In a Relationsihp with a Time Traveler
Clare had to dodge some balls. Clare, the main female protagonist in Audrey Niffenegger’s Time Traveler’s Life, meets her man, Henry, at a startling early age at six. Henry is a lot older than Clare . . . a lot older. Not only is he a lot older, their age gap differs on one inconstant variant—the date in which he travels to see her from. But a minute factor like this cannot deter two central characters in a fantasy-fiction love story. Theirs is an exception to the rule; indeed an unexpected variant realizes and transpires in their relationship. What is the exception?
The exception is Henry’s genetic anomaly: time travel. Yes, Henry time travels. (Hence this is fantasy-fiction as no such power exists of date. Although Professor Ronald Mallard had theorized a thesis using Einstein’s theory of relativity, E=mc² in devising a time travel machine, it has yet to come into fruition.) So Clare meets Henry at a young age and ultimately has an inconstant relationship with Henry intermittently and unexpectedly—atypical things that can happen in relationships all happen between them. Niffenegger, the author is an Intuitive Feeler (“NF” from MBTI), and most Intuitive Feelers falls into the “Idealist” category. They have an idealist approach to relationships. And that is why Clare dodged some balls . . . until Henry came along. Clare’s friends ask her why she does not have a boyfriend. The truth comes down to this since the early age of six: Clare is saving herself for Henry. Not literally dodging balls, Clare swerves around the wrong balls, swishing hurriedly behind in reaching her main goalie. At least that is how Rachel McAdams put it in an interview, a female “NF.” She had to “dodge some balls,” referring to some of her male co-actors. This refers to a guy’s testosterone and their lack of control of it. Clare grows up with Henry—seeing him here and there from his often unplanned visits—and their times together are cut short. Zap! Henry has no control over his time travel. He appears on Clare and just as quickly disappears. Gee whiz. But Clare adjusts to his lack of face-time. And she does end up with Henry. She had planned it that way early on —at age six.
Anything can happen in fiction. And anything goes. Clare meets Henry, a much older adult, as a six-year-old. She sees him intermittently as she grows up and then marries him. Their relationship unravels at unexpected intervals. Clare does not know when to expect Henry nor does she know when he would disappear. Henry is unreliable because he is surviving. Despite his lack of dependable face-time, Clare has always been there for Henry. (NF’s strengths are diplomacy.) (If Henry has an MBTI, his would likely be “SP.” SPs use tactics; their strengths are troubleshooting.)
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| Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling in The Notebook |
Clare and
Henry’s relationship span a long time. Clare
has been waiting for Henry . . . her entire life. After all, her relationship with him began when
she was merely six-years-old. But theirs were to last. In the novel’s ending, Clare has aged with
long silvery grey locks as she paints a canvas when a younger Henry arrives before
her. Anything goes in sci-fi meshed with
genetics and romance. Clare continues to
see Henry in her youth and her adulthood.
But she does not know which Henry she will see—the younger Henry or the
older Henry. But Clare never sees Henry
beyond a certain number—not past his forties.
Uh-oh.
Henry is doomed. Henry’s body time travels that moves him to unknown locations. This is why Henry is surviving —no way of telling how he will eat, live, and dress. And that is all the more Clare has been there for him. Clare leaves her father’s clothes for Henry outside in her yard. He wears her father’s clothes when he time travels to her backyard. Niffenegger instills in Clare’s personality a feminine trait: Waiting for her man. Clare is feminine in this sense. She waits on Henry. She waits for Henry then picks up where they had left off. And she records their every encounter in her diary. So she waits for him until . . . she is old with long, silvery locks.
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| Henry (Eric Bana) with six-year-old Clare in Time Traveler's Wife |
Henry is surviving. He zaps from one date and place to another without an option to arrive at a certain date and place. He is without control in the way he time-travels. So that leaves him to survive in many ways: cheating, stealing, breaking in. He has to do what he can to survive. So Clare provides for him by being there for him. But a girl can wait so long. Henry disappears on Clare —all too frequently. And Clare can only do so much for Henry. She does not know his whereabouts either. When he appears in a life where she is alive as well, she has no idea where he is. So the dreadful event finally comes to its end as Henry loses both of his feet during cold winter months—nowhere to find his clothes, nowhere to find his shelter, nowhere to warm up—finally Henry zaps back at Clare’s house. But by then, it is too late. Henry has become handicapped. Now it has become dangerous for him to time-travel. He can neither run nor flee from strangers; then it leaves him without survival like he had before. His survival has reached its limit. The novel foreshadows a scene early on: Henry has been shot and has left to bleed. Clare hears a gunshot as a little girl, but she does not know then it is her Henry. (Niffenegger writes “My Henry” throughout the novel.) But their love story does not end with his death. Good grief, no. That would be insufficient as a love story. But how can that be? Isn’t Henry dead? Well, yes. But this is also science-fiction mixed with fantasy. The younger Henry (before his death) manages to time travel into the distant, distant future —super fast-forward into the future when Clare is old with silvery locks—and then some. Henry even manages to see his daughter Alba at the Museum of Natural History. In the movie, Clare is not at the museum when Henry zaps in before his daughter; in the novel, Clare rushes to see Henry once she hears his arrival. She runs as fast as she can to see Henry but misses him. He has disappeared already. The scene where Clare runs to get a glimpse and even a little bit of time with Henry has not been included in the movie. Their chance meetings are often cut short. The final scene in Time Traveler’s Wife has not been included in the movie. Although I read the novel more than a decade ago, I remember the story well. The story draws young female readers in—girls into chick flicks will dig in. Clare sees Henry once more in the distant, distant future. Clare has aged with long, silvery locks down to her lower back, painting as an artist when Henry shows up before her. She has waited for him . . . all those years. And his younger self manages to see her once more.
