(Found) Sci-fi story about tunnel in wall that leads to the original entry point

[Sonny Z.]

Greetings! I'm new and registered to find a story which is so hard to find, no one has been able to help, and intense Google searches have only given me a handful of stories that are not the one I'm looking for (I posted them below, to avoid confusion). I posted this on Yahoo Answers and SciFi Stack Exchange with no results.

I'm looking for the name of a short sci-fi story about a town located near a massive, seemingly endless wall. The planet was assumed to be some other planet, it wasn't Earth. When the inhabitants find a hole in the wall, they send a man in to investigate what's on the other side. When the man reaches the other side, he's flabbergasted at finding out he's come out of the original entry point, being greeted by the same townsfolk he left behind, who are asking him what he saw (thinking he had a look already and returned to tell them what's on the other side).

One additional detail I remember is that at one point, when the protagonist is going through the tunnel in the wall, he sees the light at the point where he entered moving farther away the more he advanced, beginning to see light at the opposite direction up ahead (meaning he simultaneously could see both entrance and exit at one point, so it wasn't like he only saw just one exit/entry point at a given time). But when he reached the end, it was the same entry point where he had waved goodbye to the townsfolk. The story didn't include intricate plot points of any sort, only a town surrounded by this immense wall, a man entering through a newly-discovered crack/crevice/hole in the wall, going through a tunnel-like passageway, then exiting the same way he came, being asked by the townsfolk (who think he returned) what he saw, much to his shock.

The story was similar to Clarke's "The Wall of Darkness," J.G. Ballard's "The Concentration City" or Theodore Sturgeon's "What Dead Men Tell," in that the protagonist discovers that, if one kept traveling forward, one finally ended back in the same place (Wormhole/Möbius Strip/Space-time distortion kind of phenomenon, perhaps).

It is also similar to "The Wall Around the World" by Theodore R. Cogswell and "On" by Adam Roberts, in that there's a society surrounded by a massive wall, who ignore what's on the other side and are curious to find out. I believe the story I'm looking for also establishes that this society simply doesn't now what's on the other side of the wall, and don't care until they discover some kind of tunnel in the wall.

It was probably much shorter than a typical short story, perhaps only half as long, four pages maybe. It wasn't a full-blown novel or even novelette, and I really cannot emphasize this enough (people keep insisting!): no matter how similar they are, it really wasn't "The Wall of Darkness" by Clarke.

These stories contain similar elements to the one I'm looking for, they're the ones I've come across in my searches or what comes to people's minds when I mention the plot of this story:

"The Wall of Darkness" by Arthur C. Clarke.
"The Concentration City" by J.G. Ballard.
"What Dead Men Tell" by Theodore Sturgeon.
"The Wall Around the World" by Theodore R. Cogswell.
"The Tunnel Under the World" by Frederik Pohl.
"The Tunnel in the Sky" by Robert Heinlein.
"The Long Wall/Settler's Wall" by W. O. Morley (R. A. W. Lowndes).
"The Pen and the Dark" by Colin Kapp.
"The People on the Precipice" by Ian Watson.
"On" by Adam Roberts.
"Escapement" (Clockwork Earth #2) by Jay Lake.
"Stone and Sky" (The Stone Trilogy #1) by Graham Edwards.
"Kingdoms of the Wall" by Robert Silverberg.
"Stardust" by Neil Gaiman.
"The Tunnel Ahead" by Alice Glasser.
"The Wall at the Edge of the World" by Jim Aikin.

These don't have similar plot elements, but the titles can be misleading, listed here for clarification:

"The Crack in the Wall" by Walter Jarvis.
"The Great Wall" by Wayne Wightman.
"The Other Side of the Wall" by Stanley Ellin.

I read the story probably in the early 1990s, probably 1989 even, it had to be some anthology with very short stories, probably published originally in either the 1960s or the 1970s, but the story itself seemed like it could have been perhaps originally from the 1940s or 1950s. Most assuredly, the story was first published in some kind of sci-fi magazine like "Astounding" or "The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction" (some of the stories I'd forgotten and found were published originally on these magazines).

Sorry for the fuzzy details, but I really cannot provide more information than this! If I remember something I'll make sure to update it.

Appreciate the help and thanks in advance! If anything, I hope at least this post was helpful to those looking for stories with this kind of premise.

 

[Ravensquawk]

Wow.
That helped, as "Wall of Darkness" immediately started battering my mind.
That kind of list of what it's not helps a lot.
Besides, no one who reads "Wall of Darkness" ever forgets it.

