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I remember this from what I'm certain was an anthology of speculative fiction short stories that I read twenty years ago in high school, and the story itself is probably older than me: It involves a society whose founder discovered a physical technique to astrally project and permanently leave his physical body, but retains the ability to repossess any dormant body. He shares this technique and gathers a community following, but the majority population remains fearful of this way of life. The protagonist is a follower of this astral projection community, and at one point recounts getting baited into volunteering to lead a parade commemorating the founder’s discovery of the technique, which entails possessing the founder’s functional but out-of-shape body, and having to run a marathon with it. The central conflict involves the protagonist and his spouse (also an astral projecterer) free spiriting around and discovering two exquisitely crafted dormant bodies that they decide are just too good-looking not to possess, but when they try them on, they find themselves trapped. They are then confronted by a group of astralphobists, who explain they are under arrest. The protagonists bluff that if they aren’t released, they or the astral community will take them on and start possessing them alive (which the protagonist admits in his narration isn’t possible). The astralphobists don’t know this, and release them out of fear. [edit: Answered on the Thunderdome Discord - Thanks Twist! "Unready to Wear" by Kurt Vonnegut] M. Propagandalf fucked around with this message at 07:50 on Mar 13, 2021 |
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Mar 13, 2021 07:14
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| # ¿ Apr 25, 2024 12:55 |
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