Light Of Other Days [short story]

Leaving the village behind, we followed the heady sweeps of the road up into a land of slow glass. [...] On our right the mountain sifted down into an incredibly perfect valley of timeless pine, and everywhere stood the great frames of slow glass, drinking light. An occasional flash of afternoon sunlight on their wind bracing created an illusion of movement, but in fact the frames were deserted. The rows of windows had been standing on the hillside for years, staring into the valley, and men only cleaned them in the middle of the night when their human presence would not matter to the thirsty glass.

An August 1966 story (Analog) featuring technological innovation almost as MacGuffin: the emphasis of the story rests on the emotional show more fall-out from using slow glass, rather than a genre-typical focus on the immediate application or discovery of it. Too often in stories I've read from this era the focus rests squarely on the weaponization or power-aggregating potential for technology, and while there are no lack of such applications for slow glass, they are less interesting than innovations for lighting cities at night or as slow-reveal videos of loved ones.

There are at least two other slow glass stories, each written after this first story, the three collected in a fix-up (1972's Other Days, Other Eyes). Worth looking out for in used bookshops but probably won't seek it out specifically. show less