Abdul ibn Fhaij, the city of Far Damascus, all the transatlantic Moslems, leaving in their place–” (page 50)

 

Epilogue

New York, June 4, 1940

Two friends, a young man Robert Moulton and the older Professor McLeod are discussing old English history. Moulton says that if he had a time machine, he would warn the Saxons of the coming of the Normans in 1066. The Professor warns him that:

“The Past, my young friend, is a closely interrelated mosaic, and to remove any of the bits anywhere changes the shape and pattern of all the subsequent pieces.” (Page 50)

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In Search of Atonement:

The Meaning Behind Modern Time Travel Tales.

The sins of our past haunt us. 

Time travel tales allow the reader, even if only through fiction, to right past wrong. This post continues the new occasional series by exploring a more traditional time travel tale. 

This section will expand as more blog posts are added to this series. Each time travel story or film will be as a rung on a ladder leading to a richer understanding of the search for atonement and redemption.

Pivot Point in Time

A staple of many time travel stories is what I have termed here, the “Pivot Point in Time” concept. Very basically, history, in the large sense, hinges on a single action or event. In the unbelievably vast number of instances, actions, events, or even lives, can have their history, fate, destiny altered and the resulting impact on the greater timeline would be negligible – if at all. However, in a few select instances, a single action can have such a far-reaching impact that it becomes a hinge or pivot point for all of history itself. There are many examples of this as a time-travel trope. Indeed, this blog began its deep dive into time-travel fiction by covering Stephen King’s masterwork – 11/22/63: A Novel. So for example, let us consider two historic events – the assassination of JFK, a.k.a. 11/22/63 and one of the occasions that Adolph Hitler escaped certain death during World War I. 

First, Hitler – I personally cannot confirm nor disprove this event therefore I will treat it as apocryphal. However, as Hitler himself is said to have recalled it, it will be given some credence. The narrative goes that during World War I, while taking shelter in a dugout during an artillery barrage, Hitler claimed to have heard an unknown voice telling him to leave the shelter at once. Moments later, a shell landed in the dugout killing the occupants. This anecdote was claimed to highlight the belief that Hitler had an anointed future to fulfill.

Second, 11/22/63 – This novel concerns one of the most often used major historical events as the subject of this time-travel story. A “lone gunman” assassinates an American President, most probably changing the entire course of history. Here, a time portal is used to go back and stop J.F.K.’s assassination. Amazingly, the time traveler succeeds and J.F.K. is saved! Upon the time travelers return to his original time, he finds that the world has fallen into an even worse state. Saving J.F.K. actually made the world a more dreadful place!

This introduces a very profound point of understanding – that being successful in a time travel tale doesn’t necessarily result in the best outcome as in the above J.F.K. example. As readers (actual people, not characters in a story), we only know what we know. In other words, how history really played out in this timeline. But also consider the example with a young Hitler, what if that unknown voice, by saving Hitler, might not have spared the world from an even more horrid fate!

All this leads to “The Mosaic.” 

Here, the pivot point is stopping the assassins from murdering Duke Charles Martel; thereby ensuring that he would lead the Frankish army against the Moslem forces. This act – saving the life of this one man – lead to the Franks defeating the Moslem army and stopping their conquest of Europe. Their fight would go on until early 1492 when the last Moorish leader in Spain surrendered to Ferdinand and Isabella. 

The results of the pivot point shifted all subsequent history into what is, in fact, the reality we live in now. However, whether this “pivot” was for the better is openly debatable. Granted the resultant timeline is our current one, so it is natural that we should prefer it. But based on the first part of the story, the Moslem empire seemed to be stable, strong and civilized. Not perfect, but. . . 

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 “The Mosaic” was written as a science fiction / time travel story exploring the awesome and ironic nature of such fiction. But unlike the adventurous aspect to other time travel tales, this one is more thoughtful in the implications of its outcome. What might it mean for the truth of our reality?

Good Evening.