Fiction_L Archives Short Story Search (author/title unknown) Dates: 1/29/01,11:00 AM  through  1/29/01,11:41 AM  (2 postings) Search for: Select one or more indexes to search: 2011-current     2009-2010     2004-2008    1995-2003    (Matches from each index will be displayed separately in the results page.) Return to January 2001 thread menu   |   Fiction_L Archives Menu

FROM: "Tracey Firestone" <[removed]@suffolk.lib.ny.us>
REC'D: 1/29/01, 11:00 AM

I am posting this question for a School Media Specialist who is trying to
assist a teacher in her school. Unfortunately, there is very little
information known about this short story, other than a description of the
plot. The SMS searched her collection and worked with the local public
library staff to try and find it through traditional resources but without a
title or author, I think we're pretty much limited to finding someone who
recognizes the description. So then, if this rings any bells, please
contact me [removed]@suffolk.lib.ny.us) and with any luck, we'll put
a title to this description...

"The "story" is a series of letters between a writer (male) and a book club.
Seems to me there was a delivery of the wrong book or one of his books, and
he's trying to straighten out the whole situation. And THEN, I think
somebody like Virginia Woolf gets into the scene (maybe that person wrote
the book he got by mistake?????) Meanwhile, the suspense builds because you
wonder if the whole thing will ever get solved and at the end, I think, it
might just start all over again because the STUPID BOOKCLUB PERSON still
hasn't got it right!

Suggested Possibilities: Lardner, Bradbury (of all people), Benchley, and
(a long shot, since I'm fairly familiar with his work) Thurber. Thanks for
the help."

Thank you in advance for any light you may shed on the subject,
Tracey

This message is from [removed]@suffolk.lib.ny.us
a.k.a. Tracey Firestone, Young Adult Specialist
Suffolk Cooperative Library System
627 N. Sunrise Service Rd., Bellport, NY 11713

Phone: 631-286-1600 x1352
FAX: 631-286-1647

Virtual YA Index: http://www.suffolk.lib.ny.us/youth/virtual.html
YA Librarian's Help Homepage: http://yahelp.suffolk.lib.ny.us

FROM: Dennis Lien <[removed]@tc.umn.edu>
REC'D: 1/29/01, 11:41 AM

<snip>
>"The "story" is a series of letters between a writer (male) and a book club.
>Seems to me there was a delivery of the wrong book or one of his books, and
>he's trying to straighten out the whole situation. And THEN, I think
>somebody like Virginia Woolf gets into the scene (maybe that person wrote
>the book he got by mistake?????) Meanwhile, the suspense builds because you
>wonder if the whole thing will ever get solved and at the end, I think, it
>might just start all over again because the STUPID BOOKCLUB PERSON still
>hasn't got it right!
<snip>


Not all of the details match, but I suspect the story remembered is
"Computers Don't Argue" by Gordon R. Dickson. The original book was
a defective copy of KIM for which he got in exchange a copy of
KIDNAPPED (which he didn't want); this escalates (over a matter of a
few dollars) into criminal proceedings, jail, and incipient execution
since the computerized mail system can't be argued with...and the
last-minute seemingly happy ending is immediately undercut by another
computer problem when his deathhouse pardon is rejected because a
line was not properly filled in or somesuch.

The story first appeared in September 1965 ANALOG magazine and has
been frequently anthologized:

Computers Don’t Argue, (ss) Analog Sep ’65
Nebula Award Stories, ed. Damon Knight, Garden City, NY:
Doubleday, 1966
Analog 5, ed. John W. Campbell, Jr., Doubleday, 1967
Science Fictions, ed. Arnold Thompson, London: University
Tutorial Press, 1971
The Astounding-Analog Reader, Volume Two, ed. Harry Harrison &
Brian W. Aldiss, Doubleday, 1973
Wondermakers 2, ed. Robert Hoskins, Fawcett Premier, 1974
Transformations II, ed. Daniel Roselle, Fawcett Crest, 1974
You and Science Fiction, ed. Bernard C. Hollister, National
Textbook Co., 1976
Decade the 1960s, ed. Brian W. Aldiss & Harry Harrison, Macmillan
UK, 1977
Computers, Computers, Computers, ed. Dennie L. Van Tassel,
London: NEL, 1977
Science Fiction: Contemporary Mythology, ed. Patricia S. Warrick,
Martin H. Greenberg & Joseph D.
Olander, Harper & Row, 1978
Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Treasury, ed. Isaac Asimov, Martin
H. Greenberg & Joseph D. Olander,
Bonanza/Crown, 1980
Space Mail, ed. Isaac Asimov, Martin H. Greenberg & Joseph D.
Olander, Fawcett, 1980
The Analog Anthology #1, ed. Stanley Schmidt, Davis, 1980
Weekend Book of Science Fiction, ed. Stuart Gendall, Harmsworth
Publications Ltd., 1981
Those Amazing Electronic Thinking Machines!, ed. Isaac Asimov,
Martin H. Greenberg & Charles G.
Waugh, Franklin Watts, 1983
Computer Crimes & Capers, ed. Isaac Asimov, Martin H. Greenberg & Charles
G. Waugh, Academy
Chicago, 1983
Random Access Messages of the Computer Age, ed. Thomas F.
Monteleone, Hayden, 1984
Ends, by Gordon R. Dickson, Baen, 1988


Dennis Lien / U of Minnesota Libraries // [removed]@tc.umn.edu

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