The Time Traveller's Strife

The last couple of days I've been thinking of when I would most like to have lived. While it's hard to imagine living without all the things that I'm used to now, I like to think if I'd never known them, I'd never want for them. I daresay in 50/100/400 years, people will look back on us now and shudder to think how we could have managed without things they assume to be impossible to live without.

Of course, as long as you try to imagine what those things might be, you imagine things that are improved versions of what we have now. Or, involving things that we consider to be simply a matter of science paving the way forward, like living on the moon, which seems to be a popular vision of the future. (although you'd think they'd populate the uninhabitable parts of Earth first which would seem to be more achievable in the first place) Those that walked for miles and dreamed of an automated form of transport surely would not have conceived the idea of aeroplanes? And if you had never heard of a telephone, would you ever had imagined a mobile telephone? I wonder if children tried talking into cups with pieces of string before the telephone was invented, or if the invention of the telephone and the understanding of the process was necessary before anyone thought to try that. Maybe Alexander Graham Bell happened upon that as a child and thought to try it on a bigger scale?

The whole nostalgic idea of time travel into the past is a strange one, why would it be better? Is it a yearning for more simple things, and would that be better? I have long longed to have a Lost in Austen type experience, to find myself living in the world created by Jane Austen. Likewise, it would probably be very nice to live in the world of a Mills and Boon novel set in present day, which I strongly suspect would have as much bearing on real life as those books had on life at that time. Primarily, I think I would have been bored, I get bored enough now with plenty to occupy me. Reading is about the only thing that would interest me, and the selection of books would be drastically reduced from those available to me now. Needlework and singing aren't exactly pursuits I would ever choose to do, and I would end up writing endless diaries and going for endless walks. Oh...

I remember learning about the Second World War at school and from my grandparents and thinking how marvellous it all sounded, how exciting it must have been to have the war and rationing and what not and if only I'd been alive then. Which of course is utter nonsense, it must have been awful. Naturally I yearn to have a real Victorian Christmas, which would undoubtedly be more like the Christmases we have and less like Dickens.

You get all the time travel fiction: Back to the Future, Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes, 13 going on 30 and the book "Do You Remember the First Time?" by Jenny Colgan being the ones I can think of to hand. All of these feature someone from this time (or in Back to the Future's case, someone from 1985) that finds their modern self in the past for some reason. With the exception of Back to the Future (for who would want to see their parents getting together - ick) it makes me think, what would it be like for me?

So...

To go back to 1973 (Life on Mars), is a little unimaginable, it was before I was born, but many of the things featured on this programme seem sort of homely, reminding me of the 70s which I don't remember much of. That doesn't make any sense. I'll move on.

In Ashes to Ashes, the main character wakes up in 1981. I was 6 in 1981 and thought everything about being grown up was amazingly glamorous.
Interestingly, or not as the case may be, that's the same age my brother was in 1973, so maybe he feels the same about Life on Mars. Hmm. The 70s seem a bit less shiny and everyone/thing was tan, I can't see that you'd think it glamorous.
My mother worked for a magazine then and I longed to be like the people she worked with, or Diana of course. One of the advertising guys had an Audi Quattro which I think was probably the first car I ever lusted after. The character in Ashes to Ashes was exactly how I wanted to grow up and I actually think I'd like the opportunity to be an adult in that time, but in a nice gentle version that didn't shatter the illusions you have to be 6 to have.

13 going on 30 and "Do You Remember the First Time" are much the same as each other, the girl is suddenly back being 13/16 but with the wisdom (and hangups) that come with being 30ish. Which makes you immediately go on a big long (probably delayed) train of thought as to who you'd see, what you'd do, all the things you'd do differently and how marvellous it would be to have your adult self there, able to deal with all the things you did wrong at the time. But how frustrating to be a teenager and have all the restrictions of being teenage. Maybe not.

I've been reminded today of all the amazing people who are no longer living. I'd like to have been Mrs Samuel Clemens, or one of the great scientists of the 19th century, meeting in London to discuss (and steal) ideas with each other. Or Einstein's lab assistant. I wonder who from this time people would want to come back and meet. Who should I aspire to meet while we are both still living? I think I know what I appreciate about this time, but who should I appreciate?