tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71723591796137298702024-03-25T05:02:16.040+05:30Variety SFTrying to figure out science fictionUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger23125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7172359179613729870.post-88668205463269685412013-08-30T01:54:00.001+05:302013-08-30T01:54:38.583+05:30"Astounding Science-Fiction", June 1943 (ed John W Campbell, Jr) (magazine, free): Annotated table of contents & review<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download/qmf6v18n1920q7y" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Cover by Timmins of Astounding Science-Fiction magazine, June 1943 issue" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3kK-4v8jVr8T1BAzfw6UgQX20ALl__z98auNEk1f41wIY5hJKy2MczYmFPmt1I7zDE3MCIDqTJyz9m4i1dJQjZLwbEvVFtoELUYxKu_zzLQVSs2eoyQXqW043yyAZl-f_Jhdzw3L3ecE/s1600/Astounding+Science-Fiction,+June+1943+(cover).jpg" style="border: none;" /></a>For stories where I have a separate post, link on story title goes there. Links on authors fetch more fiction by author. For read stories, my <a href="http://arthur-clarke-fansite.blogspot.com/2007/04/note-my-on-story-quality-ratings.html">rating</a> appears in brackets.<br />
<h4>
<span style="font-size: 100%;">Table of contents (best first, unread last).</span></h4>
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li>[novelette] <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.in/search/label/Henry%20Kuttner?max-results=100">Henry Kuttner</a> & <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.in/search/label/C%20L%20Moore?max-results=100">C L Moore</a>'s "<a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.in/2013/08/henry-kuttner-c-l-moore-world-is-mine.html"><b>The World is Mine</b></a>" (as by <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Lewis%20Padgett?max-results=100">Lewis Padgett</a>) (B): "Galleger, the mad--or at least cockeyed--scientist, really got himself in a jam that time. A plague of corpses, all murdered, descended upon him--"</li>
<li>[novelette] <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.in/search/label/George%20O%20Smith?max-results=100">George O Smith</a>'s "<b>Calling the Empress</b>": 'Physics says that a
thing which cannot be detected by any means does not exist. So their
problem was to make a "nonexistent" spaceship somewhere between Mars & Venus change it course--' </li>
<li>[ss] <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.in/search/label/Anthony%20Boucher?max-results=100">Anthony Boucher</a>'s "<b>Pelagic Spark</b>": "One man, to prove a point,
cooked up a phony prophecy. And other men, believing it implicitly, made
it come true!"</li>
<li>[ss] <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.in/search/label/E%20M%20Hull?max-results=100">E M Hull</a>'s "<b>Competition</b>": "Artur Blord backed down like a scared
cur when faced with real danger. But it so happened he was backing
rapidly in a direction he'd never have been able to go face forward!" </li>
<li>[ss] <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.in/search/label/Lester%20del%20Rey?max-results=100">Lester del Rey</a>'s "<b>Whom the Gods Love</b>": "The Japs murdered his
personality; their terrible error was that they didn't murder him. They
gave him something that was a magnificent antithesis of Death--for him.
