Blank!
{{Short description|1957 short story by Isaac Asimov}}
{{notability|book|date=March 2024}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
File:Blank (Infinity magazine).jpg]]
"Blank!" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov. It was commissioned by Larry Shaw, editor of Infinity Science Fiction, as being the least inspirational title on which to base a story. Harlan Ellison and Randall Garrett were also invited to submit stories based on the same title; Garrett wrote one with "Blank?" as the title while Ellison submitted "Blank."{{Cite book |title=Buy Jupiter and Other Stories |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |date=1975 |publisher=Doubleday |location=Garden City NY}} All three were published in the magazine in June 1957.{{Cite web | url=https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?109491|title=Infinity Science Fiction, June 1957|website=ISFDb|access-date=August 23, 2024}} Asimov's story was later reprinted in the 1975 collection Buy Jupiter and Other Stories.
Plot summary
The story is about a scientist who is experimenting with time travel. He persuades a reluctant colleague to join him on a journey in the machine he has developed. Despite the inventor's protestations that nothing can go wrong, something does go wrong, and the two travelers find themselves stuck in non-time, between two time-particles. As they fade into unconsciousness, they realize that 'where even eternity was meaningless, there would only be – blank!'
References
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