Time travel, and the note nobody wrote

[JD]

There was a recent question in the Science Fiction Trivia topic;

Name five stories (films, TV, books, etc.) where people travel through time and meet older or younger versions of themselves. There should be some sort of interaction - not e.g. just seeing themselves going past on a bus. No more than one example per author/universe.

This brought to mind an SF novel I must have read in the early 1970s. I remember nothing of the book except for one plot detail.

Our protagonist briefly and unexpectedly encounters his future self. Future self reaches into a pocket and hands present self a note, and then departs the scene. Later, the protagonist reads the note. It's some sort of warning, or guidance, on how to deal with an impending event. The protagonist then pockets the note. Later (or earlier, depending on how you want to look at it), our protagonist has travelled backwards in time, meets his past self, and hands over the note.

I don't think a great deal of the plot hinges on this, I think the writer was just having some fun. It presents us with a note that nobody wrote, which only exists in this closed time loop, and which ought to have endured a little more wear and tear each time around, but presumably didn't.

Does anyone recognise the story from this detail?

Cheers
John

[ffutures]

The answer that comes to mind is The Technicolor Time Machine by Harry Harrison, in which the director of a viking movie which is being filmed (via time travel) on location is stopped by a later version of himself just before going into a meeting, gets a few words of advice, and is handed a diagram that means nothing to him - the later version goes into the meeting in his place while the earlier version goes to meet the inventor of the time machine: they realise it shows how to make a time jump that will allow them to avoid cancellation of the project. Later he hands the diagram to himself.

[spud42]

thats the book i was thinking of too. recently read it as well as every HH book..kindle is great.

[JD]

Hmm, I've just read a synopsis, and none of it sounds familiar. I'm not sure I ever read any of Harry Harrison's stuff back then.

I've remembered another small (and probably useless) detail. When the author/narrator first describes the encounter between present and future self, it isn't explained to the reader who the new character is. Present self is momentarily confused, exclaims something like "You!!?", and events move swiftly on. We only find out the identity of the other character when the story gets around to their encounter again, told this time from the perspective of future self.

[Commander_X]

This really seems like the book I mentioned in the previous "trivia" round (The Overlords of War by Gérard Klein): the hero (Corson) is saved by (we later find out) himself, and after being saved is also left a note with some hints about what to do (which we later find out he goes to place there).

The note is not "handed" though.

Heh, I won't mention this as an answer to the current trivia round, as it's ... trivial

[ffutures]

Might also be David Gerrold's The Man Who Folded Himself, which has lots of examples of self-intervention. The first occurs at a race track where the protagonist is about to make a bet that will attract attention, and his future self intervenes to stop him, but the intervention starts by showing him the next day's paper, not a note.

[JD]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone.

I wish I could come up with something more substantial regarding the plot. I'm pretty certain the character in the story only met himself once. I was really hoping that one of the 5 answers to Disembodied's question would be the one.

This could become an obsession. I've now come up with plot fragments from two other novels that I can't identify.

[spud42]

all you zombies by robert Heinlein ???

[JD]

No, not that either. Although, from the synopsis at Wikipedia, it looks intriguing.

I suspect that as no-one has gone "Aha, I remember that", it's going to remain unfound. I'm describing too little (or rather, none) of the plot.

But, if I may, how about this one:

A time machine arrives in "the present" (ie whenever the book was set), and causes a lot of damage, as a strong shockwave spirals outwards from its arrival point, knocking down swathes of trees for a mile or so around. The occupant of the time machine is dead.

A group of scientists try to undestand the controls, which are labelled in a completely unknown script. They eventually work out what year it came from, and send it back to the future.

A few months later, the time machine arrives again, once more causing a lot of destruction, this time with a dead alien occupant. They send the machine into the future again.

Given the destruction it wreaks, the people in the present are seriously unhappy at the wanton disregard being shown for their well-being by the people in the future who keep sending it their way. We subsequently discover that the people in the future are similarly unhappy with the people in their past who keep sending the machine their way. It turns out that the time travel has confused some issues of cause and effect. In fact, the machine belonged to a group of aliens who crash-landed on Earth in prehistoric times. They sent the machine forward in the hope of finding a technological civilisation that could help reproduce or repair damaged components on the ship.

Does that ring any bells with anyone?

Cheers
John