What era would you most like to visit in a time machine, and why?
17 thoughts on “Reader Friday: Back in Time”
If I could control the location as well as the period, I’d hop back to Japan, at about 400 AD. There’s a mysterious figure in Japanese history from that time, whose existence is known only through the documents of early visitors from China. She was a witch-queen, called Himiko. She held tremendous power over all the clans of western Japan at that time, and “possessed the beauty of a goddess”. Archaeologists and historians have been unable to find where she lived.
I’d like to pay her a visit.
Fascinating, Carl. I would love to have a look at Cleopatra, see what the fuss was about. And after that, Queen Boudica.
I think if you asked me that every day, I’d give a different answer each time. I’m so fascinated by history, etc… Imagine going back to the 30s and knowing all the history that would take place? The world would be yours in a certain sense. But for some reason my answer this morning would be to go back to the Mesozoic Era to see the dinosaurs… hopefully we’d be able to come back to the present time to write about the journey.
I don’t want to visit, I want to STAY in the 19th century American West. Oh, to see this land before much of it was covered with concrete and asphalt and six billion people.
Even Zane Grey, who spent a lot of time here in Arizona in the 1920’s and early 30’s, saw an Arizona I only wish I could see. He eventually stopped coming because it was getting too overdeveloped even back then. He’d freak out if he saw what we’ve done to the desert since.
I chose the Old West, too, BK (thus the photo). What I would want to do is visit as many of those fabled towns as possible (e.g., Tombstone, Dodge) and really get to know what they were like.
A novel about a writer going back to see these ‘fabled towns’ and discovering they were much different than he’d expected…maybe having trouble just getting from one place to the next, with all kinds of challenges and problems encountered along the way. Maybe he gets to the point of wanting to give up, considering it all a mistake, but then starts to recognize that he’d been looking at it all wrong–and starts to appreciate things that he’d never realized before in new ways.
Some of the themes of Midnight in Paris seem similar. The main character thinks about how one always wants to go to another time but that each time has it’s unique value that we can miss in the search for something better.
I like this!
Remember Doc Brown in Back to the Future III? He never returned to the 20th century.
The early 1950’s in America. What a fascinating time it must have been, the birth of Rock and Roll, the end of WWII, Malt Shops, slower paced lifestyle.
LOL — you’ve just made me feel VERY VERY old!
Central Italy in the sixth century BC –the height of Etruscan civilization–because my maternal ancestors were from that area.
My home in Northern Virginia sits in the middle of what was a lot of Civil War activity. Spies were everywhere, and numerous skirmishes (and two major battles) were fought within a day’s walk from here. Provided I could stay healthy, and not get a toothache, I would go back to 1861-1865.
Yeesh. The blood. The bodies.
You could’ve gone to see Our American Cousin and punched Booth in the face before he got to the theater box.
Like John V, I’d love to visit everywhere, see everything, find out the truth about every civilization in history. But my first stop would always and forever be the early 600s AD in the Arabian peninsula during the time of The Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him).
I was born in 1945. Like everyone near my age, I seen America change and grow. I’ve lived through party lines to cell phones, cars with external fenders to cars with electric engines, television that was only on six hours a day to never ending reruns on a thousand channels. From Joe Friday to Joe Kenda. I’ve seen war and I’ve gone to war. I lived through the dawn of rock and roll and the dominance of hip hop. I’ve seen Star Wars, Alien, L.A. Confidential, Chinatown, Eddie and the Cruisers, and Fire in the Streets, Saving Private Ryan and Dunkirk, etc. I’ve heard Martin Luther King and Malcom X when they were alive I voted for Ronald Reagan and against Hillary Clinton. I want to vote for Nicki Haley. I’ve walked on the grounds of Mayan cities and in modern Hong Kong. P-52 Mustangs to F22 Raptors.
I can’t imagine a more exciting time than right now. I wouldn’t trade what I’ve seen and done to see any other period in time.
La Belle Epoque Paris. To see the birth of Impressionism, movies, Erik Satie, Worth and Poiret gowns, Victor Hugo’s funeral, Stravinsky, Nijinsky, especially the premiere of The Rite of Spring. And they were building that ugly iron tower…
Definitely the Old West. I love history and mysteries and this setting and that’s why I chose it for the setting for my debut novel. I love to read all types of historical fiction. Of course, I would like to stop off in the 1920s and 30s in London and have lunch (or tea) with Agatha Christie and get some pointers. This is when she wrote her earlier novels. A time machine would be ideal. I would be all over historical times and maybe even jump to the future for a little while.
