{"id":125,"date":"2008-09-10T14:31:13","date_gmt":"2008-09-10T22:31:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/?p=125"},"modified":"2008-10-08T13:46:00","modified_gmt":"2008-10-08T21:46:00","slug":"revisiting-replay-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/revisiting-replay-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Revisiting Replay (Part 1)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I recently started my annual re-reading of my favorite novel, <em><a title=\"Amazon.com - Replay by Ken Grimwood\" href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/068816112X\/?tag=timelpersu-20\" target=\"_self\">Replay<\/a> <\/em>by Ken Grimwood.\u00c2\u00a0 Since I consider the book to be at the core of my time travel trinity (taking the literary slot alongside <em>Quantum Leap<\/em> for TV and <em>Back To The Future<\/em> for film), I thought it would be fun to do some chapter by chapter commentary here.\u00c2\u00a0 I&#8217;ll try to point out things I like about it, as well as a few places where it was intentionally or accidentally an influence on <em>Timely Persuasion<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Note:<\/span> If you haven&#8217;t read <em>Replay<\/em>, the following may contain spoilers.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Chapter One<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Jeff Winston, the main character, dies in the first sentence of the book.\u00c2\u00a0 Great opening.<\/li>\n<li>While he&#8217;s dying, he casually runs through a list of regrets he has in his adult life with his wife.\u00c2\u00a0 It seems like a basic intro to his character at first glance, but turns out to be brilliantly subtle foreshadowing for everything that&#8217;s going to happen later.<\/li>\n<li>After awakening in the body of his past college self circa 1963, Jeff alternates between thinking it&#8217;s real, a dream, or a post-hangover coincidence.<\/li>\n<li>Every now and then someone tells me they think the narrator of <em>Timely Persuasion<\/em> is a little too casual about his predicament when he first travels in time, but rereading this opening chapter of <em>Replay <\/em>I don&#8217;t think my hero handles it all that much differently than Jeff Winston.\u00c2\u00a0 They both act cautiously, grasping at logical straws to explain a fantastical situation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Chapter Two<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Jeff has mostly accepted that he&#8217;s really gone back in time, but still wavers into &#8220;what if I&#8217;m dreaming?&#8221; territory on occasion.<\/li>\n<li>His internal monologues ponder a number of &#8220;what if&#8221; scenarios about what &#8220;the rules&#8221; of time travel might be as they apply to him.\u00c2\u00a0 Similar to TP (and most other time travel tales for that matter) to a degree, with the big difference being that Jeff ends up being more or less spot on in his logical guesses as to what he can and can&#8217;t do, whereas my narrator is about 50\/50 on being right and being flat out wrong.<\/li>\n<li>I never really noticed before this reading, but I think this might be the first novel I&#8217;ve ever read that used &#8220;mind travel&#8221; rather than body travel.\u00c2\u00a0 As such, it may have been a subconscious inspiration for the underlying &#8220;message from your future self&#8221; time travel theory that&#8217;s the basis for TP.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Chapter Three<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Jeff decides to rekindle a relationship with his old college flame, but realizes that his advanced sexual experiences from the future won&#8217;t let him regress back to a more innocent time.<\/li>\n<li>He decides to use his future knowledge to bet on the Kentucky Derby, eventually scoring a big victory.\u00c2\u00a0 This time travel clich\u00c3\u00a9 is handled well by Grimwood as he plays out various permutations of it as the book goes on (and adds the complication of Jeff being underage and needing to convince an older student to front for him), but was something I consciously wanted to avoid in my book.\u00c2\u00a0 I tease the reader with the lottery numbers, but refuse to go in the direction of the big win in favor of exploring different ground.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Chapter Four<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Jeff&#8217;s Vegas fling Sharla bears some similarity to the Cute Little Redheaded girl, though this is mostly coincidental.<\/li>\n<li>I think there&#8217;s a minor mistake in this chapter when Frank tells Jeff that &#8220;Three times in a row now you&#8217;ve called them just right&#8221; after winning their bet on the Belmont Stakes.\u00c2\u00a0 A few pages earlier Jeff details that he DIDN&#8217;T bet on the Preakness since he couldn&#8217;t remember who won.\u00c2\u00a0 So either Frank is counting choosing not to bet a win, or this was an oversight.\u00c2\u00a0 (I&#8217;m not criticizing, as I know how easy it is to mess something like this up.\u00c2\u00a0 Just saying&#8230;)<\/li>\n<li>They make one final big bet on the 1963 World Series where the Dodgers swept the Yankees, then move on to more adult ventures.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Chapter Five<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;Future, Inc&#8221; is incorporated to play the stock market with Jeff&#8217;s future knowledge. Only utilizing his foreknowledge for profit doesn&#8217;t sit well, so he decides to have a bigger impact on society.\u00c2\u00a0 How?\u00c2\u00a0 He tries to stop the assassination of JFK &#8212; fully acknowledging that the idea was somewhat clich\u00c3\u00a9d.\u00c2\u00a0 Jeff&#8217;s trying to stop this murder directly influenced the Kurt Cobain chapters in <em>Timely Persuasion<\/em> as sort of a modernization of the Kennedy\/Hitler path many other time travel stories take.<\/li>\n<li>Jeff succeeds in stopping Oswald, only to have another assassin take his place to carry out the deed.\u00c2\u00a0 This leads to an interesting internal monologue weighing government conspiracy vs. time travel course correction by a greater power in the universe.\u00c2\u00a0 Even though I&#8217;ve read <em>Replay<\/em> at least a half dozen times, this was the first time I noticed that Oswald&#8217;s &#8220;replacement&#8221; was named <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Nelson<\/strong><\/span> Bennett.\u00c2\u00a0 I knew the name &#8220;Nelson&#8221; sounded like a good bad guy to me; perhaps this planted the seed.<\/li>\n<li>Also of note in this chapter is how Jeff&#8217;s business partner (and formerly gambling partner) Frank gets a little freaked out by Jeff&#8217;s &#8220;predictions&#8221; after the JFK incident and the two part ways, conveniently allowing Frank to exit the story having served his purpose for now.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Chapter Six<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Wealth and the inability to change things for the better continue to take their toll on Jeff.