• Welcome to BookAndReader!

    We LOVE books and hope you'll join us in sharing your favorites and experiences along with your love of reading with our community. Registering for our site is free and easy, just CLICK HERE!

    Already a member and forgot your password? Click here.

Earth/Lunatic Asylum

pontalba

pontalba

Well-Known Member
Many years ago, probably in the 1960's or so, I read a science fiction story whose premise was that the Earth was basically a dumping ground for the Galaxy's insane.

Thats all I remember about it. I am fairly sure it was a short story or a novella. If anyone remembers a name or author, I'd appreciate the input.
Thanks. :)
 
Sorry I don't know. I just wanted to check if it was non-fiction, I presume it must be.

let me know if you find it, sounds good.
 
jaybe said:
Sorry I don't know. I just wanted to check if it was non-fiction, I presume it must be.
Click to expand...

:confused: You mean fiction, right?

No, I don't know the book, but I'd like to know what the title is as well. Sounds like an interesting read.
 
This isn't a reference to Wonko the Sane, who decided the earth was mad and built an asylum to put it in, is it?
 
I know that in the Douglas Adams Hitchhiker books the planet earth is populated with half mad idiots so maybe you are thinking of that?
 
letterHead said:
This isn't a reference to Wonko the Sane, who decided the earth was mad and built an asylum to put it in, is it?
Click to expand...

No, the Earth was actually a literal dumping ground for everyone else's "certified insane". They were dropped off and told (basically) good luck to ya pal.

Wabbit wrote-- I know that in the Douglas Adams Hitchhiker books the planet earth is populated with half mad idiots so maybe you are thinking of that?
Click to expand...

I have that book, the five in one version, and thats not it either.
/sigh/ I wish I could remember more about it.

Thanks for the above suggestions though. :)
 
angerball said:
:confused: You mean fiction, right?

No, I don't know the book, but I'd like to know what the title is as well. Sounds like an interesting read.
Click to expand...

Just dying laughing at this--- regardless of whether it was intended to ask fiction or non-fiction... it still leaves open the suggestion of it being NON-fiction... aka reality.

Lol.... thanks for the laugh!
 
Well, lets put it like this...it purported to be fiction. :D

But lately, I've been wondering.............
 
YoooooHoooooooo!!!!

Thought I'd resurrect this thread, lotsa new people here, and I am still hoping to find the above Nut House story.

Help! :D
 
^The concept is a familiar one but no author or title comes to mind. Are there any other details, however vague, you can think of?
 
Thanks for responding eclair.

I have a vague rememberance of a green field, of one man struggling to survive on this new planet he'd been (wrongfully) dumped.

Struggling, perhaps, to meet up with some others that had been dumped, not for being insane, but being politically opposed to a regime on their home planet.

There were many that were insane that were exiled, but many exiles were politically motivated. I suppose the powers-that-were hoped the political ones would be slaughtered by the insane ones.

Hmmm, I guess I remembered more than I actually believed. :D
 
I thought I had made a breakthrough this afternoon: as I sat eating tuna on rye, Eric Frank Russell popped into my mind. At a Science Fiction exhibition at the British Library last year, there had been a book which was described as being a cross between detective and science fiction.

According to the information card the central conceit involved a secret society claiming the earth was a hold for undesirables from other planets and the members of the society were themselves descendants of extra-terrestrials put in charge to sabotage space programs to make sure the insane ones did not escape. In one version the hero disproves it all and defeats the society but in a different version the society wins.

I was kicking myself all afternoon for not having remembered this immediately. Your further details, however, do not quite fit! It may well be back to square one, lol.
 
Is Dreadful Sanctuary the one you mean? The reader reviews are interesting, many preferring the original short story ending to the newer novel ending. Apparently he changed it.
Looks interesting eclair, thanks for the input. Even if it isn't the one I read years ago, it looks neat.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top