All the Time in the World

by Arthur C. Clarke

• Release: July 1952
• Format: Short Story
• Genre: Science Fiction
• Audience: Adults
• Content: Definite Time Travel
• Original Language: English

Your time scale has been altered. A minute in the outer world would be a year in this room.

VARIANTS

2 English variants

DERIVATIVE WORKS

1. “All the Time in the World” by unknown writers and Arthur C. Clarke, directed by Don Medford, (ABC-TV, USA,13 June 1952).

TAGS(SPOILERS!)

Time Periods

• Circa AD 1950 to 1959: presumed story time
• Far Future: 100,000 years after Earth has been destroyed

Timeline Models

• Unexplained Timeline Model

Time Travel Methods

• Alien Time Travel Technology
• High Speed, Angular Momentum, Gravity, Cosmic Strings, etc. Cause Time Warp: “[. . .] by the release of an enormous amount of energy, it is possible to produce a—singularity—in time.

Themes

• Differing Time Rates: the accelerator bracelet
• Mind Travel
• Salvaging Lost Art or Literature
• Tourist Paradox: “If that sort of thing were possible, our past history would be full of time travelers.”

Fictional Tags

• Post-Apocalyptic and Post-Holocaust Worlds: The apocalypse is nigh.

Groupings

• The 7th Dimension (radio or audio series): abridged, 15 December 2007
• Cited in Worlds Enough and Time, edited by Gary Westfahl ()
• Sirius (periodical): #8 (5 Feb 1977)
• Startling Stories (periodical): July 1952
• Cited in Time Machines by Paul J. Nahin ()
• Wonder Stories Group (periodical): reprint annuals, 1957 and 1963

TIME TRAVEL ITINERARY

We haven’t yet mapped out the time travel itinerary.