Time travel in fiction

{{Short description|Concept and accompanying genre in fiction}} {{Redirect|Time warp|3=Time Warp (disambiguation)}} [[File:Poster for the 1960 film The Time Machine.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Poster for the [[The Time Machine (1960 film)|1960 film adaptation]] of H. G. Wells' 1895 novella ''[[The Time Machine]]'']]{{Spatial anomalies in fiction}} [[Time travel]] is a common theme in [[fiction]], mainly since the late 19th century, and has been [[List of time travel works of fiction|depicted in a variety of media]], such as literature, television, and film.<ref name="Nahin">{{cite book |last=Nahin |first=Paul J. |author-link=Paul J. Nahin |url=https://archive.org/details/timemachinestime0000nahi_m8y6 |title=Time Machines: Time Travel in Physics, Metaphysics, and Science Fiction |date=1999 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-0-387985718 |edition=Second |location=New York |orig-date=1993}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Nahin |first=Paul J. |title=Time Travel: A Writer's Guide to the Real Science of Plausible Time Travel |date=2011 |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |location=Baltimore |isbn=9781421401201 |page=ix}}</ref> This genre is sometimes called '''chrono fiction''', '''temporal fiction''' or '''chrono opera'''.<ref>[https://inovatus.es/index.php/ejine/article/download/3290/3117/4624 The Genre Diversity of Fantasy Literature: From Classic Fairy Tales to Science Fiction], ''European Journal of Innovation in Nonformal Education'', Volume 4, Issue 5, 2024, pp. 309-313</ref>

The [[Time travel#History of the time travel concept|concept of time travel by mechanical means]] was popularized in [[H. G. Wells]]' 1895 story, ''[[The Time Machine]]''.<ref name="britannica1">{{cite web |last=Sterling |first=Bruce |url=https://www.britannica.com/art/science-fiction/Time-travel |title=Science fiction – Time travel |website=Encyclopædia Britannica |date=3 May 2016 |access-date=28 December 2017}}</ref><ref name="Kuiper">{{cite book |last=Kuiper |first=Kathleen |title=Prose: Literary Terms and Concepts |date=2012 |publisher=[[Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.]] |location=New York |isbn=9781615304943 |pages=63–64 |edition=1st}}</ref> In general, time travel stories focus on the consequences of traveling into the past or the future.<ref name="britannica1"/><ref name="britannica2">{{cite web |last=Sterling |first=Bruce |url=https://www.britannica.com/art/science-fiction/Time-travel#ref235732 |title=Science fiction – Time travel |website=Encyclopædia Britannica |date=3 May 2016 |access-date=28 December 2017}}</ref><ref name="theguardian1">{{cite web |last=Flood |first=Alison |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2011/sep/23/time-travel-in-fiction |title=Time travel in fiction: why authors return to it time and time again |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=23 September 2011 |access-date=29 November 2015}}</ref> The premise for these stories often involves changing history, either intentionally or by accident, and the ways by which altering the past changes the future and creates an altered present or future for the time traveler upon their return.<ref name="britannica1"/><ref name="theguardian1"/> In other instances, the premise is that the past cannot be changed or that the future is determined, and the protagonist's actions turn out to be inconsequential or intrinsic to events as they originally unfolded.<ref>{{cite web |author=Charliejane |title=Can You Escape Your Fate? Science Fiction Has The Answer! |url=https://gizmodo.com/can-you-escape-your-fate-science-fiction-has-the-answe-350435 |website=[[io9]] |access-date=31 July 2024|date=31 January 2008}}</ref> Some stories focus solely on [[Temporal paradox|the paradoxes]] and alternate timelines that come with time travel, rather than time traveling.<ref name="britannica2"/> They often provide some sort of social commentary, as time travel provides a "necessary distancing effect" that allows science fiction to address contemporary issues in metaphorical ways.<ref name=Redmond>{{cite book |last=Redmond |first=Sean |title=Liquid Metal: the Science Fiction Film Reader |date=2014 |publisher=Columbia University Press |location=New York |isbn=978-0-231501842 |page=114 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iVQaAwAAQBAJ&q=necessary+distancing+effect&pg=PA114 |access-date=30 September 2015 |quote=[...] the time travel motif also has an ideological function because it literally provides the necessary distancing effect that science fiction needs to be able to metaphorically address the most pressing issues and themes that concern people in the present.}}</ref>

