Travel to a different country is often mind blowing enough to disorientate a person. New food, climate, language and the loss of the familiar is all a lot to take in. Imagine how much harder it would be to travel in time. What sort of personality would adapt, and who would fail?
There are a couple of scenarios. Firstly, a person might be fairly confident that they can return via a machine, magical device or similar mechanism. Secondly, travel with no chance of returning home – a refugee in time. Different mindsets and different decisions.
With some confidence in returning, the traveller would need to follow the rules. Get back to the machine in time, don’t muck up the past enough to destroy your own timezone, or follow the magical rules. Be at that stone circle at All Hallows Eve, say the chant correctly or keep a tight hold on the brooch. A rule follower would be most useful in this case to ensure a safe return. But there is no fun in that for the reader!
Ray Bradbury has something to say on this aspect. His story ‘A Sound of Thunder’ tells a diabolical tale of an arrogant traveller not following the rules. This is the famous killing the butterfly effect of time travel story, where the death of one butterfly has changed the future. Brian Aldiss in ‘Poor Little Warrior’ takes it a step further when the dino parasites cause some fatal problems for the hunter. Link: https://www.baen.com/Chapters/9781625793614/9781625793614___3.htm
So personality matters. Michael Crichton in ‘Timeline’ makes good use of several different types of characters, from the researcher, mercenaries, and over confident CEO. They have a machine to return to but are facing real problems in medieval France in the middle of the Hundred Years War, as well as real modern day problems. It’s a cracking read and I highly recommend it.
But what of our hapless accidental visitor? A conk on the head and a trip into a misty stone circle, and it’s all kilts and highlanders. A fall from a bridge into a space time warp and a modern day woman faces the cultural restrictions of the Victorian times. (Meg Ryan in Kate & Leopold) A mysterious pendant that opens a portal to Roman Britain, where Picts and Romans face off over Hadrian’s Wall (my Druids Portal series).
Without the assurance of return, can our traveller cope? Lost in a time and place where they will forever be an outsider? Can they adapt to a new life, maybe even forgetting they ever lived in a different time – it would feel imaginary after a few years of surviving in the past. It would take enormous mental strength to survive. To accept that this is your life now is hard enough when life is not a struggle. I would imagine the loss of personal autonomy would hit the hardest. Current times are not perfect, but for most times in the past one had little choice when war was declared, who you married, or what station in life you lived.
At least the decision can be out of your hands – maybe accepting fate and an accident would be ok eventually. But what if it was your decision to stay? For love mostly, but perhaps also a feeling you are a fish out of water in your own time or think that knowing the future will net you riches in the past.
For love, one might give it all up. But it’s a big call. Did Kate regret staying with Leopold and giving up her right to vote, control her finances, and not to get locked in an asylum for hysteria when she hits menopause? It’s a lot of trust to place in one person, one time, and an irrevocable decision. In my Druid’s Portal series, the soldier Trajan ends up in the future, seeing it as an adventure. While not regretting a family, he loses friends and his own status as a commander in a world he knows. He adapts because he is a good man, while carrying the aura of the past with him – of duty, of honour and courage.
In the end, there is probably no right decision. In the Star Trek episode ‘The City on the Edge of Forever’ Kirk must make a heart breaking decision to save the future. (No spoilers) In the end, a decision must be made, with the future balanced against loss and heartbreak. Altering the past to make it to your liking never seems to work out well. Someone always pays a price, and it will most likely be you.
Interested in a bit of time travel romance? My Druid’s Portal series is set in Roman Britain. Take a trip back 2,000 years and get ready for action and adventure. It’s not your average romance, but it will get your heart racing!
See you last week,
Cindy Tomamichel
