Thursday 25 March 2010

A slight obsession

Taking the book I'm working on right now into consideration, I've come to the conclusion that I've always had a bit of an obsession with time travel. But, even though I love the idea I don't think it'd work well in practise (you only have to watch the Butterfly Effect to see that tampering with the space-time continuuum could result in lost limbs at some stage in your life and/or certain death on some scale) (is there any other scale?).
Maybe it's because you don't have trawl endless comparison sites before picking a suitable destination and then have to pay for it, buy for it, pack for it --- hell, plan for it, basically.  Because I hate plans.  Any kind. They're so restricting. Ideas are far better.  They are 'germs' - like those seeds that fly off a fluffy dandelion when you blow it...there's a purpose to that - it will land somewhere - but that's as far as that particular plan goes.  The result will still be the same.  It'll take root somewhere. Doesn't matter where, surely?
Or it could even be the simple regret that once something's done it can't be 'undone'. Events and actions I mean.  I know a wonky worktop can be re-aligned (I married a Carpenter after all - I know these things!).And I'm never sure if it started with Doctor Who in the late sixties (the tune alone scared me; had me cowering behind the sofa before I'd even caught sight of a knobbly old Dalek) or with 'The Time Machine' film (the original Rod Taylor one) and in particular the scene where he first sets off in the machine - a beautiful feat of mechanical engineering  - and the shop window display across the street changes seasons, years, decades, centuries with such a fascinating metamorphosis that it held me spellbound.  I might have to go with that.  If one scene from a film made such an impression on me then clearly it's more meaningful than some guy holed up in a blue Police Box hurtling through time and space. But only just.

So I thought about what my favourite Time Travelly movies were and came up with this - by no means exhaustive - list:

* The Time Machine (the original)
* Back to the Future (all of them)

* The Lake House
* Terminator (the first)
* The Time Traveler's Wife (although the book far outweighs the film)
* Groundhog Day
* The Butterfly Effect (the first)
* Stargate
* Jumpers
* The Kid (recently on telly)
* Somewhere in Time (bit cheesy but the sentiments are gorgeous)

Anyone else want to 'fess up to any small obsessions, genre-wise?

3 comments:

Avis HG said...

Hi Debs

The Butterfly effect - do you mean the superb Ray Bradbury's 'A Sound of Thunder'?

Deb said...

Ah, Debs, I have all three Back to the Future film. Love them all! I wonder though; if it really was possible to time travel could we (or even should we) change fate? See, I can be deep when I want to be!

Debs Riccio said...

Avis, Lovely to see you here by the way! I haven't the first clue as to who Ray Bradbury is or what connection he has to The Butterfly Effect - are we talking about the same film?
Debs - I thought you were already deep - and no, I don't think time travel should be a chance to change stuff - what chaos (again, Butterfly) would reign - but to observe would be great, wouldn't it?