Monday, February 1, 2010

R A Lafferty's "Slow Tuesday Night" (short story, humor, free)

Quote from short story Slow Tuesday Night by R A LaffertyWhat if we were speeded up a lot - so you could found a company, become a billionaire, & finally go bankrupt all in may be 2 hours! A world where everyone is ... kind of ... a superman. Many episodes brought me smiles.

I got a feeling it's probably social commentary on US of its times - 1960s. Readers familiar with those issues will likely read more here. For others, it's just a lighthearted satire on fast life.

See also.

  1. I recall at least one story, probably by Ted Kosmakta or may be in one of the "Isaac Asimov Presents Great SF Stories" books, where humans slow down instead, to the speed of plants - so humans & plants can literally fight each other! I'll fill in the title here if I can remember; I'm not able to recollect it right now.
  2. At idea level, there is a parallel with relative evolution of created beings vs their creators. E.g., Theodore Sturgeon's "Microcosmic God" (download comic book adaptation), Greg Egan's "Crystal Nights" (download), & Paul Carlson's "Mirror Girl" (download).

Fact sheet.

First published: Galaxy, April 1965.
Download full text from Internet Archive, or briarpig. Or read online at Google Books (see note below)
Update: I just noticed Google Books link no longer works! Am keeping it in the hope it will still work at least in some countries, as a lot of Google Books content does. It did work here in India when I originally put it.
Rating: B.
Nominated for Nebula Award 1966 in short story category.
Among the Classics of Ellen Datlow's SciFiction.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

fix your grammer PLEASE.

Anonymous said...

People who can't spell grammar shouldn't throw stones.