The other bank of time

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Time and Again (AKA Time and Again , as another translation also: From time to time ) is a science fiction - novel of the American author Jack Finney in 1970 on the subject of time travel . What is remarkable about this novel is that time travel is not possible with the help of technical possibilities, but through the mental powers of time travelers. The novel was first translated into German by Thomas Schlück and was published by Heyne Verlag in 1981 .

action

The Dakota, the starting point of Simon's journey through time, on a historical photo from the 1880s

In the fall of 1970, the artist Simon "Si" Morley, who was largely unsuccessful as an artist, was recruited by Ruben Prien, a major in the US Army, for a secret government project in New York. Without knowing what it is about - except that he might be the only possible candidate out of a million people - he quits his job at an advertising agency and looks for the address Prien gave him. There is a large warehouse there, in which a moving company resides, which serves as camouflage for the secret government project. From Dr. Danziger, the head of the project, learns that the possibility of time travel is to be investigated here. The target location and target time are simulated as precisely as possible in order to adapt the candidates physically, and especially mentally, to the corresponding historical environment. This is carefully monitored by historians to avoid anachronisms. According to the fictional theory described in the novel, the past and the present exist side by side in parallel. According to this, time travel candidates should be able to use a kind of self-hypnosis to switch to any desired time if the immediate environment is approximately the same then and in a given present.

Kate, Simon's friend, has a letter from her grandfather, Andrew Carmody, an adviser to President Cleveland , postmarked January 23, 1882, with the strange passage That sending this letter was supposed to cause the world to burn ... With this letter in hand grandfather committed suicide. Simon insists on Danziger traveling back to this time to see who sent this letter. Apartmenthaus Dakota then an apartment is decorated in the style and with the technology of the year 1882nd After a few days of adaptation, Simon succeeds in changing over to 1882 for a short time.

On his second long trip, he observed a man dropping the letter and found out the address of the sender. Upon his return to 1970, his knowledge of the present is compared with the general to see if his journey through time has changed the present. Since apparently nothing has been changed, Simon receives permission from Danziger to continue to observe the man.

On the third journey through time, he looks for the address - a small guesthouse -, rents a room there and gets to know the man, Jake Pickering, personally. He is drawn to Julia, the landlady's niece, but Pickering regards her as his fiancée. The next day, he overhears a conversation between Pickering and Kate's grandfather, in which Pickering blackmailed him.

Back in 1970, he is told that another time traveler brought about a change in the present, which Danziger wants to stop the project. However, he was outvoted and resigned. The project will be continued under new management and Simon also decides to continue. Back in 1882, he learns that Julia and Pickering are officially engaged.

Simon reports to Julia about Pickering's blackmail and they decide to watch the money transfer through a makeshift wooden wall in Pickering's office. Pickering and Carmody quarrel and the room goes up in flames. Simon and Julia are discovered by Pickering and Carmody. At the last moment, Simon and Julia can escape from the burning building. Simon later learns that this building was the headquarters of the world editorial office (The New York World newspaper ) until recently .

Disfigured by severe burns, Pickering has now successfully assumed the identity of the late Andrew Carmody and has Simon and Julia arrested. They manage to escape and from the torch-bearing arm of the Statue of Liberty , which was then in Madison Square , they switch to 1970.

At first fascinated by the present, but then increasingly repulsed by it, Julia returns to her time. During the project, Simon learns from the new management that he should move back to 1882 and, via Carmody-Pickering, persuade President Cleveland to buy Cuba from the Spaniards and declare it a state of the USA in order to address the problems of the USA with Fidel Castro in the Undo the present. Despite considerable reservations, he accepts. He ends his relationship with Kate and after a phone call with the former head of Danziger, he returns to the past. There he prevents Danzig's parents from getting to know each other, that is, he was never born and the project was not started. Simon stays in the 19th century.

criticism

The Dakota as seen from Central Park, with a skating crowd in the foreground. This historical photograph served as an illustration of the original edition

"The novel is one of the most intelligent and best-written time travel novels."

- Reclam science fiction guide

Remarks

  • The book is illustrated with contemporary photographs and drawings. In the novel, Simon Morley claims some of them were made by him.
  • in 1994 the novel won the French Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire in the category of Best Foreign Language Novel .
  • The sequel Im Strom der Zeit (OT: From Time to Time ) was released in 1995.
  • Although it is a science fiction novel, the novel was also considered a detective novel because it had less harsh science fiction details. He received the Murder Ink Readers Award in the USA .
  • 1975 appeared with Bid Time Return of Richard Matheson , a similar novel in which a protagonist travels through self-hypnosis in a hotel by the time. In 1980 the novel was filmed under the title A Deadly Dream with Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour .

expenditure

English editions

German translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Reclam's Science-Fiction-Führer Ed. By HJ Alpers, W. Fuchs and R. Hahn, p. 155, Philipp Reclam jun., Stuttgart, 1982, ISBN 3-15-010312-6
  2. ↑ Cindy Bartorillo: Chapter: Random Recommendations. READING FOR PLEASURE, June 1989, accessed May 8, 2010 .
  3. ^ Peter V. Cenci / George L. Scheper: A Caribbean Mystery, Tour de Force, Death Walked in Cyprus, Death on the Nile. www.jrank.org, accessed May 8, 2010 .