Stony Stevenson

Stony Stevenson, the main character of Between Time and Timbuktu, was a poet from Indianapolis, Indiana, selected to be launched on Prometheus-5, a space vehicle which took him into a chrono-synclastic infundibulum.

Life and Space Journey

Stony's father committed suicide and his mother subsequently married Fred K. Bonzer, the only happy one of her three marriages. He grew up in Indianapolis and spent time living at a Holiday Inn where the family were sent by "[t]he welfare people" for thirty dollars a night. At Stony's eighth birthday party, held at that Holiday Inn, his step-father Fred gave him a cemetery plot in Brooklyn, which he had inherited from a rich uncle. As a child, Stony was interested in the pressure cooker, sealing and unsealing it, putting in his marbles, his toy fire engine, or other items. He had several relatives, including an Uncle George, Aunt Alice, and Cousin Bruce, all of whom, like other family members, had never won a contest. As an adult, Stony lived with his mother at 12 Harrison Boulevard in Indianapolis, next door to Mrs. Meyers. He did not have a girlfriend, and estimated his IQ to be 131. Stony entered the Blast-off Space Food Jingle Contest and won its grand prize, a trip to the chrono-synclastic infundibulum. He was not aware of this until a camera crew arrived at his home to take him away.

Before launch, he endured over three months of "one of the most concentrated crash courses for astronauts ever devised". Although former astronaut Bud Williams was initially skeptical of sending up a poet to the chrono-synclastic infundibulum, he later reflected that "maybe only a poet could describe a thing like that". Stony was told before launch that he might return to Earth of the present or future, but not the past. As he was launched, Stony threw up on himself and was amazed that he wasn't dead. During the journey, all his vital signs were monitored at Mission Control, and he drank orange-flavored hydrogen peroxide, absorbing the slowly released oxygen through his small intestines. His mother essentially moved into Mission Control, sleeping on a cot and putting dollies on the backs of all the chairs, and Stony would talk with her while en route. Before arriving, he discussed his plan to write a sestina of six stanzas with six lines each, using as a basis the words spoken when Neil Armstrong first walked on the Moon. He arrived at the chrono-synclastic infundibulum after six months, on Christmas Day. Stony was made an honorary private in United States Army prior to launch, and later a corporal after his entry.

In the Chrono-Synclastic Infundibulum

Upon entering, Stony began warping through space and time, seeing other versions of himself. He eventually awoke on the island of San Lorenzo—again wondering if he had died—where he met the local holy man, Bokonon, who thought Stony might be a member of his karass. Bokonon taught him some of his teachings, but he and Stony were forced to flee and hide when the military arrived, since Bokonon's religion was outlawed. Stony then appeared on the jury for the trial of Dr. Paul Proteus. While there, he attempted to ask a fellow juror with bad hearing where and when he was, but got no answer. He briefly interrupted the trial, attempting to ask the judge, and was instead chastised by the prosecutor for his shabby attire. Stony said that he only asked because it might be his birthday. Next he appeared in Schenectady, getting spare change from a drunk to call Mission Control, who told him to "[g]et back into space". Stony replied that he could barely control his own bladder, much less his destiny about when and where he would appear. He began to think he was traveling through his own dreams and nightmares, since everyone he'd met spoke English and everything seemed American.

He drifted to sleep in the phone booth and awoke in the Hoenikker Laboratory of Immortality, where Dr. Hoenikker and his assistant Miss Martin kept frozen human beings who were about to die, so they could be preserved until cures were found for their conditions. When Stony learned of the doctor's idea for ice-nine, and realized it could potentially freeze all the water on Earth, he told Dr. Hoenikker that he thought that should have been mentioned that to the general who secured the funding for the project. In a future with enforced equality, Stony was fitted with various heavy handicaps, a false nose, and a headset broadcasting noise to prevent him from thinking too much. He was next mistaken for a food deliverer for an Ethical Suicide Parlor in a world that was massively overpopulated. Stony took a last meal from a nearby Howard Johnson's to Lionel J. Howard, who had not yet fully committed to his suicide. Nancy, a hostess, told Stony to smile more and wait for Howard to finally agree. After he did so, he asked Stony with his last breath "what are people—for?"

Now hitchhiking, Stony was picked up in a fire engine carrying Wanda June, a young girl. When Stony asked if he was dead, she told him that she's dead, but that everyone here was much happier being dead. A large celebration ensued, stopped by Adolf Hitler, who to Stony personified pure evil and his childhood idea of the most terrible creature that could exist. He concluded that the celebration was his childhood dream of a God who might make everyone happy after they die. Hitler declared that there is no afterlife, making everyone but Stony disappear. Stony realized that everything was happening in his own head, and he could make Hitler disappear by making up an afterlife, destroying death with imagination. He did so, and briefly brought the crowd back into existence. He awoke again in his grave plot in Brooklyn, finding a tombstone that read "Everything was beautiful, nothing hurt". He recited some of the Bokononist last rites and left singing "Pack Up Your Troubles in an Old Kit Bag and Smile, Smile, Smile". Encountering a cemetery gardener, he asked about the tombstone. The gardener explained that no one is buried there but that it was put up as a memorial by Stony's mother. His space capsule returned to Earth correctly, but contained nothing except a note that read what is now on the tombstone and a half-finished bottle of Tang.