Comments on: Earth gone rogue.

Earth gone rogue.

Eideteker — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 19:30:36 -0800

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.

By: Eideteker

Eideteker — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 19:31:00 -0800

Vaguely related Wiki-wanking: The Nemesis hypothesis. Cyclic mass extinctions? More about Nemesis. From the same page: Earth's second moon? That's no moon!

By: y2karl

y2karl — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 19:33:54 -0800

A Pail of Wiki.

By: iamck

iamck — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 19:34:21 -0800

Yes I would! Thank you.

By: Eideteker

Eideteker — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 19:41:32 -0800

"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!

By: Eideteker

Eideteker — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 19:42:00 -0800

Nah, but seriously. No one is forcing you to click.

By: Eideteker

Eideteker — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 19:42:11 -0800

...yet.

By: Skygazer

Skygazer — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 20:01:56 -0800

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.

By: Eideteker

Eideteker — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 20:09:12 -0800

I wish I was there!

By: Skygazer

Skygazer — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 20:11:06 -0800

Me too!

By: well_balanced

well_balanced — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 20:26:58 -0800

X Minus 1's Tunnel Under the World = Dark City/The Matrix in the 1950's. Interesting similarities.

By: Mercaptan

Mercaptan — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 20:45:06 -0800

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.

By: y2karl

y2karl — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 20:47:26 -0800

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 ?

By: mwhybark

mwhybark — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 21:45:47 -0800

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.

By: mwhybark

mwhybark — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 21:52:00 -0800

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.

By: tomble

tomble — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 00:08:23 -0800

Ha! I was describing this very story to a workmate today, and I haven't thought about it for a long time.

By: GuyZero

GuyZero — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 06:12:07 -0800

Yeah. Great story.

By: pax digita

pax digita — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 07:02:28 -0800

I'll have to read it after work tonight, but I'd forgotten I'd read this as a pre-teen. Cool! Thanks, E.!

By: sciurus

sciurus — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 14:40:50 -0800

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.

By: Smedleyman

Smedleyman — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 15:08:00 -0800

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.