December Not Fiction Book Discussions

The books we have read this year have a loose connecting theme of place and time--how we know where and when--and who--we are. They investigate our sometimes contradictory desires to belong and to leave, to prevent change and to find out what-if. They capture the large view--our planet as a vast web of connections--and the small--a single blade of grass or a precise moment of time and light rendered in paint. They take us home and to work, through history and deep into culture. They explore family ties and friendship, places beloved and haunted. Our last book, Time Travel: A History by James Gleick, even considers our fascination with time travel.

Gleick, who has written about scientific genius, chaos theory, information technology, and "the acceleration of just about everything," here gives us a whirlwind tour of the history of time travel, a revolutionary shift in our world view. He traces the idea from the moment in the early twentieth century when H.G. Wells' novel The Time Machine crystallized the cultural anxieties and anticipations created by the technological innovations of the industrial age, through the evolution of the concept of time travel in science, philosophy, art, literature, and popular culture, to the instantaneity and simultaneity of our current age, where the present is everything and the past and the future have faded in relative importance. He examines the basic physics of time travel as well as the philosophical implications for our very existence and our happiness.

What do you think? As Gleick asks, "If you could take one ride in a time machine, which way would you go? The future or the past?" Or would you stay right here--or rather, now? Is this the only world possible? Is it, as Voltaire's Pangloss believed, "the best of all possible worlds"? Why do you think we as a culture are so fascinated by the idea of time travel? Gleick is an excellent synthesizer of science, history, and culture--which aspects of his narrative did you find most interesting? Did he create a good blend? As Emily Dickinson wrote, "There is no Frigate like a Book . . . " Are stories ultimately time machines? What is your favorite story about time travel? For that matter, what is time?

If Gleick somehow missed your favorite story of time travel, you can add it to his list and see other readers' favorites as well here on his blog: https://around.com/oop-time-travelers-missing-from-my-book-time-travel/.

We hope you will join the discussion: Tuesday, December 5, at 6:30 p.m. at Main Library; Thursday, December 21, at 11:00 a.m. at West Ashley Branch Library; and here (or now?) on the blog.