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"I am first of all not a science fiction writer … I write, I suppose, what the Latin Americans call magic realism."
- Harlan Ellison
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| Dropshaft | ||
| An elevator shaft with no elevator - the "lift" is from gravity or suppressed inertia. |
As far as I know, the first use of this term, although the idea had been sketched out earlier (see below).
| The Pyrotic let the dropshaft lower him, and he found the lifescoot some time later. |
| Technovelgy from Deeper Than the Darkness,
by Harlan Ellison. Published by Infinity Science Fiction in 1957 Additional resources -
|
See the entry for drop shaft from Galactic Patrol (1937) by Doc Smith. Smith has all the words, but doesn't create the phrase.
Compare to bounce tube from Robert Heinlein's 1956 juvenile Double Star.
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'There was nowhere on the planet where science and technology could not provide one with a comfortable home...'
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'...a misshapen, many-tentacled thing about twice the size of a man.'
'He was in a high-ceilinged windowless cell with walls of glittering white porcelain.'
