Time Travel discussion

I'm a writer and a reader who loves time travel books, especially if they are character driven. Some of my favorites are Replay by Ken Grimwood, The Mirror by Marlys Millhiser, and Time and Again by Jack finney. But suddenly I'm confused as to what qualifies as time travel.

My new novel, Bittersweet Memories asks the question: What if you could push rewind to relive any memory from your past as vividly and accurately as the day it happened? The story is about a family whose lives are changed forever when they inherit a device that lets them program their dreams to relive their pasts. I don't think of it as time travel, but reviewers and potential reviewers think it is. In fact, some won't review it because they "don't like time travel."

I've always thought that time travel stories explore what happens when people go back in time and make changes. In my story, all they can do is relive old times and learn from that. I haven't called it time travel because I thought real time travel fans would say it doesn't fit.

If any of you read kindle books, I would like to gift you a copy of Bittersweet Memories from Amazon, in hopes that you will read it and give me your opinion as to whether I should call it a time travel book.

Thanks,
Lynn Osterkamp

Tough question - answer depends on the reader.

I say yes, it's Time Travel.

And your story does look interesting, and I do have a kindle app, so PM me with a code (or whatever, however it works; I normally don't read self-promo) and I'll take a look.

I would say that any story in which a person is not living their life in the linear, point-A-to-point-B order that a normal person starts on at birth would be time travel. Normal time is where every year involves living January 1st to December 31st going only forward in exactly 365 days (or 366 on a leap year) and physically aging 365-366 days during that time period. Any deviation from that would be time travel.

I think there are a lot of examples of people using memory as a means of time travel in fiction. Whether or not it changes anything in the present might make a difference. I assume they end up different as a result of the journey through the past so I would probably still call it time travel.

Thanks, Amy. That's interesting. Characters in my book are living in linear time. They can only use the Memory Enhancer to relive times from their pasts in their dreams. So they aren't aging any differently, but they are re-experiencing past times. Do you think time-travel readers will enjoy this type of story?

Thanks, Nathan. Yes, my characters do end up different as as result of their journey through the past. I hadn't thought of that as time travel, but I can see how it could be seen that way.

To me it's not time travel because I think you actually have to go somewhere physically and not just mentally. You have to physically travel. We can go somewhere mentally in our thoughts or dreams every day. Am I time traveling when I remember yesterday? I don't think so. However, in Wells's conception, only our consciousnesses moves along a 4 dimensional universe, so mental movement in his conception is the only kind of movement.

As a writer you have artistic license, so you can call anything whatever you like. You need to be careful, however, not to disappoint your readers. Did Scrooge travel through time in "A Christmas Carol" or was it only a dream? Maybe "A Christmas Carol" is not a time travel story. But it's still a good story, and that's what counts. Your story doesn't have to be a time travel story. If I were you I'd avoid calling it out and out time travel to make sure I don't disappoint readers. I'd call it "a kind of time travel" or a "journey through the past" (to use your own words). If you write a good story, your readers won't be disappointed.

Thanks, Ned. That's exactly what I was thinking--that it's not time travel because remembering is only in your mind. (Although the Memory Enhancer in my book puts people back in the past in a way that lets them feel, smell and taste it.) I didn't call it time travel exactly because I don't want to disappoint readers. But not calling it time travel apparently offends readers who start it, decide it's time travel, and stop reading. It's tricky.

The question of what is time travel is an interesting and tricky one. When I wrote my novel, I did not think of it as time travel. But, enough readers did, that I began to think maybe I should call it time travel. I do not think it is classic time travel. When I would describe it I said it "bends time." My publisher classified it as angels and spirit guides on Amazon. There are no angels in this book. But, for a week when it first came out it was in the the top ten books in the angel category. I figured there were a lot of disappointed buyers. ;( Funny thing about the way Amazon classifications work - I am able to change the classifications for the paperback, but only my publisher can change it for the Kindle version and so far, they have not done so. C'est la vie!

I'm in the camp that "time travel" is not the same as "memory travel," "dream travel," or "mind travel" (aka daydreaming). If the aphorism "Know thyself" requires reflection and memory, then a know-thy-selfer could be considered a time traveler. Someone with PTSD having a vivid flashback of a traumatic memory would also be "time traveler." If memory alone - via reflection, dream or trauma - makes for a time traveler, then it makes all of us time travelers which undercuts the notion of the genre.

I'm of the mind that a true time traveler must upset the collective and physical understanding we have of time. Another way to view it is that a time traveler lite is in two places at once (e.g. in her chair and off somewhere else). A true time traveler only resides in one spacetime at a time.

What about if a person was able to reset time, rather like a video game in which if the player makes a mistake or is killed he or she is able to reload a previous state of the Universe and continue from there. Would that be time travel?

My opinion would be if you don't actually travel somewhere it's not time travel, but if you reset time, doesn't someone or something have to travel?

Ned wrote: "... I'd call it "a kind of time travel" or a "journey through the past" (to use your own words). If you write a good story, your readers won't be disappointed. ..."

This. Give those folks who refuse to read TT a clue, an out, but only *invite* TT fans rather than push it on us.

Cheryl, I agree that this would be the best way to inform readers. Unfortunately Amazon and other sites don't have soft boundaries for their categories. A book can either be in the time travel category or not. While the book's description could say something like it's "a kind of time travel," I'm concerned that this might turn off both TT fans and readers who don't like TT.

That is a legitimate concern. And of course I understand that you can't choose tags with as much freedom as you can describe the book in the blurb. And you don't want to spoil the reader's experience by describing too much. It's tough.

I just read James Gleick's Time Travel: A History, and cognitive scientists make this definition: “Mental time travel (MTT) is the ability to mentally project oneself backward in time to relive past experiences and forward in time to pre-live possible future experiences.” Food for MTT.

Thanks, Brian. I haven't read Gleick's book yet, but it sounds like I should. I just bought and downloaded it for my kindle.

Of course, referring negative reviewers to Gleick's book wouldn't change their minds. In a competition between authorities and readers/ users/ consumers, the authorities always lose.

Of course you're right, Cheryl. I want to read Gleick's book to get a better handle on the issues of time travel and ways of categorizing time travel stories. I've been reading and enjoying time travel stories for a long time. If nothing else, his book should enrich my understanding of time travel literature. And if it gives me a slot where my book fits, that will be interesting.

:smiles: