Looking for ID

[Lawrence Watt-Evans]

Does anyone recognize this? I found it while going through old files
on my computer. It's dated 1992, but that's all I know about its
origins. I have a page and a half here, untitled, with no explanation
of where it's from. I honestly don't know whether I wrote it, or
someone else did, but it's apparently the opening paragraph of an
unfinished novel:


It was raining. For the first time in four, maybe five years, it
was raining. The scouters and scavengers caught out on the open
pavement were sparking and sizzling, circuitry frying -- a dozen
generations had come and gone since the last time water had come
falling on them out of the sky, and the need for a protective covering
had been forgotten. I stepped over the burnt-out, brain-dead remains
of a dozen AIs as I crossed the sidewalk -- one poor little patroller
was still skittering in a circle, clearly dead, but the motor still
running in response to its last impulse; it would run until the
battery died, or some larger organism, either biological, electronic,
or a combination thereof, smashed it.


If I wrote it, then I may finish it; if I _didn't_ write it, I want to
know who did, so I can read the rest of it.

[m***@gmail.com]

Post by Lawrence Watt-Evans
If I wrote it, then I may finish it; if I _didn't_ write it, I want to
know who did, so I can read the rest of it.

Interesting problem :)

I'm pretty sure I've never seen it. It's very Hogan-esque. It reminds
me
a lot of the intro to _Code of the Lifemaker_. Or maybe DKM'esque...
Hope
neither of those feeling is insulting to you, if it's yours :)

Well, if you establish it's yours, I'm looking forward to you writing
it.

And if it's not your yours, I'm looking forward to the story ID, and
hopefully finding out it's still in print...

[Gene Ward Smith]

Post by Lawrence Watt-Evans
Does anyone recognize this? I found it while going through old files
on my computer. It's dated 1992, but that's all I know about its
origins. I have a page and a half here, untitled, with no explanation
of where it's from. I honestly don't know whether I wrote it, or
someone else did, but it's apparently the opening paragraph of an

I'd say the most likely reason for it to be there is that you wrote it.

[Cambias]

Go ahead and write it. How likely is it that _only_ the first
paragraph of someone else's story would wind up on your disk?

And anyway, you can always rewrite the first paragraph later on if it
turns out you _did_ mysteriously download someone else's fragment.

Cambias
www.zygotegames.com

[Lawrence Watt-Evans]

Post by Cambias
Go ahead and write it. How likely is it that _only_ the first
paragraph of someone else's story would wind up on your disk?

I have a page and a half, not just the first paragraph -- I just
didn't feel right posting the whole thing.

And I have lots of stuff on my hard drive I didn't write. I've edited
anthologies, taught workshops, critiqued stuff for friends...

I'm pretty sure now I didn't write it; my wife says it's not my style
(and she's a pretty good judge), and it has the word "thalamic" in it
later on, which is a word I don't believe I've ever used.

Sigh.

I have a theory now about who wrote it, but I'm not at all sure of my
guess, so if anyone does recognize it, I'd still like to hear from
you.

[Mike Schilling]

Post by Lawrence Watt-Evans
I'm pretty sure now I didn't write it; my wife says it's not my style
(and she's a pretty good judge), and it has the word "thalamic" in it
later on, which is a word I don't believe I've ever used.

Perhaps you were channeling Van Vogt.

[Anthony Nance]

Post by Lawrence Watt-Evans

Post by Cambias
Go ahead and write it. How likely is it that _only_ the first
paragraph of someone else's story would wind up on your disk?

I have a page and a half, not just the first paragraph -- I just
didn't feel right posting the whole thing.
And I have lots of stuff on my hard drive I didn't write. I've edited
anthologies, taught workshops, critiqued stuff for friends...

Ah - anthologies. I don't know the context you have for "thalamic",
but that may possibly be a rare enough word (esp. up to 1992, in fiction)
to possibly narrow things down, if indeed this was written by someone else.

Dick and Tiptree both used "thalamic" in their fiction (sometimes
as "thalamic index"). As Mike mentioned, van Vogt used "thalamic"
as well (e.g. cortical thalamic pause; sometimes in the context
of General Semantics).

So perhaps if it's driving you nuts enough, you can go through
anthologies you've been involved with and see if it matches
anything there.

