Wednesday, November 23, 2011

L Sprague de Camp's "Hyperpilosity" (short story, humor): What if humans started growing hairy pelts

The idea is somewhat similar to Arthur Clarke's "Reunion" (1971). In Clarke's version, humans were once all black; attack of a disease turned skins of some of them white. Here, humans were once all hairy apes. A viral epidemic turned them into naked apes. Now a new mutation of the disease has cured them of the disease, & has turned them back into hairy apes. Hyperpilosity is the name of this new curing-variant of disease.

Story is mostly a very funny exploration of society's response to the prospects of a hairy future.

Collected in.

  1. "The Best of L Sprague de Camp".

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, April 1938.
Rating: A.
Among the stories from Astounding/Analog issues edited by John Campbell.
Related: Stories of L Sprague de Camp.

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