For them it was Death."</li>
<li>[ss] <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.in/search/label/Anthony%20Boucher?max-results=100">Anthony Boucher</a>'s "<b>Sanctury</b>" (as by <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.in/search/label/H%20H%20Holmes?max-results=100">H H Holmes</a>): "The commondoman
knew the Nazis were close on his heels; his one though was to get to
some other place in a hurry. The professor had another idea--& the
Villa had a ghost that haunted parties!" </li>
<li>[serial - 2/2] <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.in/search/label/Fritz%20Leiber?max-results=100">Fritz Leiber, Jr</a>'s "<b>Gather, Darkness!</b>": "The Hierarchy
was a phony religion based on super-scientific "miracles" & rigid
tyranny. And the revolution was a magnificent buffoonery of
super-scientific witchcraft based on military tactics!"</li>
</ol>
<h4>
<span style="font-size: 100%;">Fact sheet.</span></h4>
<span style="font-style: italic;">Labeled: </span>"Vol XXXI No 4"<span style="font-style: italic;"> </span><br />
Download <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download/qmf6v18n1920q7y">scans as a cbr file</a>. [via David T @pubscans]<br />
<a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download/ddf6z0r8ld2l344/Astounding_Science_Fiction_v31n04_%5B1943-06.Street%26Smith%5D_-_touched_up_pages.rar">Alternate, supposedly better version, of scan</a>. [via ka280al@pbscans]<br />
<i>Note</i>: I have personally seen only the first (original) version.<br />
<i>Related</i>: Fiction from <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.in/search/label/Analog?max-results=100"><i>Astounding</i>/<i>Analog</i></a>, <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.in/2012/08/analogastounding-magazine-issues-index.html">whole issues only</a>, <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/2008/08/astounding-analog-of-cambell-annotated.html">only issues edited by John Campbell</a>; <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.in/search/label/1940s?max-results=100">1940s</a>; <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.in/search/label/pulp?max-results=100">old pulps</a>.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7172359179613729870.post-62920579936145850502013-08-29T00:08:00.004+05:302013-08-30T01:56:11.333+05:30Henry Kuttner & C L Moore's "The World is Mine" (as by Lewis Padgett) (novelette, humor, free)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/2013/08/astounding-science-fiction-june-1943-ed.html" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="One of the illustrations by Williams accompanying the original publication in Astounding magazine of short story The World is Mine by Henry Kuttner and C L Moore. Image shows 3 rabbit-like Martians from future who want to conquer earth." border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinvhPwdyqo8V-omXxP7HryYHIXpHcF5-qBvneDojGdUWh4Ry2ZySHQPh4duBed7IrzQ3ASLwN_a9aKfqayB8ow9kIKpmG1BZcx1hf-g71KWRgNfUAjgDHTl_WXdY0Fhu2xAT9HVOBS8pw/s1600/Lewis+Padgett+-+The+World+is+Mine+(illustration).JPG" style="border: none;" /></a>This is part of authors' well known series featuring Gallagher, the mad scientist. I used to love these stories when I first encountered them; I'm no longer as much a fan, but this is still a light fun read.<br />
<h4>
Story summary.</h4>
Gallaghar wakes up from his yet another drinking bout to find a series of curiosities - 3 rabbit-like Martians ("Lybblas") from 500 years into future who want to conquer earth, a time machine <i>focused on</i> his backyard that cannot be turned off & that he apparently invented when his genius unconscious was in control, & a series of corpses of himself from future each with a ray gun hole through his chest.<br />
<br />
The story is about putting the puzzle together, inventing a couple of other gadgets along the way.<br />
<h4>
<span style="font-size: 100%;">Fact sheet.</span></h4>
<span style="font-style: italic;">First published</span>: <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.in/search/label/Analog?max-results=100"><i>Astounding</i></a>, June <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.in/search/label/1943?max-results=100">1943</a>.<br />
Download full text as part of <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/2013/08/astounding-science-fiction-june-1943-ed.html">the scans of the magazine it originally appeared in</a>. <br />
Among <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/2008/08/astounding-analog-of-cambell-annotated.html">the stories from Astounding/Analog issues edited by John Campbell</a>.<br />
<a href="http://arthur-clarke-fansite.blogspot.com/2007/04/note-my-on-story-quality-ratings.html" style="font-style: italic;">Rating</a>: B.<br />
