naiman@pegasus.UUCP (Ephrayim J. Naiman) (04/17/85)
<munch, munch> All I remember is that some experiment went haywire and the world keeps reliving the same day over and over again. The people spend the first part of every day remembering their situation through hints they left themselves the day before. Any ideas ? -- ==> Ephrayim J. Naiman @ AT&T Information Systems Laboratories (201) 576-6259 Paths: [ihnp4, allegra, ahuta, maxvax, cbosgd, lzmi, ...]!pegasus!naiman
@RUTGERS.ARPA:Margolin.Multics@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA (04/19/85)
From: Barry Margolin <Margolin@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA>
Ephrayim asked about a book in which the character keep reliving the
same day over. I recall reading this book a few years ago, and I think
it is James P. Hogan's "Twice Upon a Time". I thought it was great;
I've liked everything of Hogan's (even Code of the Lifemaker) so far
(he's the only author of whom I've read all published novels). Does
anyone know if he has any short works?
barmardavidl@orca.UUCP (David Levine) (04/26/85)
In article <2271@pegasus.UUCP> naiman@pegasus.UUCP (Ephrayim J. Naiman) writes: >All I remember is that some experiment went haywire and the >world keeps reliving the same day over and over again. >The people spend the first part of every day remembering their >situation through hints they left themselves the day before. As you've already discovered, there are several books that match this vague description. However, the one I thought of when I read Ephrayim's original query was the short story "Absent Thee from Felicity Awhile" by Somtow Sucharitkul. (This story was discussed to death in this newsgroup about two years ago.) Because this story is not easy to find, I include a (**SPOILER**) plot summary. This is from memory, so I may be off on a few details. In the story, Mankind has agreed to live one day over and over for ten thousand years. During this time we will be observed by the alien equivalent of sophomore sociology students. In exchange for this, we will be given membership in the Galactic Union, immortality, and all sorts of other High Tech Good Things. For an hour each day, everybody gets to live a real life. One can communicate with the aliens by talking to special lamp posts, although few people do. (In the main character's time zone, the "hour off" comes very early in the morning, so most people are in bed.) The main character is an actor who is playing a bad Horatio (??) to an equally bad Hamlet in a seedy theatre. Each day, he must relive a fight with his girlfriend and a particularly bad performance. On his "hour off," the actor meets a woman who is killed in a train wreck each day. The actor wonders what will become of her at the end of the ten thousand years, because she is dead at the end of the day. The actor also discovers that through a supreme effort of will he can change his actions during the day, and that each change becomes part of the scene repeated the next day. Thus, over the course of months or years, he can change his day into something different. Near the end of the story, Hamlet is shot by his disgruntled wife (mistress?). The main character attempts to convince the woman from the train that she can change her day and avoid being killed. She refuses to make the attempt, believing that she is doomed and cannot escape her fate. The story is a powerful and memorable comment on the ancient question of free will vs. determinism. As I recall, Somtow was a new talent when this one appeared (1979 in Asimov's, just as a guess) and he has gone on to bigger and better things. (PLUG: Somtow is Guest of Honor at this year's Orycon in Portland. Write me for details.) David D. Levine (...decvax!tektronix!orca!davidl) [UUCP] (orca!davidl.tektronix@csnet-relay.csnet) [ARPA]