Sci-Fi Discussion: “A Little Something for Us Tempunauts” & "The Big Pat Boom"

Do you like science fiction? Join the Jefferson Humanists Sci Fi Discussion Group where we discuss sci-fi short stories, novellas and movies. We typically meet by Zoom on the 4th Thursday of each month and occasionally meet in-person to watch sci-fi movies.

If you would like to be added to our email list to find out about the next sci fi stories we plan to discuss, email SciFi@jeffersonhumanists.org
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In January, we invite you to read two of renowned author Connie Willis' favorite short stories: “A Little Something for Us Tempunauts” by Philip K. Dick and "The Big Pat Boom" by Damon Knight

A Little Something for Us Tempunauts (17 pages)
Written in 1974 near the end of the Apollo program, Dick's story speculates about a future time travel agency. Three American time travelers (Tempunauts) plan to travel 100 years into the future (twice the successful Soviet jump). Instead, they miss the mark and discover something else.

Dick explains in The Best of Philip K. Dick (1977) that “A Little Something For Us Tempunauts” encapsulates his “vast weariness in the space program, which had thrilled us so at the start—especially the first lunar landing–and then had been forgotten an virtually shut down, a relic of history.” He speculates that a time travel agency will follow a similar evolution of popular conception and contain an even darker secret “within the very nature of the paradoxes of time-travel”

The Big Pat Boom (8 pages)
A first contact story with a twist. When alien visitors land on a farm on Earth, they purchase some fascinating souvenirs that are sure to thrill their friends back home on Zeta Herculis. Martha and Llewellyn Crawford's souvenir stand is booming and business is the bests it has been in years. It is bound to last, since supplies are abundant.

Damon Knight is the author of To Serve Man," a short story that became a famous Twilight Zone episode.

You can find an online copy of “A Little Something for Us Tempunauts” at https://biblioklept.org/2019/12/06/read-a-little-something-for-us-tempunauts-a-short-story-by-philip-k-dick/

You can find a copy of "The Big Pat Boom" at https://archive.org/details/Galaxy_v22n02_1963-12/page/n41/mode/2up

Please read these stories on your own and come
to the meeting on January 22nd to share your thoughts.

RSVP to this Meetup or email SciFi@jeffersonhumanists.org. Only those who RSVP will receive the Zoom link for the discussion. Attendance is limited to the first 15 people who RSVP.

To get on the JH Sci Fi Discussion Group mail list, email SciFi@jeffersonhumanists.org
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"“Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.”
― Philip K. Dick, I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon