Time and Again
 First edition cover | |
| Author | Jack Finney |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Linguistic communication | English |
| Genre | Science fiction |
| Publisher | Simon & Schuster |
| Publication date | 1970 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover, Paperback) |
| Pages | 304 |
| ISBN | 0-671-24295-iv (commencement edition, hardcover) |
| OCLC | 84586 |
Time and Over again is a 1970 illustrated novel by American author Jack Finney. The many illustrations in the volume are real, though, as explained in an endnote, not all are from 1882, the year in which the main action of the book takes place.
A sequel, From Time to Time (1995), was published during the final year of the writer's life. The book left room for a third novel, evidently never written.
In the afterword of 11/22/63, Stephen King states that Time and Once again is "in this writer's apprehensive opinion, the bang-up time-travel story." He had originally intended to dedicate his book to Jack Finney.
Plot [edit]
In November 1970, Simon Morley, an advertising sketch artist, is approached by U.S. Regular army Major Ruben Prien to participate in a secret government projection. He is taken to a huge warehouse on the West Side of Manhattan, where he views what seem to be moving picture sets, with people interim on them. It seems this is a project to learn whether it is feasible to send people dorsum into the past by what amounts to self-hypnosis—whether, past convincing oneself that one is in the past, not the present, i can make information technology then.
Equally it turns out, Simon (usually called Si) has a good reason to want to become back to the past—his girlfriend, Kate, has a mystery linked to New York City in 1882. She has a letter of the alphabet dated from that twelvemonth, mailed to an Andrew Carmody (a fictional small-scale figure who was associated with Grover Cleveland). The letter seems innocuous enough—a asking for a coming together to hash out marble—simply there is a note which, though one-half burned, seems to say that the sending of the letter led to "the devastation by fire of the entire World", followed by a missing discussion. Carmody, the writer of the note, mentioned his arraign for that incident. He then killed himself.
Si agrees to participate in the project, and requests permission to go back to New York City in 1882 in order to watch the alphabetic character beingness mailed (the postmark makes clear when it was mailed). The elderly Dr. Due east.East. Danziger, head of the project, agrees, and expresses his regret that he tin can't go with Si, considering he would honey to encounter his parents' first meeting, which besides occurred in New York Urban center in 1882. The project rents an apartment at the famous Dakota apartment edifice, which did not really exist in 1882. (Information technology was completed two years later, simply Finney explains that he took a few liberties with the timeline due to his fascination with the building.) Si uses the apartment as both a staging area and a means to aid him with self-hypnosis, since the building's style is then much of the period in which information technology was congenital and faces a section of Key Park which, when viewed from the flat's window, is unchanged from 1882.
The Dakota in winter. This image appears in Chapter 17 of the novel.
Si is successful in going dorsum to 1882, at first very briefly, and and then a second time he is able to take Kate with him. They travel by horse-fatigued bus down to the old post office, and lookout man the letter existence mailed by a man. They follow him, and larn that he lives at xix Gramercy Park. Then they return to their base at the Dakota apartments and return to the present.
Si is debriefed and carefully examined after each trip to the past, and as far equally the project organizers tin can tell, his activities in the past are making no divergence to the present. He is encouraged to go back once again. He presents himself at 19 Gramercy Park as a potential boarder. He is accepted, begins living there and learns that the man who mailed the letter is named Jake Pickering. He explores the Manhattan of the past for several days, sketching all the while—he is an illustrator, and Finney inserts illustrations from the flow into the book as Si's own. He goes on to learn that Pickering is blackmailing Carmody. Si finds himself falling for the landlady'southward niece, Julia Charbonneau. Simply he has a rival—Pickering. Eventually, Pickering makes a scene, having tattooed the name "JULIA" on himself, and Si soon leaves, to render to the present.
Things aren't going too in the present. 1 of the other participants in the project, having gone back to Denver some 70 years in the past, has fabricated some unknown change in the past (or so it seems to be causeless by the project leaders as at that place is no reason why the change couldn't take been made past Si—in fact, more likely so as Si had been much more agile in the past than the Denver operative—or another time traveler) and thus a friend, whom he remembers, was never built-in. Danziger insists that the project exist stopped. When he is overruled, he resigns. Afterward Prien talks to him, Si sees no alternative other than to return to the by once again, though he is troubled past Danziger's resignation.
He is accepted back at Gramercy Park cheerfully, with even the dour Pickering happy. It seems Pickering and Julia are now engaged. Si (casting himself as a private detective) tells Julia that Pickering is a blackmailer. They become to Pickering's office and muffle themselves to scout the bribery money existence turned over past Carmody. Carmody brings only $10,000, rather than the demanded one thousand thousand dollars for the incriminating files. After knocking him out, Carmody ties up Pickering and sets out to expect for the papers. He realizes they are concealed amid many other files. He patiently thumbs through the files, while Si and Julia agonize as the hours pass. Finally, Carmody decides on a scheme—burn the files. He does so. Pickering tries to salve the files, but burns himself desperately in the process. To the pair'southward astonishment, Si and Julia burst along, urging them to flee, and abscond themselves.
