The Gostak and the Doshes

The Gostak and the Doshes by Miles J. Breuer is a science fiction short story written in the early 20th century. It explores the idea of relativity and alternate dimensions while satirizing mass psychology and nationalism through the power of a meaningless political slogan.

A university physicist, Woleshensky, demonstrates how a shift in coordinates—treating time as a navigable axis—can move a person into another “slice” of the same world. The narrator follows his instructions, finds himself in a near-identical society, and is taken in by Professor Vibens and his family. As he settles into academic work, the nation erupts in fervor over the empty phrase “The gostak distims the doshes,” which sweeps the country, sparks persecution, and triggers a war abroad. The narrator witnesses recruiting, casualties, and rationing, refuses to fight for a cause with no meaning, and is sentenced to be shot. Marching to his execution, he re-applies the coordinate trick, “reverses” the slope between the poplars, and returns to his original world, where Woleshensky suggests both realities may be the same world seen through different coordinate cuts—underscoring how frames of reference shape both physics and human belief. (This is an automatically generated summary.)