# 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:** 66
**Author:** ![Bashorian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bashorian/32/3546_2.png) [@Bashorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bashorian)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2023, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1301 "2023-09-22T05:09:11Z")
_The Boat of a Million Years_ by Anderson. ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2023, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1302 "2023-09-26T19:00:59Z")
A short story I recall reading back in the 1980’s. The premise was that someone invented a cleaning machine that simply banished dirt and dust to another dimension, so no one every had to do housework again. The twist was … One day all of the dirt came back at once. An environmental parable, I guess Any ideas? ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2023, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1303 "2023-09-26T19:04:05Z")
I was going to ask about this. You answered my question before I even posed it. 😀 ---
**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:** [September 26, 2023, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1304 "2023-09-26T19:28:29Z")
Dusty Zebra? ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2023, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1305 "2023-09-26T19:59:09Z")
> [@zimaane](#): > > A short story I recall reading back in the 1980’s. The premise was that someone invented a cleaning machine that simply banished dirt and dust to another dimension, so no one every had to do housework again. The twist was … > > One day all of the dirt came back at once. An environmental parable, I guess > > Any ideas? I remember something very like this – but I remember them not inventing anything or having a setup in each house, but instead just finding a hole that things disappeared into, and deciding to use it for waste disposal, not in individual houses but by hauling stuff to it; but the ending was the same. Unfortunately I remember neither author nor title; making it hard to judge whether we’re both mis-remembering the same story, or one of us is remembering it wrong and the other one correctly and if so which is which, or whether we’re remembering two different stories with the same underlying idea. ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2023, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1306 "2023-09-26T20:51:37Z")
I think that’s it! Thanks Simak is an underappreciated author, imho. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2023, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1307 "2023-09-26T21:02:23Z")
_Dusty Zebra_ starts on page 38 of this PDF (download). > **[Galaxy\_1954\_09.pdf](https://ia800609.us.archive.org/6/items/galaxymagazine-1954-09/Galaxy_1954_09.pdf)** > > 49.69 MB ---
**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:** [September 26, 2023, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1308 "2023-09-26T21:25:14Z")
You guys are beating me to the answers! (which I greatly appreciate!) ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2023, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1309 "2023-09-26T21:49:25Z")
There was also an Alan Moore short story called “The Lethal Laziness of Lobelia Loam” where a slovenly girl discovers that her father, who has tripped over all the garbage she left around and accidentally killed himself, had built a time portal in their basement. So she just threw all her garbage (and his dead body, and the bodies of a couple other people she murders) into it. Unfortunately it had been set for a specific date and time, at which point everything suddenly reappeared and crushed her. Originally published in _2000 AD_. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2023, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1310 "2023-09-26T23:59:21Z")
> [@TroutMan](#): > > _Dusty Zebra_ starts on page 38 of this PDF (download) That’s definitely not the story I’m remembering. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2023, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1311 "2023-09-27T00:37:05Z")
I saw references to _Litterbug_ by Tony Morphett, originally released in _The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction_ (vol. 37 no. 1 July 1969), that sounds similar to the story you remember. But I can’t find a detailed plot or anything online. Maybe @Andy_L has it on a shelf somewhere. ---
**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:** [September 27, 2023, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1312 "2023-09-27T01:25:22Z")
Litterbug is here [Fantasy & Science Fiction v037n01 (1969 07) (PDF) : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive](https://archive.org/details/Fantasy_Science_Fiction_v037n01_1969-07_PDF/page/n109/mode/2up) - similar but not quite the same ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2023, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1313 "2023-09-27T03:07:41Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > Litterbug is here If that’s it, I’m remembering it really, really badly. I don’t remember any of the Really Tough He-Men Beating Each Other Up business; or any of the Exchanging Dirty Pictures business; or for that matter any of the trader business. Nor do I remember a whole lot of little individual units being used as garbage disposals. What I remember is somebody finding, or possibly accidentally creating, a Hole; and they throw some specific thing down it, I’ve forgotten what, trying to find out how deep it is. But the Hole appears to be bottomless – they throw more specific things down, and they just disappear. So they throw more trash down it. And more trash – think entire landfills sort of trash, and radioactive-leftovers-from-power-plants trash, though I don’t remember whether either of those specific items is named. And then one day the Hole makes a funny noise; and instead of things falling into it and disappearing, a thing falls out of it. The thing they first threw in. Which is followed by the second thing they threw in, and then . . . ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2023, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1314 "2023-09-27T04:15:20Z")
In “Scanners Live In Vain”, the problem with space travel was that for some reason never specified traveling through space caused unendurable pain- pain bad enough to literally die of, but whatever caused the effect wasn’t inherently lethal to biological organisms. So passengers were put in suspended animation while the crews had all sensory input severed except for sight. As indicated earlier a researcher eventually discovers that a ship with a double-walled hull filled with oysters somehow serves as an expendable shield against the pain effect. ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2023, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1315 "2023-09-27T09:25:21Z")
I have a feeling that it’s a short story by Rudy Rucker but that at the end it’s aliens in the other dimension who end ip throwing all the rubbish back. ---
**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:** [September 27, 2023, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1316 "2023-09-27T09:36:05Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > And then one day the Hole makes a funny noise; and instead of things falling into it and disappearing, a thing falls out of it. The thing they first threw in. Which is followed by the second thing they threw in, and then . . . Lois Bujold did it the other way around in THE HOLE TRUTH, where the story plays out like you’d maybe expect until the _last_ thing thrown in eventually comes out. And then the second-to-last. And then… ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2023, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1317 "2023-09-27T12:57:00Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Lois Bujold did it the other way around in THE HOLE TRUTH, where the story plays out like you’d maybe expect until the _last_ thing thrown in eventually comes out. And then the second-to-last. And then That might well be it. I’ve only managed to find the first couple of paragraphs online without signing up for something; but the beginning seems plausible – they just find the hole – and I might easily be misremembering the order in which things come back out. ---
**Author:** ![Jaydubba77](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Jaydubba77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaydubba77)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2023, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1318 "2023-09-27T16:12:49Z")
The one that I remember dealt with with razor blades. A razor blade disposal system was developed that let you drop them in a box that never filled up. At least untill they started showing up randomly decades later. Someone then had to develop a magic box to send those blades somewhere else. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2023, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1319 "2023-09-27T16:47:56Z")
Another vaguely recalled story. Possibly even one already commented on. I dunno. An astronaut on another planet (possibly Mars) lands (possibly crashes) and has to walk back to the base/city alone through a barren countryside. As he walks he sees evidence on the rocks of what look like giant claw marks. When he is just within sight of the city, the path dips into a long dark trench. He cannot get to the city without going into the trench. From the trench comes the sound of claws being sharpened. ---
**Author:** ![Mikkel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikkel/32/13151_2.png) [@Mikkel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mikkel)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2023, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1320 "2023-09-27T16:57:53Z")
Short story by Arthur C Clarke. I can’t remember the title. Oh, of course “A Walk In the Dark”. First appeared in _Thrilling Wonder Stories_, August 1950. Collected in \*Reach for Tomorrow. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417.md?page=65) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417.md?page=67)