Light of other days bob shaw. [Spoilers]Help with short story Light of Other Days by Bob Shaw : printSF 2022-10-22
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"Light of Other Days" is a science fiction novel written by Bob Shaw in 1966. The novel explores the concept of "slow glass," which is a type of transparent material that allows light to pass through it at a much slower rate than normal glass. This means that when light passes through slow glass, it takes a much longer time to reach the other side.
The novel follows the story of two scientists, Dr. David Cargill and Dr. Jill Lucas, who are working on a secret government project to develop slow glass. As they work on the project, they begin to uncover the potential uses and dangers of slow glass. They realize that it could be used to create a window that allows people to see into the past, as the light that passes through the slow glass takes so long to reach the other side that it appears as if the events on the other side are happening in real-time.
As they continue to work on the project, Cargill and Lucas encounter various challenges and obstacles, including sabotage and government interference. Despite these challenges, they persevere and eventually succeed in developing a functional slow glass window. However, they soon realize that the technology has the potential to be incredibly dangerous, as it could be used to invade people's privacy and potentially alter the course of history.
Throughout the novel, Shaw raises important questions about the ethical implications of science and technology, and the impact that these advances can have on society. He also explores the themes of love and loss, as Cargill and Lucas struggle with their feelings for each other and the sacrifices they must make in order to achieve their goals.
Overall, "Light of Other Days" is a thought-provoking and highly entertaining science fiction novel that explores the potential dangers and ethical dilemmas of technological advancement. Shaw's writing is engaging and his characters are well-developed, making for a compelling and enjoyable reading experience.
Short Story Sunday: The Light of Other Days, Bob Shaw
Selina gave a little scream and I spun towards her. The stuff might be reasonably priced out here. Now steady up—Hagan's coming back with our glass. He didn't notice me. Campbell considered actually original at the timeof publication. In effect, each one of those panes is ten light-years thick—more than twice the distance to the nearest star—so a variation in actual thickness of only a millionth of an inch would.
The Light of Other Days by Arthur C Clarke and Stephen Baxter
Negotiating with the owner to buy some of his glass they notice his wife and child through the window of his house; but it transpires that both are dead, killed by a hit-and-run driver years before. Come to see some glass, have you? Most of the panes were perfectly transparent but a few were dark, like panels of polished ebony. The whole thing is all very thought-provoking, partly on the practical level which historical figure would you want to spy upon? On several occasions I have tried to write short pieces about the enchanted crystal, but, to me, the theme is so ineffably poetic as to be, paradoxically, beyond the reach of poetry—mine at any rate. Garland gets a better look at Hagan's house from beneath the eaves, Mrs. It was damp, stinking and utterly deserted. Our nerves were thrumming with the knowledge that we, who had thought ourselves so unique, had fallen into the same biological trap as every mindless rutting creature which ever existed.
Suddenly I received a distinct, though inexplicable, impression she was blind. And whatever the price is for slow glass, Ibet it would be beaten by ahigh resolution screen that can then also do usefulthings. A man who really owns tailored gardens and estates doesn't spend his time proving his ownership by crawling on his ground, feeling, smelling, tasting it. It is all absolutely there, and Clarke-Baxter trot through it all, even history's bloodshed and suffering, with bullish, up-beat brio. Birmingham Science Fiction Group — limited-edition chapbook. Just as we reached the head of the now slippery steps Hagan spoke again. .
Light of Other Days illuminates why I read science fiction. A new piece was always jet black because nothing had yet come through, but one could stand the glass beside, say, a woodland lake until the scene emerged, perhaps a year later. Mass market paperback, £6. . I remember liking it a lot, for what it's worth even after reading the short story.
The dark, gloomy setting was consistent all the way up to a shocking reveal about the glass salesman. The path curved through trees which clothed the edge of the hill and at its end we found a low farmhouse. And yet The Light of Other Days is more than the sum of these parts. Though Isuppose in this metaphor, you, dear reader, are the slow glass farmers while we the reviewers are the youngurbanites cruising by in our automobiles. He keeps it as a memento of his now-dead family. Would absolute and unforgiving truth really be better than comforting myth? We walked up a path made of irregular, packed clay steps nosed with short lengths of sapling.
[Spoilers]Help with short story Light of Other Days by Bob Shaw : printSF
So instead of glass Clarke and Shaw give us up-to-date noughties talk of wormholes, squeezed vacuums and the like. As I was closing the door I let my eyes traverse the cottage's interior. Clarke explores the same idea, with more scienc-y tech mini-wormholes instead of slow glass , in their novel The Light Of Other Days. Garland, but you don't seem to appreciate the miracle, the genuine honest-to-goodness miracle, of engineering precision needed to produce a piece of glass in phase. . Apart from its stupendous novelty value, the commercial success of slow glass was founded on the fact that having a scenedow was the exact emotional equivalent of owning land. Maybe a futuristic metamaterial with tinkered refractive index? My boy was only seven when it happened.
Garland constantly nips and jabs at Mr. Hence many great "historical" events often did not occur as they now are collectively remembered. I had an illogical conviction that doing something extravagant and crazy would set us right again. When Hiram's corporation invents WormCams, privacy becomes a thing of the past: photons can be channelled through artificially maintained wormholes from anywhere at all. New York: Ace Books. With their more thorough-going wormhole technology nothing at all can be lost, every place and every time can be observed and even at the novel's end retrieved. .
His first name in Hebrew means "high-bred" which denotes his high status. With the dissolution of my marriage, some of the comments about marriage and gender roles really struck me as odd. There are presumably many such wormholes, but the number is surely not infinite. For instance a chapter in which Dah-veed winds back along his own blood-line, tracing mitochondrial DNA back into time, in which civilisation unpicks itself and humanity migrates back to caves in Africa, like Wells's Time Machine in reverse; this was writing that seemed to this reviewer to bear the distinctive stamp of Baxter's neo-Wellsian genius. What do you say? It is a story about 'looking into the past', and Shaw's special glass is a superbly eloquent trope for memory.
There may be some problems with the physics of the fundamental premise, although nothing so major as with Shaw's original Slow Glass. . Slowglass, amaterial in which the speed of light is so slow it takesdecades for light to pass from one side to the other of athin sheet,was one of the rare examples of an idea veteran editor John W. Hagan came into the yard carrying an oblong, plastic-covered frame. They have a Really Cool Idea, but simply laying that idea before us and working through some of its implications isn't going to snare readers; the Really Cool Idea must be embodied via character, narrative and 'writing'. Still, let's sit down and talk it over. She was the recipient of three Norman Mailer Writers Colony Residencies and holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Goddard College.
Retrieved 31 August 2017. His first name is derived from the Biblical character, David, who was once the king of Israel. She had pushed open the latched wooden door and was standing, hand over mouth, looking into the cottage. Retrieved 8 November 2011. Of course, just because professionals and fans liked astory half acentury ago is no guarantee modern readers will.
