"The Safe-Deposit Box" is a science-fiction short story by Australian writer Greg Egan, first published in Asimov’s Science Fiction in September 1990. The short story was included in the collection Axiomatic in 1995.[1][2]
| "The Safe-Deposit Box" | |
|---|---|
| Short story by Greg Egan | |
| Country | Australia |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction |
| Publication | |
| Published in | Asimov's Science Fiction |
| Publication type | Periodical |
| Media type | |
| Publication date | September 1990 |
Plot
editA man wakes up in a new body every day. It is always male, in a certain age range and also the same city. In many ways, his life lacks purpose as for example taking care of his body is pointless. During his childhood, it took a while for him to find out that other people don't live like that. An experiment by a neurosurgeon is speculated to be the cause of the phenomenon. Since living in the same city every day, the man created a safe-deposit box in a central location, which he can access every day and note down past experiences. He still dreams of having a name only belonging to himself.[3]
Translations
editThe short story was translated into German (1992), Portuguese (1992), Japanese by Makoto Yamagishi (August 1993), Romanian (1995), French (1997), Hungarian by Erno Nemes (1998), Czech by Petr Kotrle, Romanian by Florin Pîtea, Russian (1999), Spanish by Graciela Inés Lorenzo Tillard and Jorge A. González (July 2001), Italian (2003), French by Sylvie Denis, Quarante-Deux & Francis Valéry, Chinese and Korean.[1][2]
Background
editMakoto Shinkai stated that the short story served as inspiration for Your Name and wrote on X, that "in the earliest plot, the heroine was in a different body each time she woke up".[4][5]
Reception
editReviews
editKaren Burnham wrote in Greg Egan (Masters of Modern Science Fiction) about the premise, that "[t]his, along with 'Unstable Orbits in the Space of Lies', is just about as non-scientific as Egan gets."[3]
Thomas Christensen, writing on sfbook.com, called it "probably one of the coolest stories in this collection [Axiomatic]".[6]
Awards
editThe short story reached the 12th place of the Locus Award in 1991 and the 4th place of Asimov's Reader Poll in 1991.[7][8]
Literature
edit- Burnham, Karen (2014). Greg Egan (Modern Masters of Science Fiction). Modern Masters of Science Fiction. University of Illinois Press (published 2014-04-03). ISBN 978-0252038419.
References
edit- ^ a b "Bibliography". 2024-04-09. Retrieved 2024-04-17.
- ^ a b "Summary Bibliography: Greg Egan". Retrieved 2024-04-19.
- ^ a b Burnham 14, p. 80/81
- ^ 〈COLUMN1 入れ替わりから見えてくる面白さ〉. 『君の名は。 公式ビジュアルガイド』 (in Japanese). Japan: 角川書店. August 27, 2016. p. 48. ISBN 978-4-04-104780-4.
- ^ "shinkaimakoto". Retrieved 2024-08-21.
- ^ Christensen, Thomas (2002-12-15). "Axiomatic". sfbook.com. Retrieved 2024-05-30.
- ^ "1991 Locus Poll Award". Science Fiction Awards Database. Retrieved 2024-04-09.
- ^ "Greg Egan Awards Summary". Science Fiction Awards Database. 2023-10-15. Retrieved 2024-04-09.
External links
edit- The Safe-Deposit Box title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database