The Psychology of Time Travel

Whether it is the timeless romance in The Time Traveller’s Wife, Henry’s time travelling condition attributed to Chrono-Displacement Disorder, or Hermione’s use of the Time Turner in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, time travel has an adoration in fiction like none other. Movies like Looper, The Terminator franchise, and many more, have kept the viewers glued to their seats, eyes to the screen. The Psychology of Time Travel by Kate Mascarenhas is like none of the examples I just gave. It isn’t about the technology that creates time travel, or saving the world, or keeping love alive (though it is above love, for sure) – this book is about the aspects of humanity that are affected when the profession of time travel arrives in full swing.

Here is the synopsis:

In 1967, four female scientists worked together to build the world’s first time machine. But just as they are about to debut their creation, one of them suffers a breakdown, putting the whole project—and future of time travel—in jeopardy. To protect their invention, one member is exiled from the team—erasing her contributions from history.

Fifty years later, time travel is a big business. Twenty-something Ruby Rebello knows her beloved grandmother, Granny Bee, was one of the pioneers, though no one will tell her more. But when Bee receives a mysterious newspaper clipping from the future reporting the murder of an unidentified woman, Ruby becomes obsessed: could it be Bee? Who would want her dead? And most importantly of all: can her murder be stopped?

Traversing the decades and told from alternating perspectives, The Psychology of Time Travel introduces a fabulous new voice in fiction and a new must-read for fans of speculative fiction and women’s fiction alike.

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The Short Take – From Goodreads

Rather than focusing on how the time machines work and the technology behind them, The Psychology of Time Travel explores the effects that a time travelling profession would have on the traveller as well as the world itself. At the beginning, there were 4 scientists working to make this dream come true – Bee, Margaret, Grace and Lucille. But when time came, Bee’s contributions were hidden and her role disappeared altogether. Fifty years later, Bee still reminisces about those days and her exclusion from the pioneer group, looking for a glimmer of hope to become part of the team again. Supporting her is her grand daughter, Ruby, intrigued by her grandmother’s past. When Bee is left a token from Grace about the death of a woman, Ruby cannot help investigating, leading her into an adventure of secrets of time travel and more.

This book led me to think deeply about the concept of time travel – the shiny and the ugly parts of it are revealed beautifully by Kate through her characters. I appreciated the theme of understanding death from the human and time-traveller perspective, providing a commentary of developing resilience as one jumps through times. Odette’s role as the person who witnessed the woman’s death and her drive to understand what happened, form an important inside link into the workings of the Conclave – the group that manages time travelling. There is also the theme of how power can corrupt people and the ways in which we justify the actions that we take.

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The Long Take – Themes for Thought

Stories have a way of provoking thoughts that might not have crossed the mind before. This is precisely the reason why this section exists. From this book, three main ideas surfaced that I want to share:

On the reason behind Time Travelling

Time travelling is an amazing profession. The premise this time is that you can go back, as far as when the machine was built, and as forward as a certain year in the 2500s, with details unclear about why not any further. Unlike the multiverse theory, think Avengers Endgame or The Umbrella Academy, where there are multiple timelines and outcomes to any decision, Kate Mascarenhas’ story happens in a single timeline world. The time travellers can give people the insight of an impending event, but they cannot alter the event.

This makes me wonder about the reason behind time travelling at all. Ask yourself:

If you could time travel, to the past, or to the future, where would you go? Why would you undertake such a journey? What if you could not affect any change at all?

Feel free to share your answer to the questions in the comments below!

I personally think the answer lies in our curiosity to know things. Even if we cannot bring about any change, we would like to know all possible aspects of the story. If you are a booklover, that is the reason you chase books that depict your favorite stories from different character point of views, whether it is Pride and Prejudice written from Mr Darcy’s angle (check out Mr Darcy’s Diary if you haven’t already) or Twilight from Edward’s angle (alas, The Midnight Sun remains a draft).

On Death

A curious phenomenon that happened with time travellers in The Psychology of Time Travel was their disconnection from death of people they care about. With the ability to travel to the past, they can always go back and see the ones they love.

When you’re a time traveler, the people you love die, and you carry on seeing them, so their death stops making a difference to you. The only death that will ever change things is your own.

Fay, pg 54 of the book (hardcopy)

I found this fascinating because I had never looked at it this way. In another book I recently read, When you Kant figure it out, ask a philosopher, by Marie Robert (advanced reader copy), coming November 2019, the beliefs of Blaise Pascal (yes, the scientist after which Pascal, the unit of pressure is named) are shared. He believed that humans do not live in the present. We spend a lot of our time thinking about the past and planning for the future. Think about your own habits and how you are really present in the present moment… for myself, I agree with Pascal.

Coming back to time travel, if one can become indifferent to something as huge as death because one can visit the people in a different time, how much in the present does the said time traveller really exist? What’s even better is the Kate, through Ruby’s investigations, explores the answer to my questions.

Sometimes she [the time traveller] gets the date wrong, and mistakenly places it in the past. She expects her friends and family to remember something that won’t happen for years.

Ginger, in conversation with Ruby, pg 58

How much were future and past jumbled in Grace’s mind? She’s traveled years into the future on multiple occasions. Maybe she too dislocated from the events the rest of the loved through.

Ruby’s inner turmoil, pg 59

On Character Presence

The Psychology of Time Travel has a diverse set of characters, most of them female, belonging to the LGBTQ community. This added some interesting elements, but it got me questioning why men were not more involved in the time-travel profession. That’s one aspect I notice more and more nowadays. If you watched Avengers Endgame, you probably remember the scene with all the female superheros helping out Spiderman. The absence of the male characters is impossible to ignore.

I think it gives more of a commentary on the things we are used to and call ‘normal’ as a society. Seeing men in groups seems normal, while women forming the main cast of the story, without a male character, seems different, in a good way. 🙂 Refreshing, because this was my first book that had both LGBTQ elements as well as main female protagonists. The fact that time travel was invented by 4 female scientists is amazing.

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Overall, I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to all time traveling enthusiasts. This book is a blend of mystery and thriller, a diverse set of characters, dealing with life in their unique ways, at the heart of which is a murder, and a profession that takes all the time there is (in all possible senses of time). I also recommend that, should you choose to read this, pay attention to the timeline of the chapters – the chapters are short and can cover multiple people’s stories at the same time. I am definitely keeping a timeline of events next time!

** The Psychology of Time Travel is now out in stores so get a copy and let me know what you think! Let’s have a book-discussion! **

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Want to read more books related to time travel? Check out this list on Goodreads!

Other books I will be checking out are by Mary Robinette Kowal’s series The Lady Astronaut novel collection, starting with The Calculating Stars. Also, Blake Crouch has some interesting books, Dark Matter, mentioning time travel, and Recursion, being his latest.

Cover image: Photo by Fabrizio Verrecchia on Unsplash