If that phrase is familiar to you, then you’ve probably read Stephen King’s time travel thriller, 11/22/63 about a man hellbent on saving JFK from Lee Harvey Oswald.
The novel is filled with synchronicity. But King never uses the term. Even the word ‘coincidence’ is only used one when the protagonist says: “Coincidences happen, but I’ve come to believe they are actually quite rare. Something is at work, O.K.? Somewhere in the universe (or behind it), a great machine is ticking and turning its fabulous gears.”
It’s all about harmonizing of events, and for the most part, it’s not a good thing. In almost every instance, these synchros or harmonics are warnings. Ultimately, the main character Jake or George (depending on what time frame he is living) discovers that his actions to alter the past created the astonishing harmonics. People with the same name appear over and over, the same model and year of cars appear and re-appear.
It’s all about what King calls the obdurate past that is belligerently struggling to fight off anyone from the future who attempts to change the course of reality.
In most novels, all these ‘coincidences’ might be a bit too much, too unbelievable. But King is a master at allowing the reader to drop his or her sense of disbelief. He does so by using protagonist-narrators who are everyday people who find themselves in extraordinary circumstances.
A time-travel novel requires certain rules for accomplishing that feat and certain consequences. In King’s version, anything you alter in the past, such as saving a life, will be wiped out if you go back again. But of course there are many more consequences of actions taken in the past and Jake (George) doesn’t realize what he has done until the end.
The New York Times calls 11/22/83 “one of the best time-travel stories since H. G. Wells. King has captured something wonderful. Could it be the bottomlessness of reality? The closer you get to history, the more mysterious it becomes.”
I enjoyed the novel, although the middle of the book seemingly diverts from the quest as George settles into the past, and I kept waiting for something to happen. My favorite time travel novel remains Time and Again by Jack Finney. I also would’ve liked King to give some explanation for the rabbit hole or holes through time and to tell us more about the guardians at the gate, who were garbed in long coats like Keanu Reeves in The Matrix. It seems that guardians held some answers to the mystery of time travel, but they don’t reveal much about it. Maybe we’ll find out more in the movie version.
Oh, one more thing. Friends of synchronicity beware! The message regarding meaningful coincidence or harmonics, is this: if it happens to you, heed the warning sign, or turn and run. 😉
Now it’s Trish turn to read it. We’ll see what she thinks.
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I bought this book for myself and Rob absconded with it! I’ve been reading King since one of my middle school students back in the early 70s gave me The Shining. For me, King is an old friend I have never met, a writer from whom I learned it’s okay to write about weirdness as long as you justify it. And honestly when I saw him speak at an Edgar Allan Poe awards dinner, I wanted to hug this man, thank him. He taught me how to write. I’m still learning from him.
Oh my goodness! I just re-read my previous comment and it sounded as if it were aimed at Gypsy’s comment! No no no no a thousand times NO! Nevah evah! Gyps and I are always on the same page, eerily so. Most cousins are not nearly as parallel as she and I are. We almost seem like twins parted at birth, so no misunderstandings here, please. My comments were directed towards the ridiculous explanations being offered to those folks in Wisconsin. Definitely NOT to J’s comments about it being reported as eartquakes. Just needed to clarify that! 🙂
Yesterday there was an article in our local newspaper about the Wisconsin booms, with no explanation from any source. Then just now I googled it:
https://news.discovery.com/human/mysterious-booms-plague-wisconsin-town-120332.html
This site has two articles, the most recent one stating that the booms were caused by “1.5 earthquakes”. OK. Excuse me….but the earlier article, also on that same site, states that for several nights, and NIGHTS ONLY, these sounds occurred at two-hour intervals. Well. Hhhmmmmm. I’m no physicist but I lived in Southern CA twice:
once, near Pasadena, and the second time, in the desert town of Palm Springs. I can tell you from vast experience of virtual daily tiny temblors, a 1.5 doesn’t BOOM, it doesn’t rattle the houses, it doesn’t roll the ground, and NO earthquakes occur at regular two-hour intervals, nor do they only occur during the night. A 1.5 is almost undetectable except perhaps a very tiny, tiny passing motion under one’s feet, if that, not even similar to the motion of the water in a lake on a day without wind. Barely, barely perceptible. If these were 1.5 quakes, as they are trying to convince residents, do they think people are stupid idiots? A person doesn’t have to be a rocket scientist to know that quakes don’t BOOM at 1.5; quakes don’t repetitively occur with a constant, unchanging, rhythmic two-hour interval; quakes don’t occur only at night. So what is REALLY going on here??? Two-hour intervals. That has the sound (no pun untended) of something intelligently controlled or regulated. Earthquakes occur with a type of random behavior like thunder and lightning. They are not rhythmically produced at certain established intervals. And we ALL know they don’t just occur at night. Gosh, I’d love to know what’s truly going on up there!!!
