| Title | : | The Egg |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | ebook |
| Number of Pages | : | 3 |
| Publication | : | First published August 15, 2009 |
"You were on your way home when you died. It was a car accident. Nothing particularly remarkable, but fatal nonetheless. You left behind a wife and two children. It was a painless death. ... And that’s when you met me."
The Egg is a short story written by Andy Weir, his most popular, and follows a nameless 48-year-old man who discovers the "meaning of life" after he dies. The story is about "you" (in the second person), and God, who is "me" (in the first person). God says that you have been reincarnated many times before, and that you are soon to be reincarnated once more, leading to quite a few existential questions.
Andy Weir (1972-) built a career as a software engineer until the success of his first published novel,
The Martian (2011), allowed him to live out his dream of writing fulltime. He is a lifelong space nerd and a devoted hobbyist of subjects such as relativistic physics, orbital mechanics, and the history of manned spaceflight. He also mixes a mean cocktail.
The Egg Reviews
-
It’s a small world.
An extremely short story about the meaning of life, and death.
It's worth the 5 min, and it's free. You can read it
here.
Go wow yourselves.
Or not.
-----------------------------------------------
PERSONAL NOTE:
[2009] [3p] [Sci-Fi] [3.5] [Recommendable] [Mildly wowing] [“All religions are right in their own way”]
-----------------------------------------------
El mundo es un pañuelo.
Un extremadamente corto cuento sobre el significado de la vida, y la muerte.
Vale la pena los cinco minutos, y es gratis. Lo pueden leer
aquí.
Vayan y maravíllense.
O no.
-----------------------------------------------
NOTA PERSONAL:
[2009] [3p] [Sci-Fi] [3.5] [Recomendable] [Wow moderado] [“Todas las religiones están en lo cierto, a su manera”]
----------------------------------------------- -
Andy Weir..How did you do that to me in just 4 short pages?
Run go read it here:
http://www.galactanet.com/oneoff/thee... -
Was the inspiration for this story the Beatles, "I am the Walrus"?
"I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together
and the chorus,
I am the egg man, they are the egg men...
The whole story encapsulated in two lines!
____________________
Or, more sensibly: Does God exist? Does anyone exist? Is this short story really an example of metaphysical solipsism?
Read the story. It's 3 minutes of your life 1.5 if you are a fast reader!)....
Link (thanks Alina).
(Based on a philosophy of subjective idealism, metaphysical solipsists maintain that the self is the only existing reality and that all other realities, including the external world and other persons, are representations of that self, and have no independent existence. - Exactly like dreaming!) -
4 MIND BLOWING STARS!
You can find the full review and more about this book on my blog!
This 4 pages story got me like:
I never ever read spiritual books,but this one is hell awesome.And great great job to the author for creating a wonderful and deep story in 4 pages.This was so deep I could see Adele rolling:)
I will not write a lot about this book,because I am afraid that the review will be longer than the book.But seriously,if you want something to make you think more,read this,and you don't have to complain about it's length.It's only 4 pages!
I really recommend this book to all the people in the world,it's awesome:)
-
"You were on your way home when you died."
So this is a tiny short story by Andy Weir - yes, he of
The Martian fame, the book that still makes me feel all giddy inside. This is a story that apparently has gone viral, but I somehow missed it (apparently I do live under a rock - 14-16 hour workdays can do that to you) until I saw a friend's review and my curiosity peaked.
It's indeed a quick tiny story that you can read in under three minutes. It's a parable, really - and written in an easy catchy way that makes your fingers itch to send a link to someone you know.
You can take whatever message you want out of it, but to me it was - treat others as you'd want to be treated yourself, if for no other reason than a bit of selfishness. It's memorable, and feel-good and, if you think about it for a little while, has potential to be just a little disturbing.
And by now my review is almost as long as the story itself.
Read The Egg here:
http://www.galactanet.com/oneoff/thee..."And I sent you on your way."
3.5 stars
——————
Also posted on
my blog.
——————
Recommended by:
Cecily -
people seem really taken with this story. and that's super, but for once i don't feel bad for not liking something as much as other people are liking it.
i'm a jonathan carroll fan. and this 4-page story is fine, but it's really no different from some stoner youth's "hey, imaaaagine if this is the way (insert unknowable situation here) really is?" and there's a small amount of philosophy 101 back-and-forth and then it ends, and i assume you, the reader, are meant to be MIND = BLOWN!
but not me. because i have seen jonathan carroll take material like this and build entire universes upon it, while all the while also developing unusual and charming characters and their seductively clever dialogue. so this, to a lover of the jc, just feels unfinished. this is the foundation of a story, not a story in and of itself.
if this is your first of its kind - i understand the appeal.
but to me it's just a throat clear.
come to my blog! -
Egg, a short story about the universe.
