Short Story
Hollywood after 10
- by Thomas Esaias
- in Asimov’s Science Fiction, October/November 2015
In the post-Chronarch civilization, groups of wealthy time travelers enthusiastically take on causes in the past, such as making sure of a successful Norman Mailer fund-raising party to support the convicted Hollywood 10 in the McCarthy era.
A child doesn’t fully mature until it self-consciously overcomes the mistakes its parents and its community made in raising it. What we are doing is saying to our ancestors, ‘Here and here you were wrong. We refuse to accept these errors. We are taking command of our own history.’ This is part of the maturing of human culture.
