Lois answers “Question about the ending. Emily Strang is...”

Jazzbeau asked this question about Arcadia:

Question about the ending. Emily Strang is sent into the future from 2222 (and ends in Anterworld) to be followed by the rest of the renegades. But simultaneously they were setting off a nuclear war at some point in the latter twentieth century to wipe out all humans and make room -- wouldn't that wipe out the 2222 civilization and make it impossible to send more renegades? So who are all the natives in Anterworld?

Lois Matelan If you accept Angela's explanation, the past and the future are equally mutable. Changing reality can alter both the past and the future to accommodat…moreIf you accept Angela's explanation, the past and the future are equally mutable. Changing reality can alter both the past and the future to accommodate the change. We do not know when or whether the bomb sent by Oldmanter explodes, but if it did, it destroyed people living at that time, which might have been related to "causing" Oldmanter's reality to come into existence. We know that Angela's initial reality (Oldmanter's) is an unpleasant and unfree world, and we begin to understand that it bears an uncanny resemblance to the "Utopia" described by Persimmon. However, Anterworld comes into being originally(??) from the mind of Henry Lytten, but then becomes more real when Emily becomes part of it and then even "realer" once Rosie visits it. To put it a slightly different way, your question doesn't make sense within the bounds of the story, because the mutable nature of past AND future means that the classic paradoxes of time travel are avoided, despite the fact that there are NOT many universes (at any given time.)(less)

flag

About Goodreads Q&A

Ask and answer questions about books!

You can pose questions to the Goodreads community with Reader Q&A, or ask your favorite author a question with Ask the Author.

See Featured Authors Answering Questions

Learn more