==Mechanisms== {{further|Time travel}}

[[Time travel]] in modern fiction is sometimes achieved by [[Wormhole|space and time warps]], stemming from the scientific theory of [[general relativity]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Space and Time Warps |author=Stephen Hawking |date=1999 |url=http://www.hawking.org.uk/space-and-time-warps.html |access-date=20 February 2016}}</ref> [[Time travel#History of the time travel concept|Stories from antiquity]] often featured time travel into the future through a time slip brought on by traveling or sleeping, in other cases, time travel into the past through supernatural means, for example brought on by [[angel]]s or spirits.<ref name="Fitting 2010 p138">{{cite book |last=Fitting |first=Peter |title=The Cambridge Companion to Utopian Literature |date=2010 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-0-521-88665-9 |pages=138–139 |chapter=Utopia, Dystopia, and Science Fiction}}</ref><ref name="Kuiper"/><ref>{{cite book |last=Alkon |first=Paul K. |title=Origins of Futuristic Fiction |date=1987 |publisher=University of Georgia Press |location=Athens |isbn=978-0-820309323 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/originsoffuturis00alko/page/95 95–96] |url=https://archive.org/details/originsoffuturis00alko/page/95}}</ref>

===Time slip=== {{main|Time slip}}

A time slip is a [[plot device]] in [[fantasy]] and [[science fiction]] in which a person, or group of people, seem to [[time travel|travel through time]] by unknown means.<ref name="io9._Time">{{cite web |title=Timeslip romance |last=Anders |first=Charlie Jane |work=io9 |date=12 June 2009 |access-date=27 August 2015 |url=http://io9.com/tag/timeslip-romance}}</ref><ref name="Palmer">{{cite book |last=Palmer |first=Christopher |title=Philip K. Dick: Exhilaration and Terror of the Postmodern |date=2007 |publisher=[[Liverpool University Press]] |location=Liverpool |isbn=978-0-853236184 |page=146 |edition=Reprint |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fsaGaFoH8UYC&pg=PA146 |access-date=11 February 2017}}</ref> The idea of a time slip has been used in 19th century fantasy, an early example being [[Washington Irving]]'s 1819 ''[[Rip Van Winkle]]'', where the mechanism of time travel is an extraordinarily long sleep.<ref>{{cite web |last=Lee |first=Maggie |title=Film Review: 'A Bride for Rip Van Winkle' |url=https://variety.com/2016/film/reviews/a-bride-for-rip-van-winkle-film-review-1201739913/ |website=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]] |access-date=30 April 2021 |date=12 April 2016}}</ref> [[Mark Twain]]'s 1889 ''[[A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court]]'' had considerable influence on later writers.<ref name="James">{{cite book |last1=James |first1=Edward |last2=Mendlesohn |first2=Farah |title=The Cambridge Companion to Fantasy Literature |date=2002 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=9781107493735 |page=106 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zWzlAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA106 |access-date=11 February 2017}}</ref> The first novel to include both travel to the past and travel to the future and return to the present is the [[Charles Dickens]] 1843 novel ''[[A Christmas Carol]]''.{{Citation needed|date=May 2022}}

Time slip is one of the main plot devices of time travel stories, another being a [[Time machine (device)|time machine]]. The difference is that in time slip stories, the protagonist typically has no control and no understanding of the process (which is often never explained at all). They are either left marooned in a past or future time and must make the best of it, or are eventually returned by a process as unpredictable and uncontrolled as the journey out.<ref>{{cite book |last=Schweitzer |first=Darrell |title=The Fantastic Horizon: Essays and Reviews |date=2009 |publisher=Borgo Press |location=Rockville, Maryland |isbn=9781434403209 |page=112 |edition=1st |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HG-vjhQqE_cC&pg=PA112 |access-date=22 September 2017}}</ref> The plot device is also popular in children's literature.<ref>{{cite book |last=Lucas |first=Ann Lawson |title=The Presence of the Past in Children's Literature |date=2003 |publisher=Praeger |location=Westport, Connecticut |isbn=978-0-313324833 |page=113 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3mBA_EHrxvEC&pg=PA153}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Cosslett |first1=Tess |title="History from Below": Time-Slip Narratives and National Identity |journal=The Lion and the Unicorn |date=1 April 2002 |volume=26 |issue=2 |pages=243–253 |doi=10.1353/uni.2002.0017 |s2cid=145407419 |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/35545/pdf |access-date=22 September 2017 |issn=1080-6563|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The 2011 film, ''[[Midnight in Paris]]'' similarly presents time travel as occurring without explanation, as the director "eschews a 'realist' internal logic that might explain the time travel, while also foregoing experimental time Distortion techniques, in favor of straightforward editing and a fantastical narrative set-up".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Jones |first1=Matthew |last2=Ormrod |first2=Joan |title=Time Travel in Popular Media:Essays on Film, Television, Literature and Video Games |date=2015 |publisher=[[McFarland & Company|McFarland]] |location=[[Jefferson, North Carolina]] |isbn=9781476620084 |page=278}}</ref>

