The identify that story/book thread: Home of the gas pump boy

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > The identify that story/book thread: Home of the gas pump boy

The_Doctor: Mar 29, 2007; "The entire history of this incarnation is one of temporal orbits, retcons, paradoxes, parallel time lines, reiterations, and divergences. How anyone can make head or tail of all this chaos, I don't know."

In school we read this sci-fi short story anthology (which may have all been Ray Bradbury, I remember we also read his The Veldt). One of the stories was about a guy living in a room which had wall-sized TVs, and he was excited about maybe getting all 4 walls turned into them. I think there was something about social class-based TV channels, and his social class wasn�t supposed to watch the upper class channel, but he snuck a look at the end.

I tried Googling for this, but all I found was someone else looking for the same thing.

# ¿ Mar 9, 2021 14:14

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 17:58

The_Doctor: Mar 29, 2007; "The entire history of this incarnation is one of temporal orbits, retcons, paradoxes, parallel time lines, reiterations, and divergences. How anyone can make head or tail of all this chaos, I don't know."

wizzardstaff posted:

That sounds like it could be Fahrenheit 451 which is notable for its full-sized "parlor wall" TV screens. There is a character who wants to upgrade from three to four walls.

I'm not sure if Bradbury used that device in a short story as well, though. Wouldn't be surprised if he did.

I�m now wondering if I�ve pushed two stories together. I looked up F451 and found the 4th TV wall passage, but nothing around it looks familiar at all, and we definitely didn�t read the full book.

The bit about class-based TV might be another story then? Different TV channels based on your social status, a visitor comes by this guy�s place, guy later on checks the upper class tv channel (even though he shouldn�t) and finds the visitor was part of a prank show on there making fun of the lower classes (him).

# ¿ Mar 12, 2021 12:29

The_Doctor: Mar 29, 2007; "The entire history of this incarnation is one of temporal orbits, retcons, paradoxes, parallel time lines, reiterations, and divergences. How anyone can make head or tail of all this chaos, I don't know."

I loved those sorts of books. They were so evocative of space as this huge empty place with mysteries abound. Galactic Tours is a very similar sounding book about holidays in space you could take, operated by Thomas Cook (who actually went bust in 2019).

# ¿ Mar 16, 2021 18:12

The_Doctor: Mar 29, 2007; "The entire history of this incarnation is one of temporal orbits, retcons, paradoxes, parallel time lines, reiterations, and divergences. How anyone can make head or tail of all this chaos, I don't know."

regulargonzalez posted:

I want so badly for this to be true

# ¿ Apr 29, 2021 16:44

The_Doctor: Mar 29, 2007; "The entire history of this incarnation is one of temporal orbits, retcons, paradoxes, parallel time lines, reiterations, and divergences. How anyone can make head or tail of all this chaos, I don't know."

wizzardstaff posted:

Z For Zacharia by Robert C O'Brien?

It�s definitely this.

# ¿ May 13, 2021 21:32

The_Doctor: Mar 29, 2007; "The entire history of this incarnation is one of temporal orbits, retcons, paradoxes, parallel time lines, reiterations, and divergences. How anyone can make head or tail of all this chaos, I don't know."

Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:

Iirc those 2 love triangle dudes are Idris Elba and Chris pine so, yea if you gotta be stuck choosing between two dudes, that will not be an easy decision.

Chiwetel Ejiofor, not Idris Elba. It�s still a hard choice, so I�d just have both. We�re a throuple now.

# ¿ May 15, 2021 09:42

The_Doctor: Mar 29, 2007; "The entire history of this incarnation is one of temporal orbits, retcons, paradoxes, parallel time lines, reiterations, and divergences. How anyone can make head or tail of all this chaos, I don't know."

The one thing about the Jaunt I remember aside from the ending is the icky bit when the dad thinks about his daughter going through puberty and his first thought is of her getting breasts. :cripes:

# ¿ Aug 2, 2021 17:55

The_Doctor: Mar 29, 2007; "The entire history of this incarnation is one of temporal orbits, retcons, paradoxes, parallel time lines, reiterations, and divergences. How anyone can make head or tail of all this chaos, I don't know."

Gambrinus posted:

Repost from a few years ago. It's not The Drowned World

I read this around 1999-2000.

Post-apocalyptic book set in England. I remember flooding down Tottenham Court Road (in London, I was living close by there at the time, so it stuck with me), and some fella (the bad guy?) on an abandoned cruise ship.

There was a scene towards the start when a woman was about to be impaled vaginally on a pole, and the narrator shot her in the head to spare her that. I think one of the lads impaling the woman had the remnants of a police uniform on.

Bad guy may have called himself Jesus.

Pretty sure the book was written in the first person.

Also I think the narrator had a brother

Was it James Herbert�s �48?

# ¿ Sep 19, 2021 12:15

The_Doctor: Mar 29, 2007; "The entire history of this incarnation is one of temporal orbits, retcons, paradoxes, parallel time lines, reiterations, and divergences. How anyone can make head or tail of all this chaos, I don't know."

It�s not this, but it put me in mind:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDRdGEJMu0s

# ¿ Jan 11, 2022 08:27

The_Doctor: Mar 29, 2007; "The entire history of this incarnation is one of temporal orbits, retcons, paradoxes, parallel time lines, reiterations, and divergences. How anyone can make head or tail of all this chaos, I don't know."

Penny Arcade�s Automata?

# ¿ Feb 6, 2022 03:06

The_Doctor: Mar 29, 2007; "The entire history of this incarnation is one of temporal orbits, retcons, paradoxes, parallel time lines, reiterations, and divergences. How anyone can make head or tail of all this chaos, I don't know."

I want to say the third word is Review.

