What science fiction story was about people living in a city that was on tracks?
Helwood Mann, the protagonist, lives in the City, a giant structure built of wood and concrete that is slowly winched along on a set of tracks toward an unknown destination. In the hands of another writer, this premise would easily be absurdist: because the City only has a fixed line of track, they have to keep pulling their old track out and laying the new track in front of them in order to progress, day after day, month after month. The pulling of the City has been going on long before Helwood was born–and although he is puzzled by the need to keep the City moving (it’s to reach “the optimum,” he is told, whatever that means) he nevertheless joins more or less enthusiastically in the effort.