<i>Related</i>: Stories of <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.in/search/label/Henry%20Kuttner?max-results=100">Henry Kuttner</a>, <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.in/search/label/C%20L%20Moore?max-results=100">C L Moore</a> (as by <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Lewis%20Padgett?max-results=100">Lewis Padgett</a>).</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7172359179613729870.post-5033907729291414142013-06-02T21:45:00.000+05:302013-07-31T06:18:05.823+05:30"Astounding Science Fiction", December 1942 (ed John W Campbell, Jr) (magazine, free): Annotated table of contents<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download/kdjysbhaz1xl52e/Astounding_Science_Fiction_v30%5Cn04_%5B1942-12.Street%26Smith%5D_(dtsg0318).cbr" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Cover by William Timmins of Astounding Science Fiction magazine, December 1942 issue" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgatLXkSkO6uUOdkX9n-DBYA4lMn4FEbHk_lg6jyQyvgYXbZ1fr9oPrcvkeEl0oz3-YKIgPq7NqOCYwi8VDSTRRk5GlzyT1PVKNKbxXIbHDLTjnQz40W0CsfuzzrcZrVtsAWM7eb5PSzAY/s1600/Astounding+Science+Fiction,+December+1942+(cover).JPG" style="border: none;" /></a>"<b>The Weapon Shop</b>" is among the best known stories of the genre. "<b>Piggy Bank</b>" is among the more pulpish stories of Kuttner/Moore, but features a very curious robot.<br />
<br />
Where I have a separate post on a story, link on its title goes there. Link on author's name fetches more fiction of author.<br />
<br />
<i>Note</i>: Flash fiction pieces in this issue don't have their individual entries in table of contents, but are bunched together in a single entry called "<b>Probability Zero</b>".<br />
<h4>
Table of contents.</h4>
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li>[novelette] <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.in/search/label/A%20E%20van%20Vogt?max-results=100">A E van Vogt</a>'s "<a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.in/2008/05/e-van-vogt-weapon-shop-aka-weapon-shops.html"><b>The Weapon Shop</b></a>": "The shop was small--a little place that materialized out of nowhere. Yet, though the old man didn't realize--all the power of a world empire could not break it!"</li>
<li>[novelette] <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.in/search/label/Cleve%20Cartmill?max-results=100">Cleve Cartmill</a>'s "<a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/2013/07/cleve-cartmill-some-day-well-find-you.html"><b>Some Day We'll Find You</b></a>" (B): Three groups of capitalists want to fund the commercialization of a certain invention by a broke engineer...</li>
<li>[novelette] <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.in/search/label/Henry%20Kuttner?max-results=100">Henry Kuttner</a> & <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.in/search/label/C%20L%20Moore?max-results=100">C L Moore</a>'s "<b>Piggy Bank</b>" (as by <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Lewis%20Padgett?max-results=100">Lewis Padgett</a>) (B): "The robot was a rabbit--or had that psychology. He had a
diamond-studded body, & was trained to be untouchable. Even his
owner could not touch him--without giving information that was suicide!"</li>
<li>[ss] <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.in/search/label/A%20E%20van%20Vogt?max-results=100">A E van Vogt</a> & E Mayne Hull's "<a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.in/2013/07/a-e-van-vogt-e-mayne-hull-flight-that.html"><b>The Flight That Failed</b></a>" (as by <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.in/search/label/E%20M%20Hull?max-results=100">E M Hull</a>) (C): Making a future happen where Germany loses the WWII!</li>
<li>[ss] <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.in/search/label/Ross%20Rocklynne?max-results=100">Ross Rocklynne</a>'s "<a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.in/2013/07/ross-rocklynne-interlude-short-story.html"><b>Interlude</b></a>" (B): When a caveman freed an advanced civilization of a dictator...</li>
<li>[ss] <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.in/search/label/Frank%20Belknap%20Long?max-results=100">Frank Belknap Long</a>'s "<b>To Follow Knowledge</b>": "A strange tale of
pluralities of worlds, of a theory based on the hypothesis that, in
infinity, everything must happen not once, but many times." </li>
<li>[ss] <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.in/search/label/Robert%20Moore%20Williams?max-results=100">Robert Moore Williams</a>' "<b>Johny Had a Gun</b>": "Johny was a gangster, a
small-time punk. But Johny showed up with a gun one night, in an alley
fight, that was not small-time stuff--"</li>
<li>[ff] William M Danner's "<b>True Fidelity</b>".</li>
<li>[ff] Stanley Woolston's "<b>The Human Bomb</b>". </li>
<li>[ff] Jack Bivins' "<b>Valadusia</b>".</li>
<li>[ff] T D Whitenack, Jr's "<b>O'Ryan, the Invincible</b>".</li>
<li>[ff] Frank J Smythe's "<b>My Word!</b>".</li>
<li>[ff] L M Jensen's "<b>Take-Off</b>".</li>
</ol>
<h4>
<span style="font-size: 100%;">Fact sheet.</span></h4>
<i>Labeled</i>: Vol XXX No 4.<br />
Download <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download/kdjysbhaz1xl52e/Astounding_Science_Fiction_v30%5Cn04_%5B1942-12.Street%26Smith%5D_(dtsg0318).cbr">scans as a CBR file</a>. [via David T @pulpscans] <br />
