Short Science Fiction Story Review Connie Willis Inside Job

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Spoiler alerts – 2005 – Time Is The Fire A very clever story about a sceptical debunker of spiritualism faced with a fake medium who appears to be possessed by a real sceptic of yesteryear, H L Menken. Robert, a journalist and leading expert in exposing fake spiritualists, learns of a channeller called Ariaura, and goes to see her latest show. Ariaura usually claims to be in contact with the Goddess Isis but she suddenly starts speaking as Menken, debunking herself as a charlatan. This loses the channeller a fortune. It also presents Robert with a big dilemma. If Menken’s ghost is real, then Ariana is really channelling him, but even he says she is a fake. If he isn’t a real ghost, why is Ariaura discrediting herself so spectacularly? Why would a pirit from beyond our reality claim there are no spirits beyond our World? Proving the Menken ghost real could undermine scepticism, despite Menken defending scepticism. Menken really existed. He was an important participant in the famous Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925 when a teacher was put on trial for teaching Darwinian theories of Evolution in a school that outlawed such teaching. The trial was the basis for the movie Inherit The Wind. Though Willis is clearly in favour of the sceptics here, the dilemma is purposely left open ended. Arthur Chappell