Does anyone recall this science fiction story?

[Larry Kart]

-- title and author if possible. The story had to have been from before the time of actual space flight but when men were being shot up in rockets or that was in the offing, probably 1953-55 (which was when I was a hardcore addict of the genre).

In the story, the first flight that is going to circumnavigate the moon, and thus be able to see the side that always is hidden from Earth, is launched. In fact, deliberately unbeknownst to the crew, the flight is a simulated one (a training exercise) and never leaves the ground, and the image of the far side of the moon that the crew eventually sees by mistake is an incomplete half-sphere -- a stage-set-like mockup (left incomplete to save money) -- whereupon the crew goes insane. It sounds like an Asimov, but that may be because it kind of echoes "Nightfall."

A friend says that Algis Budrys wrote several stories that were wryly skeptical about the realities of space flight (the story was mordant in tone) before actual space flight began, but I can't find a checklist of Budrys stories and might not recognize the title if I saw it. A logical (perhaps inevitable) title for the story BTW would have been "The Other Side of the Moon."

I'd like this info to fill in a gap in a memoir-like book that I'm trying to write. It's mostly about jazz, but there are digressions, and the grip that science fiction had on some of my generation is one of them.

[Larry Kart]

Or maybe "The Dark Side of the Moon."

[ejp626]

Sounds like something that would have come out in Astounding or Analog (maybe even one of their best of annuals). I doubt it would have been Asimov. It does sound vaguely familiar, and I'll see if anything comes up.

You could ask these guys: http://www.outofthecradle.net/forums/viewt...asc&start=0

(I can't get their search working)

Edited September 28, 2009 by ejp626

[Chuck Nessa]

The Badge of Red Courage? That was the name of the favorite novel of a classmate at the Iowa Writer's Workshop.

[JSngry]

I knew Red Courage. That badge was homemade by his Mom.

[mjzee]

Do you remember where you read this story - was it from a book or a magazine? If it was a book, it might have been from something like "An Anthology of Classic Science Fiction," which might give you a lead on where to look further.

[Teasing the Korean]

I'd like this info to fill in a gap in a memoir-like book that I'm trying to write. It's mostly about jazz, but there are digressions, and the grip that science fiction had on some of my generation is one of them.

As a fellow jazz listener and sci-fi freak, I hope you're also into outer space exotica classics such as Frank Comstock's "Project Comstock: Music from Outer Space" (WB, 1962) and Russ Garcia's "Fantastica" (Liberty, 1959).

I just picked up the three disc "Outer Limits" CD set, with amazing music by the great Dominic Frontiere.

[Larry Kart]

I'm sure I read it one of the science fiction magazines I read regularly back then -- Astounding, Galaxy, and the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction -- not in a book. A fellow addict of my vintage says that it sounds a bit dark for Astounding and suggests Galaxy.

[Larry Kart]

Sorry, Teasing -- I've yet to develop a taste for outer space exotica, unless Bob Graettinger's stuff counts.

[Teasing the Korean]

Just as good, if not better, but different. PM me and I'll set you up.

[Larry Kart]

Found lists of all the stories that were printed in Astounding and Galaxy, and looking at the period I'm sure it came from and assuming I'd recognize the title, I don't see anything.

[Larry Kart]

Red Courage was an interesting tenor player.

[Alexander]

This has nothing to do with this story, but I remember an episode of the old Arch Obler radio show "Lights Out" titled "Rocket From Manhattan" that was about the first ship to orbit the moon. It was set in the year 2000 and it basically dealt with the crew realizing that the moon had once had a civilization like earth's that destroyed itself in a nuclear war. Before they can return to earth with this information, a nuclear war breaks out on earth and leaves them trapped with no place to go. I always thought it was a pretty cool story...

[BillF]

The British novelist and science fiction enthusiast Kingsley Amis wrote a powerful story in which a space flight, described from the point of view of the "astronauts" inside the vehicle, proves to have been an illusion. It is revealed at the end that they have never taken off and have been the victims of an inhumane psychological experiment by an authoritarian regime. It's in Collected Short Stories of Kingsley Amis. Try the one called "Something Strange"; that's probably it.

[Dan Gould]

This has nothing to do with this story, but I remember an episode of the old Arch Obler radio show "Lights Out" titled "Rocket From Manhattan" that was about the first ship to orbit the moon. It was set in the year 2000 and it basically dealt with the crew realizing that the moon had once had a civilization like earth's that destroyed itself in a nuclear war. Before they can return to earth with this information, a nuclear war breaks out on earth and leaves them trapped with no place to go. I always thought it was a pretty cool story...

And completely ripped off by Rod Serling.

[BruceH]

Larry, I believe the short story was written by C. M. Kornbluth.

(But I can't remember for sure...I could be wrong.)

Edited September 28, 2009 by BruceH

[BruceH]

OK, I was thinking of Kornbluth's "The Rocket of 1955" and I just re-read it, and it's not the one. Sorry.

[BruceH]

Could have been Fredric Brown. Sounds like him....

(Damn. I feel like I should know this.)

[Jazzmoose]

Could have been Fredric Brown. Sounds like him....

(Damn. I feel like I should know this.)

I know what you mean; I keep hoping someone comes up with the answer. But yeah, Kornbluth and Brown seems like the right direction to search. I'd say maybe Sheckley, but it seems a bit "down" for him.

[Larry Kart]

The British novelist and science fiction enthusiast Kingsley Amis wrote a powerful story in which a space flight, described from the point of view of the "astronauts" inside the vehicle, proves to have been an illusion. It is revealed at the end that they have never taken off and have been the victims of an inhumane psychological experiment by an authoritarian regime. It's in Collected Short Stories of Kingsley Amis. Try the one called "Something Strange"; that's probably it.

That sounds tantalizingly close, but in the story I'm thinking of it's not a psychological experiment, even though the astronauts go mad in the end at the sight of the fake stage-set moon's unfinished other side. That was just penny-pinching, and the astronauts saw the unfinished other side of the "moon" because someone made a mistake at the control panel that day.

[Jazzmoose]

I don't know if I've read this story, or just read the thread long enough to think I've read the story at this point...

[rockefeller center]

Stanisław Lem has a somewhat similar story in "Tales of Pirx the Pilot". There's no moon involved though.

[Werf]

Larry: I queried at the Asimov's magazine forum, putting up your post and received a reply from anthology editor Rich Horton:

"Konrad Gaertner identifies it (on rec.arts.sf.written).

It is an Isaac Asimov story, "Ideas Die Hard". First appeared in Galaxy, October 1957.

pages: 1"

So it was Isaac!

[Larry Kart]

Larry: I queried at the Asimov's magazine forum, putting up your post and received a reply from anthology editor Rich Horton:

"Konrad Gaertner identifies it (on rec.arts.sf.written).

It is an Isaac Asimov story, "Ideas Die Hard". First appeared in Galaxy, October 1957.

pages: 1"

So it was Isaac!

Wow -- many thanks, Werf. You guys are/this place is great, not that this is news.

[BruceH]

Wow. Isaac Asimov. I'm a little surprised.

Seems a trifle mordant for him.

Edited September 29, 2009 by BruceH