<i>Related</i>: Fiction from <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.in/search/label/Analog?max-results=100"><i>Astounding</i>/<i>Analog</i></a> (<a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.in/search/label/Campbell%27s%20Astounding">only from issues edited by John Campbell</a>) (<a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.in/2012/08/analogastounding-magazine-issues-index.html">whole issues only</a>); <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.in/search/label/pulp?max-results=100">old pulps</a>; <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.in/search/label/1940s?max-results=100">1940s</a>. </div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7172359179613729870.post-50546067431320742342010-07-07T23:30:00.002+05:302010-07-08T23:36:37.216+05:30Henry Kuttner & C L Moore's "Open Secret" (as by Lewis Padgett) (short story, free): Men have created a monster<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7172359179613729870" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Illustration accompanying the original appearance in Astounding Science-Fiction, April 1943, of short story Open Secret by Henry Kuttner and C L Moore" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizADnEoLi4NIwXANT0R-YsZ_604LNiJy6ncpped0D-wMHWsrZngN53BvAAi8iC7ui4QGeUedbLtFYXmEvXxtVAr2UZJDGkiRHj6iURPW_xz6bkuPRjOlnjBjORkuuSpOyYKm7M17zyqDM/s200/Henry+Kuttner+%26+C+L+Moore+-+Open+Secret+%28illustration%29.JPG" width="166" /></a></div>Not among the better stories of authors, & with many familiar plot elements.<br />
<h4>Story summary.</h4>Mike Jerrold has accidentally discovered the existence of intelligent robots - something that is not supposed to exist. As he gets deeper into the discovery, he finds that they're actually the masters of humanity - driving the world towards a destiny of their own choosing, & there is nothing anyone can do about it.<br />
<br />
We're given a hypothesis about how they came to be: "Suppose you make a perfect solvent. What would happen? It would dissolve anything you put it in. You could make it, but you couldn't keep it. Intelligent robots are like that." The first successfully created robot "processed the scientist [its creator], so Dr Jones thought he had failed; it left another, useless robot in its place, & it went out & hid. It didn't like this world. It wanted something different. So it simply set out to change the world".<br />
<h4><span style="font-size: 100%;">Fact sheet.</span></h4><span style="font-style: italic;">First published</span>:<span style="font-style: italic;"> <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Analog?max-results=100">Astounding</a></span>, April <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/1943?max-results=100">1943</a>.<br />
Download full text as part of <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/2010/03/astounding-science-fiction-april-1943.html">the scans of Astounding issue where it originally appeared</a>.<br />
<a href="http://arthur-clarke-fansite.blogspot.com/2007/04/note-my-on-story-quality-ratings.html" style="font-style: italic;">Rating</a>: B.<br />
Among <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/2008/08/astounding-analog-of-cambell-annotated.html">the stories from John Campbell's <span style="font-style: italic;">Astounding</span>/<span style="font-style: italic;">Analog</span></a>.<br />
<span style="font-style: italic;">Related</span>: Stories of <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Henry%20Kuttner?max-results=100">Henry Kuttner</a>, <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/C%20L%20Moore?max-results=100">C L Moore</a> (as by <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Lewis%20Padgett?max-results=100">Lewis Padgett</a>).<a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Fritz%20Leiber?max-results=100"></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7172359179613729870.post-55754168944434425632010-05-20T23:30:00.038+05:302010-05-21T20:50:47.769+05:30Henry Kuttner & C L Moore's "Jesting Pilot" (as by Lewis Padgett) (short story, free): Hypnotized are looking for realityHere is a subject where may be no one has had a good enough story. It's readable, but among the more mundane ones from these authors.<br />
<h4>Story summary.</h4>An impenetrable fortress where everyone is kept "sane" under permanent hypnosis! Fortress was created 600 years ago in a world gone bonkers.<br />
<br />
Now the hypnosis is failing for one of the city's "citizens". How do the "controllers" help him?<br />
<br />
He will eventually get help. But "controllers" are now beginning to doubt reality as well...<br />
<h4><span style="font-size: 100%;">Fact sheet.</span></h4><span style="font-style: italic;">First published</span>: <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Analog?max-results=100"><i>Astounding</i></a>, May <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/1947?max-results=100">1947</a>.<br />
