The History Monks - The Adjustment Bureau

[consoledelight]

Hi to all

Im new to this thread so please be careful with me.

I just watched a film called "The Adjustment Bureau" based on a Philip K Dick novel of a similar name.

I was sat wondering about the film when a couple of things caught my attention, mainly that the bureau bears an unnatural resemblance to the History Monks who are always making little adjustments here and there and even talk about resetting the system which is mentioned in the movie and i think Thief of TIme (i dont know about the PKD book as i haven't read it yet.).

I also noticed that "The Chairman" is referred to as "The Old Man" a line you always see in Discworld about Lu Tze especially from Vimes.

I just wondered if this was a little nod to the PKD book, and if anyone knew if this was the case.

Thanks in advance to any info anyone can give me.

 

[Who's Wee Dug]

It would not surprise me as Terry is a long time SF fan as well, and he does put in some references to other books.

Pop into the welcome and introduce yourself consoledelight, it's in the Broken Drum.

 

[raisindot]

I dunno...I don't think Pterry borrowed from PKD. The whole bureaucratic timeline adjustment thing had become a SF crutch long before Thief of Time was published in 2002. The various Star Trek programs wrung every possible hoary cliche out of the idea years before TOT was written...

 

[Who's Wee Dug]

Pterry was involved in a lot of fan activity groups when he was a lot younger.

 

[steeljam]

As raisindot say there are many stories touching on the manipulation of time. Isaac Azimov's The End of Eternity also deal with the issue.