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Name that short story

 
 
Cat Chant
15:22 / 21.09.02
I was convinced it was by A.L. Kennedy, but I think I may be mixing up many elements here - possibly confusing the story 'Failing to Fall' in Now that you're back with something else. The story I'm thinking of is definitely not in Now that you're back but it has an A.L. Kennedyish feel. The narrator has met some bloke at random (I seem to remember it was a dentist, in a memorial garden, but I might be making this up or nicking it from Looking for the possible dance) who has given hir some sort of sacred charge - made hir feel "called", feel like one of the chosen few. The story ends with the narrator, speaking also for the rest of the people the random bloke has tagged, who has never heard from the bloke since, saying something like "We are ready and waiting. Please do not make us wait too long".

I want to find it as an example of the potential political dangers of believing in a Messiah. Anyone know what/where it is? Thanks.
 
 
Hieronymus
16:41 / 21.09.02
It's not Richard Bach's Illusions: The Adventures of A Reluctant Messiah is it?
 
 
Cat Chant
20:52 / 21.09.02
I don't think so... the term "messiah" isn't used in the story, it's just that the Blokey Who Calls sort of vanishes, telling people to wait for his 'second coming' as it were. Is the Richard Bach story good?
 
 
paranoidwriter waves hello
15:14 / 08.07.05
A few years ago a friend lent me a Sci-fi assorted short stories collection and within it was a truly excellent story about time-travel which I've been trying to track down ever since. My friend remembers the story in question but no longer has the book or remembers the story's title. To make matters worse, the story is really tightly written with a complicated narrative, which means it is difficult to describe accurately. But here goes:

The story starts with a male protagonist sitting in his room near his University working on a paper about time, when suddenly a man appears in his room. The man turns out to be an "older" version of the narrator and (if my narrative ordering is correct) he tries to convince the now confused protagonist to not listen to anybody else he may be visited by that night and at all counts stay where he is. The future protagonist disappears and another slightly younger version of himself arrives in the other's place and proceeds to argue the opposite,..etc, etc, and so on and so forth (if my memory is correct at least four different incarnations of the protagonist appear in total, each adding a little more information about the situation). Eventually, the protagonist ends up going thousands of years into the future where there's a pure but simple race of humans living around a mysterious beautiful and high-tech building which is empty and unoccupied....

And here I think I should stop just in case I end up ruining this great story for anyone else who happens to stumble across it. But essentially the story is one of those perfect wheels within wheels type of stories with every angle covered and all loose ends neatly tied up and resolved.

So Barbeltih, ring any bells? Help?
 
 
Axolotl
15:22 / 08.07.05
PW: I'm not sure but I think that's a Robert Heinlein story. Unfortunately all my books are in storage so I can't check.
 
 
paranoidwriter waves hello
15:55 / 08.07.05
Cheers Phyrephox. That gives me something to go on, which is a lot more than I had. Much obliged.

BTW, Deva, I know you originally asked about this a few years ago now, but 'Illusions' is a nice little self-empowering read so you should definitely check it out (that is, if you haven't already). Similarly, last year I read and can thoroughly recommend 'The Messiah' by Gore Vidal.
 
 
grant
16:33 / 08.07.05
Was the sci-fi anthology an average-sized paperback with the work of different authors covering different themes in it?

If so, it's probably one of the "World's Best Science Fiction: 19##" anthologies. Those are great.

I know I've read that story, but probably more than 15 years ago.
 
 
paranoidwriter waves hello
16:52 / 08.07.05
My memory was that it was a hardback book with the paper cover missing (how annoying is that?)!

Unfortunately, I read it during a time of upheaval: hence the hazy memory. Thanks anyway grant.
 
 
grant
17:10 / 08.07.05
A very fat hardback? Possibly edited by Martin H. Greenberg & Isaac Asimov? Had an Otto Binder story or two near the front?


Although this isn't the one I'm thinking of above, I bet it's in here.
 
 
paranoidwriter waves hello
17:11 / 08.07.05
Cheers grant, you beauty! Puts my meagre research skills to shame though.....
 
 
paranoidwriter waves hello
17:21 / 08.07.05
That said, so far the book in question (which looks like a decent buy) doesn't appear to have the story I was looking for -- I'm still looking for synopses for some of them. So if anyone else has any info in the meantime...? Cheers.
 
 
paranoidwriter waves hello
17:48 / 08.07.05
Bugger. Seems none of the short stories in the book grant suggested are the one I was hunting. I've even gone off on a few tangents along the way (i.e. Moorcock and Ballard), and though I'm now aware of even more interesting looking stories about "Time" which I will put on my reading list, I'm still none the wiser in my quest. Help, anyone?
 
