"Clank, Clank"

THERE are a lot of people running around today—technologists, fiction writers, and even corporate CEOs among them—who insist that what happens in today's story isn't wishful thinking but inevitable . . .

"REALIZATION."

By Ben Singer (1931-2012).

First appearance: Future Science Fiction, July 1952.

Reprints page (ISFDb HERE).

Short short short short story (1 page).

Online at SFFAudio (HERE).

   "They were working on something big when this stopped all they were attempting to accomplish."

WHAT could possibly bring everything to a sudden halt? Something that clanks when it moves, something that just moments before was doing nothing—"Absolutely nothing" . . .

Resources:

- Articles relating to the basic idea of our story are (HERE), (HERE), (HERE), (HERE), (HERE), (HERE), (HERE), (HERE), and (HERE).

- Unusual for the time, "REALIZATION" is told in the first-person limited historical present tense (HERE).

- FictionMags has a list of Ben Singer's short fiction (ar = article; lt = letter; vi = vignette; and ss = short story):

  "And Having Writ," (ar) The Gorgon, July 1947

  [letter from Michigan], (lt) Famous Fantastic Mysteries, October 1947

  "Reprisal," (vi) The Gorgon, November 1947

  "Rejection Slip," (ss) Future Science Fiction, May 1952 (online HERE; go to text page 66)

  "REALIZATION," (vi) Future Science Fiction, July 1952 (above).

The bottom line:

Unless otherwise noted, all bibliographical data are derived from The FictionMags Index created by William G. Contento & edited by Phil Stephensen-Payne.

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