Procurando por um conto sobre um homem comendo um sanduíche que calmamente reage a um alienígena
"Assim refuto" , uma pequena história curta por 100 Grandes Histórias Curtas de Grande Fantasia ( Isaac Asimov , Terry Carr , e Martin H. Greenberg , eds.), a menos que você leia a publicação original em Fantástico , abril de 1972 , que está disponível no Internet Archive (clique aqui para opções de download). O título aparentemente alude ao incidente famoso no qual Samuel Johnson " refutou "a filosofia do Bispo Berkeley de idealismo subjetivo ao chutar uma pedra.
É sobre um homem sentado em seu quarto lendo um livro enquanto come um sanduíche, quando um ser de outra dimensão se materializa na frente dele e o envolve em uma conversa.
"I don't believe you'd understand my method of arrival," the stranger said.
"Try me," said Broderick. Three nostrils?
The stranger sighed. "I'm from an alternate time stream, and I arrived by means of a temporal translator. Does that mean anything to you?"
"Not a lot," said Broderick. He marked his place and set down his book on a ledge of the bookcase, next to a small dish with half a cheese sandwich in it. "Are you a building inspector or something?" He decided the nostrils were a birth defect. Weird, though.
Não consigo lembrar o que eles discutem, mas o humor da história é que o homem devorador de sanduíche mal reage à aparição repentina desse alienígena,
Broderick finished the sandwich and wiped his lips with a paper napkin. "Mr. Omo, you may think you're being funny, but as you saw, I was reading when you came in, and I want to finish the book tonight. If you're not a building inspector or somebody I have to tolerate in my apartment, I'll thank you to leave. Go make jokes with somebody else."
e (tanto quanto me lembro) calmamente prova que não pode existir.
"Have you ever heard of Bishop Berkeley?" Broderick asked suddenly. He leaned forward again, elbows on knees.
Yaddeth Omo said guardedly: "No."
"I thought not, so I'll tell you about him. He said reality is only what we perceive. For instance, if a tree were to fall in a forest where there was no one around to hear it, would it make a crash when it hit? No, of course not; it's meaningless to say it would. Do you understand?"
[. . . .]
"It's a simple test—I snap my fingers, I wake up, and you're gone. Very pragmatic test. Shall I?"
"No!" said Yaddeth Omo, backing away.
"I think I will," said Broderick. "If you're afraid, you'd better leave now, before you get stuck in a world where you don't exist. Go back to your own world, if it exists for you, and stay there." He held up his hand, finger against thumb.
"Stop!"
Broderick snapped his fingers.
Eventualmente a criatura desaparece sob a força do argumento do homem e ele volta ao seu livro.
Yaddeth Omo disappeared, and a split second later Broderick's ears popped.
He smiled, and went into the kitchen to fix himself another cheese sandwich. As he got out the bread he wondered what the future of this time stream might have been if he'd been more of a fan of Sacher–Masoch. But that, of course, was idle speculation.