Regarding the novel "By His Bootstraps" and its translation "自踢己踵", there are a few points that need clarification:
- The novel was originally published under the pseudonym Anson MacDonald in the October 1941 issue of "Astounding Science Fiction." The "A" in Robert A. Heinlein stands for Anson.
- There are two inconsistencies in the original text that, in my opinion, should not exist given the setting of the story. The first inconsistency can be seen in the following three images. On page 12, in Wilson's experience, he says "who are you" to Number Three. However, on page 22, in Number Two's experience, Number One says "who the hell are you." Number Three's experience is consistent with Number One's. Therefore, in my translation, I changed Number Two's experience to match the other two. I omitted "the hell," but if you want to stay true to the original text, it can be changed to "who the hell are you."
- The second inconsistency is on page 23. In Number Two's experience, it is "this Time Gate thing." In Number Three's experience on page 30, it is "this Gate thing." In my translation, I used the same phrase for both sentences.
- The translation of "the Ones" and "the Abandoned" may sound a bit awkward, but translating them as "the Supreme" and "the Abandoned" does not capture the sense of "ones."