Time and Again

“To see how you react when the impossible is happening: some people can’t take it. They rely on things being what they ought to be, and behaving as they always have. When suddenly they aren’t, and don’t, their senses actually surrender, can’t cope. Right at that desk, they fail. Don, downstairs, was one; we had to give him a pill even after he knew what had happened. But you’re guided from within, not from the outside. You know what you know.”

After Si passes the first test, he is confused and asks Rossoff what the point of it was. Rossoff’s explanation is an insightful comment on Si’s character and the first clue as to why they believe Si is perfect for the project. It is also an interesting take on human nature in terms of the way people respond to things they cannot understand or explain.

“Picture one of those upper apartments standing empty for two months in the summer of 1894. As it did. Picture our arranging—as we are—to sublet that very apartment for those identical months during the coming summer. And now understand me. If Albert Einstein is right once again—and he is— then hard as it may be to comprehend, the summer of 1894 still exists. That silent empty apartment exists back in that summer precisely as it exists in the summer that is coming. Unaltered and unchanged, identical in each, and existing in each. I believe it may be possible this summer, just barely possible, you understand, for a man to walk out of that unchanged apartment and into that other summer.”

The passage contains Danziger’s explanation of Einstein’s theories and his own addendum regarding the possibilities of time travel. It is thorough and scientifically accurate if somewhat simplified. It also encapsulates one of the most popular time travel tropes in literature. The whole experiment Si undertakes is built upon this image in this quote.

“It may be that the strongest instinct of the human race, stronger even than sex or hunger, is curiosity: the absolute need to know. It can and often does motivate a lifetime, it kills more than cats, and the prospect of satisfying it can be the most exciting of emotions. And so on Friday morning in Dr. Danziger’s office I sat hardly able to wait till he was ready to give me an answer.”

Si’s comment on the human experience of curiosity proves to be one of the major motifs of the novel. It states one of the main motivations for Si’s actions and the actions of some other characters. Curiosity motivates not only Si’s wish to go to 1882 but also Danziger and the council’s decision to allow him.

“I know it sounds absurd, but the color of the man’s face, just across the tiny aisle, was fascinating: this was no motionless brown-and-white face in an ancient photograph. […] It was the kind of face I’d studied in the old sepia photographs, but his hair, under the curling hat brim, was black streaked with gray; his eyes were sharp blue; his ears, nose, and freshly shaved chin were red from the winter chill; his lined forehead pale white. […] There he sat, a living breathing man with those memories in his head, and I sat staring at the slight rising and falling of his chest in wonder.”

This passage marks the first major instance of the motif of faces that runs through the story. Si spends over a page intensely focused on this single man’s face and the way that face intensifies and solidifies his experience of reality. This man’s face makes 1882 real in a way the buildings and scenery had not.

“I stood on the walk looking up into the house, holding my packed carpetbag, and I was like a man on a diving board far higher than any other he’s ever dared. I was about to begin something much more than addressing a few words to a stranger and moving on. However cautiously and tentatively, I was about to participate in the life of these times, and I stood looking at that sign, enormously excited and curious but not quite able to find the nerve to start.”

This scene in Chapter 12 is a major plot element as it kicks off the second half of the novel, introduces the character of Julia, and adds to Si’s character development. Si has described his life up until the time travel project as boring, but now he is doing something new and exciting. It also, once again, echoes the motif of curiosity.

“It was too much, I can’t really say why, and I turned from the window and lay down on the long single bed, careful to keep my feet off the plain white bedspread. And I closed my eyes, suddenly more homesick than any child. It occurred to me that I literally did not know a single person on the face of the earth, and that everything and everyone I knew was impossibly far away.”

In this moment of quiet, in a scene that is not vital to the plot, Si experiences a sense of isolation. For the first time since his adventure began, he feels alone and lost. Ironically, he feels alone here as shortly after this he will join the household in the parlor and find himself more comfortable and at peace than he has ever felt before, signaling his search for home and belonging.

“I knew that Rube, Oscar, Danziger, Esterhazy, and I had forgotten the obvious: that simply being with people is to become involved with them. I was to have been only an observer here, strictly enjoined from interfering with events, and certainly from causing them. Yet I’d done just the opposite.”

Si begins to feel the same anxiety that Danziger feels about the dangers of accidentally interfering with the past and thus altering the timeline. He realizes that he is likely to influence something no matter how cautious he is. However, his curiosity about the letter quickly outweighs his concern.