<a href="http://henrykuttner.bravehost.com/Kuttner,%20Henry%20-%20Jesting%20Pilot.html">Download full text</a>.<br />
<a href="http://arthur-clarke-fansite.blogspot.com/2007/04/note-my-on-story-quality-ratings.html" style="font-style: italic;">Rating</a>: B.<br />
Among <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/2008/08/astounding-analog-of-cambell-annotated.html">the stories from Astounding/Analog issues edited by John Campbell</a>.<br />
<i>Related</i>: Stories of <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Henry%20Kuttner?max-results=100">Henry Kuttner</a>, <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/C%20L%20Moore?max-results=100">C L Moore</a> (as by <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Lewis%20Padgett?max-results=100">Lewis Padgett</a>); <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/1940s?max-results=100">fiction from 1940s</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7172359179613729870.post-53753689134290451252010-03-25T23:30:00.010+05:302010-03-26T18:49:20.170+05:30Henry Kuttner & C L Moore's "Gallegher Plus" (as by Lewis Padgett) (novelette, humor, free)<img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 170px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikbarBdKE6ourClvEkK7zhA_bMDRgHkNr4SIOFk2KOmToZNWEvJJNe-Cu8Pd3SYifFl0hW64ND5qUvPZJtdA0MveHFWEjfPLU38Sw15165q1knwCZdyDyUrXHAbOK2gZp_Ddom0RtfxmE/s200/Henry+Kuttner+%26+C+L+Moore+-+Gallegher+Plus+%28as+by+Lewis+Padgett%29.GIF" alt="Quote from short story Gallegher Plus by Henry Kuttner and C L Moore, writing under their joint pseudonym Lewis Padgett" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452604011888097458" border="0" />Eccentric inventor, Galloway Gallegher, who's a genius only when totally drunk, has just sobered up - to find a curious looking machine of unfathomable purpose sitting in his room, & his back yard turned into a pit!<br /><br />He will soon learn he'd collected payment from 3 different parties, including an agency of the US government, as part of a commission to build each of those parties something or the other! He also seems to have invested in a stock that has just crashed, against his broker's advise. He's no recollection of any of these, but the curious machine in his room must, of course, be the key to the problem.<br /><br />We go through the now familiar crazy sequence of Gallegher stories unraveling the mystery...<br /><h4>Notes.</h4> <ol><li>Title, Gallegher Plus, is used as the <span style="font-style: italic;">name</span> of the genius <span style="font-style: italic;">subconscious</span> of Gallegher!</li></ol><h4>See also.</h4> <ol><li>Henry Kuttner & C L Moore's "<a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/2008/02/henry-kuttner-c-l-moore-proud-robot.html">The Proud Robot</a>" (<a href="http://henrykuttner.bravehost.com/Kuttner,%20Henry%20-%20The%20Proud%20Robot.html">download</a>): First & the best known of Gallegher stories. Also a science fiction classic.</li></ol><h4><span style="font-size:100%;">Fact sheet.</span></h4><span style="font-style: italic;">First published</span>: <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Analog?max-results=100"><span style="font-style: italic;">Astounding</span></a>, November <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/1943?max-results=100">1943</a>.<br /><a href="http://henrykuttner.bravehost.com/Kuttner,%20Henry%20-%20Gallegher%20Plus.html">Download full text</a> (I haven't personally read this online copy).<br /><a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://arthur-clarke-fansite.blogspot.com/2007/04/note-my-on-story-quality-ratings.html">Rating</a>: A.<br />Among <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/2008/08/astounding-analog-of-cambell-annotated.html">the stories from <span style="font-style: italic;">Astounding</span>/<span style="font-style: italic;">Analog</span> issues edited by John Campbell</a>.<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Related</span>: <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Jack%20Vance?max-results=100"></a>Stories of <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Henry%20Kuttner?max-results=100">Henry Kuttner</a>, <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/C%20L%20Moore?max-results=100">C L Moore</a> (as by <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Lewis%20Padgett?max-results=100">Lewis Padgett</a>); <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/1940s?max-results=100">fiction from 1940s</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7172359179613729870.post-5770765547281730882010-03-11T23:30:00.004+05:302010-03-12T20:24:44.892+05:30Henry Kuttner & C L Moore's "Shock" (as by Lewis Padgett) (short story, time travel, free): Curiosity killed the cat!One fine day, Manning Gregg, the physicist, was at home & saw a hole suddenly appearing in his apartment's wall - a hole from which emerged a curious-looking man! This is the man from future, & he's looking for something in our time.