🚀 go-pugleaf

On Tue, 2018-03-20, Bob Eager wrote:
> On Tue, 20 Mar 2018 11:16:57 -0500, JimP wrote:
>
>> On 20 Mar 2018 16:00:51 GMT, Bob Eager <news...@eager.cx> wrote:
>> 
>>>On Tue, 20 Mar 2018 09:25:24 -0500, JimP wrote:
>>>
>>>> On 19 Mar 2018 21:47:40 GMT, Jorgen Grahn <grahn...@snipabacken.se>
>>>> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>>>On Mon, 2018-03-19, JimP wrote:
>>>>>> On Thu, 15 Mar 2018 07:40:53 +0000, AndyW <An...@nojunqmail.com>
>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>On 14/03/2018 13:26, Peter Flass wrote:
>>>>>>>> Nothing at all for the last couple of days? Is this maybe an
>>>>>>>> Eternal September problem? I have visions of getting thousands of
>>>>>>>> messages all at once.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>I use a different usenet server and it is quite.
>>>>>>>Maybe it is like that point at a party where everyone just stops
>>>>>>>talking for a few seconds at the same time?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Andy
>>>>>>
>>>>>> There was an interesting short story written about that some years
>>>>>> ago. A guy tried to investigate it, and shortly after he got
>>>>>> started, something arrived outside of a party he was attending and
>>>>>> the world came to an end. I didn't understand it, but apparently
>>>>>> some being was going to return, not necessarily God, at that time of
>>>>>> an hour, and thats why people all stop talking for a few seconds at
>>>>>> the same time.
>>>>>
>>>>>Which story was that?  I've read it but cannot remember who wrote it.
>>>>>The only hint I can offer myself is that almost all short fiction I
>>>>>read is SF from the 1960s or earlier (aka "some years ago").
>>>>>
>>>>>/Jorgen
>>>> 
>>>> I'm at a loss as well as to author and story title. I seem to remember
>>>> it as a short short story, less than 1,000 words.
>>>
>>>It also sounds a lot like the scene in The Restaurant at the End of the
>>>Universe, where the believers are waiting for the coming of the Great
>>>Prophet Zarquon (who has only eight minutes left before the apocalypse,
>>>and apologises for being late).
>> 
>> Well, the story I remember was they weren't waiting for anyone, but the
>> main character was trying to figure out why everyone stopped talking at
>> a particular time each hour. Even though rooms full of people had been
>> gabbing away loudly just seconds before.
>
> Possibly this?
>
>  http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/poestories/section10/

No, not Poe either.  I'm pretty sure it's a short story from an SF
genre writer.  Possibly Asimov; I haven't read a lot by him, but he
had stories with The Creator/God/Judgement Day aspects, which IIRC
this one had -- the silences were a biological remnant or racial
memory.  People subconciously stopped talking in order to listen to
the voice of some supreme being.

It could be Philip K. Dick too, or pretty much any SF author.

Whatever story this is, it's hidden in some yellowing paperback in my
library.

/Jorgen

-- 
  // Jorgen Grahn <grahn@  Oo  o.   .     .
\X/     snipabacken.se>   O  o   .