Vindication 23 years later

The Internet is quite the tool for vindication, even if it comes decades later.

This week, science fiction author Fred Saberhagen died. This reminded me of an incident from 1984. I can be quite certain of the year, because of the place I was working at the time.

I shared an office with a guy who was reasonably well read in science fiction, as was I at that time. I mentioned to him that, although I had never read Saberhagen, I had been surprised while browsing in a bookstore to find that he had a novel which seemed to have references to Queensland.

My office friend managed to convince me that I must have imagined it. The memory (from probably a couple of years before this conversation) was vague. I think I actually said that my recollection was so vague, that maybe I had dreamt it.

However, a quick Google now reveals that one of Saberhagen's books has this plot:

The berserkers have chosen to focus their latest attack upon one individual. Their target, King Ay of Queensland.

Yes, well, maybe it has nothing to do with Queensland the Australian State, but finally there is proof that I did not completely imagine the connection.

If, in the afterlife, there is a super Google that lets you review the equivalent of Youtube clips of arguments had years ago, perhaps some souls spend years just watching it and keeping score of how many times they are vindicated. (Maybe that is why tests involving souls communicating secret messages back through mediums are usually failures.) Anyway, I can imagine that sort of afterlife activity keeping Paul Keating going for decades.