# Ask the guy who is pretty good at SF Story Identification **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [September 7, 2008, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417 "2008-09-07T00:08:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 51
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2022, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1001 "2022-06-03T19:47:30Z")
They were actually related, if I’m remembering it correctly (and simply saving Kennedy led to disaster (like in Stephen King’s novel)) ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2022, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1002 "2022-06-06T22:37:16Z")
There’s a discussion in another thread about someone creating a “virtual hell”. That reminded me of a story about someone creating a “virtual heaven”. The idea was that if you could give someone a taste of heaven that they would behave more virtuously in order to get there for eternity. However, it seems that a lot of folks are only to happy to have the experience of heaven without changing their behavior at all. An implication of the story is that the guy who commissioned the thing knew this would happen and is actually the devil. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2022, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1003 "2022-06-06T22:54:57Z")
The idea rings a bell, but the author and title aren’t coming to me. ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2022, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1004 "2022-06-07T01:58:26Z")
That was the plot point of a Batman Beyond episode. This guy invented a machine that virtually could grant you all your dreams and desires. But then he treats it like a drug, your can experience it once for free but then you get so addicted to the good life you have to give him enormous amounts of money to continue the experience. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2022, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1005 "2022-06-07T02:38:23Z")
A vaguely similar idea is in an episode of _The Twilight Zone_ called “A Nice Place to Visit” in which someone thinks they have gone to heaven. They soon grow bored of it. Then it’s explained to them that they are actually in hell: > **[A Nice Place to Visit](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Nice_Place_to_Visit)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > "A Nice Place to Visit" is episode 28 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. The episode first aired on CBS on April 15, 1960. The title comes from the saying, "It's a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there." > In 1965, a slightly modified version of this story was broadcast on the radio program Theater Five. "The Land of Milk and Honey", episode number 154, retained all of the important aspects of this epis... ---
**Author:** ![vbob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vbob/32/4439_2.png) [@vbob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vbob)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2022, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1006 "2022-06-07T11:01:01Z")
Update - I stumbled across the story I was looking for in ‘Star Science Fiction No. 4’ EDITED by Frederick Pohl… The story is ‘Man Working’ by Richard Wilson: “Like everybody else in Chicago, I took a rueful pride in the Mile-Hi Building, which soared 528 stories up from the Loop and whose architecture was such that it whistled like a teakettle whenever the wind was strong off Lake Michigan…” Our hero gets a gig playing a monster in movies made by aliens. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2022, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1007 "2022-06-07T11:30:19Z")
Thanks for coming back with that answer. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2022, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1008 "2022-06-08T15:58:45Z")
This may have been in Omni. A woman gives birth to a boy, but she and her husband are poor and can’t pay the hospital bill; so the hospital will not release the baby until they can pay up. The child grows up in the hospital. I think he was some sort of prodigy, but I don’t remember how it ends; just that the hospital raised a child because his parents couldn’t pay the bill. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2022, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1009 "2022-06-08T16:11:36Z")
“For Value Received” by Andrew Offut from “Again Dangerous Visions” - discussed here [MPorcius Fiction Log: Dangerous Visions from Evelyn Lief, Andrew J. Offutt and Richard A. Lupoff](http://mporcius.blogspot.com/2017/03/dangerous-visions-from-evelyn-lief.html) ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2022, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1010 "2022-06-08T16:55:32Z")
Ah. Yes, I was reading all of the Ellison I could find back then… and reading the stories in Omni as well. And I see I was wrong about the gender. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2022, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1011 "2022-06-08T18:57:17Z")
This is more a “Generic SciFi Ending” but can anyone name me a story where basically an apocalypse hits the Earth and the very ending of the story is humanity is now a bunch of scattered primal tribes who worship the very thing that destroyed humanity as a God? I remember this used to be the ending to pulp sci-fi novels so much other authors made fun of it. At least one of those stories I remember was basically an alien snake type creature accidentally gets left on Earth by other more intelligent aliens and the thing has such rapid reproduction it basically overwhelms Earth’s ecosystem within a year, and a 100 year later time jump has tribal Earthlings worship their new “Snake God’s” at the very end. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2022, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1012 "2022-06-09T01:11:07Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > a story where basically an apocalypse hits the Earth and the very ending of the story is humanity is now a bunch of scattered primal tribes who worship the very thing that destroyed humanity as a God Well, there’s “Heresies of the Huge God” by Brian Aldiss. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2022, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1013 "2022-06-09T12:58:16Z")
Description of that story here > ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2022, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1014 "2022-06-14T22:00:09Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > This is more a “Generic SciFi Ending” but can anyone name me a story where basically an apocalypse hits the Earth and the very ending of the story is humanity is now a bunch of scattered primal tribes who worship the very thing that destroyed humanity as a God?.. In, I think, the second _Planet of the Apes_ movie there’s a badly-radiation-scarred group of mutants living under the former NYC who worship “the Almighty Bomb.” One of which they have. Zany hijinks ensue. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2022, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1015 "2022-06-14T22:08:50Z")
Victor Buono? ---
**Author:** ![Pavelb1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/439d5e/32.png) [@Pavelb1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pavelb1)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2022, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1016 "2022-06-15T14:21:40Z")
Enh…he’s ok. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2022, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1017 "2022-06-15T14:26:57Z")
What’s the novel where a guy gets drunk and wakes up to find the US has been nuked/slimed, and nobody east of the Mississippi is allowed to cross to the west? ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2022, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1018 "2022-06-15T19:18:04Z")
> [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > US has been nuked/slimed, and nobody east of the Mississippi is allowed to cross to the west? _The Long Loud Silence_ by Wilson Tucker. ---
**Author:** ![Bonum\_Legatum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bonum_legatum/32/6183_2.png) [@Bonum\_Legatum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bonum_Legatum)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2022, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1019 "2022-06-16T14:49:50Z")
> [@Stumbling Upon Old Movies](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stumbling-upon-old-movies/966232/40): > > I meant to mention that it includes a scene in which one astronaut rescues another who has floated off the outside of the ship by using an oxygen tank as a reaction engine. ISTM that a similar rescue occurs in an Isaac Asimov story. Can any of our resident SF fans confirm this? Did Heinlein use it (also)? They are the two SF writers whose work I read most, but that was 40-50 years ago. Here’s someone asking for help in another thread. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2022, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1020 "2022-06-16T15:04:13Z")
Could it have been _Marooned Off Vesta_, by Asimov? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417.md?page=50) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417.md?page=52)