“It was a great view of the city from what was, of course, the day’s sightseeing equivalent of the Empire State Building far in the future. But there was nothing laughable in the comparison, I thought, staring out at the city; this was the highest view in town just now, however lost among incredibly higher buildings it was going to become. And if someday I’d have to go up ninety-odd stories to get a murky, smog-ruined view of New York instead of this brilliantly defined closer look at a lower and far pleasanter city, then who should be doing the laughing?”

Si climbs the steeple of Trinity Church, which was, at that time, the tallest point in the city. When he compares the view from the steeple to what he might expect from the top of the Empire State Building (not yet built), his time suffers from the comparison. This is one instance of Si’s nostalgia and preference for the 19th century over his time, one more sign that he belongs in 1882.

“In the way Pickering used his voice, in the words and phrases he chose, there was just a little more than drama; it edged toward melodrama. I think all of us generally act as we think we’re supposed to. […] And now Pickering and Carmody were exacting their roles in a time when the melodramatic conventions of the stage were largely accepted as representing reality. Deadly serious, meaning every word, each of them, I think, was also appreciating his own performance.”

In the scene where Pickering threatens Carmody with blackmail, the ways in which both men adhere to their roles fascinate and even amuse Si. It is a comment on the personalities of both men: melodramatic, full of their own importance, and yet deadly serious. It is also an interesting interpretation of human behavior, particularly regarding the ways theater might influence reality.

“All sorts of expressions just as today, but they were also interested in their surroundings, pausing to check the temperature at Hudnut’s giant thermometer. And above all, they carried with them a sense of purpose. You could see that: they weren’t bored, for God’s sake! Just looking at them, I’m convinced that those men moved through their lives in unquestioned certainty that there was a reason for being. And that’s something worth having, and losing it is to lose something vital. Faces don’t have that look now; when alone they’re blank, and closed in.”

This short passage is another instance of Si’s intense focus on faces and the way he uses his interpretation of faces to make meaning of reality. In addition, it’s another of Si’s philosophical musings on human nature, which he views in quite a negative light. Lastly, it marks another moment where Si’s comparison between the 1880s and the 1970s finds his time lacking, and he prefers the sense of purpose he sees in the past.

“They’ll be studied and can yield new knowledge for years. But there can be no more of them […] because it is not true, it is simply not true, that we ought to continue doing something just because we’ve discovered we can.”

Danziger’s speech demanding they stop the experiment is important to the plot and themes of the novel. This line is a good encapsulation of that speech as it cuts to the core of his argument. Danziger argues for an ethical limit to what science has a right to risk and inflict upon the world.

“Over its sounds Danziger was saying, ‘What calculation! I despise the phrase! Risk, hell, yes! Plenty of risk!’ He swung around in his chair to glare at Rube, leaning far over the tabletop toward him. ‘But show me your calculations!’”

This quote follows Danziger’s previous speech. In response to Esterhazy calling for the council to take a “calculated risk,” Danziger objects vehemently. This is his final objection to the decision to continue the project before he resigns in protest.

“I stood with my hand on the phone for a moment or so longer, but didn’t dial Kate; was I postponing getting in touch with her? […] Was the reluctance—it had been there, I had to admit it—connected with Julia? Well, the electricity had flowed faster whenever I’d been around her, that was true, but I didn’t think it was Julia.”

Si is still in denial over his romantic attraction to Julia. He wants to believe that his growing feelings are not the main cause for his reluctance to call Kate, but it is obvious that he is fooling himself. This quote highlights his internal struggle over his feelings, which he will not be able to admit for some time.

“It seemed a mild enough taunt; I expected Carmody to smile or shrug, reply in kind, and resume work. But I’d found myself automatically responding to Pickering’s ‘problem’ by trying to work out the arithmetic of it in my head, and I think maybe Carmody did the same […] and I believe something about the inescapable answer to the question—the forced realization of the immensity of what still lay ahead, the long sickening blur of concentration he’d already gone through being only the beginning—got through to him. Because he suddenly broke.”

This is the moment in Chapter 19 when Carmody’s nature shines through. In previous scenes, he kept up a veneer of gentlemanly decorum and control, playing a role that he likely believes fits his wealth and stature. When he finally breaks, he loses control and becomes enraged and violent. It is only a matter of time before he sets fire to the building.

“Any time I close my eyes and remember, I can see the horrible color of it: the dark grimy face of the old building, the terrible orange-red-and-black of the huge wild flames and rolling smoke, the spidery lengths of the ladders, the people on the ledges mostly in white-and-black but one girl in a long vivid green dress, all of it seen strangely, nightmarishly dreamlike, through a white curtain of swirling snow.”

