Skip to main content

story identification - Looking for an old-old sci-fi tale about time-traveling



As recommended, I'm "migrating"/"duplicate" from literature here, to sci-fi.


I can not remember, who is the author, but this seems was Ray Bradbury, however, I've already read couple of his short stories, which would be matched by titles, and nothing found.


So, probably, it is not Ray Bradbury. But this shall be someone like him... ( by date of creation, 1950+ -- somewhere here-- -1990 )



The story starts with one time-traveler, he starts his travel in something like U-boat/Time-Travel-Boat. After a while, another one of him appeared right inside this "Time-Travel-Boat". Okey, they going to travel together.


Thereafter, the third of him - appeared right inside this "Time-Travel-Boat"....


Next one, next one, next one.... etc...


After some time, there were 20+ of him ( may be 600 - six hundredth ). Part of them were from his childhood, and were very young. Another part, opposite, were very old, with beards, etc... Everything mixed up. And such very-very funny chaos happened on this "Time-Travel-Boat".


Please, help!




Q & A:

  • Q: Is the story a short story, not a novel?

  • A: Seems, it was short story...




  • Q: By a "U-boat" do you mean it is literally a boat that goes under water, a submarine?

  • A: No, by "U-boat" I'm meaning environment of action, something like "U-boat", closed / isolated atmosphere, without any chance to exit from it...






  • Q: What kind of "funny chaos" happens?




  • A: "funny chaos", because all of this 20+ persons - was one man, he knew everything about this place, about himself, about each of this 20+ crew members, about all this story... etc... And everyday life is turning in something very different...



  • Q: Is the story humorous in tone?

  • A: Yes, it is humorous, and each new "copy of him", makes the story more-and-more fun... Certainly, It was not a philosophical sight on time-traveling, though, i'm still thinking about this concept of duplication of personality.


  • Q: Is there any sex?

  • Q: no.

  • Q: Are there any other characters besides duplicates of the original time-traveler?

  • A: Seems, not. Only copies / duplicates of main character.



Answer



Like Eike Pierstorff says in a comment, this matches the seventh voyage from The Star Diaries (Dzienniki gwiazdowe) by Stanisław Lem.


In that story, Ijon Tichy is stranded with his spaceship in a time vortex, and ends up together with several copies of himself. The story is humorous, Ijon both gets in fights with his past and future self and has to cooperate them to repair his spaceship. The necessary repairs are of such nature that they need two pairs of hands, but Ijon only has one spacesuit. Eventually two of his child versions get into the same spacesuit, such that two handle tools with the spacesuit hands and two with its feet.



The previous story-id answer Humorous time travel short story about a man's dealings with other versions of himself gives some more details.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize Missy right away?

So after it was established that Missy is actually both the Master, and the "woman in the shop" who gave Clara the TARDIS number... ...why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize her right away? I remember the Tenth Doctor in The Sound of Drums stating that Timelords had a way of recognizing other Timelords no matter if they had regenerated. And Clara should have recognized her as well... I'm hoping for a better explanation than "Moffat screwed up", and that I actually missed something after two watchthroughs of the episode. Answer There seems to be a lot of in-canon uncertainty as to the extent to which Time Lords can recognise one another which far pre-dates Moffat's tenure. From the Time Lords page on Wikipedia : Whether or not Time Lords can recognise each other across regenerations is not made entirely clear: In The War Games, the War Chief recognises the Second Doctor despite his regeneration and it is implied that the Doctor knows him when they fir
Post a Comment
Read more

the lord of the rings - Why is Gimli allowed to travel to Valinor?

Gimli was allowed to go to Valinor despite not being a ring bearer. Is this explained in detail or just with the one line "for his love for Galadriel"? Answer There's not much detail about this aside from what's said in Appendix A to Return of the King: We have heard tell that Legolas took Gimli Glóin's son with him because of their great friendship, greater than any that has been between Elf and Dwarf. If this is true, then it is strange indeed: that a Dwarf should be willing to leave Middle-earth for any love, or that the Eldar should receive him, or that the Lords of the West should permit it. But it is said that Gimli went also out of desire to see again the beauty of Galadriel; and it may be that she, being mighty among the Eldar, obtained this grace for him. More cannot be said of this matter. And Appendix B: Then Legolas built a grey ship in Ithilien, and sailed down Anduin and so over Sea; and with him, it is said, went Gimli the Dwarf . And when that sh
Post a Comment
Read more

Did the gatekeeper and the keymaster get intimate in Ghostbusters?

According to TVTropes ( usual warning, don't follow the link or you'll waste half your life in a twisty maze of content ): In Ghostbusters, it's strongly implied that Dana Barret, while possessed by Zuul the Gatekeeper, had sex with Louis Tully, who was possessed by Vinz Clortho the Keymaster (key, gate, get it?), in order to free Big Bad Gozer. In fact, a deleted scene from the movie has Venkman explicitly asking Dana if she and Louis "did it". I turned the quote into a spoiler since it contains really poor-taste joke, but the gist of it is that it's implied that as part of freeing Gozer , the two characters possessed by the Keymaster and the Gatekeeper had sex. Is there any canon confirmation or denial of this theory (canon meaning something from creators' interviews, DVD commentary, script, delete scenes etc...)? Answer The Richard Mueller novelisation and both versions of the script strongly suggest that they didn't have sex (or at the very l
1 comment
Read more

What is the etymology of Doctor Who?

I recently decided to watch Doctor Who, and started viewing the 2005 version. I have the first two episodes from the first season, and I can't help but wonder what is the etymology of the name "Doctor Who"? And why does the protagonist call himself "the Doctor" (or is it "the doctor")? Answer In the very first episode of Doctor Who (way back in 1963), the Doctor has a granddaughter going by the name "Susan Foreman", and the junkyard where the TARDIS is has the sign "I.M. Foreman". Barbara, who becomes one of the Doctor's companions, calls him "Doctor Foreman" (probably assuming that is his name given his relationship to Susan), and Ian (another early companion) does the same in the second episode, to which the Doctor says: Eh? Doctor who? What's he talking about? "Foreman" is most likely selected as a convenient surname for Susan to use because it happened to be on display near where the TARDIS landed.
Post a Comment
Read more