“You’re maybe going to take this journey with me for a spell, People aren’t stones.”
August 9, 2012 8:56 PM   Subscribe

"... That’s the way with epiphanies: You can’t know in advance what they’ll be. Even me. I can see them coming, but I can’t understand something until I understand it.”
T he man who can see the future has a date with the woman who can see many possible futures.
posted by divabat (20 comments total) 49 users marked this as a favorite
 
That is really one of my favorite short stories in a while.
posted by restless_nomad at 9:19 PM on August 9, 2012 [1 favorite]


Thank you.
posted by Palindromedary at 9:40 PM on August 9, 2012


Wanted to make some sort of crap-town joke tying this to the Jekyll and Hyde thread from earlier this week. Didn't. Still didn't stop me from submitting this comment. That's the best in terms of maturity you're going to get out of me at this juncture. Or, maybe I'm not really that funny and this is just a cover in terms of insecurity, and what not. Who knows.
posted by gagglezoomer at 10:10 PM on August 9, 2012


Interesting and well-written story. Thanks!
posted by maxwelton at 10:51 PM on August 9, 2012


Absolutely loved it. I'm currently obsessed with memory-messing (omniscience, time-travel, mind-erasing, etc.) love stories. Great stuff!

Did not like how some of the details were straight out of The Time Traveller's Wife though.
posted by iamkimiam at 11:43 PM on August 9, 2012


This was a great read, thanks. (The Boston/Cambridge porn -- Punjabi Dhaba! Diesel Cafe! -- was a nice mint on the pillow as well, and somehow it's fitting that, for me anyway, it added an extra layer of nostalgia.)
posted by en forme de poire at 11:47 PM on August 9, 2012 [1 favorite]


The ocean feels utterly forgiving, like you can dump almost anything into the ocean’s body and it will still love us, and Judy and Doug cling to each other like children in a storm cellar and watch the waves.
Excellent.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 12:05 AM on August 10, 2012 [2 favorites]


That's a really, really awesome story to read when you should be getting ready for work on a Friday morning, and I thank you 1) for posting it, and 2) for the ruminating I will do all day about whether or not being just slightly late this morning will have changed anything about my life.
posted by Mooski at 4:06 AM on August 10, 2012


It's good stuff. Hugo nominated, and hopefully Hugo-winning!
posted by rmd1023 at 4:43 AM on August 10, 2012


Story of my life.
posted by seanmpuckett at 5:33 AM on August 10, 2012 [1 favorite]


Wow. That's really something.
posted by Night_owl at 6:33 AM on August 10, 2012


This goes really well with the story about the video store from an alternate timeline that came up a couple days ago. Put together they both remind me I really like short stories but I somehow forget.
posted by Tesseractive at 7:25 AM on August 10, 2012


I'm pretty indifferent to who wins in most of the Hugo categories this year, but this is one nominee I really want to win. (Also Remedial Chaos Theory.)
posted by jeather at 7:28 AM on August 10, 2012


"To Marva, the main advantage of making an omelette is that when it falls apart halfway through, you can always claim you planned to make a scramble all along."

Aw shit, the story knew I was going to read it!

(That was fantastic. It's like a documentary about an overanalytical person's greatest fantasy and most crippling fear.)
posted by Turkey Glue at 8:30 AM on August 10, 2012 [1 favorite]


Hah, nice story. I had a nice bit of deja vu when they mention Lady Gaga gets arrested after winning the Nobel Peace Prize; it was mentioned in that timeline of future events further down on the blue.

SPOILER: I think Doug is an even more tragic character when it turns out at the end that things aren't as set in stone as he thinks they are. That gave me a sad.
posted by malapropist at 9:56 AM on August 10, 2012


I guess I get to be the Mefite sourpuss on this one. Yeah, the story was slickly written, and the premise had clever, marketable touches here and there, but all I got out of it was a slowly-building sense of seething irritation. I didn't like the way the story treated Doug, who was the character I identified with. Judy's 'there are always options' attitude...Ugh. I'm getting pissed off again, just thinking about her. Grar, and more grar, I say.
posted by KHAAAN! at 11:37 AM on August 10, 2012 [1 favorite]


malapropist: that's how I found the story!
posted by divabat at 12:54 PM on August 10, 2012


“The thing I like about Providence,” says Doug, “is it’s one of the American cities that knows its best days are behind it. So it’s automatically decadent, and sort of European.”

This guy loves Providence as much as I do. What a delight!
posted by likeatoaster at 1:20 PM on August 10, 2012


I liked the pieces...although I think it was kinda purple...but then I read the comment by Nick pointing out that this story is about quantum uncertainty.

Whoa.
posted by subversiveasset at 8:02 PM on August 11, 2012 [2 favorites]


SPOILER: I think Doug is an even more tragic character when it turns out at the end that things aren't as set in stone as he thinks they are. That gave me a sad.

What makes it worse is that things aren't set in stone for him, but he thinks they are, because his past memories always change when he changes timelines. If he wasn't aware of his future in the current timeline, he could jump to a better one, but because he is aware of his future, he always does whatever he can to ensure he stays in it. It's pretty bleak.
posted by Elementary Penguin at 3:18 AM on August 13, 2012 [1 favorite]


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