Dtjytyk

Is it possible to run Internet Explorer on OS X El Capitan?

Do infinite dimensional systems make sense?

Can a vampire attack twice with their claws using Multiattack?

Are astronomers waiting to see something in an image from a gravitational lens that they've already seen in an adjacent image?

How to determine what difficulty is right for the game?

Has there ever been an airliner design involving reducing generator load by installing solar panels?

"You are your self first supporter", a more proper way to say it

Modeling an IP Address

Maximum likelihood parameters deviate from posterior distributions

RSA: Danger of using p to create q

infared filters v nd

Languages that we cannot (dis)prove to be Context-Free

Which country benefited the most from UN Security Council vetoes?

How does one intimidate enemies without having the capacity for violence?

Why can't I see bouncing of a switch on an oscilloscope?

High voltage LED indicator 40-1000 VDC without additional power supply

What does the "remote control" for a QF-4 look like?

Intersection point of 2 lines defined by 2 points each

Perform and show arithmetic with LuaLaTeX

What is the word for reserving something for yourself before others do?

What is a clear way to write a bar that has an extra beat?

Why doesn't H₄O²⁺ exist?

Could an aircraft fly or hover using only jets of compressed air?

Was any UN Security Council vote triple-vetoed?

Character reincarnated…as a snail

Fantasy short story featuring a character named PepsiIdentify novel about Jesus reincarnated as a girlMean aunt is reincarnated as a fly with one green(?) eye and one brown eyeLooking for the title/author of story about snail-like creaturesMen reincarnated as womenNovel about reincarnated lovers across historyFinding a book with a man from the future being reincarnated on Earth in past timesNovel series where kids crew a snail shell shaped shipBook about the reincarnated spirit of a daughter of ApolloOld story about New York City having become “Black New York”

.everyoneloves__top-leaderboard:empty,.everyoneloves__mid-leaderboard:empty,.everyoneloves__bot-mid-leaderboard:empty margin-bottom:0;

5

I'm trying to hunt down a story (I think it's very early SF) about a character who tries to convince his friend that he will be reincarnated. He trains himself to trace a symbol--a Greek letter, can't remember but either "phi" or "theta"--so automatically that he does it all the time, unconsciously, telling the friend that this symbol is how he can be identified in his next life. The character dies, and one day the friend is walking down the sidewalk and observes a snail, slowly tracing the symbol with its slime as it crawls. It was a very chilling ending, as I recall. But I can't remember the title or author.

story-identification short-stories reincarnation

share|improve this question

asked 5 hours ago

Carol HuntCarol Hunt

261

New contributor

Carol Hunt is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/proginfo/2019/05/reincarnathan
  
  – Valorum
  5 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  1
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  Hi, welcome to SF&F! You might want to check out the suggestions for asking story-id questions; there could be points there that trigger some additional memories, or just details you didn't think to add.
  
  – DavidW
  4 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

5

I'm trying to hunt down a story (I think it's very early SF) about a character who tries to convince his friend that he will be reincarnated. He trains himself to trace a symbol--a Greek letter, can't remember but either "phi" or "theta"--so automatically that he does it all the time, unconsciously, telling the friend that this symbol is how he can be identified in his next life. The character dies, and one day the friend is walking down the sidewalk and observes a snail, slowly tracing the symbol with its slime as it crawls. It was a very chilling ending, as I recall. But I can't remember the title or author.

story-identification short-stories reincarnation

share|improve this question

asked 5 hours ago

Carol HuntCarol Hunt

261

New contributor

Carol Hunt is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/proginfo/2019/05/reincarnathan
  
  – Valorum
  5 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  1
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  Hi, welcome to SF&F! You might want to check out the suggestions for asking story-id questions; there could be points there that trigger some additional memories, or just details you didn't think to add.
  
  – DavidW
  4 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

I'm trying to hunt down a story (I think it's very early SF) about a character who tries to convince his friend that he will be reincarnated. He trains himself to trace a symbol--a Greek letter, can't remember but either "phi" or "theta"--so automatically that he does it all the time, unconsciously, telling the friend that this symbol is how he can be identified in his next life. The character dies, and one day the friend is walking down the sidewalk and observes a snail, slowly tracing the symbol with its slime as it crawls. It was a very chilling ending, as I recall. But I can't remember the title or author.

story-identification short-stories reincarnation

share|improve this question

asked 5 hours ago

Carol HuntCarol Hunt

261

New contributor

Carol Hunt is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.

