Searching for book/story, read in 70s, about a man in a dizzying alien world that made him so nauseous he couldn't open his eyes

[kvmoomoo]

Story was about a man who found himself (I can't remember how) in an alien world that didn't follow our earthly laws of physics/gravity... the streets/buildings were laid out in a foreign way (like an MC Escher painting) -- streets and buildings going every which way... just opening his eyes to look at the place would make him dizzy and nauseous... he had to keep his eyes closed (or maybe he slowly got used to this new world so he could keep his eyes open?)... he was trying to accomplish something, maybe finding someone or just getting back home... The description of this nausea-inducing world layout was so evocative it has stayed with me for decades.

 

[Danny McG]

I was like that last Sunday morning, plus a strange headache and a taste of stale whisky in my mouth

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

Just a thought but the Princes in Amber or one of the sequels by Zelazny? I don't recall this exact situation, but there are plenty of bits in the books like it.

Cheers, Greg.

 

[hitmouse]

A Mission of Gravity by Hal Clement?

 

[Ravensquawk]

This elicited wispy tendrils of faint memory for "The Subways of Tazoo" by Colin Kapp.

People - as in, you know, people from Earth (every tribe's name for itself means "the people", didn't you know?) finds not just an alien subway, but an alien alien subway.

We're not talking Star Trek races of people with different noses or dots on their faces. Riding, and even seeing, this subway is unsuitable for human physiology.

As much as I would like to offer more detail, a few decades after reading it bring only that 'one look told him more about Tazoön physiology than he ever wanted to know'.

It is is several anthologies; time to find it again.

 

[kvmoomoo]

"unsuitable for human physiology" -- this! That's not the book, but this description fits the alien world in my story perfectly.
**********************

This elicited wispy tendrils of faint memory for "The Subways of Tazoo" by Colin Kapp.

People - as in, you know, people from Earth (every tribe's name for itself means "the people", didn't you know?) finds not just an alien subway, but an alien alien subway.

We're not talking Star Trek races of people with different noses or dots on their faces. Riding, and even seeing, this subway is unsuitable for human physiology.

As much as I would like to offer more detail, a few decades after reading it bring only that 'one look told him more about Tazoön physiology than he ever wanted to know'.

It is is several anthologies; time to find it again.

 

[kvmoomoo]

Not the one, but thanks for your reply

A Mission of Gravity by Hal Clement?

 

[kvmoomoo]

Not the one, but thanks for your reply

Hi,

Just a thought but the Princes in Amber or one of the sequels by Zelazny? I don't recall this exact situation, but there are plenty of bits in the books like it.

Cheers, Greg.

 

[PaulMmn]

This elicited wispy tendrils of faint memory for "The Subways of Tazoo" by Colin Kapp.

People - as in, you know, people from Earth (every tribe's name for itself means "the people", didn't you know?) finds not just an alien subway, but an alien alien subway.

We're not talking Star Trek races of people with different noses or dots on their faces. Riding, and even seeing, this subway is unsuitable for human physiology.

As much as I would like to offer more detail, a few decades after reading it bring only that 'one look told him more about Tazoön physiology than he ever wanted to know'.

It is is several anthologies; time to find it again.

Available as a Kindle edition... "The Unorthodox Engineers" by Colin Kapp.

 

[J Riff]

was it CAS..?

 

[kvmoomoo]

was it CAS..?

Hmm, I googled CAS but can't find anything...?

 

[Dave]

Hmm, I googled CAS but can't find anything...?

@kvmoomoo That's Clark Ashton Smith if you are still looking. It might have been many of his short stories, but possibly, "The Invisible City"

The Invisible City, by Clark Ashton Smith

How many more invisibility stories in science fiction and horror can I find? I’m not even close to being done! In the meantime, remember that my book on the history and science of invisibilit…

skullsinthestars.com

 

[Orcadian]

Story was about a man who found himself (I can't remember how) in an alien world that didn't follow our earthly laws of physics/gravity... the streets/buildings were laid out in a foreign way (like an MC Escher painting) -- streets and buildings going every which way... just opening his eyes to look at the place would make him dizzy and nauseous... he had to keep his eyes closed (or maybe he slowly got used to this new world so he could keep his eyes open?)... he was trying to accomplish something, maybe finding someone or just getting back home... The description of this nausea-inducing world layout was so evocative it has stayed with me for decades.

Right away this made me think of The Universe Between (Nourse). The description of the geometry and of what it feels like to try and move around in this other place is so vivid and disorientating - exactly as kvmoomoo describes. Most people cannot handle the 'universe between' (I think they go mad) but one woman can just about manage it, and she takes her child there when he is very young. He thus grows up feeling as comfortable and at home there as he is in 'our' universe. Being able to move about in this other universe does give people a kind of teleportation ability, because the strange geometry lets you emerge somewhere else - possibly far away.