It’s All True
- Eloi Bronze Medal
- by John Kessel
- Novelette
- Science Fiction
- Adults
- Definite Time Travel
- English
- “It’s All True” by John Kessel, in Sci Fiction, 5 November 2003.
About five years after the first two Moment Universe stories, time traveling talent scount Det Gruber heads to 1942 in hopes of recruiting young, bitter Orson Welles to accompany him back to the future.
—Michael Main
Welles clenched his fists. When he spoke it was in a lower tone. “Life is dark.”
Tags
(8)
- Time Periods
- Circa AD 1940 to 1949: probably arrives in August 1942
- Circa AD 2000 to 2099: starting time in 2048
- Timeline Models
- Branching Timelines: “They’re like branches splitting of the same tree trunk.”
- Time Travel Methods
- Themes
- True Histories: the true history of the lost film The Magnificent Ambersons
- Real-World Tags
- Groupings
Variants
(1)
- “It’s All True” by John Kessel, in Sci Fiction, 5 November 2003.
Indexer Notes
(1)
- Timeline—Based on two newspaper headlines that Det spots, we’ll setting the date that the Cynara sets sail to be Wednesday, 26 August, or Thursday, 27 August. One of the headlines states “New Sea-Air Battle Rages in Solomons. Japanese Counterattack on Guadalcanal.” Both conflicts could be in August of ’42. The other headline notes that the Cards edged the Dodgers in 12 innings to rise to only 5-1/2 games behind the bums. That game never actually happened in the ’42 season, but there was a 12-inning game with that exact outcome that ended in St. Louis before midnight on Tuesday, August 25. If the LA paper got the late night result into the next day’s paper, then this would be the 26th; otherwise, it would be the 27th. Given that they got the number of innings mixed up, it was probably a rush job, so we’ll bet on the 26th.