Help me find a story about a housewife and the black hole in her kitchen

February 16, 2024 12:56 PM

There’s a classic sci-fi short story—though it may have been written as late as the 70s—about a woman testing her domestic black hole for, I think, waste disposal? The story itself, a cautionary tale I think, was written by a woman. I can’t remember the name of the story or its author, though I found them online a few years back. Search engines are proving useless.
posted by scamper to Writing & Language (10 answers total)

Does everything she throws away down the hole eventually come back and fill up the kitchen? If so, it's a very common story/parable that's been told many times in various forms. There are dozens of stories along the "bottom-less pit" that becomes a waste disposal site for a long time and then the stuff thrown down the hole starts dropping from the sky. The "pit" is just a worm-hole into the future, what goes in comes back out the other end in the future.
posted by zengargoyle at 1:35 PM on February 16, 2024

Response by poster: I believe the black hole may actually start to grow as she tests it, though I may be misremembering that. The general tone of the short story was humorous/cautionary. Racking my brain for any other relevant details…
posted by scamper at 1:39 PM on February 16, 2024

Could it be "Bobo's Star" by Glenn Chandler? It's about a kid science project rather than a woman but it's a domestic black hole
posted by crocomancer at 3:17 PM on February 16, 2024

Response by poster: Oh interesting, I hadn’t heard of that one before … but that’s definitely not the one (though Bobo’s Star has made an appearance on here before: https://ask.metafilter.com/80923/My-god-its-full-of-Stars ).

No, the story I’m looking for was definitely written by a woman, and features a FMC.
posted by scamper at 3:44 PM on February 16, 2024

Not Tony Morphett’s “Litterbug,” by any chance? Similar question.
posted by MonkeyToes at 4:22 PM on February 16, 2024

Response by poster: Interesting parallels for sure! But that’s not the one either. IIRC, after finding the story online the first time, I looked up the author to find out that she’d recently died. This may have been 5+ years ago.
posted by scamper at 4:32 PM on February 16, 2024

Best answer: “The Nothing Spot," by Dian Girard?
posted by librosegretti at 4:54 PM on February 16, 2024 [5 favorites]

If you hadn't mentioned the death of the author, I was almost certain it was "Tidal Forces" by Caitlin R Kiernan. A woman's girlfriend has a black hole on her body and they occasionally test the limits of it. It continues to get bigger. But now I am watching this thread to find out the answer!
posted by Kitteh at 5:38 PM on February 16, 2024

Response by poster: Such nice leads in this thread, but there it is, Dian Girard’s “The Nothing Spot”! Oh, the flood of relief. Thanks so much! :)
posted by scamper at 6:01 PM on February 16, 2024 [1 favorite]

I hadn't realized so much with a similar idea existed! The first thing that came to my mind
posted by lianove3 at 8:07 PM on February 16, 2024 [1 favorite]