 

[PaulMmn]

"Tunnel in the Sky" by Robert A Heinlein does NOT belong on a list with mobius walls! The 'tunnel' Heinlein uses is a teleportation technology that lets mankind move to other planets without traveling the distance between here and there.

Main story line was a group of students who were taking a survival course. The final exam was a 2-week (?) stay on a relatively unexplored planet. Each student was dropped off within a hikeable distance from the others; they were to travel to a central location (?beacon to find?) for pickup. However, nearby stellar activity wreaks havoc with the teleportation technology, and the students are trapped on the planet for a couple of years, until the interference calms down enough for transport to be possible.

 

[Sonny Z.]

"Tunnel in the Sky" by Robert A Heinlein does NOT belong on a list with mobius walls! The 'tunnel' Heinlein uses is a teleportation technology that lets mankind move to other planets without traveling the distance between here and there.

Main story line was a group of students who were taking a survival course. The final exam was a 2-week (?) stay on a relatively unexplored planet. Each student was dropped off within a hikeable distance from the others; they were to travel to a central location (?beacon to find?) for pickup. However, nearby stellar activity wreaks havoc with the teleportation technology, and the students are trapped on the planet for a couple of years, until the interference calms down enough for transport to be possible.

Hey there! I should have clarified that again when I made the list, sorry. The list is either of stories that have similar premises, keep popping up in my searches or people (for some reason) think of when I mention the story, even if it's got nothing to do with the one I'm looking for at all. It's just to clarify and mention all the ones I've come across, be them related or not. "The Tunnel in the Sky," despite as you said, not having anything to do at all with the story premise-wise, just keeps popping up when I look for it in Google. Others are listed there because of the similarities in their titles, which can create confusion, so I listed them there to say, this is kind of what I've come across so far.

 

[PaulMmn]

Hey there! I should have clarified that again when I made the list, sorry. The list is either of stories that have similar premises, keep popping up in my searches or people (for some reason) think of when I mention the story, even if it's got nothing to do with the one I'm looking for at all. It's just to clarify and mention all the ones I've come across, be them related or not. "The Tunnel in the Sky," despite as you said, not having anything to do at all with the story premise-wise, just keeps popping up when I look for it in Google. Others are listed there because of the similarities in their titles, which can create confusion, so I listed them there to say, this is kind of what I've come across so far.

If that's the case, I'm surprised that the novel "A Transatlantic Tunnel-- Hurrah!" (by Harry Harrison) hasn't appeared in your searches!

 

[Sonny Z.]

If that's the case, I'm surprised that the novel "A Transatlantic Tunnel-- Hurrah!" (by Harry Harrison) hasn't appeared in your searches!

No, I haven't come across that one! I'm losing faith in ever finding this story, though. It seems completely elusive and the hardest one to find I've come across. I cannot provide any more details than the ones I've already provided and it doesn't seem anyone I ask has ever read it. It definitely made it to a compilation of short stories, so it must have been somewhat relevant in order to make the cut, but it really doesn't seem anyone knows it.

 

[Sonny Z.]

Hello everyone, after much researching and nearly driving myself insane with this story search, I have come to the conclusion that it must have been "The Wall of Darkness" by Clarke. All the details coincide, except for the tunnel/crack in the wall, and the townsfolk asking him at the end what he saw. Perhaps, I have mixed stories, and my fading memory didn't help. For now, I am placing "The Wall of Darkness" as the correct answer, since it's the story that most resembles mine and I have found absolutely no trace of the other one, which should've probably popped up by now. Many thanks to all who answered and considered this. Should I by some crazy chance ever happen to find one similar to the one I described initially, I shall post it as an update. Many thanks to everyone who's answered!

 

[otistdog]

I know that this has been marked "Found," but you seem fairly uncertain that the correct story has been identified. I have to say that I'm quite curious what other story it might be. One thing I've learned in prowling story ID questions is that fairly often there are two stories that are very similar in plot and details -- and only one of them is the famous one that everyone knows.

It's also the case that memory can play tricks on one, especially if it was a striking story that one spent some time thinking about. One's imagination can come up with various "what if it was this way..." scenarios, and these can get shuffled in with the real memories.

You've said that you really can't remember any other details, yet when you read "Wall of Darkness" you rejected it as the right story. Can you explain why you rejected that story initially? Was it that it just didn't quite seem right, or was it that there were details which definitely seemed wrong? It's pretty rare that a re-reading of the correct story doesn't produce that sense of recognition over many small details that are present but which have been forgotten; recognition is much easier than recall.

