“Time present and tme past / Are both perhaps present in time future, / And time future contained in time past.”–T. S. Eliot from Four Quartets. Burnt Norton, published in 1935.
There used to be a sci-fi series on TV called Time Tunnel. Every week we got a chance to travel back in time for one reason or another. The science may have been suspect, but I enjoyed where their travels took me. The Twilight Zone also dealt with the subject in a few classic episodes.
H. G. Wells wrote a classic story called The Time Machine. This is a review from Merriam Webster’s Encyclopedia of Literature. “The novel is considered one of the earliest works of science fiction and the progenitor of the ‘time travel’ subgenre.”
“Wells advanced his social and political ideas in this narrative of a nameless Time Traveller who is hurled into the year 802,701 by his elaborate ivory, crystal, and brass contraption.” It was a marvelous machine, even though we never truly understood its clockwork mechanism.
The idea of ‘time-shift” in literature is a narrative method that shifts the storyline back and forth from the past to the present. It’s one of the easiest ways for us to travel back in time.
Time travel has always been a popular theme in science fiction and the movies: Back To The Future, Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, Dr. Who, Highlander 2: The Quickening, Peggy Sue Got Married, The Terminator, and so many others.
Time travel has always been a popular theme, and some of the science is actually being considered and talked about openly by physicists who once might have been afraid of ridicule to even broach the subject.
An experiment supposedly took place on this date in 1912. It had to do with time travel. It also had to do with love. My radio show tonight is devoted to one of the most popular romantic movies of all “time.” I hope you will join me as we journey back to a “grand” old hotel, and get lost in the romance of the moment.
I’d like to conclude this blog with a question for you to consider. Given the chance to go back in time, where would you go, and what would you do? Would it be to right a wrong, or would it be for a second chance at something, like love? To say the words that waited too long for another time that never materialized? So, given the chance to occupy a seat aboard a time machine and the controls at your fingertips, what would you set the the dial for? Would you like to stay where you’re headed, or would it be a brief visit? A lot of things to consider before you move the lever to set the machine in motion. Careful now…
There isn’t a soul among us who wouldn’t line up for a ride back into the past, or for a chance to see what the future holds in store… Maybe a quick peek at tomorrow’s winning lottery numbers?
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Don Jackson
Don:
- KirkI enjoyed your show tonight. Just wondering what the name of your background theme song is?
Kirk