Essay Questions

What is the considered the first and most important Time Law?

The Time Law which has been considered the most inviolate of all since they were first conceived—and the one which no chronman has been willing to defy—is to never bring someone back to the future when they visit the past. This rule of time travel is of such supreme importance that it is drilled into the very fabric of the whole time travel experience. Of course, the most important element of violating this Time Law that has resulted in universal observation has less to do with its effect on the chronostream than its person impact. Violating the Time Law against bringing someone back from the past is a capital offense. In other words, it is a first class ticket to certain death no matter how it affects the time continuum.

Who invented the Time Laws?

The Mother of Time created the Time Laws. Which is the honorarium given to Grace Priestly, an elderly woman who is also routinely referred to as the most brilliant mind of her generation and one of the brightest people who ever lived. It is this agreed-upon acceptance of the elevated level of he intellectual capacity that also allows her to be one of the most eccentric people of her generation. The creation of the Time Laws is the foremost accomplishment of that intellectual generosity which directly resulted in her earning her majestic moniker which she either wears like a diamond tiara or jettisons like a gold crown depending on her mood.

What does Grace ultimately reveal about the creation of the Time Laws?

The revelation is foreshadowed just before the end of the first chapter when Grace is acting within her most unrestrained mode of eccentricity and suddenly profanes her creation by describing the process of writing the Time Laws as intellectual masturbation. Much later, Grace expands upon her often oddly energetic rejection of the very invention which has made her a figure of worship. Pushed finally to the breaking point, she refashions her famous accomplishment into an scatological scam, admitting that she made up the whole concept and decrying how that concept has managed to grow into a religion centered upon herself as the great prophet of time travel and, of course, the Mother of Time.