Novels: Short story / Sci-fi Mid‑importance

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Not Encyclopedic?

Am I alone in thinking this isn't really an encyclopedic article, more a rewrite of the story?

I'm not sure how far it matters, as I doubt here gets much traffic, though... Shas 15:35, 22 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I agree. In general, articles shouldn't give away the story, should they?

Inspiration?

Does anybody else see parallels between the concluding line of this piece and a quote from the Satyricon of Petronius that opens T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land?

“For once I myself saw with my own eyes the Sybil at Cumae hanging in a cage, and when the boys said to her ‘Sybil, what do you want?’ she replied, ‘I want to die.’”

(205.250.167.76 00:56, 16 May 2007 (UTC))[reply]

The basic idea shares many elements with Minority Report (film by Spielberg based on Philip K. Dick story). — Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.29.76.37 (talk) 13:25, 5 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I've added Asimov's own account of his inspiration from the preface to this story in "The Best Science Fiction of Isaac Asimov". He doesn't mention a specific source. There is no preface to this story in "Isaac Asimov: The Complete Stories, Vol 1". But I swear that decades ago I read a different collection of his stories in which he specifically said that the Satyricon episode was the inspiration. The memory I have of reading that account is very strong because I'd already recognized the connection and I was elated that I was proved right. But the ISFDb doesn't list any other collections that include the story. Zgystardst (talk) 02:32, 11 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Film

I saw a film of this story in, I think, middle school (early to mid '80s). Might have been an episode of a TV show, although I do vividly remember that it was actually shown on film at my school. It was definitely this story; I clearly remember the computer being called "Multivac" and the twist ending. Anyone know of any details about this? Jerry Kindall (talk) 22:51, 23 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Following up my on question, some Googling found this confirmation that there was such a film, 22 minutes long, made in 1978 for schools, but the links are dead: http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview/id/136880.html Jerry Kindall (talk) 22:57, 23 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]