The Infinite Loop: Archives and Time Travel in the Popular Imagination

by Lynne M. Thomas, Katy Rawdon, Connie Willis (Foreword)

Spanning H. G. Wells’s The Time Machine to Marvel’s Loki, this delightful book considers how science fiction stories portray archives and archivists, analyzes the ways in which these portrayals affect readers’ views, and shows how archivists can leverage these insights to improve the public’s understanding of the discipline.

The fascination with time travel and its consistent popularity within the science fiction genre is deeply rooted in science fiction writers’ and readers’ passion for history and, by extension, for libraries and other kinds of archives. However, time travel, archives, and history intersect in the public imagination in ways that don’t always match up with the reality of archival work. This book engages archivists and devotees of science fiction alike by exploring common tropes within the genre—and common assumptions in the archival profession—and providing context. Presenting a book that can serve as a teaching text, readers’ advisory guide, and thought-provoking page turner, the authors:

- explore dozens of novels, short stories, movies, and TV series (particularly Doctor Who), spotlighting different science fictional approaches to writing about time travel while pointing out how archives and archivists are represented in different time travel stories;

- examine how various cultures and societies view and understand time differently, using works such as Octavia Butler’s Kindred, Toshikazo Kawaguchi’s Before the Coffee Gets Cold, and Rivers Solomon’s An Unkindness of Ghosts to show how differences in temporal perception affect the presentation of time travel in their works;

- look at stereotypes, outdated views, and biases depicted within time travel depictions of archives, comparing these portrayals with real-world archives and historical records;

- discuss ways in which understanding time travel fiction can help archivists improve their relationships with the public and encourage more accurate fictional depictions of their work; and

- connect the concepts in their book to cultural heritage practices that encourage critical thinking about archivists' roles in documenting our times.

Genres: Nonfiction

152 pages, Paperback

Published February 10, 2026

About the author

In my day job, I am the Head of the Rare Book & Manuscript Library and Juanita J. and Robert E. Simpson Rare Book and Manuscript Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, one of the largest public university rare book collections in the country. I used to manage pop culture special collections that include the papers of over 70 SF/F authors at Northern Illinois University. I also occasionally teach a Special Collections course as an adjunct in the iSchool at Illinois, and used to do so at SJSU.

I'm a twelve-time Hugo Award winner, and the former Co-Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of Uncanny Magazine with my ex-husband Michael Damian Thomas. The former Editor-in-Chief of Apex Magazine (2011-2013), I co-edited the Hugo Award-winning Chicks Dig Time Lords, Whedonistas, and Chicks Dig Comics. I moderated the Hugo-Award winning SF Squeecast and contribute to the Verity! Podcast. You can learn more about my shenanigans at lynnemthomas.com.