Time Trouble Answers Wanted
Dear Editor:
I have read your magazine for nearly two years, but this is my first letter to the "Corner." The first and second installments of Ray Cummings' "Exile of Time" prompted me to write this. There is a story you can well be proud of. I should like to obtain it in book form. Mr. Cummings is a wonder. I have read many time stories, but his is at the top of my list.
If there is any other "time" fan in A. S.'s "Readers' Corner" I should like to have a letter discussion on it with him. None of my acquaintances care a whoop about that type of story, so I have to thrash out all my problems by myself.
There are some questions I would like to ask about "The Exile of Time."
1—In the event of the appearance of the time-traveling cage, the story ran, to use Ray's own words: "Suddenly before me there was a white ghost. A shape. A wraith of something which a moment before had not been there. The shape was like a mist. Then in a second or two it was solid."
Why should the cage appear as a mist at first? If there is any amount of time separating two things, those two things are invisible to each other, are they not? Any amount of time would include a second, and even a millionth part of a second. In that case, the cage should suddenly appear in the twinkling of an eye, with no trace of a blur.
2—Supposing I were standing at a spot five feet from a time-traveling vehicle. The latter would be traveling through time at 3 P. M., while I am at 2 P. M.—an hour's difference between us. It would be invisible to me then, but an hour later when I would be at 3 P. M. and the machine at 4 P. M., then I would see it as it appeared at 3 P. M. Whatever movement it would make in space, I would not see until an hour later. Is that right? Then is it not possible that each individual is existing in a different time realm? And we see them, or I see the other fellow as he appeared when my time caught up with his? I had better quit before I get hooted off the stage.
3—If a man invented a time-traveler and went back to the year of the beginning of the World War, knowing all he has read in history, could he not take steps to prevent a war that has already happened? Or would that power be denied him? Somewhere in the story is said that the past cannot be changed, and that any effort to do so would be useless. In my belief, no matter where or when a man goes into the past, if he appears in a year or day that has already gone by, he is changing the past. Then there should be no room for doubt: time-travelling is impossible. It never will be done (An Astounding Stories fan should be kicked for using the word "impossible"!).
Let's have more good thought-provoking time tales. And get lots of stories from Cummings—he's a wow. I sure would like to spend an evening at a campfire with him.—Allen Spoolman, 613—4th Avenue, W., Ashland, Wisc.