Re: YASID: mechanical telepathy, catatonia, Colt 1911


<dsr@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:5aced3-8dm.ln1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I'm looking for author and title to a short story, almost certainly
collected in an anthology like the Orbit series or Galaxy or...
something like that.

The protagonist, at about 10 or 12, is plagued by nightmares. His father
takes him out to the back yard, shows him how to load and fire a Colt,
and impresses him with the size of the hole it blows in the target.
"Whenever you have a bad dream," he says, "remember that you have this
gun. It can kill anything." Nightmares end.

Some number of years later, the protagonist is asked to participate in
a psychiatric experiment. A machine places him in sync with a catatonic
victim's dreams, which feature really nasty things. The protagonist
remembers the gun and brings it out, blowing away said nasty things. The
patient is cured; all ends reasonably well.

Probable publication is between 1950 and 1980; most likely in the 1960s,
I think.

Anyone remember this?

Yes, and I agree it was anthologized, probably several times. But I don't
recall title or author.

-dsr-


--
What's the best thing you could be doing right now? Why aren't you?


.

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  • Re: YASID: mechanical telepathy, catatonia, Colt 1911
    ... collected in an anthology like the Orbit series or Galaxy or... ... The protagonist, at about 10 or 12, is plagued by nightmares. ... Ooo, I remember it too, but likewise can't recall the title. ... the name of the gun was "Billy". ...
    (rec.arts.sf.written)