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GOING_ALIEN

                                             March 31, 2022
                                                     
Clifford D. Simak's "Time is the                     
Simplest Thing" (originally titled       In a publication in an SF              
"The Fisherman" when serialized in       magazine, you *know* that it's         
"Astounding"), can not at all be         SF, so there's no need for genre       
called "Hard SF", and yet it's one of    signifiers in the title.  You   
my prime examples that it would seem     can do a biblical reference like
peculiar to dismiss as being             "The Fisherman" without anyone        
peripheral to the field.                 thinking it's going to be a     
                                         story about an actual fisherman.
   In this future, humanity has                      
   settled on a hybrid form of                     The Toadkeeper thought "The
   space exploration, where a                      Fishmerman" was an excellent
   mechanical probe is sent out                    title for this story.
   and a human consciousness                         
   joins with it by a form of                         TOADKEEPER
   astral projection.                                 
                                            The "Time" reference is what
   At the outset of the story, the          attracted my attention to it
   main character is one of these           when I was a kid, though--  
   explorers, working for "Fishook",        "The Fisherman" has             
   which has a legal monopoly.  While       interesting associations in     
   prowling around a strange blue           retrospect, *after* it's      
   place that he realizes is some           read, but doesn't work as a,
   sort of habitation, he encounters        uh, hook to pull people in.    
   an alien (a "pink blob") which                    
   turns out to be a powerful                                               
   telepath.                                                               
                                                     
   The alien suddenly says something                 
   like *Hi pal! I trade with you my                 
   mind.*  Then the time runs out                    
   and the explorer's consciousness                  
   is yanked out of the blue place and               
   immediately returns home-- with                   
   an entire copy of an alien mind                   
   lodged inside his own.                            
                                                     
   He's heard rumors about things                    
   like this happening to people,                    
   and he once recieved a warning                    
   from a friend, right before he                    
   disappeared, something like:                      
   "If you ever go alien, just                       
   run, and run fast. Don't wait                     
   around."                                          
                                                     
   And that that's where the story leads             
   off-- there's going to be a short                 
   delay before his employers realize                
   what's happened, and he needs to go               
   into hiding before they do... or he               
   may never see daylight again.                     
                                                     
   And so, the rest of the story is                  
   a travelog of a future dominated                  
   by a superstitious revival that                   
   regards psychics such as himself                  
   as evil, a smattering of strange                  
   new products resulting from Fishhook's            
   operations, and a few conspiracies                
   and counter-conspiraces that need                 
   to be navigated as the alien                      
   consciousness he's picked up                      
   gradually integrates itself into                  
   his own...                                        
                                                     
                                                     
           And so: there's a touch of strange,       
           a contact with the unknown, a door                                  
           to new things and a contamination      There was a time when        
           that makes one a pariah.               contact with stories such  
                                                  as this might itself be   
              Wider vistas are opening for        that touch of strange.   
              humanity and yet many recoil           
              from this, retreating into             
              ancient superstition.                  
                                                     
                                                     
                                                     
       Is this a metaphor?                        BRAND_X           NEWTYPE
                                                  THE_SECRET_MASTERS_OF_DESTINY
       Do you recognize your                         
       reality in this?                              
                                 GOING_UNDER
                                                     
                                                     
          When you go fishing,                       
          what do you fish for?                      
                                                     
                                                     
                                                     
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