Tuesday 16 April 2013

A Story Idea

"He had nothing worth stealing but his honor, which was in his right hip pocket. Oh, and of course, High Earth - that was in his left." (James Blish, Anywhen, New York, 1970, p. 24)

When I first read "A Hero's Life," the original shorter version of "A Style In Treason," I thought that the above passage was intended literally. The entire story was so bizarre that even that seemed possible. It later turned out that the protagonist went to Boadacea not to sell High Earth to Boadacea but to strengthen High Earth against the Green Exarchy by allying it with Boadecea so I remain uncertain as to what role any real "treason" played in his career as Traitor-in-Chief of High Earth.

But, meanwhile, let us imagine the planet Earth miniaturized and in stasis enclosed in a transparent sphere carried in the pocket or on a key ring of someone who has just arrived at an inn on an extrasolar colony planet. And he has it for sale? How and why was it miniaturized? How did he acquire it? What will he accept in exchange for it? What will its purchaser do with it? Will it be returned to its correct size, temporal rate and orbit? (If so, then its inhabitants will notice some astronomical anomalies.) Presumably, some loyal Earthmen, who were not included in the miniaturization, will want to get it back?

I imagine that there is a potential story here although I cannot write it.

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