Best of luck,
Tony

Post by Lawrence Watt-Evans
I'm pretty sure now I didn't write it; my wife says it's not my style
(and she's a pretty good judge), and it has the word "thalamic" in it
later on, which is a word I don't believe I've ever used.
Sigh.
I have a theory now about who wrote it, but I'm not at all sure of my
guess, so if anyone does recognize it, I'd still like to hear from
you.
--
Read the new Ethshar novel online!
http://www.ethshar.com/thesprigganexperiment0.html

[Lawrence Watt-Evans]

Post by Anthony Nance

Post by Lawrence Watt-Evans

Post by Cambias
Go ahead and write it. How likely is it that _only_ the first
paragraph of someone else's story would wind up on your disk?

I have a page and a half, not just the first paragraph -- I just
didn't feel right posting the whole thing.
And I have lots of stuff on my hard drive I didn't write. I've edited
anthologies, taught workshops, critiqued stuff for friends...

Ah - anthologies. I don't know the context you have for "thalamic",
but that may possibly be a rare enough word (esp. up to 1992, in fiction)
to possibly narrow things down, if indeed this was written by someone else.
So perhaps if it's driving you nuts enough, you can go through
anthologies you've been involved with and see if it matches
anything there.

Oh, I know this wasn't published in anything I edited. I don't know
whether it was published at all; probably wasn't.

[Richard D. Latham]

Post by Lawrence Watt-Evans

Post by Cambias
Go ahead and write it. How likely is it that _only_ the first
paragraph of someone else's story would wind up on your disk?

I have a page and a half, not just the first paragraph -- I just
didn't feel right posting the whole thing.
And I have lots of stuff on my hard drive I didn't write. I've edited
anthologies, taught workshops, critiqued stuff for friends...
I'm pretty sure now I didn't write it; my wife says it's not my style
(and she's a pretty good judge), and it has the word "thalamic" in it
later on, which is a word I don't believe I've ever used.
Sigh.
I have a theory now about who wrote it, but I'm not at all sure of my
guess, so if anyone does recognize it, I'd still like to hear from
you.

"Butterfly Effect".

You wrote it ... just not on _this_ time-line.

--
#include <disclaimer.std> /* I don't speak for IBM ... */
/* Heck, I don't even speak for myself */
/* Don't believe me ? Ask my wife :-) */
Richard D. Latham ***@us.ibm.com

[Cyde Weys]

Post by Lawrence Watt-Evans

Post by Cambias
Go ahead and write it. How likely is it that _only_ the first
paragraph of someone else's story would wind up on your disk?

I have a page and a half, not just the first paragraph -- I just
didn't feel right posting the whole thing.

Go ahead and post it. A page and a half is really not that much ... Amazon
and Google Print already offer up more than that in terms of book previews.

[Quadibloc]

Post by Lawrence Watt-Evans
it has the word "thalamic" in it
later on
I have a theory now about who wrote it,

Thalamic? My theory would be A. E. van Vogt!

John Savard

[p***@hotmail.com]

ID! ID! ID! ID! ID! ID! ID!...It's an obsolete term for the elemental
basis of the subconscious mind.

Peter Wezeman
anti-social Darwinist

[Quadibloc]

Post by p***@hotmail.com
ID! ID! ID! ID! ID! ID! ID!...It's an obsolete term for the elemental
basis of the subconscious mind.

...Forbidden Planet, of course. And, of course, the Krell had the same attitude,
forgetting their bestial roots and feeling impelled to deny them, and that's
precisely what did them in.

On the other hand, the vacuum-tube amplifier firm is doing well.

John Savard

[p***@hotmail.com]

On and on Lawrence Watt-Evans prowled! The black, moonless, almost-starless
night yielded reluctantly before a grim reddish dawn that crept up from
his left. A vague, dull light it was, that gave no sense of approaching
warmth, no comfort, nothing but a cold, diffuse lightness, slowly revealing
a nightmare landscape.

Black, jagged rock and black, unliving plain took form around him, as a
pale-red sun peered at last above the grotesque horizon. It was then
Lawrence Watt-Evans recognized suddenly that he was on familiar ground.

......................................

Welcome back. You implied that you are not necessarily adverse
to necro-posting. Did you ever find out anything about the
original subject of your inquiry?