===Time portal=== A '''time portal''' or a '''time gate''' is a doorway in [[time]], employed in various [[fiction]] genres, especially [[science fiction]] and [[fantasy]], to transport characters to the [[past]] or [[future]]. They differ from time machines in being a permanent or semi-permanent fixture, often linking specific points in time. An influential example of such a work is the short story, "[[By His Bootstraps]]", by [[Robert A. Heinlein]], which features a time gate built by aliens and plays with some of the inherent [[paradox]]es that would be caused by [[time travel]].<ref name="SFETimeGate">{{Cite encyclopedia |year=2018 |title=Time Gate |encyclopedia=[[The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction]] |url=https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/time_gate |access-date=2025-03-06 |author1-link=David Langford |editor1-last=Clute |editor1-first=John |edition=4th |author1-last=Langford |author1-first=David |editor1-link=John Clute |editor2-last=Langford |editor2-first=David |editor2-link=David Langford |editor3-last=Sleight |editor3-first=Graham |editor3-link=Graham Sleight}}</ref>

===Communication from the future=== In literature, [[communication]] from the future is a [[plot device]] in some [[science fiction]] and [[fantasy]] stories. [[Forrest J. Ackerman]] noted in his 1973 anthology of the best fiction of the year that "the theme of getting hold of tomorrow's newspaper is a recurrent one".<ref name="Ackerman">{{cite book |last=Ackerman |first=Forrest J. |author-link1=Forrest J. Ackerman |title=Best Science Fiction for 1973 |date=1973 |publisher=[[Ace Books]] |page=36}}</ref> An early example of this device can be found in [[H. G. Wells]]'s 1932 short story "[[The Queer Story of Brownlow's Newspaper]]", which tells the tale of a man who receives such a paper from 40 years in the future.<ref name="Ackerman"/><ref>{{cite web |url=http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0601931h.html |title=The Queer Story of Brownlow's Newspaper |via=Project Gutenberg Australia |date=10 November 1971 |access-date=24 December 2015 }}</ref> The 1944 film ''[[It Happened Tomorrow]]'' also employs this device, with the protagonist receiving the next day's newspaper from an elderly colleague (who is possibly a ghost).<ref name="Ackerman"/> Ackerman's anthology also highlights a 1972 short story by [[Robert Silverberg]], "What We Learned from this Morning's Newspaper".<ref name="Ackerman"/> In that story, a block of homeowners wake to discover that on November 22, they have received ''[[The New York Times]]'' for the coming December 1.<ref name="Nahin"/>{{rp |38}} As characters learn of future events affecting them through a newspaper delivered a week early, the ultimate effect is that this "so upsets the future that spacetime is destroyed".<ref name="Nahin"/>{{rp|165}} The television series ''[[Early Edition]]'', similar to the film ''It Happened Tomorrow'', also revolved around a character who daily received the next day's newspaper, and sought to change some event therein forecast to happen.<ref>{{cite book |last=Young |first=R. G. |title=The Encyclopedia of Fantastic Film: Ali Baba to Zombies |date=1997 |publisher=Applause |location=New York |isbn=978-1-55783-269-6 |page=318}}</ref><ref name="Nahin"/>{{rp |235}}