# ¿ Mar 22, 2022 17:28

The_Doctor: Mar 29, 2007; "The entire history of this incarnation is one of temporal orbits, retcons, paradoxes, parallel time lines, reiterations, and divergences. How anyone can make head or tail of all this chaos, I don't know."

The Rural Juror

# ¿ Mar 22, 2022 22:47

The_Doctor: Mar 29, 2007; "The entire history of this incarnation is one of temporal orbits, retcons, paradoxes, parallel time lines, reiterations, and divergences. How anyone can make head or tail of all this chaos, I don't know."

I�ve just realised the black shape is probably a gun.

# ¿ Mar 22, 2022 23:42

The_Doctor: Mar 29, 2007; "The entire history of this incarnation is one of temporal orbits, retcons, paradoxes, parallel time lines, reiterations, and divergences. How anyone can make head or tail of all this chaos, I don't know."

God I tried searching The New Revolutionary last night, because I wondered if it was a split word, but didn�t get that.

# ¿ Mar 23, 2022 12:29

The_Doctor: Mar 29, 2007; "The entire history of this incarnation is one of temporal orbits, retcons, paradoxes, parallel time lines, reiterations, and divergences. How anyone can make head or tail of all this chaos, I don't know."

Dwayne

# ¿ Sep 12, 2022 10:09

The_Doctor: Mar 29, 2007; "The entire history of this incarnation is one of temporal orbits, retcons, paradoxes, parallel time lines, reiterations, and divergences. How anyone can make head or tail of all this chaos, I don't know."

Halloween Jack posted:

DO YOU LIKE DON AND SEYMOUR RECORDS???

Blimey, there's a lot of n-word usage in there.

# ¿ Sep 13, 2022 14:18

The_Doctor: Mar 29, 2007; "The entire history of this incarnation is one of temporal orbits, retcons, paradoxes, parallel time lines, reiterations, and divergences. How anyone can make head or tail of all this chaos, I don't know."

3D Megadoodoo posted:

They stole that from Ed, the Happy Clown,

Oh wow, I�ve not thought about that book in a long time.

# ¿ Jan 4, 2023 14:16

The_Doctor: Mar 29, 2007; "The entire history of this incarnation is one of temporal orbits, retcons, paradoxes, parallel time lines, reiterations, and divergences. How anyone can make head or tail of all this chaos, I don't know."

This absolutely sounds like the plot of Avatar half remembered.

# ¿ Mar 7, 2023 10:58

The_Doctor: Mar 29, 2007; "The entire history of this incarnation is one of temporal orbits, retcons, paradoxes, parallel time lines, reiterations, and divergences. How anyone can make head or tail of all this chaos, I don't know."

This has all just reminded me of the Usborne Puzzle Adventures, which were very similar in ilk by the sounds of it.

# ¿ Apr 8, 2023 01:46

The_Doctor: Mar 29, 2007; "The entire history of this incarnation is one of temporal orbits, retcons, paradoxes, parallel time lines, reiterations, and divergences. How anyone can make head or tail of all this chaos, I don't know."

People did this at Action Park in the tank dodgems that shot tennis balls.

# ¿ Jun 9, 2023 15:50

The_Doctor: Mar 29, 2007; "The entire history of this incarnation is one of temporal orbits, retcons, paradoxes, parallel time lines, reiterations, and divergences. How anyone can make head or tail of all this chaos, I don't know."

I mean, Clarke�s Law is literally �Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.�

# ¿ Jun 29, 2023 18:45

The_Doctor: Mar 29, 2007; "The entire history of this incarnation is one of temporal orbits, retcons, paradoxes, parallel time lines, reiterations, and divergences. How anyone can make head or tail of all this chaos, I don't know."

GD_American posted:

OK, got one for y'all.

British sci-fi novel

Set on a microplanet, like extremely small (maybe 50km diameter)? with its own atmosphere, because of some neutron star remnant at its core (or something on that order)

Settled only by a Hispanic (Portugese?) family.

Humor is somewhat Douglas Adams-ish but toned down, although the plot ends up being fairly absurd.

Overall world setup is that humanity had a war with AI, won, and banned any kind of AI, it's thought that they're still out there (a la the Battlestar Galactica reboot) rebuilding and looking for vengeance, and it turns out they're right

Leader of humanity who won the war is named The Dictator and was overthrown and is missing

There's one crazy old man on the planet that the family has occasional dealings with, and it turns out he's The Dictator

Earth sends some huge cube there that turns out to be a prison for a psychotic, impossibly powerful psyker named Father Christmas (or something similar).

I don�t think it�s this, but I can�t help but think of E.L.V by Nick Nielsen.

# ¿ Aug 11, 2023 04:28

The_Doctor: Mar 29, 2007; "The entire history of this incarnation is one of temporal orbits, retcons, paradoxes, parallel time lines, reiterations, and divergences. How anyone can make head or tail of all this chaos, I don't know."

They're Made Out of Meat by Terry Bisson?

# ¿ Nov 29, 2023 15:51

The_Doctor: Mar 29, 2007; "The entire history of this incarnation is one of temporal orbits, retcons, paradoxes, parallel time lines, reiterations, and divergences. How anyone can make head or tail of all this chaos, I don't know."

BattyKiara posted:

The bright circles are coins. Or the memory of money. It is a warning to not reinvent capitalism

That is terrible.

# ¿ Mar 4, 2024 16:42

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 17:58

The_Doctor: Mar 29, 2007; "The entire history of this incarnation is one of temporal orbits, retcons, paradoxes, parallel time lines, reiterations, and divergences. How anyone can make head or tail of all this chaos, I don't know."

The Invisibles go back in time and visit the Marquis de Sade? He ends up coming back with them to the present day.

# ¿ Apr 9, 2024 09:29

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > The identify that story/book thread: Home of the gas pump boy