SF-TH Inc Deconstructing the Time Machine (La déconstruction de la machine du temps) Author(s): Veronica Hollinger Source: Science Fiction Studies, Vol. 14, No. 2, Critical Approaches to Science Fiction: Retrospects & Prospects (Jul., 1987), pp. 201-221 Published by: SF-TH Inc Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4239816 . Accessed: 28/08/2014 12:20 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact
[email protected]. SF-TH Inc is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Science Fiction Studies. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 131.111.184.22 on Thu, 28 Aug 2014 12:20:02 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions DECONSTRUCTINGTHE TIMEMACHINE 201 Veronica Hollinger Deconstructingthe Time Machine' Time is, of all modesof existence,most obsequious to the imagination.... SamuelJohnson The idea of time travelhas for manyyears exercised the ingenuitynot only of SF writers,but of scientistsand philosophers as well; neitherthe equationsof quantumphysics nor the rulesof logic have manageddefinitively to proveor to disprove the possibilitythat this most paradoxicalof SF concepts may some day be realized.'The purposeof this presentessay is to examinesome aspects of time travel within the frameworkof Derrideandeconstruction, since, as I hope to demonstrate,the time-travelstory always achieves a deconstructionof certain received ideas about the natureand structureof time.