A newspaper from the future can be a fictional edition of a real newspaper, or an entirely fictional newspaper. [[John Buchan]]'s 1932 novel ''[[The Gap in the Curtain]]'', is similarly premised on a group of people being enabled to see, for a moment, an item in ''[[The Times]]'' newspaper from one year in the future. During the [[2006 Swedish general election|Swedish general election of 2006]], the [[Liberal People's Party (Sweden)|Swedish liberal party]] used election posters which looked like news items, called ''Framtidens nyheter'' ("News of the future"), featuring a future Sweden that had become what the party wanted.<ref>{{cite news |last=Jonsson |first=Gunnar |url=https://www.dn.se/nyheter/sverige/fp-satsar-pa-lopsedlar-som-valaffischer/ |title=Fp [Folkpartiet] satsar på löpsedlar som valaffischer |newspaper=[[Dagens Nyheter]] |language=sv |trans-title=FP [The People's Party] focuses on headlines as election posters |date=29 June 2006 |access-date=9 September 2015}}</ref>

A communication from the future raises questions about the ability of humans to control their destiny.<ref name="Nahin"/>{{rp |165}} The [[visual novel]] ''[[Steins;Gate]]'' features characters sending short text messages backwards in time to avert disaster, only to find their problems are exacerbated due to not knowing how individuals in the past will actually utilize the information.<ref name="famitsu-preview">{{cite web |url=http://www.famitsu.com/game/coming/1224925_1407.html |script-title=ja:秋葉原に時間の扉が開かれる「シュタインズ・ゲート」 |trans-title=The gate of time can be opened at Akihabara, "''Steins;Gate''" |publisher=Famitsu |language=ja |date=13 June 2009 |access-date=1 November 2009 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121021080754/http://www.famitsu.com/game/coming/1224925_1407.html |archive-date=21 October 2012}}</ref><ref name="famitsu-review">{{cite web |url=http://www.famitsu.com/game/news/1228550_1124.html |script-title=ja:時間という禁断のテーマに挑んだ本格派ノベルゲーム「シュタインズ・ゲート」インプレッション |trans-title=Impressions of "Steins;Gate", a novel game about the forbidden topic of time |publisher=Famitsu |first=Senji |last=Ishii |language=ja |date=15 October 2009 |access-date=7 November 2009 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091113055131/http://www.famitsu.com/game/news/1228550_1124.html |archive-date=13 November 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |date=June 2009 |title=Steins;Gate |magazine=Famitsu |page=231 |language=ja |publisher=Enterbrain}}</ref>

===Precognition=== [[Precognition]] has been explored as a form of time travel in fiction. Author [[J. B. Priestley]] wrote of it both in fiction and non-fiction, analysing testimonials of precognition and other "temporal anomalies" in his book ''Man and Time''. His books include time travel to the future through dreaming, which upon waking up results in memories from the future. Such memories, he writes, may also lead to the feeling of ''[[déjà vu]]'', that the present events have already been experienced, and are now being re-experienced.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Price |first1=Katy |title=Testimonies of precognition and encounters with psychiatry in letters to J. B. Priestley |journal=Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences |date=December 2014 |volume=48 |pages=103–111 |doi=10.1016/j.shpsc.2014.07.006 |pmid=25176614 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Infallible precognition, which describes the future as it truly is, may lead to [[causal loop]]s, one form of which is explored in [[Newcomb's paradox]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Craig |first1=William Lane |title=Divine Foreknowledge and Newcomb's Paradox |journal=Philosophia |date=October 1987 |volume=17 |issue=3 |pages=331–350 |doi=10.1007/BF02455055 |s2cid=143485859 |url=http://www.leaderu.com/offices/billcraig/docs/newcomb.html |access-date=11 February 2017|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Dummett |first1=Michael |title=The Seas of Language |date=1993 |publisher=Clarendon Press |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0-198240112 |pages=356, 370–375 |edition=1st}}</ref> The film ''[[12 Monkeys (film)|12 Monkeys]]'' heavily deals with themes of predestination and the [[Cassandra (metaphor)|Cassandra complex]], where the protagonist who travels back in time explains that he can't change the past.<ref name="Klosterman"/>

The protagonist of the short story ''[[Story of Your Life]]'', later adapted into the film, ''[[Arrival (film)|Arrival]]'', experiences life as a superimposition of the [[present]] and the totality of her life, future included, as a consequence of learning an [[alien language]]. The mental faculty is speculation based on the [[Sapir–Whorf hypothesis]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Martinelli |first=Marissa |date=2016-11-22 |title=How Realistic Is the Way Amy Adams’ Character Hacks the Alien Language In Arrival? We Asked a Linguist. |url=https://slate.com/culture/2016/11/a-linguist-on-arrival-s-alien-language.html |access-date=2025-05-31 |work=Slate |language=en-US |issn=1091-2339}}</ref>

