Item — HN Reader

And Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale:

> At the corner is the store known as Soul Scrolls. [...] Behind it are printout machines, row on row of them; [...] There are five different prayers: for health, wealth, a death, a birth, a sin. You pick the one you want, punch in the number, then punch in your own number so your account will be debited, and punch in the number of times you want the prayer repeated.

If you have a copy to hand a chunk of chapter 37 deals with the interactions with these machines.

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This is sort of how Buddhist prayers are handled in some cultures: you have an automated (wind powered) wheel spin and "emit" prayers on your behalf. This was the inspiration for Clarke's story (take a simple idea to its ultimate conclusion).

Roger Zelazny's take on this (for Hinduism instead) was IMHO the best, as a trivial side point to a plot element in Lord of Light.

Interesting. In the time between our posts I was thinking of other examples and wondering if perhaps the idea is simply a weak trope. My own ignorance hadn't allowed me to consider it was simply a stronger reflection of cultures I'm unfamiliar with.

Plus, thanks to you and pjc50 for restocking the reading list ;)