| "Aristotle and the Gun" | |
|---|---|
| Short story by L. Sprague de Camp | |
 Frank Kelly Freas's illustration of the story in Astounding Science-Fiction | |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction |
| Publication | |
| Published in | Astounding Science-Fiction |
| Media type | Print (Magazine) |
| Publication date | February, 1958 |
"Aristotle and the Gun" is a time travel and alternate history science fiction story by American writer L. Sprague de Camp.
The story was first published in the magazine Astounding Science-Fiction for February, 1958, [1] and first appeared in book form in de Camp's collection A Gun for Dinosaur and Other Imaginative Tales (Doubleday, 1963). It later appeared in the paperback edition of the collection published by Curtis Books in 1969, [2] and the subsequent de Camp collections Aristotle and the Gun and Other Stories (Five Star, 2002), and Years in the Making: the Time-Travel Stories of L. Sprague de Camp (NESFA Press, 2005), as well as the anthologies Alpha Three (Ballantine Books, 1972), [3] Space Mail, Volume II (Fawcett Crest, 1982), Analog: Writers' Choice (Davis Publications, 1983, Robert Adams' Book of Alternate Worlds (Signet Books, 1987), The Legend Book of Science Fiction (Legend, 1991), Modern Classics of Science Fiction (St. Martin's Press, 1992), Roads Not Taken: Tales of Alternate History (Del Rey Books, 1998), and Futures Past (Ace Books, 2006). [4] The first stand-alone edition of the story was published in paperback by Positronic Publishing in April, 2013. The story has also been translated into German. [3]
The lonely and misanthropic scientist Sherman Weaver has a central role in a secret US government project to build a time machine. The project succeeds, and a prototype device is constructed. However, before it can be tested, the government, alarmed at Weaver's report that small changes in history might have profound consequences and completely change the present-day world, decides to abort the project. Weaver is ordered to dismantle the machine, but rather than obey, he takes matters into his own hands by using the machine to project himself back to the era of Philip II of Macedon. There, he hopes to meet Aristotle.
Believing that the influential ancient philosopher's lack of interest in experiment retarded scientific progress through much of subsequent history, Weaver aims to nudge the savant in what he considers the proper direction. His intention is to create a different 20th century dominated by super-science, hundreds of years in advance of ours.
Weaver pretends to be a conventional traveler from India. Equipped with modern marvels, he attempts to demonstrate to his new acquaintance, Aristotle, the value of experimentation in furtherance of knowledge. His task is complicated by the malicious mischief of Aristotle's students, the coterie of young Prince Alexander (subsequently Alexander the Great), and by coming under suspicion of being a spy for the Great King of Persia against whom Philip is preparing to go to war. Ultimately forced to defend himself with a handgun he has brought, Weaver is on the point of being executed for espionage and murder, but he is snapped back into the present, as the effects of his time projection wear off.
Weaver finds himself in a world very different from the one he left but not in the way he hoped. Aristotle, convinced that the tedious accumulation of experimental knowledge is beneath the dignity of civilized philosophers and that it is a waste of time attempting to catch up to "India" in that regard, turns out to have come down strongly against the notion in his writings. The result is a backward present of petty states, roughly at the level of late medieval principalities in our own history, considerably behind Weaver's original timeline in technology. His own United States is not even a dream, with its physical confines being controlled by various Amerindian nations influenced by the civilization of the Old World but having long since thrown off any subjection to it. Enslaved in one such state, Weaver is delivered from endless drudgery only after many years, when his scholarly talents are finally recognized.
The narrative of the story is set forth by Weaver in a lengthy letter to an acquaintance curious as to his remarkable background in which he concludes that he would have done better to leave well enough alone.