Very short, and very powerful, packs a lot into a small package.
Like an egg.
Weir continues to impress. Same guy who wrote
The Martian, yep that's him.
I could not help thinking of the 1991 Albert Brooks film,
Defending Your Life.
This won't take 15 minutes to read, enjoy.
-
(Spoilers)
A cute short story (a 5-minute read) by the author of The Martian. You can read it for free on the web at
http://www.galactanet.com/oneoff/thee...
A man dies in a car crash, has a discussion with God, and learns that he will be reincarnated. I think of Yukio Mishima’s tetralogy, The Sea of Fertility, which is based on the premise of reincarnation.
So the value of this story is in making you think about this possibility. And if so, is that good news? The good news is you’re going to come back! The bad news is maybe you are coming back as a starving peasant in Ethiopia. Maybe you’ll go back in time? Who says time only goes forward? So, Do Unto Others…. because that might be YOU. Interesting.
Thanks to GR friend Cecily for finding this.
Image from bigpicturequestions.com -
Find all of my reviews at:
http://52bookminimum.blogspot.com/
A review told in giffery . . .
Soooooo everyone else read The Egg and were all like . . .
Then I read it and was all like . . .
Why is that?
What can I say? It’s 4 pages long and didn’t move me like it did everyone else. Shit happens.
For some reason I was thinking it was going to be something a little more like this . . .
Like I said, I'm an asshole.
All I can do is offer my sincerest heartfelt apology . . .
And remind all of you that this is only my opinion . . .
That's right. It is.
Oh, and one final thing in my defense. I strong-armed a poopton of people into reading
The Martian so F-off if you don’t think it’s okay that I don’t crap my drawers over this one. -
3.5*
This is a really short story and thought provoking. About life and death and the afterdeath.
Thanks to my friend Federico for providing the free link. I'm now inspired to read an Andy Weir full-length novel.
http://www.galactanet.com/oneoff/thee... -
Ah... the art of writing short stories... it takes a sharp pen. And this one story was written with a sharp pen. I read it first and then read it out aloud. It's good. It's short, to the point, amusing, fascinating, powerful in a nutshell... ehm... eggshell.
Yes, this is what a short story should be... for me. Enjoyed it. And I hope you enjoy it too! But what about .... that egg? Read it!
http://www.galactanet.com/oneoff/thee...
“What… what happened?” You asked. “Where am I?”
“You died,” I said, matter-of-factly. No point in mincing words.
“There was a… a truck and it was skidding…”
“Yup,” I said.
“I… I died?”
“Yup. But don’t feel bad about it. Everyone dies,” I said.
You looked around. There was nothingness. Just you and me. “What is this place?” You asked. “Is this the afterlife?”
“More or less,” I said. -
Well ....
I'm not sure how I feel. Ambiguous maybe?
That was a very quick read. It was interesting. I can see why some people love it and I can also see why some readers may not care for it.
Here is the link if you would like to read it :
http://www.galactanet.com/oneoff/thee... -
Interesting short story that could give you second thoughts about the way you treat others. Although, on second and third thought, things fall apart for me.
http://www.galactanet.com/oneoff/thee...
First published August 15, 2009 -
I honestly have no idea what to say except that it may not be the most agreeable idea but the concept is really thought provoking. You can read the short story
here.
Again, HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AWESOME
KELLY! (Click her name for her short review>) I told you I’ll make it good! haha! -
For this review and others please visit
www.readrantrockandroll.com
Spoiler...
The Egg is a short story by Andy Weir which looks at life as a continuous loop. I found this short story to be quite boring.
I found it interesting that in truth this isn't what the author believes at all, it's just a story he thought up.
It's free so why not try it?
http://www.galactanet.com/oneoff/thee...
I ♡ The Martian, but this was just okay for me...
3*** -
Leave ‘Em Wanting More
In order not to give the show away, I think I can only say that Weir has consolidated Leibniz and C.S. Peirce (and quite a few others) into a really interesting version of Mormon Gnosticism. A not inconsiderable feat in three pages. -
Not much one can say about this super short story. I wasn’t wowed by it, but it was so short that I don’t feel I wasted my time by reading it. You may or may not agree with or like the story, but it will have you briefly considering your own beliefs. Read it (it’s about a 5 minute read), ponder it, and decide for yourself.
