"Himself in Anachron" by Cordwainer Smith (3/15/2015)

[Lincoln, Temporal Jester]

Here is a link to the whole story online:

http://www.vb-tech.co.za/ebooks/Smith...

[James]

"This story was published posthumously..."

There may be a reason that he never published it.

[Lincoln, Temporal Jester]

My favorite episode of Star Trek Voyager is when their ship gets stuck in the atmosphere of a planet, and the surface and atmosphere time frames don't match. The Voyager gets to watch civilization develop in a matter of hours...While the Sky ship becomes rooted into their culture and religious beliefs.

That is sort of what happens here in this story, however I see this story as a fun writing exercise to help the brain to get over writers block or something. Perhaps this short story could of been just a simple piece of a much larger story...How the protagonist became a god or something...and than we get a perspective of a priest of the spaceman or something...I see it simply as unfinished work perhaps...I suppose you can't blame a dead man.

[James]

Lincoln wrote: "That is sort of what happens here in this story, however I see this story as a fun writing exercise to help the brain to get over writers block or something"

Yes, that was my reaction. Something that the writer probably never considered a finished work and never would have been okay with being published.

[Amy, Queen of Time]

I liked this one. I didn't see it as being an incomplete work at all. I thought it was fairly complete. It's been one of my favorites so far.

It reminds me of the latest movie version of The Time machine where the time traveler is moving quickly in time and the world changes around him, only the supposition is that he's moving so quickly through time that nobody can see him. But here we have a time traveler moving slowly enough that he can be seen (and without a time machine), and he's aging. But since he's moving backward through time, he appears to be becoming young to those who are moving forward in time. There would be people worshiping him. And then one day he disappears ... and what do they think then?

I like the idea of the man out of time. Nathan has this concept in his time travel series, so I'm wondering what he'll think of this author's take on it. I think his series has been set up so that book #3 will end up exploring this idea in depth. But I'm assuming his will be a different take on the idea.

[James]

Amy wrote: "But here we have a time traveler moving slowly enough... And then one day he disappears..."

I didn't mean to suggest that there is no story. I feel it incomplete because it feels like a story with no point. For example, the Voyager ep that Lincoln mentioned deals with beliefs and how individuals change vs societies. The temporal shifting influenced how the story unfolded.

In this case, it just seems like something that would have been a neat visual, in a movie.



Amy wrote: "I like the idea of the man out of time"

Me, too.

[Glynn]

James wrote: ""This story was published posthumously..."

There may be a reason that he never published it."

It seems like it should be part of a bigger story. Maybe a novel he was working on.

[Cheryl]

It also seemed unfinished to me as in unrefined. I think the name Tasco would have been changed, for example. And I'm not sure that lightening the ship has a plausible effect on salvaging the mission... and if weight were a factor, even the passions of a honeymoon would not overcome the need to be responsible and to put only one person on a ship meant for one person.

I like the jargon. Knot in Time. Backtiming and hightiming. Merochron. Left Subformal Probability.

I like 'Mad Dita's Song.'

I wish he had developed this into a novel. I'd read it.

(sorry for coming in late)

[James]

Cheryl wrote: "(sorry for coming in late) "

You should be! I'm incensed!

And thanks, for joining us.

[Cheryl]

:smiles:

btw, I'm leaning towards 3 stars for this one...