Half-remembered childhood tales of infinite recursion (#1242)

Topics/tags: Autobiographical

The other night, as Michelle and I were driving home from Chicago in a rainstorm, I started reciting a story I recall from childhood. It began like this.

It was a dark and stormy night. We were standing on a ship.

I’ll tell you more in a moment. But first, I’d like to describe the context of the memory. The story comes from a book that I recall as one of my favorites. I remember sitting on the floor between my bedroom and the hall closet, reading it. I believe the book was filled with puzzles and unexpected twists, but I can’t be sure. I don’t recall the title. All I recall is the one story. It went something like this.

It was a dark and stormy night. We were standing on a ship. The Captain said to me, Tell me a story, my son. And so I began.

It was a dark and stormy night. We were standing on a ship. The Captain said to me, Tell me a story, my son. And so I began.

It was a dark and stormy night. We were standing on a ship. The Captain said to me, Tell me a story, my son. And so I began.

It was a dark and stormy night. We were standing on a ship. The Captain said to me, Tell me a story, my son. And so I began.

It was a dark and stormy night. We were …

Except it wasn’t formatted like that. The text looped around the page so that the second instance of It was a dark and stormy night came right after both the first and second instance of And so I began. Or maybe there was just one instance of each. I remember the tale. I remember that the text looped. I remember that there was a Captain and a ship. A narrator, too. A night that was dark. And stormy.

Did I get the words right? I’m relatively confident about the It was a dark and stormy night. I can recall whether I was standing or we were standing. I can’t recall whether the next sentence was phrased as above, or as

Tell me a story, my son, the Captain said to me.

That construction seems a bit complicated for a kid’s book. So I assume the one I’ve chosen is the correct one.

Did I begin? Did I say? I suppose I did neither. In point of fact, it was the narrator who began. Or said?

While I can’t recall the book—or even many of the details—it strikes me that the book had a massive impact on me. After all, recursion is central to computer science, particularly to the kinds of computer science I do.

I wonder if I’ll ever recall anything else about the book. If so, and if someone has borrowed it from the local library, I suppose I can also recall the book.

Postscript: I suppose I could visit one of our handy reference librarians for help.

Version 1.0 of 2023-07-08.