Blish,James – And all the Stars a Stage

happened at all.

Oh, there had been the usual wars, the usual pestilences, the usual

migrations, the usual births and declines of nations, but the details of

daily life for the

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ordinary human being hardly changed from age to age. The industrial

revolution, of course, overturned all that; in the short course of slightly

more than a century, the average citizen of the wealthier countries found

himself in possession of riches beyond even the dreams of kings of any

earlier time; but even that great event was dwarfed by the supernova. In

fact, if Jorn remembered correctly, the industrial revolution had been still

in progress when the star exploded, though bow far along it had progressed

he could not be sure-his historical daydreams being more than a little

impeded by the fact that history had always been his weakest subject; the

might-have-beens kept getting mixed up with the facts.

In any event, when that mighty star rose in the night, everything was

changed. For a week it grew brighter and brighter, until it far outshone

any other object in the sky but the sun. At the peak of its 55-day life, it

was clearly visible in the daytime, a spearpoint of light too intense to be

looked at directly. At night, it cast distinct shadows and indeed was more

than bright enough to read by, so that for a little while the night as

everyone had known it in all the centuries before was effectively

abolished.

Thereafter it waned, slowly. It was still there, and could still be seen by

the naked eye if one knew where to look: a dim, ghostly blob of light, like