It is a huge burn, and Si and Julia discover themselves trapped. They barely escape. Si learns that the building used to business firm the newspaper the New York World and one piece of the puzzle fits in—the missing give-and-take in Carmody's notation was "Building". After watching the efforts to fight the burn down, in which many die, the shaken couple returns to Gramercy Park. There is no sign of Pickering. [The burning of the New York World building is a factual historical event].
Two days subsequently, the two are picked upward by Police Inspector Thomas Byrnes, and then taken to Carmody's house. Terribly burned and bandaged, Carmody accuses them of murdering Pickering and starting the fire. After they leave, Byrnes expresses indecision and lets them walk away—only to yell "The prisoners are escaping" to the sergeant who accompanies him. It is a set up-upward, the two are to testify their guilt by "attempting to escape". As information technology turns out, police all over the island have already been provided with their clarification and photographs. They are able to abscond, but have no money and nowhere to get. They shelter in the as-yet-unassembled Statue of Liberty'southward arm, then standing in Madison Foursquare. (Again, the arm continuing in Madison Square Park prior to the statue as a whole existence erected is a factual event). Si tells Julia the whole story, simply she takes it as entertaining fantasy. She is soon convinced otherwise, as Si brings them both into the nowadays, and she observes the dawn from high inside the long-assembled statue, seeing a totally strange New York.
They spend a solar day in the present, with a shocked Julia observing the things that have changed in 90 years, from clothing to television. At last, they settle into Si's apartment. He is ashamed to tell her the history of what has happened in the past xc years, the horrible wars and the fact that at that place are areas of the metropolis where no police-abiding citizen tin can safely go. Julia must return abode. The two realize that the human being whom they met at Carmody's house was in fact Pickering, who they could not identify because of the burns and bandages—Carmody had actually died in the fire. Armed with this noesis, Julia can keep Pickering from having her arrested, lest he be exposed. As 1882 is far more than real to her than 1970, she returns to the by without needing any help from Si.
Si goes to report in, and tells nearly of the story, concealing Julia'southward visit to 1970. They and so give him an assignment—to intentionally change the by. Enquiry has confirmed that Carmody (actually Pickering) was an acquaintance of Grover Cleveland'southward--and talked Cleveland out of ownership Republic of cuba from Espana. The war machine men now in effective command of the project conclude that if Pickering is exposed, he might never accept influence with Cleveland, and the U.S. might never have to worry nigh Fidel Castro. But subsequently talking with Danziger, Si worries nearly the other furnishings the change might take, and Danziger makes him promise not to carry out the scheme. Si returns to 1882. Having learned from Danziger how his parents met by take a chance, Si interjects himself and prevents their meeting. Because the parents never run across, Danziger will never be born, and the project will never happen. Si walks away towards Gramercy Park and Julia, and away from 1970.
Reception [edit]
Later on criticizing unrealistic scientific discipline fiction, Carl Sagan in 1978 listed Time and Once more as among stories "that are and then tautly constructed, so rich in the accommodating details of an unfamiliar society that they sweep me along before I accept even a chance to be disquisitional".[1]
[edit]
It had long been rumored that Robert Redford would adapt the book into a movie.[ citation needed ] The project has never come up to fruition. Though a film of this novel has never been fabricated, a 1980 moving picture, Somewhere in Time features a similar time travel technique. It is based on the 1975 Richard Matheson novel Bid Fourth dimension Return. The movie concerns a boyfriend, Richard Collier, unhappy with his life as a playwright who takes a brusk route trip to the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island for a break, to assistance relieve the frustration of his author'south block. Killing fourth dimension before dinner in the Hall of History museum there, he becomes fascinated with an old photographic portrait of a stage actress from 1912. He becomes besotted with her image. In researching her life and visiting her home, he discovers she was interested in fourth dimension travel and owned a volume on time travel written by his old college professor, Dr. Finney. He intercepts the professor in between lectures, to ask him for clarification if time travel is possible? Finney's fourth dimension travel theory mimics Jack Finney's idea of cocky-hypnosis, to remove all items from the nowadays and convince your listen that you are in the exact environment of the desired destination time. The professor says that he achieved this once, had travelled back in fourth dimension in Venice, but it was only for an instant, a fraction of a second. Collier, enthused, so seeks to replicate the experiment for himself.
In July 2012, it was announced that Lionsgate studios optioned the film rights to the novel, with Doug Liman set to direct and produce.
References [edit]
- ^ Sagan, Carl (1978-05-28). "Growing upward with Science Fiction". The New York Times. p. SM7. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2018-12-11. Retrieved 2018-12-12 .
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_and_Again_%28Finney_novel%29