Socrates

Tag Area: Real-World Character
Short Story

The Man Who Never Grew Young

  • by Fritz Leiber
  • in Night’s Black Agents as by Fritz Leiber, Jr. (Arkham House, 1947)
Without knowing why, our narrator describes his life as a man who stays the same for millennia, even as others, one-by-one, are disinterred, slowly grow younger and younger.

The story is soft-spoken but moving, and for me, it was a good complement to T.H. White’s backward-time-traveler, Merlyn.
It is the same in all we do. Our houses grow new and we dismantle them and stow the materials inconspicuously away, in mine and quarry, forest and field. Our clothes grow new and we put them off. And we grow new and forget and blindly seek a mother.
A stylized pen-and-ink drawing of a cloaked man on a horse with a silhouette of Saturn in the background.
  • Eloi Gold Medal
  • Fantasy
  • Experimental
  • Definite Time Travel
Short Story

Rainy Day in Halicarnassus

  • by R. A. Lafferty
  • in At the Sleepy Sailor: A Tribute to R. A. Lafferty, edited by Guy H. Lillian III (The Sons of the Sand, 1979) [fanzine]
Time-trippers from the 29th century arrive in 20th century Turkey to interview Socrates, who is still alive, contrary to his rumored death by hemlock.  The time travel episode takes place within a larger story of Socrates giving a guided tour to two sailors. —Fred Galvin
And the interview was a great success. The old master used the hundred or so questions as takeoff points for truly masterful illuminations. It really was the archeological-historical coup of the century.
Pen-and-ink drawing of R. A. Lafferty sitting at a bar, surrounded by science fiction and fantasy characters.
  • Science Fiction
  • Definite Time Travel
Feature Film

Bill & Ted I

Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure

The Two Great Ones, Bill S. Preston, Esq., and Ted “Theodore” Logan, are the subjects of time-traveler Rufus’s mission, but instead they end up using his machine to write a history report to save their band, Wyld Stallyns. —Michael Main
Most excellent!
Alex Winter (A K A Bill) and Keanu Reeves (A K A Ted) sit on top of a phone booth crammed with Napoleon and other historical figures in orbit around Earth.
  • Eloi Silver Medal
  • Science Fiction
  • Comedy
  • Audience: YA and Up
  • Definite Time Travel
Picture Book

Arthur Travels Back in Time

Arthur the fearless dog travels to different times in a large blue cannister. The story is written in verse that ignores meter and uses rhymes that don’t quite work. —Ruthie Mariner
With sights on events his eyes have never seen, Arthur is ready for his new time machine.
A dog wearing clothes and a red cape leaps onto a cannister-shaped time machine.
  • Science Fiction
  • Audience: Children
  • Definite Time Travel