Read for free here:
http://www.galactanet.com/oneoff/thee... -
Two of me were in disagreement about this story...We all decided to compromise at 3-stars.
Read here. :)
http://www.galactanet.com/oneoff/thee... -
“Every time you victimized someone,” I said, “you were victimizing yourself. Every act of kindness you’ve done, you’ve done to yourself. Every happy and sad moment ever experienced by any human was, or will be, experienced by you.”
-
*speechless*
I've never thought of this.
It's mind-blowing!
And it would make sense.
To actually understand what I'm talking about read
The Egg
here. It's only 4 pages. And it's enough.
-
Thanks to Nataliya, I’ve read my first Andy Weir!
Remarkably chewy for such a tiny bite, this is a maybe pleasant, maybe disturbing read. It may not change your life, but it’ll probably occupy your thoughts for longer than it takes to consume it! A fun offering about the meaning of life, this is worth a nibble. There’s a link up in the book description! -
4.5 Stars
Two characters. You and I.
A car accident.
Death.
The "After"
http://www.galactanet.com/oneoff/thee... -
So the guy who wrote
The Martian has a one page freebie about The Meaning of Life.
Is it anything life-changing? No. But it's free. And at least he didn't try to charge his fans money for a garbage creation like
some authors did.
Read it here. -
So after reading (and loving) Weir's The Martian, I bee-lined it to his author page to see what else he'd written. It's a little disappointing that the only other thing is a short story that took me 3 minutes to read, but I'll take what I can get.
(Write more novels.)
As I was reading this little story, I couldn't help but feel that it was familiar to me. I feel like I've read it before, but I can't quite place where or when. A quick (read: half-assed) google search tells me that it's been making rounds since 2010 at least, so in the fourish years since then, it's possible I'd seen it. I tend to read things on teh interwebz sometimes.
But then it dawned on me. I'm not recalling the story because I'd read it... but rather because I experienced it.
RIGHT??!
Whatever. It coulda happened.
I do like this little story. I don't necessarily believe in a "God" or a creator, or a universe formed solely for my infinite and singular use. However, I do like the message. It takes "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" (or whatever - I'm paraphrasing) to a new level.
It's short, sweet, it's a thinker, and I liked it.
But for real, Weir, write more novels. :D -
A very short story (two pages of A4:
http://www.galactanet.com/oneoff/thee...) by the author of The Martian.
It's too short to risk any spoilers, but it starts with a dead man's encounter with God, and follows their conversation, as the dead man asks what happens next, what the meaning of life is, etc. The answer is simple and complex, trivial and profound, religious and blasphemous (YMMV).
I'm not sure if I'm unsettled or uplifted.
Enjoy.
I've now read his famous novel, soon-to-be-film,
The Martian. Hugely enjoyable, despite significant flaws, imo, but very different from this.
Lots of Weir shorts here:
http://www.galactanet.com/writing.html -
This was a really interesting short story.
Highly recommend -
This is the kind of idea that comes to your mind while taking a shower (and we all know those are the best ones). You repeat the dialogues in your mind, in that weird trance that you’re having when the muse pays you a visit. You hurry to your desk, with the towel still on. You write everything in 20 minutes. The next day you’re doing some editing and you’re done.
*
It was hands down the best short story I’ve ever read. I’ve read it years ago and I’m still thinking of it from time to time (like now, hence the review). Absolutely mind-blowing.
*
Every time you victimized someone, you were victimizing yourself. Every act of kindness you’ve done, you’ve done to yourself. Every happy and sad moment ever experienced by any human was, or will be, experienced by you. -
What a great little book (well its only 4 pages, so hardly a book).
And it certainly crams a great deal into those 4 pages.
Difficult to know what to say, so I suggest you just read it, it won't be a waste of your time. -
I'd loved Weir’s The Martian – both the book and the film adaptation – and I'd subsequently heard quite a lot of people waxing lyrical about this short story. It’s easy to track down a free copy on the Internet and it really is very short, the audio version being just eight minutes long.
It’s a fantasy/ science fiction tale of a man who dies in a car accident, leaving behind a wife and two children. In the immediate aftermath he meets his Maker and it’s the discussion that ensues that packs the punch. And a pretty good punch it is. It surprised me and got me thinking a bit, but probably no more than that.
I know some people have read this story and now believe they've discovered the answer to ‘the big question’ – well maybe they have, who knows. I just think it’s an interesting idea expressed succinctly and effectively in just about as few words as it’s possible to tell a tale. But certainly worth catching.
