-James Blish, "The City That Was The World" IN Galaxy, July, 1969, pp. 69-97 AT p. 71.
When I read this, I remembered that part two of Poul Anderson, Orbit Unlimited (New York, 1963) is entitled The Burning Bridge (pp. 43-70) and that a short story by Larry Niven is entitled "All the Bridges Rusting." (It is in Larry Niven, A Hole in Space (London, 1975), pp. 71-93.)
Wanting to know who the "unregretful poet" was, I googled the phrase, "Time is the bridge that burns behind us," and was referred to Poul Anderson, "The Burning Bridge" (Astounding, January 1960), the original publication of the story that became Orbit Unlimited, part two. See here.
"Burning your bridges" is an idiom.
- Time is the bridge that always burns behind us.
- Poul Anderson, The Burning Bridge (January 1960). Originally published in Astounding Science Fiction.
- -copied from the above link.
8 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Iow, this was a homage to Anderson by Blish.
Ad asta! Sean
"All the Bridges Rusting."
One of the stories in the "Jumpshift Booth" series.
Lightspeed teleportation works as long as there is a working transmitter at the start and working receiver at the destination of the trip.
The bridges were rusting because the booths made them obsolete & no longer worth maintaining except as historical monuments.
I liked that series for the thought about the effects of society on earth of that invention.
For space travel you send receivers in spaceships to places you want to be able to go to regularly. Even other stars, if you don't mind waiting decades for the link to become available.
If Niven had explored that idea more, he could have had an interstellar society somewhat like what Anderson wrote about in "The Long Way Home", though the need for STL to set up a link makes for inevitable differences.
Jim,
Do you mean THE ENEMY STARS?
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
You beat me to mentioning THE ENEMY STARS, to which I would add "Elementary Mistake."
Despite both these stories using matter transmitters, I don't think they belong in the same background.
Ad astra! Sean
"Do you mean THE ENEMY STARS?"
I see the resemblance now that you mention it, but I was thinking more about travel being at light speed so the trip is instantaneous for the traveller, but a round trip will get the interstellar traveller back at least 8 years after departure.
So this would make interstellar colonization fairly easy, but any sort of government covering multiple solar systems would be just as impractical as in "The Long Way Home". The need for STL transport of the initial receiver/transmitter would mean you don't get the possibility of malcontents easily fleeing hundreds or thousands of lightyears.
Kaor, Jim!
Yes, but we see the Protectorate of THE ENEMY STARS and "The Ways of Love" ruling many planets at interstellar distances because they were linked together by matter transmitters which had first been shipped to those worlds by STL means. Granted, it would take a long time doing it that way, colonizing new worlds.
Ad astra! Sean
In "The Enemy Star" an interstellar government is possible because the matter transmitters are far faster than light (Instantaneous IIRC).
The teleport booths in Niven's story are *light speed* so there is a minimum of many years for any round trip, and any sort of interstellar government is impractical, even after the teleport links are set up.
Kaor, Jim!
Exactly, what you said about how the Protectorate of THE ENEMY STARS used STL shipping of matter transmitters to new stars, meaning instantaneous travel was possible after new matter transmitters were built there.
Not familiar, alas, with Niven's Jumpshift stories.
Ad astra! Sean
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