If I could control the location as well as the period, I’d hop back to Japan, at about 400 AD. There’s a mysterious figure in Japanese history from that time, whose existence is known only through the documents of early visitors from China. She was a witch-queen, called Himiko. She held tremendous power over all the clans of western Japan at that time, and “possessed the beauty of a goddess”. Archaeologists and historians have been unable to find where she lived.
I’d like to pay her a visit.
Fascinating, Carl. I would love to have a look at Cleopatra, see what the fuss was about. And after that, Queen Boudica.
I think if you asked me that every day, I’d give a different answer each time. I’m so fascinated by history, etc… Imagine going back to the 30s and knowing all the history that would take place? The world would be yours in a certain sense. But for some reason my answer this morning would be to go back to the Mesozoic Era to see the dinosaurs… hopefully we’d be able to come back to the present time to write about the journey.
I don’t want to visit, I want to STAY in the 19th century American West. Oh, to see this land before much of it was covered with concrete and asphalt and six billion people.
Even Zane Grey, who spent a lot of time here in Arizona in the 1920’s and early 30’s, saw an Arizona I only wish I could see. He eventually stopped coming because it was getting too overdeveloped even back then. He’d freak out if he saw what we’ve done to the desert since.
I chose the Old West, too, BK (thus the photo). What I would want to do is visit as many of those fabled towns as possible (e.g., Tombstone, Dodge) and really get to know what they were like.
A novel about a writer going back to see these ‘fabled towns’ and discovering they were much different than he’d expected…maybe having trouble just getting from one place to the next, with all kinds of challenges and problems encountered along the way. Maybe he gets to the point of wanting to give up, considering it all a mistake, but then starts to recognize that he’d been looking at it all wrong–and starts to appreciate things that he’d never realized before in new ways.
Some of the themes of Midnight in Paris seem similar. The main character thinks about how one always wants to go to another time but that each time has it’s unique value that we can miss in the search for something better.
I like this!
Remember Doc Brown in Back to the Future III? He never returned to the 20th century.
The early 1950’s in America. What a fascinating time it must have been, the birth of Rock and Roll, the end of WWII, Malt Shops, slower paced lifestyle.
LOL — you’ve just made me feel VERY VERY old!
Central Italy in the sixth century BC –the height of Etruscan civilization–because my maternal ancestors were from that area.
My home in Northern Virginia sits in the middle of what was a lot of Civil War activity. Spies were everywhere, and numerous skirmishes (and two major battles) were fought within a day’s walk from here. Provided I could stay healthy, and not get a toothache, I would go back to 1861-1865.
Yeesh. The blood. The bodies.
You could’ve gone to see Our American Cousin and punched Booth in the face before he got to the theater box.
Like John V, I’d love to visit everywhere, see everything, find out the truth about every civilization in history. But my first stop would always and forever be the early 600s AD in the Arabian peninsula during the time of The Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him).
I was born in 1945. Like everyone near my age, I seen America change and grow. I’ve lived through party lines to cell phones, cars with external fenders to cars with electric engines, television that was only on six hours a day to never ending reruns on a thousand channels. From Joe Friday to Joe Kenda. I’ve seen war and I’ve gone to war. I lived through the dawn of rock and roll and the dominance of hip hop. I’ve seen Star Wars, Alien, L.A. Confidential, Chinatown, Eddie and the Cruisers, and Fire in the Streets, Saving Private Ryan and Dunkirk, etc. I’ve heard Martin Luther King and Malcom X when they were alive I voted for Ronald Reagan and against Hillary Clinton. I want to vote for Nicki Haley. I’ve walked on the grounds of Mayan cities and in modern Hong Kong. P-52 Mustangs to F22 Raptors.
I can’t imagine a more exciting time than right now. I wouldn’t trade what I’ve seen and done to see any other period in time.
La Belle Epoque Paris. To see the birth of Impressionism, movies, Erik Satie, Worth and Poiret gowns, Victor Hugo’s funeral, Stravinsky, Nijinsky, especially the premiere of The Rite of Spring. And they were building that ugly iron tower…
Definitely the Old West. I love history and mysteries and this setting and that’s why I chose it for the setting for my debut novel. I love to read all types of historical fiction. Of course, I would like to stop off in the 1920s and 30s in London and have lunch (or tea) with Agatha Christie and get some pointers. This is when she wrote her earlier novels. A time machine would be ideal. I would be all over historical times and maybe even jump to the future for a little while.