The Man Who Folded Himself
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The Man Who Folded Himself is a 1973 science fiction novel by David Gerrold that deals with time travel. It was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1973 and the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1974. The book explores the psychological, physical, and personal challenges that manifest when time travel is possible for a single individual at the touch of a button.
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Plot summary
In 1975, Daniel Eakins, a young college student, is visited by his Uncle Jim. Uncle Jim offers to increase Daniel's monthly allowance for living expenses as long as Daniel promises to keep a diary. Shortly after, Uncle Jim dies, and Daniel inherits a 'Timebelt' from him that allows the wearer to travel through time and a diary which he starts to read. Daniel quickly learns how to use the Timebelt and makes a few short jumps into his own future. He meets an alternate version of himself, who accompanies him to a race-track where the pair make a fortune betting on horse-racing. The following day, Daniel realises that it is his turn to guide his younger self through the previous day at the races; through this and other events the time-travelling Daniel learns more about the belt, about the nature of the 'timestream', and about his personal identity.
Daniel repeatedly encounters alternate versions of himself, ultimately having sex with himself and beginning a relationship with himself. He learns that the changes he has made to his timeline have erased all traces of his childhood and early life. Finding himself lonely and hoping to correct the situation, he jumps backwards in time, where he meets a female version of himself called Diane. He begins a relationship with Diane. Diane soon becomes pregnant and gives birth to a son. Shortly after, Daniel and Diane separate, and Daniel raises his son in 1950s America. As Daniel ages, he becomes more obsessed with returning to the relationship he had with Diane, and then with the thought of his own inevitable death. He spends much of his time at a house party set in 1999, enjoying the company of dozens of versions of himself at different ages.
Daniel eventually realises that he has now become his Uncle Jim and that his son is actually the young future version of himself who will go on to inherit the Timebelt, and that his life has 'come full circle'. He makes preparations for after his death to ensure that the young Daniel experiences the same events that he did when he was the same age. The book ends with the young Daniel, who has read the now-complete diary, having to decide whether he will use the Timebelt.
Characters
Almost all of the different characters in the story are, in fact, alternate versions of Daniel from another point in time. When Daniel first meets his future self from one day into the future, the future version identifies himself as "Don," ostensibly Daniel's twin brother. The next day, when it becomes Dan's turn to meet a version of himself from yesterday, he adopts the role of Don. (When a third Daniel appears, he is sometimes identified as Don II, or ultra-Don.) The female version of Danny has a similar relationship with alternate versions of herself; she is Diane when she meets a version of herself from the future, but when she plays the role of the future traveler, she adopts the name Donna. (Diane has an Aunt Jane, who is the elderly version of herself, and the female equivalent of Uncle Jim.) The only named character who is not some version of Daniel is the lawyer who comes to tell him of his Uncle Jim's death, and is identified only as "Biggs-or-Briggs-or-something."
Paradoxes
Though the novel makes it clear that temporal paradoxes are impossible, many of the events of Daniel's life are a "loop" with no beginning or end from a subjective viewpoint. His Uncle Jim gives him the Timebelt, which Daniel in turn passes on to himself as a teen when he becomes old enough to play the role of Uncle Jim. The Timebelt's origins are unknown. Also, the fact that an older version of Danny and a female version of him have a child together ensures that Danny is essentially his own parents; the child is identical and becomes Danny, living Danny's life while Danny, in turn, adopts the surrogate role of Uncle Jim.
See also
- "By His Bootstraps" (1941) and "'—All You Zombies—'" (1959), both short stories by Robert A. Heinlein with contorted and finally close-looped timelines. The latter one also deals, like Gerrold's novel, with the notion of being one's own parents.
- There Will Be Time, a 1972 novel by Poul Anderson with similar concepts, also nominated for awards.
- The Time Traveler's Wife, a 2003 novel and 2009 movie that employ similar concepts.
