Earth gone rogue.
November 15, 2007 7:30 PM Subscribe
Would you like to read classic science fiction short story A Pail of Air? Or would you prefer to listen?
More short stories. More X Minus 1. More about rogue planets at Wikipedia. More about the superfluid Helium mentioned in the story. The sustained electrical discharges? Superconductivity.
More short stories. More X Minus 1. More about rogue planets at Wikipedia. More about the superfluid Helium mentioned in the story. The sustained electrical discharges? Superconductivity.
"A Pail of Wiki."
I would muster up that old chestnut: "No one is forcing you to click!" except secretly, I hope there is someone forcing you to click. I picture you reading on a laptop strapped to the handlebars of a converted exercycle, where you have to pedal to generate the power to view the site, though your nipples are connected to the circuit in serial. And there's a Southeast Asian prison guard holding an old Luger to your neck, screaming foreign obscenities at you if you stop or show any signs of slowing down. Didi mau! DIDI MAU!
posted by Eideteker at 7:41 PM on November 15, 2007 [4 favorites]
I would muster up that old chestnut: "No one is forcing you to click!" except secretly, I hope there is someone forcing you to click. I picture you reading on a laptop strapped to the handlebars of a converted exercycle, where you have to pedal to generate the power to view the site, though your nipples are connected to the circuit in serial. And there's a Southeast Asian prison guard holding an old Luger to your neck, screaming foreign obscenities at you if you stop or show any signs of slowing down. Didi mau! DIDI MAU!
posted by Eideteker at 7:41 PM on November 15, 2007 [4 favorites]
Nah, but seriously. No one is forcing you to click.
posted by Eideteker at 7:42 PM on November 15, 2007
posted by Eideteker at 7:42 PM on November 15, 2007
Goddamn Eideteker. You've just made some people stationed in a geodesic weather station with sub sub freezing winds howling outside very very happy. They'll be listening to all these great Sci-fi stories just before..you know..they disappear without a trace leaving only a mystery beacon pulsing weakly and a half eaten twinkie. Or something.
Anyhow that's just my way of saying Thanks.
posted by Skygazer at 8:01 PM on November 15, 2007 [1 favorite]
Anyhow that's just my way of saying Thanks.
posted by Skygazer at 8:01 PM on November 15, 2007 [1 favorite]
Me too!
posted by Skygazer at 8:11 PM on November 15, 2007 [1 favorite]
posted by Skygazer at 8:11 PM on November 15, 2007 [1 favorite]
X Minus 1's Tunnel Under the World = Dark City/The Matrix in the 1950's. Interesting similarities.
posted by well_balanced at 8:26 PM on November 15, 2007
posted by well_balanced at 8:26 PM on November 15, 2007
This dovetails nicely with the Challenge of the Yukon post next door. I've been looking for these old shows for quite a long time. More than a few of them still give me the chills.
posted by Mercaptan at 8:45 PM on November 15, 2007
posted by Mercaptan at 8:45 PM on November 15, 2007
Nah, but seriously. No one is forcing you to click.
And who needs to when one can mouse over and see the sweat drop with a patter of wiki wiki wiki ?
posted by y2karl at 8:47 PM on November 15, 2007
And who needs to when one can mouse over and see the sweat drop with a patter of wiki wiki wiki ?
posted by y2karl at 8:47 PM on November 15, 2007
A Pail of Air.
a PAIL of AIR~!
Goddamn, I still have dreams of pushing through the carpets. I can feel them brushing my cheeks, crackling with the cold but evoking the memories of softness. The rag-style homeweave is the one that I most particularly visualize - I can smell the aromas of the batting and the various ribbons, clean and otherwise, that make up the rug as I squeeze by on my way to the door.
I have felt this way since I read the story as a preadolescent.
a PAIL of MOTHERFUCKING AIR.
posted by mwhybark at 9:45 PM on November 15, 2007
a PAIL of AIR~!
Goddamn, I still have dreams of pushing through the carpets. I can feel them brushing my cheeks, crackling with the cold but evoking the memories of softness. The rag-style homeweave is the one that I most particularly visualize - I can smell the aromas of the batting and the various ribbons, clean and otherwise, that make up the rug as I squeeze by on my way to the door.
I have felt this way since I read the story as a preadolescent.
a PAIL of MOTHERFUCKING AIR.
posted by mwhybark at 9:45 PM on November 15, 2007
My old pal Fritz Leiber.
I had no idea.
That motherfucker has me programmed more ways than a logarithmic wristwatch. Reading his last-period Fafhrd / Mouser stuff was really something. What a stylist. On the other hand, given my strong internalization of his early work when I myself was an early work, it's possibly no wonder I respond to his later stuff - especially his word choices - so powerfully.
posted by mwhybark at 9:52 PM on November 15, 2007
I had no idea.
That motherfucker has me programmed more ways than a logarithmic wristwatch. Reading his last-period Fafhrd / Mouser stuff was really something. What a stylist. On the other hand, given my strong internalization of his early work when I myself was an early work, it's possibly no wonder I respond to his later stuff - especially his word choices - so powerfully.
posted by mwhybark at 9:52 PM on November 15, 2007
Ha! I was describing this very story to a workmate today, and I haven't thought about it for a long time.
posted by tomble at 12:08 AM on November 16, 2007
posted by tomble at 12:08 AM on November 16, 2007
I'll have to read it after work tonight, but I'd forgotten I'd read this as a pre-teen. Cool! Thanks, E.!
posted by pax digita at 7:02 AM on November 16, 2007
posted by pax digita at 7:02 AM on November 16, 2007
Hm. I think I'll pull A Pail of Air off of my bookshelf tonight and read it. The other short stories in the collection are good too.
posted by sciurus at 2:40 PM on November 16, 2007
posted by sciurus at 2:40 PM on November 16, 2007
C’mon, Eideteker, we gotta play with three bullets to get out of Metafilter.
Nifty post, but I have to point out the doofiness of lighting a fire under a pail of oxygen condensed into a solid in order to generate a breathable atmosphere.
posted by Smedleyman at 3:08 PM on November 16, 2007
Nifty post, but I have to point out the doofiness of lighting a fire under a pail of oxygen condensed into a solid in order to generate a breathable atmosphere.
posted by Smedleyman at 3:08 PM on November 16, 2007
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posted by Eideteker at 7:31 PM on November 15, 2007