# Science fiction story in grid form?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-story-in-grid-form/934159>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Tags:** books-writing-myths\
**Created:** [March 3, 2021, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-story-in-grid-form/934159 "2021-03-03T04:24:29Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\
**Post date:** [March 3, 2021, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-story-in-grid-form/934159/1 "2021-03-03T04:24:29Z")

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I vaguely remember a story in one of my SF anthologies which was presented in grid form. Rows and columns, with the intersections relating the topic of the row to the topic of the column. I remember one intersection, which went something like “the virgin botanist regrets pollination by wind” or something close to that; haven’t had any luck googling that phrase, though.

At a guess, it was a New Wave story, so 1960s or so. Maybe.

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**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\
**Post date:** [March 3, 2021, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-story-in-grid-form/934159/2 "2021-03-03T06:18:53Z")

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Moved to Cafe Society from GQ.

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**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\
**Post date:** [March 3, 2021, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-story-in-grid-form/934159/3 "2021-03-03T15:40:21Z")

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Alfred Bester has a section of conversations between telepaths in _The Demolished Man_ that was portrayed in that fashion.

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**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\
**Post date:** [March 3, 2021, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-story-in-grid-form/934159/4 "2021-03-03T18:38:16Z")

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So he did, but from what I’ve seen of that online, it isn’t what I’m thinking of.

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**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\
**Post date:** [March 3, 2021, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-story-in-grid-form/934159/5 "2021-03-03T18:44:46Z")

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> [@RealityChuck](#):
>
> Alfred Bester has a section of conversations between telepaths in _The Demolished Man_ that was portrayed in that fashion.

My first thought, too, upon seeing this. But it clearly wasn;t what the OP had in mind.

One thing I like about the way Bester did that is that it suggests that telepathy ought to be considered as much more than simply “speaking without sound” – it has the potential to connect with other minds in multiple ways, maybe even conveying images (as is done in Heinlein’s _Time for the Stars_). You can convey so much more information in these ways than by speech alone, in the same way that radio or audio is “one dimensional”, but television and movies are “two dimensional”. It took a long time to run the credits for a radio show that it does for a TV or movie, because you have broader “bandwidth”. Telepathy has the potential for broader bandwidth than speech. It might even be three-dimensional.

None of this helps with the OP’s question, but it’s interesting.