===Time loop=== {{main|Time loop}}

A "time loop" or "temporal loop" is a [[plot device]] in which periods of time are repeated and re-experienced by the characters, and there is often some hope of breaking out of the cycle of repetition.<ref name="sfencyclopedia">{{cite web |author=Chelsea Quinn Yarbro |url=http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/time_loop |title=Time Loop |website=[[The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction]] |access-date=2015-10-18}}</ref> Time loops are sometimes referred to as [[causal loop]]s,<ref name="Klosterman"/><ref name="sfencyclopedia"/> but these two concepts are distinct. Although similar, causal loops are unchanging and self-originating, whereas time loops are constantly resetting. In a time loop when a certain condition is met, such as a death of a character or a clock reaching a certain time, the loop starts again, with one or more characters retaining the memories from the previous loop.<ref name="Jones">{{cite book |last1=Jones |first1=Matthew |author-link1=Matt Jones (writer) |last2=Ormrod |first2=Joan |title=Time Travel in Popular Media: Essays on Film, Television, Literature and Video Games |date=2015 |publisher=[[McFarland & Company]] |isbn=978-0-786478071 |page=207}}</ref> Stories with time loops commonly center on the character learning from each successive loop through time.<ref name="sfencyclopedia"/>

===Experiencing time in reverse=== In some media, certain characters are presented as moving through time backwards. This is a very old concept, with some accounts asserting that English mythological figure [[Merlin]] lived backwards, and appeared to be able to prophesy the future because for him it was a memory. This tradition has been reflected in certain modern fictional accounts of the character.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Goodrich |first1=Peter H. |title=Merlin: A Casebook |date=2003 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |location=New York |isbn=1135583404 |pages=83, 247}}</ref> In the [[Piers Anthony]] book ''[[Bearing an Hourglass]]'', the second of eight books in the ''[[Incarnations of Immortality]]'' series, the character of [[Incarnations of Immortality#Characters|Norton]] becomes the incarnation of Time and continues his life living backwards in time.<ref>{{cite journal |journal=Amazing Science Fiction Stories |date=1984 |volume=58 |page=15}}{{title missing}}</ref> The 2016 film ''[[Doctor Strange (2016 film)|Doctor Strange]]'' has the character use the Time Stone, one of the [[Infinity Gems|Infinity Stones]] in the [[Marvel Cinematic Universe]], to reverse time, experiencing time backwards while so doing.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Johnston |first1=Jacob |title=Marvel's Doctor Strange: The Art of the Movie |date=22 November 2016 |location=New York |isbn=978-0785198208}}</ref>{{Page needed|date=September 2021}}

In the film ''[[Tenet]]'', characters time travel without jumping back, but by experiencing past reality in reverse, and at the same speed, after going through a 'turnstile' device and until they revert to normal time flow by going through such a device again.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Stolworthy |first1=Jacob |title=The crucial Tenet scene that reveals true meaning of movie's title |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/tenet-movie-title-meaning-scene-clue-robert-pattinson-time-travel-ending-explained-a9689046.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220507/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/tenet-movie-title-meaning-scene-clue-robert-pattinson-time-travel-ending-explained-a9689046.html |archive-date=2022-05-07 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |website=[[The Independent]] |access-date=26 August 2021|date=27 August 2020}}{{cbignore}}</ref> In the meantime, two versions of the time traveller coexist (and must not meet, lest they mutually destruct): the one that had been 'traveling forward' (existing normally) until entering a turnstile and the one traveling backward from the turnstile.{{Citation needed|date=August 2021}} The [[laws of thermodynamics]] are reversed for time traveling people and objects, so that for example backward travel requires the use of a [[respirator]]. Objects left behind by time travellers obey 'reverse thermodynamics;' for example, bullets shot or even simply deposited while traveling backward fly back into (forward traveling) guns.{{Citation needed|date=August 2021}}

