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Time travel books

Oŝo-Jabe,2008年1月15日の

メッセージ: 6

言語: English

Oŝo-Jabe (プロフィールを表示) 2008年1月15日 3:51:25

The following question is mostly concerning how one would construct time-travel tenses in literature...

What grammar would one use to describe something that happened in the past chronologically but will take place at some point in the future from your perspective? or that happened in the future, and already happened from your point of view? or that is happening right now, but you have either already experienced it or you won't experience it until some future point? Are there any books which can be used as an example?

mnlg (プロフィールを表示) 2008年1月15日 7:24:44

Oŝo-Jabe:What grammar would one use to describe something that happened in the past chronologically but will take place at some point in the future from your perspective?
I'm not sure I understand what you mean, however this is considered correct:

"Ŝi diris, ke ŝi venos"

Very easy ridulo.gif

Oŝo-Jabe (プロフィールを表示) 2008年3月7日 1:40:09

Would it be correct to say "Ŝi venis morgaŭ" or "Ŝi venos hieraŭ"?

Hikaro (プロフィールを表示) 2008年3月7日 6:19:50

I don't think authors usually use tense to indicate a screwy time travel sense, unless characters are discussing the time travel.

Think of Back to the Future. Even though characters are jumping all over time, the narrative could be told easily without changing tense (other than the dialogue).

Marty went to 1955. Marty went to 1985. Marty went to 2015. Marty went back to 1985. Marty went back to 1955. Marty went to 1885. Marty went to 1985.

Even though chronologically these past sentences are all over the place, the narrative is consistently told in the past tense.

So for your questions
1) chronologically past, future in your point of view

I'm not sure I understand. You're saying the time traveler (let's call him Marty) is from the year 1985, and travels to 1995, sees himself buying a house, and comes back to tell his friend (let's call him Doc) about it.

"I went to 1995 and saw myself buying a house in Lyon Estates, Doc. It was heavy."

2) Happened in the future, but already happened from my point of view.

Marty is from 1985, and travels to 1955, and tells the 1955 Doc Brown about the astronauts landing on the moon.

"Yeah, Doc, Neil Armstrong landed on the moon in 1969. Everybody knows that!"

3) Already experienced it, but it is happening now or will happen at a future point

Marty travels back to 1955 after going back to 1985 and sees his 1955-time-traveler-self playing Johnny B. Goode, and tells Doc about it.

"Hey Doc, I'm seeing myself play Johnny B. Goode!" or "Hey Doc, I can't go onto the stage, my 1955-self is up there playing Johnny B. Goode!"
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If my point isn't clear, it's that using tenses to convey a disparity between chronological time and narrative time is not necessary and would likely sound unnatural. Just tell things in the order that the time-traveler experiences them using a standard tense (English prefers the past tense in literature) and don't switch tenses to convey time-changes.

Writers of all sorts have been using "time-travel" techniques forever like flashbacks and stuff and there is not confusion that the narrative being told is not in the "present".

~David

sergejm (プロフィールを表示) 2008年3月7日 7:23:09

Oŝo-Jabe:Would it be correct to say "Ŝi venis morgaŭ" or "Ŝi venos hieraŭ"?
Normally it is correct, if there is no any misunderstanding.

Asimov in his book "The End Of Eternity" uses therms "biotime" and "chronological time".

So you can say for example:

Ŝi bio-inte venis ĥrono-morgaŭ

She came biotimely in past, chrologically tomorrow

Ŝi bio-onte venos ĥrono-hieraŭ

She will come biotimely in future, chonologically yesterday.

The time of the verbs are to be via biotime.
Certainly, you ought to explain this usage at the beginning of your book - it is not common Esperanto.
PS: krono is crown, so you must use writing ĥrono.

Matthieu (プロフィールを表示) 2008年3月7日 18:43:26

Oh, Hikaro, another Back to the Future fan. rido.gif

Sergejm: I didn't read The End of Eternity, although I read many books from Asimov. It looks interesting. “Biotime” and “chronological time” are really clever; they make easy to understand concepts that are quite difficult.

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