Three Wishes: Difference between revisions
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=== Literature ===
* A story by [[Robert Sheckley]] features a man who received three wishes from the Devil, with no strings attached (apparently, Hell has more than enough souls as it is). Except that whatever he wishes for, his worst enemy will receive twice as much of it. So if he gets rich, the other guy gets richer, and this eats at him. His final wish is for a sexual partner whose rapaciousness is at the absolute limit of his ability to handle.
* Joan Aiken's short story "[https://web.archive.org/web/20140307231229/http://aparker.wiki.hoover.k12.al.us/file/view/The+Third+Wish+by+Joan+Aiken.pdf The Third Wish]" has a protagonist who's [[Genre Savvy]] enough to not accidentally waste his wishes on something stupid and even pricks his tongue with a thorn to make sure he doesn't make any careless wishes. He uses his first wish for a wife "as beautiful as the forest" and does get his perfect wife - except that she's actually a shapeshifted swan who's unhappy at having left her sister and life as a swan behind, and he decides to use his second wish to [[I Want My Beloved to Be Happy|turn her back into a swan]]. After seeing what happened with his first two wishes, he decides not to use his third wish and actually lives pretty contentedly for the most part taking care of his swan wife and sister-in-law and [[Go Out with a Smile|dying with a smile on his face]].
* In [[Godel Escher Bach]] the Genie is not allowed to make metawishes (e.g. ask for more wishes). But Genie itself can try to invoke Meta-Genie. {{spoiler|and then it was asked "I wish my wish would not be granted". A Wishplosion happens.}}
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