 
Pooky Is Just My Pornstar Name
18:06 / 08.07.05
Parnoidwriter, do you remember the name of the protagonist in the story? Or any other details?
 
 
paranoidwriter waves hello
18:15 / 08.07.05
*Looks at the floor, red-faced*

Er..no. I think it was set somewhere like Oxford, but like I typed earlier, it was a mixed-up time in my life and many details from that six months are hazy. Shame, it was a clever story and I wanted to see how the writer had pulled off a few of his/her narrative tricks.

Sorry......
 
 
grant
18:20 / 08.07.05
All I'm doing is trying to remember where I'd be likely to have read the same story myself. If it's not in the big Asimov & Greenberg anthology (they've done a lot together, but there's only one *big* one, called something bland like "Greatest SF of 20th Century" or something, originally only two volumes, but now many, many), then the only other likely site would be a more slender hardback anthology edited by Robert Silverberg -- but if that's so, then *all* the stories would have been thematically linked, probably about time travel. He did a whole series of theme-anthologies (one of the best was on spooky children, had "It's a Good Thing," among others -- you know the one).

Apparently that series is out of print (I used to check 'em out of my library), since I can't find any of them on Amazon.

I did find some very useful recommendations and, even better, "Listmania" lists on this page. But nothing I can definitely say is it.
 
 
paranoidwriter waves hello
18:35 / 08.07.05
Again, thanks grant (I'm making notes, I promise). My main problem is that I'm not a connoisseur of any specific genre and generally read almost anything that comes my way, but as I have a particular love of the short-story I end up reading loads of shorts and then get confused about where I've read them or who they're by. I generally get round this by keeping tight hold of my short-story anthologies, but as this one belonged to my similarly amnesiac friend, well...

I therefore bow and scrape before you mighty 'lithers and hope your combined knowledge will come to my aid. Cheers ducks.
 
 
HCE
01:32 / 09.07.05
pw, that story sounds extremely familiar -- but the only sci-fi I've read lately would be either joanna russ or eric frank russell, and I'm guessing it's not russ. russell usually has a comedic or wry tone -- do you remember anything else about the story?
 
 
Tryphena Absent
02:02 / 09.07.05
It's ringing bells for me as well, I'm going to email someone I know and see if they know what it is...
 
 
STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK
07:39 / 09.07.05
Also sounds familiar... I'll do what I ususally do in these situations and ask TangoMango. He has an immense sf collection and an encyclopaedic memory.
 
 
paranoidwriter waves hello
10:57 / 09.07.05
Cheers ducks! I love this place (creep, creep, slime, slime...)
 
 
Sekhmet
22:55 / 10.07.05
Okay, I have very small hope that this will be productive, but on the off chance...

I've been haunted for years by vague memories of a short story I read in a fiction survey class in college that I've since been unable to find in any of my anthologies (I'm terribly afraid I may have imagined it). It was about a woman who was a clerk at a bank, who was described as having "quick money-counting fingers". She lived alone, and had been getting nocturnal visits by an elusive spirit that took the form of a goat, and she was making offerings to it in the woods, trying to attract it; sort of this odd, desperate old maid, scattering jewels and fine fleece in the woods. The whole story had strange sexual undertones. As I recall, she ended up stealing a lot of cash from her own bank "in case it was money that was wanted, after all..."

I can't for the life of me remember what it was called, or the author's name, but it drives me mad that I can't find it. I thought I had kept all my short story anthologies...

Any help much appreciated...
 
 
paranoidwriter waves hello
23:35 / 10.07.05
Hmm... sounds almost like something Jeanette Winterson would write. The "quick money fingers" sounds familiar, but that's all I gots. Sorry. I'll ask a few friends though, and get back to you if they can help.
 
 
sdv (non-human)
09:36 / 26.07.05
http://homepage.mac.com/jhjenkins/Asimov/SAlphabetical.html

If it is an asimov story. And it sounds like it could be, then try the remarkably anal, (he should get out more) list of Asimov's short stories - link above - which contains titles and a brief synopsis and irritating comment on each...

s
 
 
sdv (non-human)
12:00 / 26.07.05
after further thought I think that you are looking for 'The Dead Past' by Asimov... which I think more or less fits the story outline...
 
  
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