jagardner@watmath.UUCP (Jim Gardner) (06/24/85)
>>From: msp@ukc.UUCP (M.S.Parsons) >>Organization: Computing Laboratory, U of Kent at Canterbury, UK >>Message-ID: <5267@ukc.UUCP> >> >>Along the same lines, does anybody know any good SF about CONTROLLING time >>(everybody elses), as opposed to time travel (controlling your local time)? One of the oddest premises for a novel I've ever read is Fred Hoyle's "October the First is Too Late" (possibly "October the Second is Too Late" -- it's been years since I read it). Essentially, the premise is this (spoiler, spoiler, spoiler): Earth's reality is being transmitted (like a TV transmission) from somewhere out in space. A deep space probe sent out by earth gets in the way of the transmission and scrambles it. Result: the earth's reality goes out of synch. Simultaneously, Greece is in Homeric times, Mexico is somewhere in the 21st century, Russia is baked glass (presumably after the sun goes nova), and so on. Sounds like a comedy, but it isn't, and I think it suits your request for time control. If you want a comedy about time control, there is "Where were you last Pluterday?" (sorry, can't remember the author). Pluterday is the eighth day of the week, but only the rich people have access to it. This lets them take the day off, not worry about crowded beaches, and so on. A very strange book too, but a lot of fun. The Pluterday concept is carried one step further in Dayworld, Phillip Jose Farmer's newest novel (only out in hard cover as far as I know). The premise is that overpopulation has grown so rampant that the people of earth have been split into seven parts, each of which are allowed out only one day of the week. (The rest of the time they're in suspended animation.) Thus there are Tuesday people, Wednesday people, and so on. There are also criminals called Daybreakers who don't go into suspended animation when they're supposed to. Not the usual sort of thing you think of for "time control", but still a controlled time situation. Jim Gardner, University of Waterloo
alan@cae780.UUCP (Alan M. Steinberg) (06/26/85)
>>Does anybody know any good SF about CONTROLLING time (everybody elses), as >>opposed to time travel (controlling your local time)? >A classic along these lines is "The Girl, the Gold Watch, and >Everything" ... . There was a movie by the same name that was a >fairly decent rendition of the book. > The book was a bit better than the movie in describing the theory. John D. MacDonald (famous for his Travis McGee mysteries) is also a good "contemporary SF" writer, using today's world as his settings. In "The Girl, the Gold Watch, and Everything" (the book), the magical watch doesn't stop time for all but the user, but SLOWS it down tremendously (in the user's timeframe). Thanks to some basic physics (which I have forgotten most of), the hero Kirby Winter could only move things very slowly when the watch was ticking, because of the mass/velocity/time ratios (or something like that). Of course, the TV movie couldn't spend 10 minutes watching him move a body, so it is not as scientific. There was also a sequel to the movie, which stunk (different actors playing the lead roles-- that's a sequel?). -- Alan Steinberg {ucbvax}!decwrl!amdcad!cae780!alan "You knew the job was dangerous when you took it, Fred..." -- Super Chicken
muffy@lll-crg.ARPA (Muffy Barkocy) (06/28/85)
In article <15309@watmath.UUCP> jagardner@watmath.UUCP (Jim Gardner) writes: > >The Pluterday concept is carried one step further in Dayworld, Phillip >Jose Farmer's newest novel (only out in hard cover as far as I know). >The premise is that overpopulation has grown so rampant that the >people of earth have been split into seven parts, each of which are >allowed out only one day of the week. (The rest of the time they're >in suspended animation.) Thus there are Tuesday people, Wednesday >people, and so on. There are also criminals called Daybreakers who >don't go into suspended animation when they're supposed to. Not >the usual sort of thing you think of for "time control", but still >a controlled time situation. > > Jim Gardner, University of Waterloo This may be a new novel, but I'm sure I read a short story a long time ago with exactly this situation. I don't remember much, but it's a man (say, a Wednesday person) who sees a picture of this woman who uses the same room on her day (say, Tuesday) and decides he's madly in love and wants to change days to meet her. Anyone remember this? Muffy
apt@inmet.UUCP (07/02/85)
I read a short story in a High School french class about rationing time during a war (maybe WWII?). Anyway, people received ration tickets, the number depending upon how much time they needed to perform their jobs for the rest of society. However, rich people would buy ration tickets from poorer people. They then discovered that there is an "infinite" amount of time between two days (at midnight). The people who sold their tickets would just disappear until the next month. Meanwhile, the rich people are living right through 'til June 56th, for instance. It's a very good, light-hearted story. -=:| Alan Taylor |:=- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ...harpo!inmet!apt ...hplabs!sri-unix!cca!ima!inmet!apt ...yale-comix!ima!inmet!apt
grady@ucbvax.ARPA (Steven Grady) (07/05/85)
I'm surprised noone has mentioned _Bearing_an_Hourglass_, by Piers Anthony, the 2nd book of the Incarnations series. (or is Piers Anthony not to be mentioned in this newsgroup? :-) Steven
JAFFE@RUTGERS.ARPA (07/08/85)
From: inmet!apt I read a short story in a High School french class about rationing time during a war (maybe WWII?). Anyway, people received ration tickets, the number depending upon how much time they needed to perform their jobs for the rest of society. However, rich people would buy ration tickets from poorer people. They then discovered that there is an "infinite" amount of time between two days (at midnight). The people who sold their tickets would just disappear until the next month. Meanwhile, the rich people are living right through 'til June 56th, for instance. It's a very good, light-hearted story. -=:| Alan Taylor |:=- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ...harpo!inmet!apt ...hplabs!sri-unix!cca!ima!inmet!apt ...yale-comix!ima!inmet!apt
JAFFE@RUTGERS.ARPA (07/08/85)
From: grady@ucbvax.ARPA (Steven Grady) I'm surprised noone has mentioned _Bearing_an_Hourglass_, by Piers Anthony, the 2nd book of the Incarnations series. (or is Piers Anthony not to be mentioned in this newsgroup? :-) Steven