If you are still unsure that the story is correct, I would suggest that you start from the beginning and lay out the story that you thought you were looking for in as much detail as you can. It's OK to present half-remembered or uncertain details, just label them as such. The smallest detail may be the trigger for someone else's memory about the story. Here are some questions that might prompt some additional recall:


1. What can you say about the town where the story takes place. What was the approximate population? Was it near other towns, or was it isolated? Was its name mentioned? If so, can you recall anything about it (e.g. long or short, starting letter, words that it rhymed with, whether it sounded made up or real, etc.)? Was it part of a country or more of a city-state?

2. Can you say anything about the people, culture, government or technology of the town? Did the technology seem medieval, similar to present day, futuristic, or fantastical? Did the townsfolk have a style of dress or speech that was distinctive? Any sayings or blessings that stood out? Were there any characters other than the protagonist that were developed even a little, or were other people just a nameless background crowd?

3. You say that the town is "located near a massive, seemingly endless wall." What can you say about the wall? Is it solid stone, brick, masonry, or some unknown material? Can you say anything about the color or texture? How tall was it? Was there any legend or myth about its origin, or was it simply ignored as an omnipresent fact of life from the dawn of history? What was the terrain around the town like aside from the wall, e.g. plains, forests, hills?

4. Was there any clue as to the town's economy? Was it based on farming, mining, production of goods, trading, or something else? What did the main character do for a living?

5. It sounds as though the inciting incident of the story is the discovery of a crack in the wall. Was there any causal prelude to this, such as an earthquake or accident? Can you say anything about the manner in which the the crack was discovered, or the location at which it was discovered? Was this the first time that any crack had ever been discovered? How large was the crack? Did it have any distinctive shape or features? Was it largely vertical? Was it wide enough to walk through, or did the protagonist have to wriggle or crawl through tight spots?

6. Was the protagonist's journey some sort of officially-sanctioned event, or was it simply that the main character was the first to try to enter? Was any kind of instruction given to the protagonist by others? Any equipment? If the exploration was official, how was it that the main character was selected over other candidates?

7. You say that it was in a collection of very short stories. Can you recall any other story that might have been in the same collection? Have you tried looking at anthologies that include well-known short shorts such as Fredric Brown's "Answer" or others?

8. Can you say anything about the name of the author? Was it one that was new to you or a name that you recognized? A man's name or a woman's? Any clue as to the origin of the name (e.g. "seemed Polish"), letters in it, length of it, whether it rhymed with anything or reminded you of anything, whether a full first name or just initial was used, etc.?


None of the above may amount to anything, but I hope that it helps. I will say this: The image that you have given of the protagonist being able to see both sides at once seems like something that I've seen before... but it may only be that I'm remembering your question from another context. (Though I believe I have read a collection of very short short stories at some point.)

 

[Sonny Z.]

Thank you so much for your reply! You really thought out every detail you could inquire about!

I'm going to sum everything up in two points, what made me at first discard and then reconsider the "The Wall of Darkness" as the story I was looking for:

-What made me discard it initially: the thought that, unlike "The Wall of Darkness", the wall was like a regular stone or brick wall with a crack or hole where the protagonist crawls into. Like in Clarke's story, the wall had always been there, and people grew to simply ignore it and live with it. Then, I recall the townspeople gathering round this newly-found crack/hole in the wall. I can't really say which technological level the townspeople were at as a civilization, but I would say similar to the technology depicted in "The Wall of Darkness". I remember it being a very small civilization too, a small town, perhaps, in a barren, desolate planet. I also remember the story as being extremely short, perhaps two pages long, in the same length, mood and style as "Ado About Nothing" by Robert K. Ottum, while Clarke's story is brainier and longer, and has almost like a fantasy vibe to its prose. Lastly, the immediate thought that, if my story had indeed been penned by a heavyweight like Clarke, I would've remembered. Tough one to forget about, given I am a huge fan of Rama and many of his other most famous tales. That detail also kills me, since I couldn't even remember the author's name, so I'm guessing it wouldn't be that well-known. And I have a hard time believing such a similar tale to Clarke's would've been published in a sci-fi "best of" anthology or even magazine.

-What made me reconsider it later: having re-read it recently, I noticed how similar the moment is when the protagonist scales the wall up to the top and starts walking, and notices the sun fading away behind him as he goes forward, with pure darkness looming ahead. That's my exact recollection of the story I was looking for (maybe my mind made up it was a tunnel because of the darkness?). Except, of course, that I have this mental image of the protagonist knowing there was a different side he was coming out of because of seeing light at both ends of the tunnel at one point (I was amazed to notice in my re-read of "The Wall of Darkness" that there is an extremely similar moment to this, but with the two suns, so that might be it). Then, I do remember something like seeing his dumbfounded friend right on the other side. Except, in my memory, it was the townspeople he had just waved goodbye to, who asked him what he saw once he crawled out of the tunnel in the wall, thinking he'd gone over to the other side but returned to inform. Another detail that made me reconsider was the memory of the story being set on a faraway alien planet (not Earth) which however felt very human, and somewhat primitive (definitely not 20th century tech, like cranes, planes or helicopters to reach the other side of the wall).

