Writer's Block: Time Travel

[packbat]

Ooh, this is a good one.

If you could travel back in time to spend a day with someone, who would it be and why?

I can't say what I'd do if I had infinite time to prepare. Would I visit an influential Greek playwright, retrieve copies of the work? Would I drop in on Bartok and swipe some of the reputed 90% of his compositions he burned? Would I step back to spend a day with Melville and Moby-Dick? There are just too many choices.

If, however, I had to do it right now (though I would prefer an hour's - or better, a week's - advance notice), I think I would go back to October 1941 to talk to Isaac Asimov about "Nightfall".

Isaac Asimov was a dreadfully prolific writer. In fact, he'd published at least seventeen stories prior to the September 1941 printing of "Nightfall", of which I've probably read the revised version of one ("Robbie"). In no sense am I an expert on his writing, having read naught but Nightfall and Other Stories, half of I, Robot, that I. Asimov memoir, Fact and Fancy, Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare, Asimov's New Guide to Science, and maybe a smattering of others I forgot.

But reading them, I think I can see why "Nightfall" is one of the greatest stories of all time, and why his other shorts don't compare. And having read the memoir, I know Asimov never knew.

See, Asimov was like a writer of 'whodunits'. (Very like, in fact.) Every story had to have an angle, an plot twist - perhaps something frequently hinted at, but which no-one would twig to until the end, or perhaps just a punchline. "C-Chute" had a character's motivation. "It's Such a Beautiful Day" had a bit of defiance of societal mores. "The Machine that Won the War" - well, that was practically a purebred joke, the whole thing's the setup.

"Nightfall" - the punchline was revealed the first page. It wasn't needed.

No 'locked-room mystery' was "Nightfall". While most of the story takes place in a single building, the characters constantly allude to broad societal trends, to various events occurring in the previous months ... the world feels real, plausible - maybe in part because it is much like our own, save for the difference that drove the plot. The characters, the same.

He thought it was because it kept up a dramatic pace. He said so. It's just sad.

Comments

[roaminrob.livejournal.com]

I could say any one of a number of classical inventors, scientists, philosophers, artists; I could say da Vinci, or Newton, or Plato. Or, maybe I would visit the library of Alexandria, before its destruction (now, that's tempting!).

I could choose to have a conversation with Carl Sagan or Richard Feynman -- tempting, again.

But, I wouldn't. I rarely look to the past, except as a way to understand the future. I know enough of da Vinci's patterns and habits, and all that's left for me is to develop my own motivations. While talking to Feynman, Sagan, or other long-dead brilliant people would be satisfying, there is one event I would like to go back and fix. One opportunity at a very different life.

So, I'd have to choose something much more inane.

My move from Eureka to Grass Valley changed a lot of things for me. I was able to get back into the industry that I had stepped away from several years before. I was able to begin putting the financial pieces of my life together. I was able to pursue what I had only then recently decided was my purpose. All well and good, but it came at a cost.

See, I had just begun to develop a relationship with a woman. We fit well together, and enjoyed each-other's company. There were no pretenses, no games. To put this in some perspective, I think I've really only had about three relationships, ever, in my life, and this counts as one.

Problem is, all of my confidence (or arrogance) and bravado is only related to things I do. When it comes to women, I'm always the last to realize that they're romantically interested in me.

It wasn't until several weeks after my move that I realized how disappointed she was over it, and the sort of opportunity I had missed out on.

So, time travel? Yeah. I'd have to go back and see her, before I moved, and try to figure out a way to hang on to her.

I guess I'm as prone to basic human nature as everyone else: I want the one thing I can't have.

[packbat.livejournal.com]

Y'know, it never occurred to me that I could go talk to someone alive. Huh.