5 ms·

Any chance you recall the name of the short story? Your link was a fun read, but disappointingly not the story you described!

simcop2387 7y ago
Looks like it's The Muse by Anthony Burgess (1968). Sorry for the long URL but it's the best confirmation of this I could find. [1] [1] https://books.google.com/books?id=mh9zrji5zfAC&pg=PA185&lpg=PA185&dq=the+muse+short+story+anthony&source=bl&ots=gf8mCQOzPw&sig=ACfU3U1DmZXm_51pJz_Q7DLyWgW-megbLw&hl=en&ppis=_e&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwip_o69xZXoAhWIsJ4KHZXHCbgQ6AEwA3oECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=the%20muse%20short%20story%20anthony&f=false https://books.google.com/books?id=mh9zrji5zfAC&pg=PA185&lpg=...
- edflsafoiewq 7y ago
  I found a complete version, http://mural.uv.es/aquingar/e-text012.htm http://mural.uv.es/aquingar/e-text012.htm (Ctrl+F for "The hands of Swenson"), but it isn't the story described by the OP.
  - JorgeGT 7y ago
    Weird how things are. That is hosted in the University of Valencia --- I'm walking through the campus as I write this.
- mindcrime 7y ago
  Or maybe "The Merchant of Stratford"? https://www.library.illinois.edu/rbx/shakespeare400/2016/03/03/the-merchant-of-stratford/ https://www.library.illinois.edu/rbx/shakespeare400/2016/03/...
  - tzs 7y ago
    That's definitely it. It looks like someone has republished it as a stand-alone story on Kindle [1]. That says 19 pages, which seems longer than the story I remember. I wonder if it was expanded from the original short story in Asimov's? It's also in this anthology of science fiction humor stories [2]. [1] https://www.amazon.com/Merchant-Stratford-Frank-Ramirez-ebook/dp/B00NIDLPUK https://www.amazon.com/Merchant-Stratford-Frank-Ramirez-eboo... [2] https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0395305195/ https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0395305195/
    - edflsafoiewq 7y ago
      The Internet Archive has a copy: https://archive.org/details/Asimovs_v03n07_1979-07/page/n123/mode/2up https://archive.org/details/Asimovs_v03n07_1979-07/page/n123...
      - mindcrime 7y ago
        Very fun story. Glad you were able to dig that link up.
    - kshacker 7y ago
      Dude someone went back in time and left a review on Amazon from 2014 : mentioning hacker news. Good job guys. You were fast [comment in the spirit of the thread]
      - tzs 7y ago
        It turns out I mentioned the story here on HN in 2014 [1], which is probably where that person saw it. As with the present thread, I didn't remember the name of the story and got the time frame wrong. Also as in the present thread people quickly found the name and where/when it was originally published. And in that thread, someone also linked to the "everybody kills Hitler" story that I linked to (although they linked to it at its original site, which is still up, instead of linking to a republication link I did). [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8261790 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8261790
  - simcop2387 7y ago
    Awesome, I guess this is a common topic for Sci-Fi stories that there's so many similar ones.
tzs 7y ago
All I can say is that I probably read it in an issue of "Analog". I went through all my saved copies, which are a few years worth from the '80s and '90s then a nearly complete run from around 2000 to 2010 or so. (I then switched to a digital subscription--but I'm sure I read this story on paper so it is before that). Looking through the short story titles in all those issues, and at the stories themselves whenever the title seemed like one that might be right, turned up nothing. :-( It's possible that it is even older. I have a vague memory of bringing up that story in a discussion with someone at college, so it could have been something I read in the '70s. Back then I had a subscription to "Galaxy" science fiction magazine, and frequently picked up "Analog", "Asimov's", and "The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction" at the newsstand, and any one of those could be where I found it.

simcop2387 7y ago

Looks like it's The Muse by Anthony Burgess (1968). Sorry for the long URL but it's the best confirmation of this I could find. [1] [1] https://books.google.com/books?id=mh9zrji5zfAC&pg=PA185&lpg=PA185&dq=the+muse+short+story+anthony&source=bl&ots=gf8mCQOzPw&sig=ACfU3U1DmZXm_51pJz_Q7DLyWgW-megbLw&hl=en&ppis=_e&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwip_o69xZXoAhWIsJ4KHZXHCbgQ6AEwA3oECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=the%20muse%20short%20story%20anthony&f=false https://books.google.com/books?id=mh9zrji5zfAC&pg=PA185&lpg=...

edflsafoiewq 7y ago
I found a complete version, http://mural.uv.es/aquingar/e-text012.htm http://mural.uv.es/aquingar/e-text012.htm (Ctrl+F for "The hands of Swenson"), but it isn't the story described by the OP.
- JorgeGT 7y ago
  Weird how things are. That is hosted in the University of Valencia --- I'm walking through the campus as I write this.
mindcrime 7y ago
Or maybe "The Merchant of Stratford"? https://www.library.illinois.edu/rbx/shakespeare400/2016/03/03/the-merchant-of-stratford/ https://www.library.illinois.edu/rbx/shakespeare400/2016/03/...
- tzs 7y ago
  That's definitely it. It looks like someone has republished it as a stand-alone story on Kindle [1]. That says 19 pages, which seems longer than the story I remember. I wonder if it was expanded from the original short story in Asimov's? It's also in this anthology of science fiction humor stories [2]. [1] https://www.amazon.com/Merchant-Stratford-Frank-Ramirez-ebook/dp/B00NIDLPUK https://www.amazon.com/Merchant-Stratford-Frank-Ramirez-eboo... [2] https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0395305195/ https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0395305195/
  - edflsafoiewq 7y ago
    The Internet Archive has a copy: https://archive.org/details/Asimovs_v03n07_1979-07/page/n123/mode/2up https://archive.org/details/Asimovs_v03n07_1979-07/page/n123...
    - mindcrime 7y ago
      Very fun story. Glad you were able to dig that link up.
  - kshacker 7y ago
    Dude someone went back in time and left a review on Amazon from 2014 : mentioning hacker news. Good job guys. You were fast [comment in the spirit of the thread]
    - tzs 7y ago
      It turns out I mentioned the story here on HN in 2014 [1], which is probably where that person saw it. As with the present thread, I didn't remember the name of the story and got the time frame wrong. Also as in the present thread people quickly found the name and where/when it was originally published. And in that thread, someone also linked to the "everybody kills Hitler" story that I linked to (although they linked to it at its original site, which is still up, instead of linking to a republication link I did). [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8261790 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8261790
- simcop2387 7y ago
  Awesome, I guess this is a common topic for Sci-Fi stories that there's so many similar ones.

tzs 7y ago

All I can say is that I probably read it in an issue of "Analog". I went through all my saved copies, which are a few years worth from the '80s and '90s then a nearly complete run from around 2000 to 2010 or so. (I then switched to a digital subscription--but I'm sure I read this story on paper so it is before that). Looking through the short story titles in all those issues, and at the stories themselves whenever the title seemed like one that might be right, turned up nothing. :-( It's possible that it is even older. I have a vague memory of bringing up that story in a discussion with someone at college, so it could have been something I read in the '70s. Back then I had a subscription to "Galaxy" science fiction magazine, and frequently picked up "Analog", "Asimov's", and "The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction" at the newsstand, and any one of those could be where I found it.