Counting the Days: Five SFF Approaches to Calendars

[james_davis_nicoll]

So many different ways of measuring history and the passage of time...

Counting the Days: Five SFF Approaches to Calendars

Comments

[sturgeonslawyer]

Once again ReacTor is not letting me post.

In The Left Hand of Darkness, we are told that on Gethen (or maybe just one of the countries), it is always Year One -- when a year ends, it becomes the first year of the past and the new year is One. This strikes me as a possible source of confusion for historians, but Gethenians don't seem to be all that much into their own history anyway, except as legend and myth.

There are examples scattered through Golden and SF of that tradition, in which a new calendar era is created to start in 1945 (the Atomic Age) or 1957, 1961, or 1969 (the Space Age).

And can any such discussion be complete without Star Dates?

[scott_sanford]

Taking the Gethen scheme literally, Doctor Who spinoff media includes the Eleven Day Empire, which is exactly what it says on the tin - except that the citizens are excessively eccentric Time Lords, living out centuries and millennia in the same eleven days.

[patrick_morris_miller]

I wish I had the time [1] to jump down the Faction Paradox wormhole. It looks interesting, and the revival series no longer is to me (and finally did something so cruel and gratuitous that I have no intention of ever watching again).

[1] I own my puns. [2]

[2] And a Jolly Roger.

[scott_sanford]

I'm out at the periphery of the Faction Paradox fandom and from my mostly-safe-distance observation there's a lot there. Written science fiction can tackle stories and ideas that don't fit into a TV show's time limits, special effects budget, or the need to show things happening. Add onto that fans who are happy to start with the lore of Doctor Who but chuck out the need for following only one person or preserving a situation for later stories.

"What if Gallifreyan technology but in the hands of tech nerds, theater kids, and assorted kooks?"

So yeah, this is the kind of thing that could easily eat many hours.

[patrick_morris_miller]

I expect it's larger on the inside.