Author Notes to

The Idea Trap

 

This story also deals with virtual reality, but at a distance. “Quite extraordinary,” wrote James Morrow. “I felt as if I were imprisoned in a surrealist painting.” Amy Thomson, writing in Locus, described it as “A powerful metaphorical tale about a tribe of people who live by trapping and eating the ideas that come from the city of dreams. One of the most exciting stories I’ve read in a long time. My favorite story of the year, a richly metaphorical work dealing with a culture that lives off the byproducts of dreams. This allegory is simply told but contains many complex levels of meaning.”

Writing in the Polish science fiction magazine Nowa Fantastyka, Dorota Malinowska noted that “The Idea Trap” is “not only an original conception of a different reality, but also a parallel to the situation of the writer in society. Zebrowski’s creativity reveals a deep authorial sensitivity. He is able to present even difficult situations with a large dose of poetry. His prose is intelligent, often perverse, always interesting. Common to all his work is a search for difficult, new, and original themes.”

The late great editor Terry Carr encouraged and championed this story for his Universe anthology series when other editors turned it away. In 1986, “The Idea Trap” was nominated for the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for short fiction, listed on the Nebula Award preliminary ballot, made the Locus Recommended Reading List, and in 1987, received an Honorable Mention in Terry Carr’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year 16. Gregory Benford wrote me a letter calling it “Delightful. The best story of the year.”

Observant readers may notice that I have a secret repertory company consisting of the characters Felix, Bruno, and June, and one or more of them play very different characters in “The Word Sweep,” “This Life and Later Ones,” “Gödel’s Doom,” “The Idea Trap,” and in “Shrinkers & Movers.” They may also be hiding in stories I can’t recall at the moment. I do not know what they are like outside of their roles, but I do know that they may turn up at any time in future stories.