Critic P. Schuyler Miller called the story "even better" than de Camp's "A Gun for Dinosaur" in its recreation of Aristotle's Macedonia as seen through modern eyes, and its twist in the alternate time-track theme." [5] Don D'Ammassa rated the piece one of de Camp's "best stories", [6] and placed it among those "of particular note" among de Camp's "many memorable short stories." [7] Roland Green, writing for Booklist , called it of "outstanding merit" and one of the author's "vintage short pieces." [8] To Tom Easton, it "is a classic exposition of the time-travel paradox," and de Camp "always one of my favorite SF&F writers." [9] Harry Turtledove called the story "a fine specimen of the for-want-of-a-nail story: a small change in the past producing enormous ramifications as the centuries roll by," with "things [not] so easy as the [protagonist] thought they would be ... a common theme in de Camp's work." [10]
"Aristotle and the Gun" is one of de Camp's most notable works. [11] Like his first significant work of alternate history, the novel Lest Darkness Fall (1939), the story posits a world changed as the result of time travel, and like his other major work in the field, "The Wheels of If" (1940) it reveals the long-term consequences of the historical change.
For de Camp himself, however, its publication marked the beginning of a lengthy departure from the science fiction field, and pointed the way to the historical novels of the ancient world he would write during the next ten years, beginning with An Elephant for Aristotle (1958), which serves as an interesting counterpoint to the present story. The development is indeed to some degree foreshadowed in the present story itself, with its meticulously researched depiction of the Classical Greek and Hellenistic milieu for which de Camp clearly had strong interest and empathy and also when seen through the eyes of its own native-born denizens and without a time traveler in attendance. De Camp would write no more science fiction until 1977. [3]
The Dragon of the Ishtar Gate is a historical novel by American writer L. Sprague de Camp, first published in hardcover by Doubleday in 1961, and in paperback by Lancer Books in 1968. The first trade paperback edition was issued by The Donning Company in 1982. The book was reissued with a new introduction by Harry Turtledove as a trade paperback and ebook by Phoenix Pick in September 2013. It is the third of de Camp's historical novels in order of writing, and earliest chronologically. It is set in 466-465 BCE, the last years of the reign of King Xerxes I of Persia.
The Day of the Dinosaur is a science book by L. Sprague de Camp and Catherine Crook de Camp, illustrated with plates. It was first published in hardcover by Doubleday in 1968, and in paperback by Curtis Books in 1970 or 1971. A second hardcover edition was issued by Bonanza Books in 1985. The first chapter was reprinted as "One Day in the Cretaceous" in the de Camps's collection Footprints on Sand.
The Arrows of Hercules is an historical novel by American writer L. Sprague de Camp, first published in hardback by Doubleday in 1965 and in paperback by Curtis Books in 1970. The book was reissued with a new introduction by Harry Turtledove as a trade paperback and ebook by Phoenix Pick in April 2014. It is the fourth of de Camp's historical novels in order of writing, and second chronologically, set in the time of Dionysios I of Syracuse at the end of the 5th and beginning of the 4th centuries BC.
A Gun for Dinosaur and Other Imaginative Tales is a short story collection by American science fiction and fantasy author L. Sprague de Camp, first published in hardback by Doubleday in 1963, and in paperback by Curtis Books in 1969. The first British edition was issued by Remploy in 1974. It has also been translated into German.
The Virgin & the Wheels is a collection of two short science fiction novels by L. Sprague de Camp, published in paperback by Popular Library in 1976. An E-book edition was published by Gollancz's SF Gateway imprint on September 29, 2011 as part of a general release of de Camp's works in electronic form.
Aristotle and the Gun and Other Stories is a collection of short stories by American science fiction and fantasy author L. Sprague de Camp. It was published in hardcover in August 2002 by the Gale Group as part of its Five Star Speculative Fiction Series.
Years in the Making: the Time-Travel Stories of L. Sprague de Camp is a collection of science fiction stories by American author L. Sprague de Camp, edited by Mark L. Olson and illustrated by Bob Eggleton. It was first published in hardcover by NESFA Press in February 2005, with a NESFA/Science Fiction Book Club edition following in September of the same year.
The Purple Pterodactyls is a collection of fantasy short stories by American writer L. Sprague de Camp. The collection was first published in hardcover by Phantasia Press in January, 1980, and in paperback by Ace Books in April of the same year. It has also been translated into German. An e-book edition was published by Gollancz's SF Gateway imprint on September 29, 2011 as part of a general release of de Camp's works in electronic form. The pieces were originally published between 1975 and 1979 in the magazines The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Fantastic, Escape!, and Fantasy Crossroads.