As for your other questions, I am very sorry but I have provided all the details I could already; I remember no author name's, no collections, not a prelude to the discovery of the crack in the wall, town's economy, no travel preparation, not a single thing aside from the details I already provided.

Conclusions: even if I hadn't mixed up the plots of these stories, and there was indeed a very similar story to "The Wall of Darkness" only much shorter and with slight alterations, wouldn't the story I'm looking for seem almost like plagiarism? Because it really sounds so similar! That's also what convinced me of having mixed up several stories into one in my head. Because of the details I re-read in "The Wall of Darkness", I made myself remember these impressions and it is very highly probable I read about a story about a tunnel and then transplanted certain details of "The Wall of Darkness" to it. But, indeed, there could be hope for this elusive story to exist after all! Who knows? I myself think that, after my very exhaustive search, it really would've popped up by now somewhere if it existed, just like I managed to track down all the other ones I remembered and had forgotten everything but the plot. But this one is like a ghost.

So, my ultimate conclusion has been that the story I was after is indeed "The Wall of Darkness", with my memory playing tricks on me and making me remember details from another tale. So, it's either convincing myself of that or truly going insane, like the people who see the other side of the wall in Clarke's story!

Thanks again for your interest!

 

[Sonny Z.]

Hey guys! It's been a long time coming, but I seemed to have found the story after all!!!

I may have indeed taken elements from "The Wall of Darkness" and other stories and mixed them up. But the story I was actually looking for was "The Long Wall" by Wilfred Owen Morley (Robert A. W. Lowndes) all along!! I initially listed it above as not being it, but I recently re-read it and was so surprised to find it actually was, all the details were there. The story was published in "Stirring Science Stories - March 1942".

You can read the story in the original publication here:

Stirring Science Stories v02n01 (1942 03) : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Stirring Science Stories v02n01 (1942 03)

archive.org

Or read just the story online here:

Stirring Science Stories/March 1942/The Long Wall - Wikisource, the free online library

en.m.wikisource.org

This is the line I remembered regarding the light source, which was similar to "The Wall of Darkness":

"The only thing he would tell them was that he dropped the flashlight and it went out, but the light kept on going. He could see the shaft of light from the extinguished flash drifting slowly away into the unending blackness, a shaft of it etched against utter black."

And also this one: "And sometimes he awakes in a cold sweat, gasping about a shaft of light drifting away into utter blackness, drifting away from its source: an extinguished handlamp."

This light source moment, when the protagonist realizes there is some spatial anomaly phenomena at work, is similar to "The Wall of Darkness" too.

Same applies to the characters being baffled when they go opposite ways from their starting point in the wall, but end up meeting each other again as if they had gone in a circle.

Another detail I would like to add is that I may have also read other stories about endless walls in a more fantasy/medieval type of setting, since I actually started to remember the townspeople being medieval, not alien or contemporary human civilizations, definitely not from contemporary Maine. So maybe I also mixed it up with stories like "The People on the Precipice" by Ian Waston? Or "The Wall Around the World" by Theodore Cogswell, even.

Regardless, I'm very positive this is the explanation; this story, along with other stories I might've read, formed a nebulous memory and I amalgamated them all into one single story. But this one looks like it's pretty much it: features a wall that's always been there but people have learned not to question; baffled protagonists trying to solve the mystery; a hole in the wall the protagonist goes into with a light source; and the protagonist emerging from the same way he went in, to everyone's bewilderment.

I'm so glad I finally found this story, which was driving me insane! Once again, thanks to everyone who replied and took the time and effort to research this as well! Hope y'all enjoy the story!

 

[otistdog]

Thank you very much for reporting back with your find. I'm sure that future searchers will appreciate it.

Thank you also for providing a link to the story. "The Long Wall" is new to me, and I'm looking forward to reading it.

 

[Ravensquawk]

But the story I was actually looking for was "The Long Wall" by Wilfred Owen Morley (Robert A. W. Lowndes) all along!! I initially listed it above as not being it, but I recently re-read it and was so surprised to find it actually was, all the details were there. The story was published in "Stirring Science Stories - March 1942".

I read this story because of your (question and) answer!

Thank you!