LJ Idol Week #23a - "Ignis Fatuus"

[prog_schlock]

This is my first (of three) entries for Week #23 of therealljidol.

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LouisesThere's this story that I've been meaning to write for years. The story is about this woman - Louise - who, as a teenager, is sitting on a couch with her new boyfriend - Ryan - when suddenly he starts freaking out. He's hyperventilating and doesn't seem to know where he is or who

Comments

[bleodswean]

Ha! You hooked me right out the door and kept reeling me in until the last juicy worm line!!! Well done!

Time travel is SUCH a conundrum. I have played with it the tiniest amount in my writing, but it makes me brainsore. Some of the greatest works of contemporary fiction have used this trope to mind-boggling success.

[prog_schlock]

If you want a real mind fuck of a reality warping story, check out Anathem by Neil Stephenson. One of my favorite books. Its not quite a time travel story but its like a time travel story.

Yeah, I made the choice to write about the story instead of writing the story this week specifically so I could try and wrap my head around the implied mechanics of my time travel method. I drew up a chart on a piece of paper towel to try and keep all of the timelines organizes here. And I only used like three or four timelines. Some writers create such rich worlds of time travel!

Thanks for reading and commenting!

[kathrynrose]

That last line is a solid punch to the face.

:P

[prog_schlock]

That, thank goodness, was the only line that just came out on its own this week. Glad it worked, sorry it punched you!

Thank you for reading and commenting!

[murielle]

Wow! Time travel is not as simple as H. G. Wells would have had us believe.

[prog_schlock]

Time travel is a bear. I was just mentioning that I have a drawing of the timelines in this story on a paper towel so I can keep track of them. Oi!

Thank you for reading and commenting!

[halfshellvenus]

My...Brain...Hurts...

The idea of all of these parallel versions of people in timelines, some spawned, some aborted--and as you noted, some usurped!-- is mind boggling. And yes, it isn't just the logistics you spun through here but the ethical implications in changing the lives of other versions of you, other peripheral people, that come into play.

She ponders that there are two brain dead versions of her, including one in her original timeline.
And THAT was an idea that had never occurred to me as a potential side-effect, and how paralyzing to know you're tormenting the people who love you with that unintended consequence.

I think knowledge has essentially doomed both Ryan and Louise. Knowing about time-travel, and how, you can't UN-know it, and it often leads to you making an awful choice. Possibly a different awful choice every single time. :O

[prog_schlock]

Indeed, as fascinated as I am by the concept of time travel, I see no good coming from it at all. My favorite time travel story is one (and I can't remember the title or author because I read it decades ago) about a man who invents a time machine but, just before he turns it on, he starts receiving radio broadcasts from the future from hundreds of people begging him not to turn it on. That sort of captures my whole feeling about it.

Also, I have this belief that time travel is impossible based on the simple fact that we're not overrun by time traveling tourists right now. Like every horrible vacationing person who doesn't follow the rules and wrecks something perfect when they go to a park or something? Can you imagine them with time machines?

Anyhow, thank you so much for reading and commenting!