Not with a Bang (short story)

"Not with a Bang"
Short story by Damon Knight
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Science fiction
Publication
Published in	The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction
Publication type	Periodical
Publisher	Mercury Press
Media type	Print (Magazine, Hardback & Paperback)
Publication date	Winter 1949

This article is about the short story by Damon Knight. For the British TV show, see Not with a Bang.

"Not with a Bang" is a science fiction short story by American writer Damon Knight. It first appeared in the winter 1949 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and has been reprinted a number of times, including in Far Out (1961), The Best of Damon Knight (1976), 50 Short Science Fiction Tales, and The Eureka Years (1982).[1]

Synopsis

The story is an ironic, Adam-and-Eve tale. Humanity has been wiped out by a nuclear war, except for one man and woman, who meet in a restaurant in Salt Lake City. The man suffers from a disease that causes recurrent episodes of total paralysis. While in the bathroom, he has an attack, and dies with the realization that the woman is too prudish to enter and save him.

Background

Knight has written[2] that this was the first of his stories that he considered to be of professional quality. He said that the idea for the story

came to me during the time it took for a men's-room door to close behind me in a Swedish restaurant in New York. I didn't have the characters or the setting, but I had the whole structure; all I needed was to find parts that fit.

References

1. Index to Science Fiction Anthologies and Collections
2. Knight, Damon (1981). Creating Short Fiction. Cincinnati: Writer's Digest Books. ISBN 0-89879-042-5.

External links

• Not with a Bang title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database