Son of Scattered Shots

William Ansley · 06 Aug 2001, 00:51 · from urth-v0030.mbox · original

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From: William Ansley <wansley at warwick.net>
Subject: Re: (urth) Son of Scattered Shots
Date: Mon, 06 Aug 2001 00:51:48
Message-ID: <urth-v0030-0609 at digest.urth.net>
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At 10:48 AM -0700 8/3/01, Dan'l Danehy-Oakes wrote:
>It's easy to dismiss this as "the crushed butterfly theory,"
>a name that clearly derives from Bradbury's "The Delicate Sound
>of Thunder."

This is interesting. When I read the above title, I said to myself,=20
"No, that's not it. It's 'The Sound of Distant Thunder'."

But I thought I had better confirm the title before I posted=20
anything. And I couldn't. The actual title is "A Sound of Thunder"=20
which is found in the collection _R is for Rocket_ by Ray Bradbury.

What makes it interesting is that it seems that Dan'l* and I are not=20
the only ones who misremember the title slightly. While I was=20
searching the Internet in an attempt to confirm my recollection, I=20
found people who recalled it as "A/The Sound of Distant Thunder" and=20
"A/The Distant Sound of Thunder."

Although the story made quite an impression on me when I first read=20
it when I was quite young, I have to say that I now regard the=20
premise as almost completely flawed.

Below is a long quote from the story that explains the premise. This=20
is from <http://filmforce.ign.com/articles/36294p1.html> (Apparently=20
Hollywood is thinking of turning "Thunder" into a film, which raises=20
some questions: Will the film get made? If it does, will it bear as=20
little resemblance to the original story as _Total Recall_ did to the=20
Philip K. Dick story "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale" that it=20
was based on? Will any of us care either way?)

--------------------------------------------------
However, as we all know, going back in time is a risky proposition,=20
as Eckels' guide, Travis, explains: "Say we accidentally kill one=20
mouse here. That means all the future families of this one particular=20
mouse are destroyed, right?...And all the families of the families of=20
the families of that one mouse! With a stamp of your foot, you=20
annihilate first one, then a dozen, then a thousand, a million, a=20
billion possible mice!...Well, what about the foxes that'll need=20
those mice to survive? For want of ten mice, a fox dies. For want of=20
ten foxes a lion starves. For want of a lion, all manner of insects,=20
vultures, infinite billions of life forms are thrown into chaos and=20
destruction. Eventually it all boils down to this: fifty-nine million=20
years later, a caveman, one of a dozen on the entire world, goes=20
hunting wild boar or saber-toothed tiger for food. But you, friend,=20
have stepped on all the tigers in that region. By stepping on one=20
single mouse. So the caveman starves. And the caveman, please note,=20
is not just any expendable man, no! He is an entire future nation.=20
 From his loins would have sprung ten sons. From their loins one=20
hundred sons, and thus onward to a civilization. Destroy this one=20
man, and you destroy a race, a people, an entire history of life. It=20
is comparable to slaying some of Adam's grandchildren. The stomp of=20
your foot, on one mouse, could start an earthquake, the effects of=20
which could shake our earth and destinies down through Time, to their=20
very foundations. With the death of that one caveman, a billion=20
others yet unborn are throttled in the womb. Perhaps Rome never rises=20
on its seven hills. Perhaps Europe is forever a dark forest, and only=20
Asia waxes healthy and teeming. Step on a mouse and you crush the=20
Pyramids. Step on a mouse and you leave your print, like a Grand=20
Canyon, across Eternity. Queen Elizabeth might never be born,=20
Washington might not cross the Delaware, there might never be a=20
United States at all. So be careful. Stay on the Path. Never step=20
off!" Needless to say, Eckels does "step off the path" with chilling=20
results.
--------------------------------------------------

(The whole story is on line here=20
<http://www.sba.muohio.edu/snavely/415/thunder.htm>. What copyright=20
violations or that lack thereof may be involved, I have no idea.)

Anyway, here's the flaw. If you kill a mouse or any other animal** in=20
the past, you will wipe out all of its descendents, perhaps many=20
billions of mice, if you are far enough back in time. But will this=20
cause an avalanche of changes to thunder down the corridors of time?=20
I don't think so. More of the descendants of all of the other=20
contemporaneous mice will live and the mouse population will will be=20
virtually (or even absolutely) unchanged, so the mouse predators and=20
those who prey on them will see no difference. Mice are pretty much=20
interchangeable, at least as food, so, unless you kill the "first" or=20
the only mouse (or a mouse that is unique in some other way), it=20
really won't make much of a difference.

Now we would like to think that all human beings are unique, and=20
certainly killing a person rather than a mouse would seem to have a=20
much greater potential for changing history, but I think in most=20
cases that that same argument can be applied. History will be=20
conserved***, but at least some of the individuals involved will be=20
different and the details will very probably be different as well!

So, Pullman's alternate world which is so completely different from=20
ours in so many ways but still has a recognizable Oxford in it and a=20
John Calvin, still in a prominent, church-related role, strikes me as=20
being just plain silly.

--=20

William Ansley

*Dan'l, there was a Pink Floyd concert film released in 1989 called=20
"Delicate Sound of Thunder". Might you have been thinking of this?

**The creature actually killed in the story was a butterfly, hence=20
the name "the crushed butterfly theory."

***How many of you remember Fritz Leiber's "Law of Conservation of=20
Reality"? This was a definite attempt to counter "the crushed=20
butterfly theory."

*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/

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