<br /><br />As Halison, the future man, goes out on his quest, Gregg cannot curb his curiosity to check out the future - so he crawls through the hole to future, to eventually find to his horror that...<br /><h4>See also.</h4><ol><li><a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Robert%20Heinlein?max-results=100">Robert Heinlein</a>'s "<span style="font-weight: bold;">By His Bootstraps</span>" & <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Ted%20Chiang?max-results=100">Ted Chiang</a>'s "<a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/2008/01/ted-chiang-merchant-and-alchemists-gate.html">Merchant & Alchemist's Gate</a>" (download <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20080803223346/http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/fiction/tc01.htm">text</a>/<a href="http://cdn2.libsyn.com/starshipsofa/Ted_Chiang_The_Merchant_and_the_Alchemists_Gate.mp3">MP3</a>) both feature time travel gadgets similar to that in this story.</li></ol><h4><span style="font-size:100%;">Fact sheet.</span></h4><span style="font-style: italic;">First published</span>: <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Scientific%20Indian?max-results=100"><span style="font-style: italic;"></span></a><a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Analog?max-results=100"><span style="font-style: italic;">Astounding</span></a>, March <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/1943?max-results=100">1943</a>.<br /><a href="http://henrykuttner.bravehost.com/Kuttner,%20Henry%20-%20Shock.html">Download full text</a>.<br /><a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://arthur-clarke-fansite.blogspot.com/2007/04/note-my-on-story-quality-ratings.html">Rating</a>: B.<br />Among <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/2008/08/astounding-analog-of-cambell-annotated.html">the stories from John Campbell's <span style="font-style: italic;">Astounding</span>/<span style="font-style: italic;">Analog</span></a>.<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Related</span>: Stories of <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Henry%20Kuttner?max-results=100">Henry Kuttner</a>, <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/C%20L%20Moore?max-results=100">C L Moore</a> (as by <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Lewis%20Padgett?max-results=100">Lewis Padgett</a>); <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/1940s?max-results=100">fiction from 1940s</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7172359179613729870.post-51865048531678928562010-03-02T23:26:00.002+05:302010-03-02T23:26:00.626+05:30Free fiction: 2 novels selected by the editors of Galaxy Science Fiction magazineBoth at Internet Archive in multiple formats:<br /><ol><li>Galaxy Science Fiction Novel #17: <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Henry%20Kuttner?max-results=100">Henry Kuttner</a> & <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/C%20L%20Moore?max-results=100">C L Moore</a>'s "<span style="font-weight: bold;">Well of the Worlds</span>" (as by <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Lewis%20Padgett?max-results=100">Lewis Padgett</a>); <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/Well_Of_The_Worlds_Galaxy_17_">download</a>.</li><li>Galaxy Science Fiction Novel #20: <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Murray%20Leinster?max-results=100">Murray Leinster</a>'s "<span style="font-weight: bold;">The Black Galaxy</span>"; <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/Galaxy_Number_20_The_Black_Galaxy_">download</a>.</li></ol><span style="font-style: italic;">Related</span>: <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Galaxy%20magazine?max-results=100">Fiction from <span style="font-style: italic;">Galaxy</span> magazine</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7172359179613729870.post-62417427066238076962010-01-14T23:30:00.002+05:302010-01-15T00:30:59.526+05:30Henry Kuttner & C L Moore's "Time Enough" (as by Lewis Padgett) (short story, immortality, free): Sometimes the best argument is a demonstration<img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 109px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxCh-l9P9S5J7eID_l5J6cpVg3AGsAXIp-G911nvRhLVg4dQZZaYnEdzTRsTuP325GsN1Lh83lHW1kG4_qNASvWC7BmjgOLI-mAHcbjcT7y0V0Vgu6EZABCVC21rBUb3zbNYNK6ogfk2M/s200/Henry+Kuttner+%26+C+L+Moore+-+Time+Enough.GIF" alt="Quote from short story titled Time Enough by Henry Kuttner and C L Moore, writing under their joint pseudonym Lewis Padgett" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5421055364183996018" border="0" />Parts of it feel like <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Mary%20Shelley?max-results=100">Mary Shelley</a>'s "<a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/2008/09/mary-wollstonecraft-shelley-mortal.html">The Mortal Immortal</a>" (<a href="http://www.wondersmith.com/scifi/mortal.htm">download</a>).<br /><h4>Story summary.