A conceited man brings Lucretius to the present in order to explain to the classical scientist exactly where he was wrong, but it turns out that Lucretius’s classical atomism was brought along with him.
What’;s happening? I’ll tell you what’s happening. Those “films” you see flying off surfaces and hitting your eyes—that’s how our friend here thought visions worked. And now we’re seeing it happen, as though it’s true.

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  1. “Ghost Lecturer” by Ian Watson, in Asimov’s Science Fiction, March 1984.
  2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by Ian Watson