Short Fiction · Chapter
The Worlds of If explained
Dixon Wells, haunted by guilt after missing the Baikal airliner which subsequently crashed, visits Professor van Manderpootz to use the subjunctivisor—a device that reveals parallel worlds of 'if.' Van Manderpootz explains the impossibility
What happens
Dixon Wells, haunted by guilt after missing the Baikal airliner which subsequently crashed, visits Professor van Manderpootz to use the subjunctivisor—a device that reveals parallel worlds of 'if.' Van Manderpootz explains the impossibility of traveling into the past or future via conventional time machines, instead introducing the concept of traveling 'sideways' into conditional worlds. Dixon uses the device to explore what would have happened if he had caught the flight, discovering a romantic encounter with Joanna Caldwell, but ultimately learning that his presence would not have prevented the disaster.
Themes in this chapter
Time and Parallel Worlds
Central theme: van Manderpootz's subjunctivisor reveals 'conditional worlds'—parallel realities representing what might have been, neither past nor future but contemporary and extemporal.
Human Ambition and Folly
Dixon's guilt and desire to know the 'if' world reflect human folly in seeking to alter or understand the unchangeable past; van Manderpootz's grandiose autobiography plans also illustrate ambition.
Perception and Subjectivity
The psychomat's vision is described as partly self-hypnosis, and Dixon's idealized view of Joanna Caldwell highlights subjective perception.
Characters to notice
- Dixon Wells
Protagonist; chronically late, he missed the Baikal airliner and seeks closure by using the subjunctivisor to explore the 'if' world where he caught the flight.
- Van Manderpootz
Inventor of the subjunctivisor; explains the impossibility of time travel into past/future and demonstrates his device for viewing parallel conditional worlds.
- Joanna Caldwell
A young artist traveling to Paris; met by Dixon in the subjunctivisor vision, she becomes a symbol of what might have been.
- Unknown
First-person narrator in the opening dialogue with van Manderpootz, later identified as Dick Jarvis in the conversation about time travel.
Key passages
“Ahead is the future; behind is the past. Those are real, the worlds of past and future. What worlds are neither past nor future, but contemporary and yet—extemporal—existing, as it were, in time parallel to our time?”
Van Manderpootz explains that the subjunctivisor does not show past or future, but rather parallel worlds that exist alongside our own—the worlds of 'if.'
Key explanation of the device's function.
“I was just about to dismantle it. ... It has served its purpose. It has given birth to an idea far more important than itself. ... It is nothing less than the autobiography of van Manderpootz!”
Van Manderpootz plans to dismantle the subjunctivisor to focus on writing his autobiography, which he considers a greater work.
Shows van Manderpootz's self-importance and the fleeting nature of his inventions.
“Suppose—just suppose that I found myself responsible—not legally responsible, certainly ... Just—responsible; that was all. Yet I hated to find out. I hated equally not finding out.”
Dixon wrestles with the desire to know if his lateness caused the Baikal disaster, torn between the pain of certainty and the agony of uncertainty.
Reveals Dixon's internal conflict and motivation for using the subjunctivisor.