share|improve this question

asked 5 hours ago

Carol HuntCarol Hunt

261

New contributor

Carol Hunt is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.

share|improve this question

asked 5 hours ago

Carol HuntCarol Hunt

261

New contributor

Carol Hunt is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.

asked 5 hours ago

Carol HuntCarol Hunt

261

New contributor

Carol Hunt is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.

asked 5 hours ago

Carol HuntCarol Hunt

261

1 Answer
1

active

oldest

votes

3

This is "The Sign" by Lord Dunsany. It's described on a message board as follows: "Another of Jorkens' tall tales from the billiard room, this one concerning the transmigration of the soul. Horcher, a walking superiority complex and habitual snail-stomper, promised Jorkens that, when he died, he'd leave a sign to inform him of his elevation to God-like status. In the event, it doesn't quite work out for him." I read the story myself and remember the details from your query that aren't in this description: Horcher training himself to draw the phi sign automatically, and the snail drawing the sign after Horcher's death. (If I recall correctly, Horcher doesn't literally expect to attain God-like status, but he does expect to be a Very Important Person.)

share|improve this answer

answered 32 mins ago

Adam SAdam S

1062

add a comment | 

Your Answer

StackExchange.ready(function()
var channelOptions =
tags: "".split(" "),
id: "186"
;
initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);

StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function()
// Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled)
StackExchange.using("snippets", function()
createEditor();
);

else
createEditor();

);

function createEditor()
StackExchange.prepareEditor(
heartbeatType: 'answer',
autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
convertImagesToLinks: false,
noModals: true,
showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
reputationToPostImages: null,
bindNavPrevention: true,
postfix: "",
imageUploader:
brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
allowUrls: true
,
noCode: true, onDemand: true,
discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
);



);

Carol Hunt is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.

draft saved

draft discarded

Sign up or log in

StackExchange.ready(function ()
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
);

Sign up using Google

Sign up using Facebook

Sign up using Email and Password

Post as a guest

Name

Email

Required, but never shown

StackExchange.ready(
function ()
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fscifi.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f208585%2fcharacter-reincarnated-as-a-snail%23new-answer', 'question_page');

);

Post as a guest

Name

Email

Required, but never shown

3

This is "The Sign" by Lord Dunsany. It's described on a message board as follows: "Another of Jorkens' tall tales from the billiard room, this one concerning the transmigration of the soul. Horcher, a walking superiority complex and habitual snail-stomper, promised Jorkens that, when he died, he'd leave a sign to inform him of his elevation to God-like status. In the event, it doesn't quite work out for him." I read the story myself and remember the details from your query that aren't in this description: Horcher training himself to draw the phi sign automatically, and the snail drawing the sign after Horcher's death. (If I recall correctly, Horcher doesn't literally expect to attain God-like status, but he does expect to be a Very Important Person.)

share|improve this answer

answered 32 mins ago

Adam SAdam S

1062

add a comment | 

3

This is "The Sign" by Lord Dunsany. It's described on a message board as follows: "Another of Jorkens' tall tales from the billiard room, this one concerning the transmigration of the soul. Horcher, a walking superiority complex and habitual snail-stomper, promised Jorkens that, when he died, he'd leave a sign to inform him of his elevation to God-like status. In the event, it doesn't quite work out for him." I read the story myself and remember the details from your query that aren't in this description: Horcher training himself to draw the phi sign automatically, and the snail drawing the sign after Horcher's death. (If I recall correctly, Horcher doesn't literally expect to attain God-like status, but he does expect to be a Very Important Person.)

share|improve this answer

answered 32 mins ago

Adam SAdam S

1062

add a comment | 

This is "The Sign" by Lord Dunsany. It's described on a message board as follows: "Another of Jorkens' tall tales from the billiard room, this one concerning the transmigration of the soul. Horcher, a walking superiority complex and habitual snail-stomper, promised Jorkens that, when he died, he'd leave a sign to inform him of his elevation to God-like status. In the event, it doesn't quite work out for him." I read the story myself and remember the details from your query that aren't in this description: Horcher training himself to draw the phi sign automatically, and the snail drawing the sign after Horcher's death. (If I recall correctly, Horcher doesn't literally expect to attain God-like status, but he does expect to be a Very Important Person.)

share|improve this answer

answered 32 mins ago

Adam SAdam S

1062

share|improve this answer

answered 32 mins ago

Adam SAdam S

1062

answered 32 mins ago

Adam SAdam S

1062

answered 32 mins ago

Adam SAdam S

1062