\u00c2\u00a0 He breaks up with Sharla, makes more money, and bides his time until he&#8217;s supposed to meet his wife.<\/li>\n<li>At the appointed place and time he shows up and finds her waiting, but she thinks his talk of his successes are a bad pick up line.\u00c2\u00a0 He calls her later to try again, but now she takes him to be a stalker and advises him to never contact her again. Knowing a rekindled romance would be a lost cause, Jeff ends up married with a daughter he adores and a wife he barely tolerates.\u00c2\u00a0 This section is similar to the TP underlying subplot regarding all of the narrator&#8217;s undone past loves, as well as his internal monologues on fate and whether or not true love is &#8220;meant to be&#8221; or even exists at all.<\/li>\n<li>He spends much of his time pondering what went wrong as he tries to protect his daughter from both the future and her mother. At around the time he accepts that his daughter is most important to him &#8212; and at the exact same age he was when the book began &#8212; he dies again.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>To be continued in <a title=\"Revisiting Replay (Part 2)\" href=\"http:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/?p=137\" target=\"_self\">Part 2<\/a>&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I recently started my annual re-reading of my favorite novel, Replay by Ken Grimwood.\u00c2\u00a0 Since I consider the book to be at the core of my time travel trinity (taking the literary slot alongside Quantum Leap for TV and Back To The Future for film), I thought it would be fun to do some chapter&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[31,5,30],"class_list":["post-125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-time-travel","tag-back-to-the-future","tag-quantum-leap","tag-replay"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3pfx3-21","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":148,"url":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/revisiting-replay-part-3\/","url_meta":{"origin":125,"position":0},"title":"Revisiting Replay (Part 3)","author":"LBDG","date":"September 25, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"This is the third post in a series of chapter by chapter commentaries on the novel Replay by Ken Grimwood.\u00c2\u00a0 To start at the beginning, check out Part 1. Note: If you haven't read Replay, the following may will contain spoilers. Chapter Thirteen Jeff wakes up in bed, but instead\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Time Travel&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Time Travel","link":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/category\/time-travel\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1622,"url":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/enumerating-the-top-time-travel-stories\/","url_meta":{"origin":125,"position":1},"title":"Enumerating the Top Time Travel Stories","author":"LBDG","date":"January 29, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Timely Persuasion was recently named third favorite time travel story on the Enumeration Podcast! It was an honor to be named here amongst several other great time travel tales. The three hosts came up with quite a set of stories altogether. Their complete lists are covered below - but check\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Enumeration - Time Travel Stories","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/episode65_220x220.jpg.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":168,"url":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/revisting-replay-part-4\/","url_meta":{"origin":125,"position":2},"title":"Revisiting Replay (Part 4)","author":"LBDG","date":"October 1, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"This is the final post in a series of chapter by chapter commentaries on the novel Replay by Ken Grimwood.\u00c2\u00a0 To start at the beginning, check out Part 1. Note: If you haven't read Replay, the following may will contain spoilers. Chapters Eighteen to Twenty Pamela returns in 1975 this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Time Travel&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Time Travel","link":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/category\/time-travel\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":273,"url":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/ramblings-i\/","url_meta":{"origin":125,"position":3},"title":"Ramblings I","author":"LBDG","date":"December 10, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"In the spirit of the early years of the Pearl Jam Xmas Single, here are some tangentially on-topic thoughts not big enough for their own posts: I've been having recurring dreams (and\/or daydreams) where M. Ward and Zooey Deschanel (aka She & Him) cover \"Start Choppin'\" by Dinosaur Jr., trading\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Misc Debris&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Misc Debris","link":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/category\/misc-debris\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1421,"url":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/more-red-letter-dates\/","url_meta":{"origin":125,"position":4},"title":"More Red Letter Dates","author":"LBDG","date":"November 5, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The most famous red letter date in the history of time travel is November 5, 1955 from Back to the Future. Lesser known BTTF dates include: January 1, 1885 (Doc's trip to the Old West) September 2, 1885 (Marty's trip to the Old West) November 12, 1955 (Enchantment Under The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Time Travel&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Time Travel","link":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/category\/time-travel\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/screenshot_86.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":137,"url":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/revisiting-replay-part-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":125,"position":5},"title":"Revisiting Replay (Part 2)","author":"LBDG","date":"September 17, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"This is the second post in a series of chapter by chapter commentaries on the novel Replay by Ken Grimwood.\u00c2\u00a0 To start at the beginning, check out Part 1. Note: If you haven't read Replay, the following may will contain spoilers. Chapter Seven Jeff starts his second replay in a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Time Travel&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Time Travel","link":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/category\/time-travel\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":205,"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125\/revisions\/205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}