Book Details
“How The Future Got Better” by Eric Schaller | The Time Traveler’s Almanac collection
Editors: Ann VanderMeer, Jeff VanderMeer
Total Pages in the collection: 960
Published: March 18, 2014 by Tor Books
My Review
This one was short, sweet, and entertaining!
Schaller takes the common experience of a family gathering for a meal and watching TV to another level. Our narrator is one of the children of the family, who observes the members of his family eat, complain, banter, and rush through dessert because they don’t want to miss settling down before the television at 6pm prompt.
What are they tuning into? FoTax–or, “photon” and “tachyons” which I assume are part of a very interesting piece of technology which allows people to view the future through their TV screens. As a neighboring family stops by and asks to join in, I’m still not sure what FoTax is or why it means something to everyday folk, but the author does such a good job of making you feel as if you’re sitting at the table with the family, sliding among them to find your spot in front of the TV, that you’re willing to hold off on your questions.
When the time comes and the TV is turned on per instruction manual, we see that everyone is able to view a third of what’s going on in the TV screen, which is them 5 minutes into the future. And within the TV screen, the TV families are watching their own TV which reflects 5 minutes further into the future (and so on and so forth).
I thought this was fascinating, and I was intrigued by the concept of “ghosting.” It seems that if you don’t adjust or position yourself to match what you see on the TV screen, your “TV self” starts to fade (fade into what, and if it affects the flesh and blood you, I’m not sure that is answered). Mom is standing by the TV but her TV self is sitting–when the future version of her starts to fade, she quickly goes to take a seat. Uncle Walt is holding a beer 5 minutes into the future, so he goes into the kitchen to retrieve a can of Coors Light.
To me, the story is a bit ambiguous as to whether or not the future really can be changed or if one can avoid a certain future. Also, it seems the purpose of this photon + tachyon technology (at least to the common man) is to entertain in an exotic way, almost like a game. The title of the story is “How the Future Got Better,” but this cool and possibly life-altering technology isn’t necessarily giving anyone a better future or a peek into a grandiose tomorrow–sure, if you count getting yourself a beer 5 minutes from now a “better future,” but it all seems simultaneously fascinating and mundane. Seriously, if I could see into the future via my TV screen, there are several things I’d want to know besides what I’m drinking or whether I’m sitting or standing.
With these issues aside, I did very much enjoy this short story (and compared to a couple of the past ones in this anthology, this was REALLY short).
My Rating:
4.5 out of 5
About The Time Traveler’s Almanac
The Time Traveler’s Almanac is the largest and most definitive collection of time travel stories ever assembled. Gathered into one volume by intrepid chrononauts and world-renowned anthologists Ann and Jeff VanderMeer, this book compiles more than a century’s worth of literary travels into the past and the future that will serve to reacquaint readers with beloved classics of the time travel genre and introduce them to thrilling contemporary innovations.
This marvelous volume includes nearly seventy journeys through time from authors such as Douglas Adams, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, William Gibson, Ursula K. Le Guin, George R. R. Martin, Michael Moorcock, H. G. Wells, and Connie Willis, as well as helpful non-fiction articles original to this volume (such as Charles Yu’s “Top Ten Tips For Time Travelers”).
The Time Traveler’s Almanac Review Group
This review is part of an on-going review series. We’re trying to review a short story per week from The Time Traveler’s Almanac. Please join us and share your thoughts! My partners in crime on this reading adventure includes the following authors and bloggers. Check out their reviews as well:
Interesting that you and I both agreed that the technology was different, but ambiguous yet in my conclusion, boring. Is that all it does is make people watch tv? This was a strange one that made me read through too many times while still not getting it. I gave it a 2/5.
Tim, agreed. I really liked the concept Schaller gave us with the technology, though there were some confusing aspects.
That whole family dynamic, with the different personalities, and how our narrators describe his family and the whole event was amazing! What Schaller created felt genuine and real. And he did it in under 4 pages!
There was a lot to still be explained about the time-travel that I would’ve like to have known, but I kind of thought he used the FoTax as a chance to make fun of people. How dumb we can be: looking intently at a TV to see if something will change in future… which would be someone standing up. Or quickly bored everyone can get: grandma starts snoring, peoples start talking, and Uncle wants to change the channel.
I really liked this story too 🙂
Same here, DJ!
Yeah, I think you touch on many of the points that I really liked and some of the reasons I rated it down. The time travel didn’t make sense, but the it wasn’t really about that, in the end, so much as it was about showing an every day family settling down with the latest “thing.”