The issue of clothing has always plagued me as an author of time travel mysteries. That is, to say, do my characters show up somewhere in the past but wearing present day garb? Or do they arrive sans clothing like the unfortunate protagonist in The Time Traveler's Wife ?
In either scenario, they're left scrambling. Of course, some authors ignore it all together as in Tom's Midnight Garden. It was dark, he was wearing pajamas and it worked! But think of Richard Collier from the movie "Somewhere in Time" ( original novel Bid Time Return ) whose attire had to be precise for the decade lest he provoke the time-space continuum and return to present day.
Frankly, I don't know why clothing wouldn't travel in time as long as it remained on the wearer. After all, we're talking time travel, not the intense heat of space travel. The only real quandary would be for the characters to avoid "getting found out." Hence, the need to change into appropriate attire for that era in history.
As for me, it's quite simple really. I write young adult mystery-suspense novels and the last thing I need is to have a bunch of teenagers arrive somewhere absolutely naked. My characters have enough problems.
What are your thoughts?
Because I live with a young adult - and know they have enough problems - I'd have to totally agree w/you.
ReplyDeleteThe Terminator movies are what come to mind when you mention clothing optional time travel, they arrived naked, but they left w/clothes on... makes you ponder where the clothes ended up? May be that's how new fads start?