178:, which Joe (a stranger, from Bob's point of view) inexplicably retrieves from its hiding place in Bob's apartment, and Bob becomes intoxicated. Bob's talk with Joe is interrupted by odd phone calls, first from a man who sounds familiar, and then from his sometime girlfriend, who gets upset when Bob says he hasn't seen her recently. Finally, Joe is about to manhandle Bob through the Gate when another man appears, one who looks very much like Joe. The newcomer does not want Bob to go. During the ensuing fight, Bob gets punched, sending him through the Gate.
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experience is so traumatizing that he runs away screaming, for the creature feels such sadness and other deep emotions that a 20th-century go-getter like Bob cannot bear it. He forces himself to return long enough to shut down the Gate, then stays away from it for more than two years. He does not notice that his hair has begun to whiten prematurely, as a result of the stress and shock. Having worn out the notebook through long use, he copies its text into a new, identical, one.
166:, using the concept of time travel as a case in point. Bob does not care much at this point whether his thesis (that time travel is impossible) is valid; he is desperate for sleep and just wants to get it done and typed up by the deadline the next day to become an academic, since he thinks academia beats working for a living. Suddenly, although Bob had locked himself alone in his room, someone says, “Don’t bother with it. It's a lot of utter
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he will go back to the future through the Time Gate. While setting the Gate, he finds two things beside the controls: his hat, and a notebook containing translations between
English words and the language of Diktor's slaves. He returns to his own time and collects the items on Diktor's list, which seem to be things a 20th-century man could find useful in making himself king in the future, intentionally writing a
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for the purchases, after persuading the cashier that the check is good. He then visits a woman he had been dating, but has begun to dislike, and has his way with her, smugly intending to never see her again, and leaving his hat in her apartment. He phones his past self as a prank, quickly hanging up.
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He lives through the same scene for the third time, then realizes that he is now free of Diktor. Bob ponders the nature of the 20th-century society he lives in, finding it seedy and depressing. He is sure he no longer has time to finish his thesis, but it is obviously incorrect anyway, so he decides
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Diktor asks him to go back through the Gate and bring back the man he finds on the other side. Bob agrees. Stepping through, he finds himself back in his own room, watching himself typing his thesis. Without much memory of what happened before, he reenacts the scene, this time from the other point
170:
anyhow." The interloper, who looks strangely familiar, and to whom Bob takes a dislike, calls himself "Joe", and explains that he has come from the future through a Time Gate, a circle about 6 ft (1.8 m) in diameter in the air behind Joe. Joe tells Bob that great opportunities await him
181:
He recovers his senses in a strange place. A somewhat older-looking, bearded man explains that he is some 30,000 years in the future. The man, calling himself Diktor, treats Bob to a sumptuous breakfast served by beautiful women, one of whom Bob speaks of admiringly. Diktor immediately gives that
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He sets himself up as chief, taking precautions against the arrival of Diktor. He adopts the name Diktor, which is simply the local word for "chief." He experiments with the Time Gate, hoping to see the High Ones. Once, he does catch a glimpse of one and has a brief mental contact with it. The
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His future self claims that Diktor is just trying to tangle them up so badly that they can never get untangled, but Joe goes through and meets Diktor again. Diktor gives him a list of things to buy in his own time and bring back. A little annoyed by Diktor's manner, Bob argues with him, but
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After returning to the future, he adjusts the Gate to send himself back to a point ten years earlier, to give himself time to establish himself as the local chieftain. Thus he hopes to preempt Diktor's influence, charting his own course instead.
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of view, and calling himself "Joe" so as not to confuse his earlier self. Just as he is about to shove Bob through the Gate, another version of himself shows up. The fight happens as before, and Bob goes through the Gate.
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239:—'" to be examples of "perfectly consistent" time travel stories. Stating that it and other Heinlein time-travel stories "force the reader into contemplations of the nature of causality and the arrow of time",
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One day, upon setting the Gate to view his old room in the past, he sees three versions of himself in a familiar arrangement. Shortly, his earliest self comes through. The circle has closed.
