Closing the Timelid
Encyclopedia
"Closing the Timelid" is a short story by Orson Scott Card
. It appears in his short story collections Unaccompanied Sonata and Other Stories
and Maps in a Mirror
.
Although the authorities' plan to build up a legal case against Orion so they can arrest and try him for his cruelty to the truck driver fails, their inside man Gemini successfully talks Orion into seeking the ultimate thrill: suicide with the machine turned off so that his death will truly be final. Thus, Orion's self-destructive impulses ironically serve the cause of justice as he quite willingly carries out a sentence of capital punishment on himself.
Orson Scott Card
Orson Scott Card is an American author, critic, public speaker, essayist, columnist, and political activist. He writes in several genres, but is primarily known for his science fiction. His novel Ender's Game and its sequel Speaker for the Dead both won Hugo and Nebula Awards, making Card the...
. It appears in his short story collections Unaccompanied Sonata and Other Stories
Unaccompanied Sonata and Other Stories
Unaccompanied Sonata and Other Stories is a collection of short stories by Orson Scott Card. Although not purely science fiction and definitely not hard science fiction, the book contains stories that have a futuristic angle or are purely works of fantasy set in current times...
and Maps in a Mirror
Maps in a Mirror
Maps in a Mirror is a collection of short stories by Orson Scott Card. Like Card's novels, most of the stories have a science fiction or fantasy theme...
.
Plot summary
In the future, time travel machines known as timelids exist, but are expensive devices and thus available only to corporations and wealthy people. One wealthy playboy, Orion, has discovered a way to get a powerful new thrill out of his timelid: since a safety device built into it ensures that the time traveler is always reassembled no matter what happens to him in the past, one can experience the excitements of death without actually dying by traveling to the past and committing suicide. Much to the chagrin of the temporal enforcement authorities, Orion has gathered together a band of his fellow thrill-seekers to try out this amazing new source of amusement, and they are tormenting a trucker fated to die by throwing themselves in his path to commit their suicides.Although the authorities' plan to build up a legal case against Orion so they can arrest and try him for his cruelty to the truck driver fails, their inside man Gemini successfully talks Orion into seeking the ultimate thrill: suicide with the machine turned off so that his death will truly be final. Thus, Orion's self-destructive impulses ironically serve the cause of justice as he quite willingly carries out a sentence of capital punishment on himself.