The Time Traveler’s Wife-What Is The Appeal?

In an earlier post titled “No More Guilty Pleasures” I touched on my experiences with the romance genre. I have long avoided reading the traditional titles in the romance canon, assuming I would find nothing enjoyable in the often confusing (for my queer self, anyway) heterosexual love narratives. This of course is untrue, there are plenty of romances I enjoy; it’s about finding the sub-genres, themes, and authors that connect.

I sat down to watch the first episode of Stephen Moffat’s (a long time powerhouse creator and writer behind Doctor Who and Sherlock) new creation, a mini-series adaptation of The Time Traveler’s Wife airing on HBO currently. Now, I was vaguely familiar with the premise-in 2009 Eric Bana and Rachael McAdams starred in a film adaptation with the same title-but I hadn’t actually seen it or read the novel. The combination of a Moffat-driven show, starring Theo James and Rose Leslie was enough to capture my attention for the first episode.

This is supposed to be a romance, right? Like, the love story between Clare and Henry, the main protagonists, is marketed as irrepressibly romantic. The back of the book, which of course I immediately checked out from the library to compare quotes, says: “A most untraditional love story, this is the celebrated tale of Henry DeTamble, a dashing, adventuresome librarian who inadvertently travels through time, and Clare Abshire, an artist whose life takes a sequential course. Henry and Clare’s passionate affair endures across a sea of time and captures them in an impossibly romantic trap that tests the strength of fate and basks in the bonds of love.”

OK, look, book summaries are always a little on the cheesy side. You have to cram in enough info to hook a new reader, but not spoil any important moments, and you have a limited word count to do it. The tagline for the 2009 movie? “A Chicago librarian has a gene that causes him to involuntarily time travel, creating complications in his marriage.” OK, less exciting, fairly bland, makes sense that this version only holds a 59% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. What about the HBO version?:

“Tells the intricate love story of Clare and Henry, and a marriage with a problem… time travel.” Well, it’s more grabbing than the 2009 film. As of today, Monday June 13th, only 5 of the first season’s 6 episodes have aired; but the audience score rests at 80%. So far, it seems that the mini series is more enjoyable than the 2009 film. I can’t speak to why, since I can’t see myself watching that version, but the popularity of both the novel and the show sits uneasily with me.

Here’s my issue. We learn immediately in the book, and in the first episode of the show, that Henry and Clare meet, for the first time in Henry’s timeline, when he is 28 and she is 20. They meet at the library where Henry works (the Newberry, which makes the library dork in me very excitable), and he is clearly taken with her attractiveness. In a nod to Doctor Who and the backwards/forwards romance of the Doctor and River Song, Clare says to Henry, “You’re younger than I’ve ever seen you.” She recognizes him because she has been meeting him since she was EIGHT YEARS OLD.

OK so the rest of the first episode lets that back story unfold. Basically, at some point after Henry is 28 years old, he travels back in time. He has this condition that makes him time travel unexpectedly, within his own timeline, but without much warning or indication when or where he will be transported.

Clare also reveals that through the past fourteen years, Henry has visited her on 152 occasions, the dates of which he dictated to her on his second visit, so she would know when to expect him. She becomes aware at some point during these years that one day she will marry Henry. OF COURSE she falls in love with him, that’s not the issue I have, by itself.

This is a young girl who grows up receiving the secret attention of an older man. A older man who tells her that one day she’ll grow up and they’ll be married. A man who can travel in time, though he can’t control it, and knows things about the future and her life that must seem exciting.

I flipped through early book pages to see how much comes from the book and how much was the show. Skimming through some early meetings I found this one. At this encounter, Clare is 12 and has known Henry for four years. This time he has traveled back at the age of 36. In his own timeline, he is married to Clare already, who would be 30. 12-year-old Clare, like a tween, begins to ask Henry about his personal life-crushes, girlfriends, if he’s married, etc. There’s a moment where the math doesn’t add up, even in time travel, because he indicates that he would be 20, had he not time traveled; though it was established that there is an 8 year real-time gap between them…At any rate, Clare asks Henry if he likes anyone now,

“You mean at twenty? Or at Thirty-six?” -Henry
“Both” -Clare
I try to remember being twenty. It’s just a blur of women, breasts, legs, skin, hair. All their stories have jumbled together, and their faces no longer attach themselves to names. I was busy but miserable at twenty. “Twenty was nothing special. Nobody springs to mind.” -Henry
“And thirty-sex?” -Clare
I scrutinize Clare. Is twelve too young? I’m sure twelve is really too young. Better to fantasize about beautiful, unattainable, safe Paul McCartney than to have to contend with Henry the Time Traveling Geezer. Why is she asking this anyway?”

Red flags abound. It keeps going, though. The same scene continues for another couple of pages, and draws to end with the following interaction. Clare has asked if Henry is married in the future, which he is, and he says so.

“Do you love her?” -Clare
“Very much,” I whisper. We lie silently side by side, watching the swaying trees, the birds, the sky. I hear a muffled sniffling noise and glancing at Clare I am astonished to see that tears are streaming across her face toward her ears. I sit up and learn over her. “What’s wrong Clare?” She just shakes her head back and forth and presses her lips together. I smooth her hair, and pull her into a sitting position, wrap my arms around her. She’s a child, and then again she isn’t. “What’s wrong?” -Henry
It comes out so quietly that I have to ask her to repeat it: “It’s just that I thought maybe you were married to me.” -Clare

Yes, Henry, she is a child. Twelve is a child. And here’s the thing, yeah, twelve year olds are allowed to experience hormones and first love and crushes. What makes this terrible, to me, is that Henry reciprocates. True, he waits to consummate a physical relationship until her 18th birthday. Which, look, just because she magically ticked a day older and is now 18, that’s disturbing. I found the scene in the book! It’s awful!

“Despite some pretty amazing provocation on Clare’s part I have refused to make love to her and have spent many amusing hours chatting with her about this and that while trying to ignore painful hard-ons. But today, Clare is legally, if perhaps not emotionally, an adult, and surely I can’t warp her life too much…”

Henry, for the record, is physically FORTY ONE when he appears in this scene.

In the show, the first episode, 20-year-old Clare is devastated by meeting 28-year-old Henry. He is a bachelor, messy, and because he doesn’t know Clare yet in his own timeline, confused by her. He sleeps with her the first day the “meet,” but has neglected to mention a girlfriend. Clare is obviously mad and storms off, only to be confronted by an older, time traveling, Henry to talk her down.

Older Henry tells 20-year-old Clare that she can’t give up on him, because in order for him to become the older Henry that she loves, she has to spend time with younger Henry.

“I grew up waiting for you. Longing for you. […] I formed myself around you. The idea of you.” -Clare
“The man you formed yourself around, shock twist, formed himself around you.” -Henry
“That’s fucked up.” -Clare
“Yep. So fucked up, it has a name. Marriage.” -Henry

It’s a 2-for-1 special! Creepy grooming/”I can change him!” tropes meet heterosexual “marriage is a ball and chain” tropes.

Maybe it’s because I’m queer, and growing up queer fundamentally changes the way I approach and perceive love, but nothing in The Time Traveler’s Wife feels romantic. It could be that I didn’t give it enough of a chance. Should I continue watching? Should I try to read it? What are your thoughts?