OOPS. Strieber’s title is HYBRIDS, not “Aliens”. The word “alien” is used so often in the text of the story that it sticks in my mind. Good book, but requires concentration and a peculiar kind of trust in the author. He writes non-fiction texts on the same subject matter and it’s necessary to accept that his non-fiction is not a carry-over from his fiction. I think it’s the opposite, His fiction is derived from the genuine experiences. But….skeptics tend to suspect his veracity because he writes both fiction and non-fiction about these issues. Tough call. Makes it truly difficult for him, and for many like him.
Like Gypsy, I saw the “explanation” on TV, but felt in my gut it is wrong. Not long ago I emailed T & R about just such a nighttime booming sound here and our house rattling; the neighbors all out in the street; the military, etc, denying any connection, and the weather people said no plate activity that would be affecting us, and no construction going on anywhere to cause such an affect. We even thought it could be something at the Cape, maybe a rocket launch, but they said No. We’ve been seeing a lot of unexplained extremely high, slow-moving objects in the clear night skies that aren’t satellites or high-flying jets. Too slow and too high for jets, and like the planes, the satellites have barely discernable blinking colored lights on them. Son and hubby saw a “formation” of these lights a few nights back, moving really slow and WAAAYYYYYYY out there. I’m in process of reading Strieber’s novel “Aliens” and am trying to not let it influence me. These things in the sky…..they are definitely for real. And who know “what lies beneath” ???????????????
just read on either msn.com or yahoo.com that these booming sounds were, in fact, precursors to a small EQ that just hit this town – seems the underground rocks in this area transmit sound better than most areas –
Geologists said they highly doubted the earthquake theory.
I don’t know Gypst, I think something else is going on. I have sometimes heard rumbling by my house and it will vibrate yet I cannot figure out what it is .
We’ve got a post coming up on this tomorrow. I think it’s more than quakes.
Haven’t read this but the idea of forms of time travel are stimulating to think about – a lot of the ‘if only’ incidents could be corrected. But I don’t feel we will ever be ‘allowed’ to do this, or alter the past in any form, so that it would be apparent in our ‘present’ lives. As things are today is how they should be. But there could be parallel or multi lives, of course, where ‘if only’ happened.
momwithwings, I saw that in the newspaper about the booming noise and the houses rattliing and shaking and no one knows what it is, at least, no one is claiming to know. Military, police, no one. It’ll be interesting to follow up on this one!! Maybe UFOs or something coming and going in and out of this dimension. Or could be something as simple as earthquake temblors, but if it were that, the USGS would be picking it up. High strangeness indeed.
This is obviously something I need to check out!
My favorite time travel books are yours, Trish. You made it believable which impressed me and drew me in even more.
I will have to check out these other books.
Thanks Melissa for the reminder that we “are human”, I always forget that button!
Thank you! You’ll enjoy Rob’s time travel novel involving Poe.
Sorry about that human button. We were getting so much spam I had to do something. Now, we get none!!
I completely understand about the Human button!
Any comments about the town that was on the news last night that have been hearing and feeling booms ESP. At night? The over 4,000 residents say that their houses shake and have been calling 911, yet no one can say what it is!!!!!
That freakin’ human check box got me again!
I have it! I have it! Robe gave it to us a while back and we just haven’t had a chance to start it…It’s actually on the table right now and has been calling to me for a while! Guess that’s a sure sign I have to read it next!
I’d forgotten about that!
*Rob
(oops) 🙂
I enjoyed this novel very much. I felt involved with the premise and also wondered about the middle of this very long book, when he got involved in living in the past. I have always enjoyed science fiction, so when I learned King had written this one, I devoured it with excitement. I will probably read it again.
Have u read his dark tower series?
It’s funny, I always look at the synchros I experience and wonder what the universe is trying to tell me. Even if it is a good one, am I on the right track? Or is it telling me something deeper? So, I definitely heed the warnings…
This post has reminded me of a wonderful book, indeed. Might go get it so husband can read it as well. Way back when, when I was in my sophomore year of college, you lent me your copy of “Time and Again,” just a few years after his death. (You also gave me Carol Bowman’s book that same visit — I remember reading both so clearly in my dorm room!) Finney’s story resonated with me and I promise you, every time I walk past the Dakota, I don’t think of John Lennon as much as I probably should…I think of that story! That building is really a magical spot in the city, so I always wonder…:-)
On a side note, I also read the sequel (I think also thanks to you!) and although I didn’t love it quite as much, I wish he had come up with the third in the trilogy before he moved on.
I remember that! Time and again is still one of my faves. Now tha rob has finished with king’s book, I get to read it!
Melissa, You (and everyone else in the world!) should read Rob’s time travel novel, ‘Romancing the Raven.’ Like ‘Time and Again,’ it takes place in nineteenth century NYC. I think you will like Destiny Douglas, who encounters E.A. Poe just after he was booted out of West Point.