146:, and in several subsequent anthologies, and is now available in at least two audio editions. Under the title "The Time Gate", it was also included in a 1958 Crest paperback anthology,
186:, the High Ones, built the Gate and refashioned humanity into compliant slaves, but the High Ones are gone now, leaving a world where a 20th-century "go-getter" can make himself king.
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woman to Bob as a slave. Diktor explains that humans in the future are handsome, cultured in a primitive fashion, but much more docile and good natured than their ancestors. An
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is Diktor—the only Diktor there ever was. Wondering who actually compiled the notebook, Diktor prepares to brief Bob, who has to orchestrate events to ensure his own past.
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359:(Ch. 3), points out that the title could have developed as a convergence of "doctor", "director" and "dictator", as the functions of a "diktor" include a bit of all three.
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listed "By His
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through the Gate and thousands of years in his future. By way of demonstration, Joe tosses Bob's hat into the Gate. It disappears.
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Heinlein does not explain the etymology of the name "Diktor." Bob White, in
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Works originally published in Analog
Science Fiction and Fact
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eventually returns to the past, back in his room once again.
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In 1952, Bob Wilson locks himself in his room to finish his
292:, from the saying "to pull yourself up by your bootstraps"
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Heinlein Prize for
Advances in Space Commercialization
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The story was published in the
October 1941 issue of
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The Robert
Heinlein Interview and Other Heinleiniana
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235:considered "By His Bootstraps" and "'—
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444:Internet Speculative Fiction Database
174:Bob is reluctant. Joe plies him with
136:Anson MacDonald; the same issue has "
115:. It plays with some of the inherent
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1141:Short stories by Robert A. Heinlein
14:
403:"Growing up with Science Fiction"
391:, April (1976): pp. 145–152
918:The Worlds of Robert A. Heinlein
389:American Philosophical Quarterly
387:"The Paradoxes of Time Travel",
369:Gale, Floyd C. (December 1960).
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253:
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1136:Short fiction about time travel
613:The Cat Who Walks Through Walls
1:
586:The Notebooks of Lazarus Long
859:The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
162:on a mathematical aspect of
902:The Robert Heinlein Omnibus
744:Have Space Suit—Will Travel
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827:Stranger in a Strange Land
629:The Pursuit of the Pankera
401:Sagan, Carl (1978-05-28).
334:. October 1941. p. 5.
332:Astounding Science Fiction
307:The Man Who Folded Himself
129:Astounding Science Fiction
77:Astounding Science Fiction
953:Take Back Your Government
621:To Sail Beyond the Sunset
570:The Past Through Tomorrow
530:The Man Who Sold the Moon
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1067:Robert A. Heinlein Award
883:Job: A Comedy of Justice
538:The Green Hills of Earth
119:that would be caused by
969:Grumbles from the Grave
605:The Number of the Beast
458:Heinlein Archives entry
371:"Galaxy's 5 Star Shelf"
375:Galaxy Science Fiction
275:Science Fiction portal
228:Galaxy Science Fiction
736:Citizen of the Galaxy
554:Methuselah's Children
442:title listing at the
143:The Menace From Earth
1031:Andrew Jackson Libby
811:The Door into Summer
578:Time Enough for Love
345:heinleinarchives.net
1057:Heinlein Centennial
867:I Will Fear No Evil
771:Beyond This Horizon
656:Rocket Ship Galileo
449:"By His Bootstraps"
377:. pp. 123–127.
357:Fictional Languages
301:Grandfather paradox
111:by American writer
104:" is a 20,000 word
22:"By His Bootstraps"
1146:1941 short stories
851:Farnham's Freehold
787:The Puppet Masters
728:Time for the Stars
696:The Rolling Stones
562:Orphans of the Sky
494:Robert A. Heinlein
407:The New York Times
113:Robert A. Heinlein
34:as Anson MacDonald
32:Robert A. Heinlein
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819:Starship Troopers
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894:Collections
803:Double Star
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645:Scribner's
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164:metaphysics
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68:Publication
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1130:Categories
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328:"Contents"
314:References
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647:juveniles
415:0362-4331
218:Reception
200:bad check
117:paradoxes
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247:See also
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48:Language
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168:hogwash
109:novella
52:English
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990:(1950)
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875:Friday
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