I tend to return to the years & geographic location surrounding college.
I use the phrase as it’s used in the novel Slaughterhouse Five. Chaplain’s Assistant Billy Pilgrim, a disoriented, ill-trained American soldier, is captured by the Germans in the Battle of the Bulge. For unexplained reasons, Billy has come “unstuck in time.” He is kidnapped by extraterrestrial aliens from the planet Tralfamadore. They exhibit him in a zoo with movie star Montana Wildhack as his mate. The Tralfamadorians, who can see in four dimensions, have already seen every instant of their lives. They believe they cannot choose to change anything about their fates, but can choose to concentrate upon any moment in their lives, and Billy becomes convinced of the correctness of their theories. Billy travels forward and back in time, reliving occasions of his life, real and fantastic. He spends time on Tralfamadore; in Dresden; in the War, walking in deep snow before his German capture; in his post-war married life in the U.S.A. of the 1950s; and in the moment of his murder.
I usually use my time travel machine to go somewhere across the world, but I leave the time and date knobs in the same place, so it’s basically instant travel.
Bummer. I missed this post so now I’d have to time travel back to last night at 10 pm from which point I could time travel back to the Figaro circa '77-'78. But since there are little padded rooms full of people who attempted this, I think I’ll pass.
I normally move forward about 50 years. That means that my visits are currently to the early part of 2009. I do that because there are no internet forums for me to write nonsense on in the late 1950s. On the other hand, the music’s better.
“dear reader: I have traveled back in time to change things. You will know I succeeded if slavery is illegal in the United States and if the USSR collapses some time around 1991.”