Peter Wezeman
anti-social Darwinist

[Lawrence Watt-Evans]

Post by p***@hotmail.com
Welcome back. You implied that you are not necessarily adverse
to necro-posting. Did you ever find out anything about the
original subject of your inquiry?

Not really.

[Quadibloc]

Post by Lawrence Watt-Evans
If I wrote it, then I may finish it; if I _didn't_ write it, I want to
know who did, so I can read the rest of it.

If someone else _had_ written it, by now it would show up in Google Books. Are
you sure you never attempted to write something with elements of a van Vogt
pastiche?

Unless, of course, it's from an unpublished work that someone submitted to you
for publication - if you had been the editor of a science-fiction magazine, for
example. Then, although it sounds good, maybe it had elements that suggested
that chunks were plagiarized or otherwise it was too derivative.

It _reminds_ me of such works as "A Bad Day for Sales"; it could be that you put
it aside, if it was something you were writing, because other similar stories
made the vein seem overworked.

John Savard

[Lawrence Watt-Evans]

Post by Quadibloc

Post by Lawrence Watt-Evans
If I wrote it, then I may finish it; if I _didn't_ write it, I want to
know who did, so I can read the rest of it.

If someone else _had_ written it, by now it would show up in Google Books. Are
you sure you never attempted to write something with elements of a van Vogt
pastiche?

And I was worried about necroposting in reply to stuff from 2018.

I have, in fact, written a van Vogt pastiche, but if you don't
recognize it as such, so much the better.

And I have no recollection what this conversation was about.

Post by Quadibloc
Unless, of course, it's from an unpublished work that someone submitted to you
for publication - if you had been the editor of a science-fiction magazine, for
example.

I had not yet been a magazine editor in 2005. I had edited a few
anthologies, though.

[Quadibloc]

Post by Lawrence Watt-Evans
And I have no recollection what this conversation was about.

Ah. Google Groups brought the whole thread up into full visibility, and so I didn't notice it was old stuff. Here is your original post:

(begin quote)
Does anyone recognize this? I found it while going through old files
on my computer. It's dated 1992, but that's all I know about its
origins. I have a page and a half here, untitled, with no explanation
of where it's from. I honestly don't know whether I wrote it, or
someone else did, but it's apparently the opening paragraph of an
unfinished novel:


It was raining. For the first time in four, maybe five years, it
was raining. The scouters and scavengers caught out on the open
pavement were sparking and sizzling, circuitry frying -- a dozen
generations had come and gone since the last time water had come
falling on them out of the sky, and the need for a protective covering
had been forgotten. I stepped over the burnt-out, brain-dead remains
of a dozen AIs as I crossed the sidewalk -- one poor little patroller
was still skittering in a circle, clearly dead, but the motor still
running in response to its last impulse; it would run until the
battery died, or some larger organism, either biological, electronic,
or a combination thereof, smashed it.


If I wrote it, then I may finish it; if I _didn't_ write it, I want to
know who did, so I can read the rest of it.
(end quote)

John Savard

[Lawrence Watt-Evans]

Post by Quadibloc

Post by Lawrence Watt-Evans
And I have no recollection what this conversation was about.

(begin quote)
Does anyone recognize this? I found it while going through old files
on my computer. It's dated 1992, but that's all I know about its
origins. I have a page and a half here, untitled, with no explanation
of where it's from. I honestly don't know whether I wrote it, or
someone else did, but it's apparently the opening paragraph of an
It was raining. For the first time in four, maybe five years, it
was raining. The scouters and scavengers caught out on the open
pavement were sparking and sizzling, circuitry frying -- a dozen
generations had come and gone since the last time water had come
falling on them out of the sky, and the need for a protective covering
had been forgotten. I stepped over the burnt-out, brain-dead remains
of a dozen AIs as I crossed the sidewalk -- one poor little patroller
was still skittering in a circle, clearly dead, but the motor still
running in response to its last impulse; it would run until the
battery died, or some larger organism, either biological, electronic,
or a combination thereof, smashed it.
If I wrote it, then I may finish it; if I _didn't_ write it, I want to
know who did, so I can read the rest of it.
(end quote)

Oh. I wrote that. I don't know why I didn't remember that in '05. I
should dig it out and finish it.