==Themes==

===Time paradox=== {{further|Temporal paradox}}

The idea of changing the past is logically [[contradiction|contradictory]], creating situations like the [[grandfather paradox]], where time travellers go back in time and change the past in a way that affects their future in a way that could be seen as paradoxical or illogical, such as by killing their grandparents.<ref>{{cite web |last=Langford |first=David |author-link=David Langford |url=http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/time_paradoxes |title=Time Paradoxes |website=The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction |access-date=30 November 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Swartz |first=Norman |title=Time Travel: Visiting the Past |url=https://www.sfu.ca/~swartz/time_travel1.htm |website=Norman Swartz – Biography |publisher=[[Simon Fraser University]] |access-date=February 20, 2016 |date=October 31, 1993}}</ref> The engineer [[Paul J. Nahin]] states that "even though the consensus today is that the past cannot be changed, science fiction writers have used the idea of changing the past for good story effect".<ref name="Nahin"/>{{rp|267}} Time travel to the past and precognition without the ability to change events may result in [[causal loop]]s.<ref name="Klosterman">{{cite book |last=Klosterman |first=Chuck |title=Eating the Dinosaur |url=https://archive.org/details/eatingdinosaur00klos |url-access=registration |date=2009 |publisher=Scribner |location=New York |isbn=9781439168486 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/eatingdinosaur00klos/page/60 60–62] |edition=1st}}</ref>

The possibility of characters changing the past gave rise to the idea of "time police", people who prevent such changes from occurring by engaging in time travel to reverse the changes.<ref name="Stableford">{{cite book |last=Stableford |first=Brian |title=Science Fact and Science Fiction: An Encyclopedia |url=https://archive.org/details/sciencefactscien0000stab |url-access=registration |date=2006 |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |isbn=0415974607 |page=[https://archive.org/details/sciencefactscien0000stab/page/534 534]}}</ref>

====Alternative future, history, timelines, and dimensions==== {{see also|Parallel universes in fiction|Future history|Alternate history}}

An alternative future or alternate future is a possible [[future]] that never comes to pass, typically when someone travels into the [[past]] and alters it so that the events of the alternative future cannot occur or when a communication from the future to the past effected a change that alters the future.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Prucher |first1=Jeffrey |title=[[Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction]] |last2=Wolfe |first2=Gene |date=2007 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-195305678 |location=New York |pages=4–5 |chapter=alternate future |access-date=4 January 2016 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iYzi8m8FbEsC&pg=PA4}}</ref><ref name="Nahin"/>{{rp |165}} Alternative histories may exist "side by side", with the time traveller arriving at different dimensions as he changes time.<ref>{{cite episode |title=Journeys in Space and Time |series=[[Cosmos: A Personal Voyage]] |network=[[PBS]] |date=November 16, 1980 |number=8 |time=36 minute mark}}</ref>

====Butterfly effect==== {{see also|Butterfly effect in popular culture}} The [[butterfly effect]] is the notion that small events can have large, widespread consequences. The term describes events observed in [[chaotic systems|chaos theory]] where a very small change in initial conditions has vastly different results. The term was coined by mathematician [[Edward Norton Lorenz|Edward Lorenz]] years after the phenomenon was first described.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hilborn |first1=Robert C. |title=Sea gulls, butterflies, and grasshoppers: A brief history of the butterfly effect in nonlinear dynamics |journal=[[American Journal of Physics]] |date=April 2004 |volume=72 |issue=4 |pages=425–427 |doi=10.1119/1.1636492 |bibcode=2004AmJPh..72..425H}}</ref>

The butterfly effect has found its way into popular imagination. For example, in Ray Bradbury's 1952 short story ''[[A Sound of Thunder]]'', the killing of an insect millions of years in the past drastically changes the world and in the 2004 film ''[[The Butterfly Effect]]'', the protagonist's small changes to his past results in extreme consequences.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://archive.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2008/06/08/the_meaning_of_the_butterfly/?page=full |title=The meaning of the butterfly |author=Peter Dizikes |date=June 8, 2008 |work=The Boston Globe |access-date=May 31, 2016}}</ref>