Tales from Gavagan's Bar is a collection of fantasy short stories by American writers L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt, illustrated by the latter's wife Inga Pratt. It was first published in hardcover by Twayne Publishers in 1953; an expanded edition rearranging the contents and adding pieces not in the first was published in hardcover by Owlswick Press in June 1978. The original illustrations were retained in this edition. It was subsequently issued in paperback by Bantam Books in January 1980. An e-book edition was published by Gollancz's SF Gateway imprint on September 29, 2011 as part of a general release of de Camp's works in electronic form. The collection has also been published in German.
Conan the Barbarian is a 1982 fantasy novel written by L. Sprague de Camp, Lin Carter and Catherine Crook de Camp featuring Robert E. Howard's seminal sword and sorcery hero Conan the Barbarian, a novelization of the feature film of the same name. It was first published in paperback by Bantam Books in May 1982. The first hardcover edition was issued by Robert Hale in 1983, and the first British edition by Sphere Books in April 1988. A later novel with the same title by Michael A. Stackpole was issued by Berkley Books in 2011 as a tie-in with the 2011 remake of the 1982 film.
Conan the Swordsman is a collection of seven fantasy short stories and associated pieces by writers L. Sprague de Camp, Lin Carter and Björn Nyberg featuring Robert E. Howard's sword and sorcery hero Conan the Barbarian. It was first published in paperback by Bantam Books in August 1978, and reprinted in 1981. Later paperback editions were issued by Ace Books. The first hardcover edition was published by Tor Books in December 2002. The first British edition was issued by Sphere Books in 1978. The book has also been translated into Italian and French. It was later gathered together with Conan the Liberator and Conan and the Spider God into the omnibus collection Sagas of Conan.
"A Gun for Dinosaur" is a classic time travel science fiction story by American writer L. Sprague de Camp as part of his Rivers of Time series. It tells the story of four men who travel into the past to hunt dinosaurs.
"The Wheels of If" is an alternate history science fiction story by American writer L. Sprague de Camp. It was first published in the magazine Unknown Fantasy Fiction for October, 1940, and first appeared in book form in de Camp's collection The Wheels of If and Other Science Fiction. It later appeared in the paperback edition of the collection published by Berkley Books in 1970, in de Camp's subsequent collections The Virgin & the Wheels and Years in the Making: the Time-Travel Stories of L. Sprague de Camp, and in the anthology Unknown Worlds: Tales from Beyond. It also appeared, together with a sequel by Harry Turtledove, in The Pugnacious Peacemaker/The Wheels of If and Down in the Bottomlands and Other Places. The story has also been translated into German.
"Judgment Day" is an apocalyptic science fiction story by American writer L. Sprague de Camp. It was first published in the magazine Astounding Science Fiction for August, 1955, and first appeared in book form in the anthology The Best Science Fiction Stories and Novels: 1956. It later appeared in the de Camp collections A Gun for Dinosaur and Other Imaginative Tales, and The Best of L. Sprague de Camp, as well as the anthologies Great Science-Fiction, A Science Fiction Argosy, and Masters of Darkness III. The story has also been translated into German.
"The Gnarly Man" is a science fiction story by American writer L. Sprague de Camp, about an apparently immortal Neanderthal Man surviving into the present day.
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"The Hardwood Pile" is a contemporary fantasy story by American writer L. Sprague de Camp. It was first published in the magazine Unknown for September, 1940. It first appeared in book form in the collection The Reluctant Shaman and Other Fantastic Tales ; it later appeared in the collection The Best of L. Sprague de Camp, and the anthology Bestiary! The story has been translated into French and German.
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"In-Group" is a science fiction short story by L. Sprague de Camp. It was first published in the magazine Marvel Science Fiction for May, 1952. and later reprinted in the magazine Skyworlds for February 1978. It first appeared in book form in the collection A Gun for Dinosaur and Other Imaginative Tales. The story has been translated into Italian and German.
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