Help me find this half-remembered Golden Age SF story!
July 25, 2018 7:25 AM Subscribe
Just what the title says. Hazy details within.
I took a science fiction class in 2002, and one of the readings has kind of stuck with me. For no compelling reason, I want to track it down again.
Here's what I remember: the main premise is that an astronaut of sorts comes back from space a few seconds—possibly a minute, no longer—ahead of everyone else on Earth. The story may have mentioned "time dilation" explicitly, but I'm not sure. At one point he's having dinner with his family (definitely his wife, possibly others), and his own responses seem like non sequiturs until it's clear he was anticipating questions/statements directed toward him.
I have a strong sense that I read this when we were covering Golden Age science fiction, so possibly from the '40s or '50s. I want to say it's a Heinlein story, but don't quote me on that.
I'm sure MetaFilter will clear up this mystery for me. Thanks in advance!
I took a science fiction class in 2002, and one of the readings has kind of stuck with me. For no compelling reason, I want to track it down again.
Here's what I remember: the main premise is that an astronaut of sorts comes back from space a few seconds—possibly a minute, no longer—ahead of everyone else on Earth. The story may have mentioned "time dilation" explicitly, but I'm not sure. At one point he's having dinner with his family (definitely his wife, possibly others), and his own responses seem like non sequiturs until it's clear he was anticipating questions/statements directed toward him.
I have a strong sense that I read this when we were covering Golden Age science fiction, so possibly from the '40s or '50s. I want to say it's a Heinlein story, but don't quote me on that.
I'm sure MetaFilter will clear up this mystery for me. Thanks in advance!
Response by poster: My Google-fu is no good today, so I can't find the full text, but all the summaries point to Aldiss. Thanks, gauche!
posted by xenization at 7:57 AM on July 25, 2018
posted by xenization at 7:57 AM on July 25, 2018
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It's "Man in his Time" by Brian Aldiss.
posted by gauche at 7:52 AM on July 25, 2018 [11 favorites]