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| Henry (Eric Bana) disappearing before Clare (Rachel McAdams) |
Casting for the movie is fine, but it leaves the viewer longing for more. Especially if you have read the book, the movie does not fully measure up to the original storyline. Time Traveler’s Wife is not a short read, but a long novel, considering its contemporary date. To fully illustrate the story onto screen, it would be fit for a two-week TV mini-series. You get an idea of Henry’s unique genetic anomaly early on in the movie. The movie’s opening has a car accident where adult Henry talks to his kid-version of himself. As the car is close to colliding with another vehicle, Henry disappears suddenly. And presto! Be gone! With that, he disappears from the scene. Wait, is this a magic show? No, you are watching a sci-fi romantic. And a romantic relationship between Henry and Clare is introduced after the first shocking scene. Some producers opt for an opener that shocks, surprises the audience to grab their attention. A car accident does so.
Then Clare walks over to Henry at the library, seeing her Henry. Meanwhile, Henry has no idea who Clare is. His younger self has not yet met Clare. Clare is excited to see Henry but he is not; he is confused by her excited greeting, merely following her cue. Not knowing who Clare really is, Henry even sleeps with her in their first scene together. But that is Henry. Henry has slept with many girls. He is not a prude. Niffenegger writes it in the novel without edit—tits, butts, and other body parts only have clouded his foggy memory. Guys looking to get laid do not recall girls’ faces or names. Not a guy like Henry who is high on survival. So he will sleep any girl had she offered herself. In fact, Henry has seen another girl before Clare, but he had been careless with her. (It’s not a big story line and cut out of the script.)
Gomez has made it into the movie, a male supporting character in the novel. Gomez has feelings for Clare, not just platonic, but that has no place in the movie. Often story within the novel (not major points) has been cut in the movie. In the novel, Clare has Korean friends and movie audiences see an Asian female. Niffenegger writes kimchi in the book, a Korean fermented cabbage dish. Also true to the novel, she describes a Korean girl as a firecracker. None of that is explored in the movie. What remains intact and is explored is the gist of Clare and Henry’s relationship. Theirs is an unconventional relationship that lasts until one of them can no longer appear. That is, Henry can no longer appear before Clare.
A stop-and-go unstable relationship, it starts and then stops. Henry appears and disappears. The relationship spans varies: a day, few days, few weeks. And their time span for few minutes, few hours—no telling exactly how long. Henry is able to share with Clare what transpires in the future. He has been there so he tells her beforehand. He even cheats and buys a lottery ticket ahead of time —a lottery ticket with winning numbers. Henry’s unreliable nature is undeniably unfair to Clare, who is often left waiting for him. It leaves Clare alone at important moments, for example, her miscarriage happens without Henry’s support beside her. He is hardly there at important moments. The viewer sees Clare’s empty relationship with Henry. It leaves her feeling empty. Her life does not stop once he disappears, and as it goes on, it only reminds her of the void in the relationship.
Severely lacking quality time with her love, Clare only adjusts to his flawed ways he had been born with. When Henry meets his daughter in the future, he asks her how her mother is: “Sad,” she replies. Clare, who has seen Henry since the age of six, has looked forward to seeing him. She has recorded every date and every meeting they had together. It is a relationship that has meant a lot to the female character. A big obstacle in their relationship finally occurs when Henry appears but bleeds onto their living room floor. A gunshot wound hurts his future; consequently Henry dies from the gunshot wound. Then he appears in Clare’s life, regardless of his death, which is also shown in the movie. Henry even comes to their house and sees his daughter’s eyes. Clare is still single. After his death, Clare had not wed another man. Clare runs to her Henry when he arrives at her house— for a short time they have with each other. Then he disappears just as slowly again . . . fading before her eyes. Henry is like a phantasm. His slow fade-out is alike to Patrick Swayze’s Ghost. That is one special effect I can say I liked: Henry’s appearances and disappearances. It remains to be the gist of their relationship.
The poem has been revised to Rubaiyat tetrameter (aaba/bbcb/ccdc):
Out of Thin Air
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