A Little Something for Us Tempunauts

Last updated
"A Little Something for Us Tempunauts"
Short story by Philip K. Dick
Country United States
LanguageEnglish
Genre(s)Science fiction
Publication
Published inFinal Stage ( ISBN   0883270358)
Publication typeAnthology
PublisherCharterhouse
Media typePrint
Publication date1974

"A Little Something for Us Tempunauts" is a science fiction short story by American writer Philip K. Dick. It was first published in the anthology Final Stage in 1974.

Contents

Plot summary

Time travelers from the United States, called tempunauts, are sent only a few days into the future rather than a century as was intended. In this near-future, they learn their return from the future was fatal to them.

Addison Doug, one of the tempunauts, believes that they are trapped with the rest of the Earth in a closed time loop, forever doomed to repeat the period between their starting their trip and their fatal return. Having found out the cause of their fatal return journey, they have to decide whether to change or not to change their return journey in order to get out of the loop. Doug decides to sabotage "reentry" unbeknownst to the others—by smuggling a mass of car engine parts into the time machine—to both at the same time (and completely contradictorily) find resolution in death and close the time-loop, freezing all of humanity, and possibly the whole universe, in endless repetition of a single week.

Reception

Strange Horizons noted the story's "slipstreamish effect of contemporary strangeness". [1] The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction mentioned its "grim" nature. [2]

Background

Dick said in his afterword for The Best of Philip K. Dick:

In this story I felt a vast weariness over the space program, which had thrilled us so at the start—especially the first lunar landing—and then had been forgotten and virtually shutdown, a relic of history. I wondered, if time-travel became a "program" would it suffer the same fate? Or was there an even worse possibility latent in it, within the very nature of the paradoxes of time-travel?" [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philip K. Dick</span> American science fiction author (1928–1982)

Philip Kindred Dick, often referred to by his initials PKD, was an American science fiction writer and novelist. He wrote 44 novels and about 121 short stories, most of which appeared in science fiction magazines during his lifetime. His fiction explored varied philosophical and social questions such as the nature of reality, perception, human nature, and identity, and commonly featured characters struggling against elements such as alternate realities, illusory environments, monopolistic corporations, drug abuse, authoritarian governments, and altered states of consciousness. He is considered one of the most important figures in 20th-century science fiction.

"Second Variety" is a science fiction novelette by American writer Philip K. Dick, first published in Space Science Fiction magazine, in May 1953. Set in a world where war between the Soviet Union and United Nations has reduced most of the world to a barren wasteland, the story concerns the discovery, by the few remaining soldiers left, that self-replicating robots originally built to assassinate Soviet agents have gained sentience and are now plotting against both sides. It is one of many stories by Dick examining the implications of nuclear war, particularly after it has destroyed much or all of the planet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bruce Bethke</span> American author

Bruce Bethke is an American author best known for his 1983 short story "Cyberpunk" which led to the widespread use of the term for the cyberpunk subgenre of science fiction. His novel, Headcrash, won the Philip K. Dick Award in 1995 for SF original paperback published in the US.

<i>X Minus One</i> American science fiction radio drama series

X Minus One is an American half-hour science fiction radio drama series that was broadcast from April 24, 1955, to January 9, 1958, in various timeslots on NBC. Known for high production values in adapting stories from the leading American authors of the era, X Minus One has been described as one of the finest offerings of American radio drama and one of the best science fiction series in any medium.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nina Kiriki Hoffman</span> American science fiction writer

Nina Kiriki Hoffman is an American fantasy, science fiction and horror writer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carol Emshwiller</span> American novelist

Carol Emshwiller was an American writer of avant-garde short stories and science fiction who won prizes ranging from the Nebula Award to the Philip K. Dick Award. Ursula K. Le Guin has called her "a major fabulist, a marvelous magical realist, one of the strongest, most complex, most consistently feminist voices in fiction." Among her novels are Carmen Dog and The Mount. She also wrote two cowboy novels, Ledoyt and Leaping Man Hill. Her last novel, The Secret City, was published in April 2007.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard A. Lupoff</span> American author (1935–2020)

Richard Allen Lupoff was an American science-fiction and mystery author, who also wrote humor, satire, nonfiction and reviews. In addition to his two dozen novels and more than 40 short stories, he also edited science-fantasy anthologies. He was an expert on the writing of Edgar Rice Burroughs, and had an equally strong interest in H. P. Lovecraft. He also co-edited the non-fiction anthology All in Color For a Dime, which has been described as "the very first published volume dedicated to comic book criticism"; as well as its sequel, The Comic-Book Book.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Time travel in fiction</span> Concept and accompanying genre in fiction

Time travel is a common theme in fiction, mainly since the late 19th century, and has been depicted in a variety of media, such as literature, television, film, and advertisements.

<i>The Unteleported Man</i> 1966 novel by Philip K. Dick

The Unteleported Man is a 1966 science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick, first published as a novella in 1964. It is about a future in which a one-way teleportation technology enables 40 million people to emigrate to a colony named Whale's Mouth on an Earth-like planet, which advertisements show as a lush green utopia. When the owner of a failing spaceship travel firm tries to take the 18-year flight to the colony to bring back any unhappy colonists, powerful forces try to stop him from finding out the truth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philip K. Dick bibliography</span> List of works by American science fiction, Philip K Dick

The bibliography of Philip K. Dick includes 44 novels, 121 short stories, and 14 short story collections published by American science fiction author Philip K. Dick during his lifetime.

