Science & Fiction

A Christmas Carol was published 52 years before H.G Wells’s Time Machine, and yet employs the idea of moving through the past, present and future in a way that is emulated by all the western literature to follow. Sure, religious texts and myths have earlier examples of time travel, but with A Christmas Carol, the time travel of Scrooge throughout his own life creates a positive paradox. Because the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come shows Scrooge the future, Scrooge changes the present. And yet, that future couldn’t have existed if Scrooge changed in the present. So how did Scrooge see this future? Well, it was one possible future, which is a notion presented to science fiction characters every since. Would Q have taunted Picard or Billy Pilgrim skipped through time if it weren’t for Dickens? Doubtful.