What I enjoy about this story is that it imagines a world where the MBTA (Boston's public transit system) was so well funded to become an incredibly complex system. In reality there hasn't been significant improvement since the late 80's, and Green Line service to Forest Hills is still "temporarily" suspended.
I was just wondering why, of all the subway systems in the world, the author would pick Boston, which as far as I can see in 1952 had all of 3 "real" subway lines plus the Green Line, which at that time was probably still a streetcar? According to Wikipedia, he didn't even have any connection to Boston...
The author (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armin_Joseph_Deutsch) spent some time working for Harvard (which has an MBTA subway station), including as a lecturer. The story features a Harvard professor whom both explains and is ensnared by the anomaly. We write what we know.
I ruptured out of suspension of disbelief the moment I read "The missing persons did not return. In the large, they were no longer missed"... Really? No longer missed? 400 people disappear out of thin air and that's it. No "Thoughts and Prayers"? No middle eastern 3rd world country to wipe out of existence? Seems to me like a veeeery unrealistic waste of political leverage to gain...
I first read this delightful story (and the Heinlien story) about 1968 (my 7th grade year) in a Clifton Fadiman anthology entitled “Fantasia Mathematica.” He also edited another anthology, “The Mathematical Magpie.” I’ve always been terrible at math, but loved stories about mathematics. This book, at least, was heavy on the topology stories.
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[ 4.3 ms ] story [ 52.4 ms ] threadWhat I enjoy about this story is that it imagines a world where the MBTA (Boston's public transit system) was so well funded to become an incredibly complex system. In reality there hasn't been significant improvement since the late 80's, and Green Line service to Forest Hills is still "temporarily" suspended.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moebius_(1996_film)