<i>The Best of Philip K. Dick</i> 1977 collection of science fiction stories by Philip K. Dick

The Best of Philip K. Dick is a collection of science fiction stories by American writer Philip K. Dick. It was first published by Del Rey Books in 1977 as a volume in its Classic Library of Science Fiction. Many of the stories had originally appeared in the magazines Planet Stories, Fantasy and Science Fiction, Space Science Fiction, Imagination, Astounding Stories, Galaxy Science Fiction, Amazing Stories, Science Fiction Stories and Startling Stories, as well as the anthologies Dangerous Visions and Star Science Fiction Stories No.3.

<i>The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick</i> Five-volume collection published in 1987 of 118 science fiction stories by Philip K. Dick

The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick is a collection of 118 science fiction stories by American writer Philip K. Dick. It was first published by Underwood-Miller in 1987 as a five volume set. See Philip K. Dick bibliography for information about the mass market reprints.

<i>The Little Black Box</i> (collection) 1990 collection of stories by Philip K. Dick

The Little Black Box is a collection of science fiction stories by American writer Philip K. Dick. It was first published by Gollancz in 1990 and reprints Volume V of The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick. It had not previously been published as a stand-alone volume. Many of the stories had originally appeared in the magazines Worlds of Tomorrow, Galaxy Science Fiction, Amazing Stories, Fantasy and Science Fiction, Famous Science Fiction, Niekas, Rolling Stone College Papers, Interzone, Playboy, Omni and The Yuba City High Times.

<i>The Eye of the Sibyl</i> (collection) 1992 collection of science fiction stories by Philip K. Dick

The Eye of the Sibyl is a collection of science fiction stories by American writer Philip K. Dick. It was first published by Citadel Twilight in 1992 and reprints Volume V of The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick, omitting the story "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale". Many of the stories had originally appeared in the magazines Worlds of Tomorrow, Galaxy Science Fiction, Amazing Stories, Fantasy and Science Fiction, Famous Science Fiction, Niekas, Rolling Stone College Papers, Interzone, Playboy, Omni and The Yuba City High Times.

<i>Selected Stories of Philip K. Dick</i> 2002 collection of science fiction stories by Philip K. Dick

Selected Stories of Philip K. Dick is a collection of science fiction stories by American writer Philip K. Dick. It was first published by Random House in 2002. Many of the stories had originally appeared in the magazines Planet Stories, Fantasy and Science Fiction, Imagination, Space Science Fiction, Astounding, Beyond Fantasy Fiction, Orbit, Galaxy Science Fiction, Fantastic Universe, Amazing Stories, Rolling Stone College Papers, Omni and Playboy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Commuter (short story)</span> 1953 science fiction short story by Philip K. Dick

"The Commuter" is a science fiction short story by American writer Philip K. Dick, first published in the August-September 1953 issue of Amazing Stories. It has been reprinted over 20 times, including Croatian, Dutch, French, German and Italian translations. As with much of Dick's fiction, it is an exploration of the boundary of existence.

"Orpheus with Clay Feet" is a science fiction short story by American writer Philip K. Dick, originally published in 1964 in Escapade magazine. The story has a self referential time travel theme, and was published under the pen name "Jack Dowland".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Time slip</span> Plot device in fiction where a character changes time periods

A time slip is a plot device in fantasy and science fiction in which a person, or group of people, seem to accidentally travel through time by unknown means, or by a means unknown to the character(s).

<i>Timescapes: Stories of Time Travel</i> 1997 anthology by Peter Haining

Timescapes: Stories of Time Travel is an anthology of science fiction short stories on time travel edited by Peter Haining. It was first published in the United Kingdom hardcover by Souvenir Press in August 1997. The first American edition was issued in hardcover under the alternate title Time Travelers: Fiction in the Fourth Dimension by Barnes & Noble Books in 1998.

Sarah Pinsker is an American science fiction and fantasy author. She is a nine-time finalist for the Nebula Award, and her debut novel A Song for a New Day won the 2019 Nebula for Best Novel while her story "Our Lady of the Open Road won the 2016 Nebula Award for Best Novelette. Her novelette "Two Truths and a Lie" received both the Nebula Award and the Hugo Award. Her fiction has also won the Philip K. Dick Award, the Theodore Sturgeon Award and been a finalist for the Hugo, World Fantasy, and Tiptree Awards.

References

  1. "The Vintage Book of Amnesia: An Anthology of Writing on the Subject of Memory Loss, edited by Jonathan Lethem", reviewed by Graham Sleight, at Strange Horizons ; published September 4, 2006; retrieved October 19, 2018.
  2. Time Loop, at The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction ; first published November 27, 2007; retrieved October 19, 2018
  3. Dick, Philip K. (1987). The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick. Vol. 5: We Can Remember It for You Wholesale. United Kingdom: Orion Publishing Group. p. 392. ISBN   1-85798-948-1.