Escape Artists
Escape Pod => Episode Comments => Topic started by: Heradel on April 06, 2009, 05:49:34 PM
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EP Flash: Grandpa? (http://escapepod.org/2009/04/06/escape-pod-flash-grandpa/)
By Edward M Lerner
Read by Ben Phillips (http://www.painfulreminder.net/)
The lecture hall was pleasantly warm. Behind Prof. Thaddeus Fitch, busily writing on the chalkboard, pencils scratched earnestly in spiral notebooks, fluorescent lights hummed, feet shuffled. A Beach Boys tune wafted in through open windows from the quad. “And so,” he continued, “travel backwards in time would violate causality, and hence appears to be impossible.” He turned to face the class. “The problem is most commonly illustrated with the ‘Grandfather Paradox.’
Rated PG for paradoxical violence.
Be sure to check out Mr. Lerner’s new book, FOOL’S EXPERIENCE. (http://www.sfwa.org/members/lerner/Fools.html)
(http://escapepod.org/wp-content/plugins/podpress/images/audio_mp3_button.png) (http://media.rawvoice.com/escapepod/media.libsyn.com/media/escapepod/EPFlash_Grandpa.mp3)
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I kind of expected Grandpa to shoot the guy on the third beat. But this ending was satisfying too. Good stuff.
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I liked it a lot, although I still think Futurama did the best variation on this particular theme.
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I liked it. Simple.
Though since I doubt anyone would go to the trouble of going back in time just to test the grandfather paradox, I wonder what he does in the future...
Or does the invent of time travel cause unspoken horrors that deserve to get him killed....
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Cute litle story, but I didn't love it as found it slightly predictable.
I'm going to side with one of my favorite authors on this topic:
Why Grandpa? If you're going to travel in time to kill a relitive why not Grandma, after all you've a better chance of not being wrong..
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I enjoyed it! I liked the conciseness of it.
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So the question that I think we really should be asking is this:
Is Grandson1 the same person as Grandson3? Or does he create a time loop in which there are now N+1 Grandsons testing the paradox? Obviously there have to be alternate timelines. Grandpa wouldn't decide not to have children without the visit from Grandson, so isn't that in itself disproving the theory?
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...or maybe grandma was one of the students who was traumatized by the shootings and sought comfort with the prof?
C'mon, my ending has the dual advantages of being ironic AND cliched. :-)
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I liked it. Simple.
Though since I doubt anyone would go to the trouble of going back in time just to test the grandfather paradox, I wonder what he does in the future...
Or does the invent of time travel cause unspoken horrors that deserve to get him killed....
Or, was he writing a paper on time-travel paradoxes and wanted to make a point ;)
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I liked it a lot, although I still think Futurama did the best variation on this particular theme.
I did the nasty in the pastee
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A fun little story, but can Grandpa escape the paradox of not having children in order to have grandchildren that would travel back in time to try and kill him? Are they trying to kill him because they found out he tried to stop them existing? ;D
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A fun little story, but can Grandpa escape the paradox of not having children in order to have grandchildren that would travel back in time to try and kill him? Are they trying to kill him because they found out he tried to stop them existing? ;D
Win!
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Well done. Best flash peice in a while.
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I'm going to side with one of my favorite authors on this topic:
Why Grandpa? If you're going to travel in time to kill a relitive why not Grandma, after all you've a better chance of not being wrong..
And she'd put up less of a fight.
Cute story. A bit disposable but then, it was a flash piece.
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I'm going to side with one of my favorite authors on this topic:
Why Grandpa? If you're going to travel in time to kill a relitive why not Grandma, after all you've a better chance of not being wrong..
And she'd put up less of a fight.
You never met my Nan...
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I'm going to side with one of my favorite authors on this topic:
Why Grandpa? If you're going to travel in time to kill a relitive why not Grandma, after all you've a better chance of not being wrong..
And she'd put up less of a fight.
You never met my Nan...
That's what I was thinking...
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Fun time travel story, but if I take the ending at face value, inconsistent. Every attempt on his life before was prevented "magically" by intervention of some invisible force to prevent a paradox. So, there's some time daemon watching over and ensuring the sanctity of the timeline, I guess? Wouldn't that also mean that if he did manage to not have children, he would be causing a paradox. So the same time daemon's going to jump in and prevent that change as well--how is not exactly clear, maybe artificial insemination? Or love potion? Either that or his decision means nothing, and he ends up procreating anyway.
Either way, there will be more attempts on his life, despite his decision.