The Best of Science Fiction 12

And then there is gap (closely related to that other big 'in' word, alienation); this one comes with a wide assortment of hyphenates, like missile-, generation-, and credibility-.

Credibility-gap describes a state of disquietude associated with the unwilling suspension of belief: not just the doublethink involved in assessing the Warren Report, Vietnam news, and campaign speeches, but also such phenomena as FDA Chief Goddard's public statement that marijuana is not the addictive menace described by the Narcotics Bureau — or the proclamation, by devout Christian ministers, of the Death of God — or the grudging incredulity with which we attempt to replace the inexact 'evidence' of our senses with the mathematical 'truths' of modern physics, biochemistry, and psychology.

Or you might prefer to think of gap as a space-break.

Space: the dimensional framework in which we carry out the motions of existence. The distance between, and beyond. The unknown Out There, and the unknown Inside. An emptiness to be filled, a blankness to be filled in, an absolute intangible: we make it our metaphor, analogy, for even less concrete imperatives, think of it as an 'objective' reality, speak of it like something to be cut up, sliced, boxed in, stretched out. (Close the lid on an empty shoebox. Measure precisely the 'volume of space' contained. Pick up the box; put it on a shelf. Tell me if it still contains the same space.) The planet spins, whirls, whizzes through space, and we retain the odd illusion that we exist inside measurable coordinates — parceling out plots of land, arguing proprietary rights in the very atmosphere clinging to the square of deeded ground, as though it were a 'known' volume of real space.

"Playing the game of reality with no real cards in one's hands," says Dr. Laing.