Message from a Time Traveler

Dan Simmons - Official Web Site ^ | April 1, 2006 | Dan Simmons

[ADemocratNoMore]

bttt

[archy]

My second choice for "the three words", btw, is "The Fourth Reich".

Muslims are cannibals.

[archy]

"Wash, Rinse...Repeat"

DO NOT IMMERSE!

[Hatteras]

"Destroy islam now."

One problem with that... The Traveler says that the future can't be changed.

[fanfan]

Third, when the grandfather asked him WHERE that would happen (strange that he even asked the 'where' question), the 'traveler' answered, "Eurabia." (why would they be over there? survival?)

The other grandson was in Quebec City, Canada.

[Hatteras]

"I propose "We nuke Mecca". THAT would strike fear in anyone. "

How about "Allah is Satan"?

[Paradox]

"The Time Traveler laughed a final time. “All of your grandsons’ names were on lists. You wrote something . . . will soon write something . . . that will put your name, and all your descendents’ names, on their list. Including your only surviving grandson.” "

Maybe Simmons is looking for/expecting a reaction to this story, one similar to that for the Danish cartoons..

[G Larry]

"C'mon folks! The 3 words are RIGHT IN THE STORY!!!!!"

Nice of you to make a game of it, instead of informing.

If you're so damn smart and superior, prove it by providing the answer, instead of BSing people who just spent 30 minutes reading this.

[schu]

Maybe trying to tweak them into another round irrational responses, dead people and bad press? Could be.

More so I believe he is trying to wake people up to the challenge. Reading an interesting book about Europe, less than 5% of the population attends Christian church. Eurabia is not really that far fetched.

schu

[null and void]

Oddly enough, it was an ethnic Indian, US born møøslimb who strenuously objected to me putting a US Flag and "God Bless America" sign in my office on 9/11!

[NathanR]

I like your reasoning. "Write my message" would work, maybe even more than something like "America is destroyed". Especially when the latter would be common knowledge to any Time Traveler. Just like "Constantinople has fallen", would not arouse us.

[NathanR]

I actually think that "Allah is Satan", even if true, would have as much impact as you think. Many people already believe that. Has that belief had any effect on events? I don't think so.

[Hatteras]

"But I don't think America will be destroyed."

Not so sure. The Traveler only talks about "Eurabia" and then gets close to the U.S. when mentioning Quebec and U.S. Airbases around the world but only mentions U.S. cities and landmarks in the past tense.

[Paradox]

Then again, while he might want to get a reaction as I posited, this might also just be a "Modest Proposal".

It could satire in whole or in part..

[null and void]

Yeah I read it as the US is destroyed, but not defeated.

[cgbg]

I don't think the visitor is claiming the message will have any effect on the future--he is saying it will have a strong emotional content for people of the future everywhere.

The visitor is also saying that he does not believe that it would be easy to change the future because of practical issues--my example would be that persuading a liberal to see common sense is in most cases impossible! :-)

Usually it takes extraordinary trauma to do the job. :-(

[CurlyBill]

Marked for later reading...

[Slip18]

That is outrageous. If you're the boss, I would tell him to go to hades. If you're not the boss, I would go to the boss and have the boss have a little chat with the creep.

Remember when we were guarding Saudi Arabia and the Saudis wouldn't let us fly our American Flags at the bases? That was outrageous. We're protecting them, but they won't let us fly our American Flag.

My BIL is a legal American, even before he married my sis. I guess he's one of those MINOs (Muslim in Name Only).

[null and void]

*shrug* I upgraded to this:

Ultimately the bosses ended up laying us both off.

Under the circumstances (he had 8 years seniority) it was about the best they could do...

[Ancesthntr]

I like your reasoning. "Write my message" would work, maybe even more than something like "America is destroyed". Especially when the latter would be common knowledge to any Time Traveler. Just like "Constantinople has fallen", would not arouse us.

I think it is clearly in the line of writing/delivering the message from the future, esp. since the Time Traveler outright stated that he and his siblings were on a list because of what the writer would shortly thereafter write. Also, WHY would the Time Traveler even show up to talk about this subject, if not for the purpose of having the writer do something about it? If that's not it, then what's the point of the trip - to vent his spleen? To tell Grandpa that his life sucks and that he's pissed at him and everyone alive now because of that? No chance.

Oh, and for those who think it is "America is destroyed" or something similar (and others besides you have postulated this), if that's true then who's fighting the Moslems? It ain't the Europeans, who are part of Eurabia. What, Mexico and Brazil? I think not. The Chinese - I don't think that the Moslems would be stupid enough to take on such a regime with such resources - because unlike the softees in this country and Europe, the Chinese would nuke away and damned near laugh if they had under 300 million dead themselves.