Dragaera

Ellison & Time Travel (was: Favorite NON-fiction)

Wed Jan 29 07:28:04 PST 2003

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Andrew Lias [mailto:anrwlias at hotmail.com] 

> On the other hand, Ellison kicked up major stinks over "Back 
> to the Future" 
> (which he thought too similar to _Time Enough for Love_) and 
> Terminator 
> Personally, I thought both comparisons ludicrous [1], but it 
> goes to show 

> [1] The *only* similarities I see are that TEfL is a time 
> travel story where 
> the protagonist visits his own mother, and that DwaGH is a 
> story about a 
> soldier from the future.  Beyond that, IMO, all similarities 
> end.  Marty, 
> from BttF did not, for instance, actually have sex with his mom.

I would never have imagined a similarity between _Back to the Future_ and _Time Enough for Love_.  They totally different in flavor.  I like both (up to a point), but for different reasons.   I can't think of any other parallels than you've already pointed out.  Really, I don't regard _Time Enough for Love_ as being a "time travel" story, even though "time travel" was in the story, it played a small important role, but nearly as significant to the plot as time travel was for Back to the Future.  

I can't comment on DwaGH, I've never read the story.