===Time tourism=== A "distinct subgenre" of stories explore time travel as a means of tourism,<ref name="Kuiper"/> with travelers curious to visit periods or events such as the [[Victorian Era]] or the [[Crucifixion of Christ]], or to meet historical figures such as [[Abraham Lincoln]] or [[Ludwig van Beethoven]].<ref name="Stableford"/> This theme can be addressed from two or three directions. An early example of present-day tourists travelling back to the past is [[Ray Bradbury]]'s 1952 ''[[A Sound of Thunder]]'', in which the protagonists are [[big game hunter]]s who travel to the distant past to hunt [[dinosaurs]].<ref name="Kuiper"/> An early example of another type, in which tourists from the future visit the present, is [[Catherine L. Moore]] and [[Henry Kuttner]]'s 1946 ''[[Vintage Season]]''.<ref name="Bova">{{cite book |last=Bova |first=Ben |title=[[The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Two]] |date=2003 |publisher=[[Tor Books]] |location=New York |isbn=978-0-765305343 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/sciencefictionha00benb/page/ ix-xi] |edition=1st |chapter=Introduction}}</ref> The final type in which there are people time-traveling to the future is experienced in the second book of [[Douglas Adams]]' ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy]]'' series, ''[[The Restaurant at the End of the Universe]]'', which, as the title indicates, includes a restaurant that exists at the end of the universe. In the restaurant, people time-traveling from all over the space-time continuum (especially the rich) came to the restaurant to view the explosion of the universe put on repeat.{{Citation needed|date=September 2021}}

===Time war=== {{see also|:Category:Temporal war fiction}}

''[[The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction]]'' describes a time war as a fictional war that is "fought across time, usually with each side knowingly using time travel ... to establish the ascendancy of one or another version of history". Time wars are also known as "change wars" and "temporal wars".<ref name=":0">{{cite web |last=Langford |first=David |author-link=David Langford |title=Changewar |url=http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/changewar |website=The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction |access-date=November 17, 2015}}</ref> Examples include [[Clifford D. Simak]]'s 1951 ''[[Time and Again (Simak novel)|Time and Again]]'', [[Russell T. Davies]]' 2005 revival of [[Doctor Who]], [[Barrington J. Bayley]]'s 1974 ''[[The Fall of Chronopolis]]'', [[Matthew Costello]]'s 1990 ''Time of the Fox'', and the central premise of ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise]]''.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Martin |first=Dan |date=2013-11-25 |title=Doctor Who recap: The Day of the Doctor |url=https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2013/nov/25/the-day-of-the-doctor-doctor-who-recap |access-date=2024-04-15 |work=The Guardian|issn=0261-3077}}</ref><ref name="Nahin"/>{{rp|267}}<ref name=":0" />

===Ghost story=== Researcher Barbara Bronlow wrote that traditional [[ghost stories]] are in effect an early form of time travel, since they depict living people of the present interacting with (dead) people of the past. She noted as an instance that [[Christopher Marlow]]'s ''[[Doctor Faustus (play)|Doctor Faustus]]'' called up [[Helen of Troy]] and met her arising from her grave.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Bronlow |first=Barbara H. |journal=Workshop on the Ongoing Impact of Ancient Myth on Contemporary Culture |editor1-last=Petrovna |editor1-first=Natalia |editor2-last=Cougland |editor2-first=George C. |editor3-last=Ramirez |editor3-first=Juan Mario |pages=146–148}}</ref>

==See also== {{Portal|Science fiction}} * [[Eternal return]] * [[List of films featuring time loops]] * [[List of time travel works of fiction]] * [[Time machine]] * [[Time slip]] * [[Time viewer]]

==References== {{Reflist}}

==Further reading== * {{cite book |last=Gleick |first=James |author-link=James Gleick |title=Time Travel: A History |date=2016 |publisher=Pantheon |isbn=978-0-307908797}} * {{cite book |last=Nahin |first=Paul J. |author-link=Paul J. Nahin |title=Time Machines: Time Travel in Physics, Metaphysics, and Science Fiction |date=1999 |publisher=Springer |location=New York |isbn=978-0-387985718 |edition=2nd}} * {{cite book |last=Wasserman |first=Ryan |title=Paradoxes of Time Travel |date=2018 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-879333-5}}

==External links== {{Commonscat|Fiction about time travel}} * [http://www.aetherco.com/timelinks/timevideo-thebiglist.html Timelinks – the big list of time travel video, film, and television] – over 700 films and television programs featuring time travel. * [http://www.ittdb.com ITTDB] – the Internet Time Travel Database. * [http://www.timetravelreviews.com Andy's Anachronisms] – Exploring the themes of time travel and alternate universes in literature and entertainment.

{{DEFAULTSORT:time travel in fiction}} [[Category:Fiction about time travel| ]] [[Category:History of fiction]]

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