Si’s description gives visceral detail to the burning of the World Building, which helps to make the scene more real for the reader. In his Footnote, the author notes that he spent much time researching this historical incident to get the details correct. It once again highlights Si’s obsession with faces as he sees metaphorical faces even in the burning building.

“I didn’t really blame myself for failing to burst through into Jake Pickering’s office and stamping out the tiny new fire when I could have; no one could have anticipated what so suddenly happened. What ate at me now was this: that by our hidden presence at that old event Julia and I might have changed its course in just the way Dr. Danziger had always been afraid of.”

Once again, Si experiences a moment of anxiety about whether his actions influenced the past. This quote is a strong example of the theme of changing the past and the implications that arise from the possibility of such changes. Si’s interpretation of events does not clearly determine whether the fire was meant to happen.

“I couldn’t take one more death; I couldn’t have stood it if she’d fallen back into the building or down onto the street before me. I had to do something, and—it wasn’t bravery, it was simple necessity—I was shoving my way forward, then I’d ducked under the lines and was running across the street.”

When Si rushes in to save a woman from the burning building, it is a powerful moment of character development. He insists that it is not a matter of bravery. However, that statement demonstrates his humility, as anyone watching his actions must surely see them as brave. He also reveals that his concern for this stranger outweighs his abstract worries about changing the past.

“I won’t forget Julia’s eyes ever, as I ducked under the line and she stood waiting. […] I could see that, in these moments at least, Julia was in love with me; her eyes were filled with it and all I could do was grin and keep feeling my head, wondering how I’d lost my hat.”

The moment just after Si saves the woman from the fire, he glances back at Julia, who looks at him with love in her eyes. The love triangle between Si, Julia, and Pickering is effectively ended. Though they do not profess their love to each other until later, the trajectory is set for Si’s decision to remain in the past.

“‘The World,’ she said dully. ‘Until a few months ago that was the World Building, and most people still call it that.’ […] ‘The World,’ I said slowly, trying the sound of it, and then I understood. That the sending of this, the note in the old blue envelope in Kate’s apartment had said, should cause the Destruction by Fire of the entire World—‘Building’ was the missing word—seems well-nigh incredible. Yet it is so…And for the rest of his life that was to torture Carmody’s conscience.”

The final, or nearly final, piece of the puzzle falls into place, and Si understands the meaning of the letter. What he had misinterpreted as hinting at the end of the world is, in fact, the burning of the World Building, a historical event he had no control over. The death of six people in this fire gives Carmody/Pickering such a feeling of guilt in life.

“I remembered the sudden awe that had come over me once at seeing the actually living, visibly breathing people of 1882, because now I felt certain I saw the same dizzying wonderment in Julia’s face.”

When Si takes Julia into the present with him, the moment mirrors his first journey to the past. Just as he felt awe walking onto a New York street in 1882, now Julia has the same experience in the present. The passage also echoes the faces motif that runs through the novel.

“‘How wonderful,’ she murmured. ‘Such fine clear light any time you wish it. As easily as this,’ and she flicked the switch once more. ‘I prefer gaslight,’ I said, but that was so unbelievable she didn’t bother answering it.”

Si experiences nostalgia for the 1880s such that even a wonder like electricity seems unimpressive to him. It would be easy, however, for someone who has lived with electricity his whole life to take it for granted, whereas for Julia, it would be a true marvel. That Julia does not bother responding to this comment is telling of her opinion about his nostalgic views.

“There were horrors in Julia’s time, and I knew it. I knew that the seeds of everything I hated in my own time were already planted and sprouting in hers. But they hadn’t yet flowered. […] Life still had meaning and purpose in people’s minds; the great emptiness hadn’t begun. Now the good times to be alive seemed to be gone, Julia’s probably the last of them.”

Si acknowledges some of the darker aspects of the past. All the horrors that he finds in his time are already growing in the past. Although Si knows this, he cannot admit that the past is no less horrifying than the present. Despite the harsh reality of the 19th century, he feels it is where he belongs.

“To Dr. Danziger, on the phone, I’d repeated as a promise the decision I’d made […] Now I’d just kept my promise. And the man—the facial resemblance had been very strong—who would have become Dr. Danziger’s father, and the girl in green who in time would have become his mother, now never would be.”

As if in answer to every fear Danziger had about altering the past, Si does so in the end at Danziger’s behest. This is the culmination of the major themes of the novel and leads to a conundrum for the reader, if not for the characters, in the form of a time paradox. If Danziger never invented the time machine, how did Si get into the past to prevent it from being invented?