One famous time paradox story is the 'Grandfather Paradox'. It goes like this: if you were to travel back in time and kill your grandfather before he had children, then you would never be born. But if you were never born, how could you go back in time to kill him? Another is the 'Bootstrap Paradox'. For example, a person goes back in time and gives Shakespeare a copy of his complete works. Shakespeare then publishes them. But where did the works originally come from? It's a paradox.
One common theme is the alteration of the past and its consequences. As we saw in 'The Grandfather Paradox', changing the past can lead to contradictions regarding one's own existence.
Another theme is the circular nature of time. Sometimes in these short stories, events seem to loop. Like a character keeps repeating the same actions in different time periods without being able to break the cycle. It shows how time can be like a never - ending circle in a time paradox situation. Also, the idea of self - fulfilling prophecies is common. A character might try to avoid something they know will happen in the future, but in the process of trying to avoid it, they end up causing it.
One common theme is the butterfly effect. A small action in the past can cause huge changes in the future, creating paradoxes. For example, in 'A Sound of Thunder', stepping on a butterfly in the past changes the entire future world. Another theme is self - causation. Characters often become the cause of their own existence or problems through time travel, like in 'All You Zombies'.
One famous time loop paradox story is 'Groundhog Day'. In this story, the main character relives the same day over and over again. He has to figure out how to break the loop. Another one could be in some science - fiction movies where a character goes back in time and changes something, but that change creates a paradox because it shouldn't have been possible in the original timeline.
The 'Self - Fulfilling Prophecy Paradox' is quite interesting. Suppose a fortune - teller tells a man he will die in a plane crash. The man, terrified, cancels all his flights. But then, due to a series of events caused by his cancellations, he ends up on a different flight which crashes. So, his attempt to avoid the prophecy actually made it come true. It shows how time and causality can be twisted in a paradoxical way.
A different approach is self - correction. In some time travel paradox fictions, the universe has a way of self - correcting. So if you try to create a grandfather - paradox - like situation, some force in the universe will prevent you from doing so. It could be something as simple as events conspiring to stop you from making that final, paradox - creating action, like your gun jamming when you try to shoot your grandfather in the past.
One common theme is the grandfather paradox. This is where a time traveler goes back in time and does something that would prevent their own existence, like killing their grandfather before their father was born. Another theme is the bootstrap paradox, where an object or information has no origin because it was brought back in time and became its own source.
One well - known time paradox story is 'The Grandfather Paradox'. It goes like this: If you were to travel back in time and kill your grandfather before he had children, then you would never have been born. But if you were never born, how could you go back in time to kill him in the first place? Another is in the movie 'Back to the Future'. Marty McFly goes back in time and accidentally disrupts his parents' meeting, which almost causes him to cease to exist. He has to fix things to ensure his own existence.
Predestination is a common theme. For example, in stories where a character goes back in time to prevent an event but ends up causing it. Another theme is the bootstrap paradox, like when an object or information has no origin but is passed through time loops. Also, the idea of alternate timelines often pops up, where a change in the past creates a new future that branches off from the original one.