The Man Who Folded Himself by David Gerrold
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

So many great books out there, and then I come across this one that manages to mobilize, outwardly, all the things that go through our own minds about ourselves, our dreams, our sexuality, and our agency in our own lives.

And all it does is take the form of a short Time-Travel novel. Amazing.

I mean, seriously, let's just throw out all paradox and assume, just for a moment, that all time travel iterations are possible. This is the many, many, many-worlds interpretation. Go back and talk to yourself times infinity. No paradox, just added dimensions. That means you never need to be alone. That loving yourself and your lot in life takes on truly physical dimensions. That neither money, events, or anything can stand in your way.... except... your PoV grows older, naturally, and so if you're trying to revisit your own youth, you can, but your youth may not really appreciate YOU. :)

So is this a fantastic Time-Travel novel exploring all the far reaches of time and place, or is it an introspective novel exploring himself and everything that it means to be and to grow older and sometimes wiser?

Well, both.

Plus I really love how it handles masturbation. I mean, if you're with yourself... lol... anyway... of course there's a couple of really great spoiler moments, too, but even those become a dialogue of what it means to be a man or a woman and the ultimate absurdity of it all, and I loved that, too. The whole novel is very Plato, only it's also extremely entertaining even as it hammers home some really delicious philosophy without ever naming it as such.

This is really good mind-candy. :) Daydream stuff taken to wonderful extremes.

It was also nominated for many awards, but that's not nearly as important as how interesting and available this book is, even to us jaded modern readers. Well, 1973 isn't *that* old.

This is some really good stuff! I'm loving my time-travel kick!

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