</h4>A nuclear catastrophe destroyed most human culture & artifacts. Among the human survivors were a few people with a mutation - they were practically immortal. Immortal, but aging in a natural way - so senility, bodily troubles, etc are norm among them.<br /><br />Now, 500 years down, a new human civilization has arisen. With "Old 'Uns" isolated by the government to avoid envy among the normals.<br /><br />But Sam Dyson, working with radiation in a lab, has figured out a way to achieve immortality. How do the powers-that-be convince him to give it up? Well - they do have an effective argument, but it doesn't involve speaking...<br /><h4><span style="font-size:100%;">Fact sheet.</span></h4><span style="font-style: italic;">First published</span>: <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Analog?max-results=100"><span style="font-style: italic;"></span></a><a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Analog?max-results=100"><span style="font-style: italic;">Astounding</span></a>, December <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/1946?max-results=100">1946</a>.<br /><a href="http://www.henrykuttner.bravehost.com/Kuttner,%20Henry%20-%20Time%20Enough.html">Download full text</a>.<br /><a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://arthur-clarke-fansite.blogspot.com/2007/04/note-my-on-story-quality-ratings.html">Rating</a>: B.<br />Listed among <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/2008/08/astounding-analog-of-cambell-annotated.html">the stories from John Campbell's <span style="font-style: italic;">Astounding</span>/<span style="font-style: italic;">Analog</span></a>.<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Related</span>: <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Henry%20Kuttner?max-results=100">Stories of Henry Kuttner</a>, <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/C%20L%20Moore?max-results=100">C L Moore</a> (as by <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Lewis%20Padgett?max-results=100">Lewis Padgett</a>); <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/immortality?max-results=100">Stories involving immortality</a>; <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/mutant?max-results=100">Mutants in fiction</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7172359179613729870.post-30704037998708143522009-08-28T00:59:00.005+05:302009-08-28T01:15:13.778+05:30Henry Kuttner & C L Moore's "Three Blind Mice" (as by Lewis Padgett) (novelette, racism, free): Racist organization needs to be nipped in the bud<img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 165px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4cZlaXZuGyN-ctcgEpqvv7RyRqY3qI6I_sR9qtcigXf_JG_3jXp6lyROWUA4W0IQUXTYwgkQLAzvEjJJmO6rZO5XqMxj1vWhWgntzuv2LgidA1QRIsQ1-tL6YnQVBxLcKkiFrWLvn724/s200/Henry+Kuttner+%26+C+L+Moore+-+Three+Blind+Mice+%28as+by+Lewis+Padgett%29.GIF" alt="Quote from short story titled Three Blind Mice by Henry Kuttner and C L Moore, under the pseudonym Lewis Padgett" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5374729003857187554" border="0" />For background, see "<a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/2009/08/henry-kuttner-c-l-moore-mutant-as-by.html">Mutant</a>" page.<br /><br />Radiation-induced mutations after "Blowout" had added 3 minority classes of hairless telepathic humans ("Baldies") to majority normals - "mad, sane, sane-paranoid":<br /><ol><li><span style="font-style: italic;">mad</span> pose no threat to anyone & are an institutional case</li><li><span style="font-style: italic;">sane</span> can live in normal society if they are careful not to take undue advantage of their telepathic abilities vis-a-vis normals, &</li><li><span style="font-style: italic;">paranoids</span> who think they're homo superior & would rather live in a world without normal homo sapiens.</li></ol>David Barton - a sane Baldy & a trained hunter - must destroy the infant gang of 3 "paranoids" who have discovered a telepathic communications band invisible to other Baldies & using which they intend to raise an organization whose aim is to purge the world of normals.<br /><h4>Collected in.</h4><ol><li><a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Henry%20Kuttner?max-results=100">Henry Kuttner</a> & <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/C%20L%20Moore?max-results=100">C L Moore</a>'s "<a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/2009/08/henry-kuttner-c-l-moore-mutant-as-by.html">Mutant</a>" (collection).</li></ol><h4><span style="font-size:100%;">Fact sheet.</span></h4><span style="font-size:100%;"> <span style="font-style: italic;">First published</span>: </span><span style="font-style: italic;"></span><a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Analog?max-results=100"><span style="font-style: italic;">Astounding</span></a>, June <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/1945?max-results=100">1945</a>.<br /><a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://arthur-clarke-fansite.blogspot.com/2007/04/note-my-on-story-quality-ratings.html">Rating</a>: B.<br />Read full text at <a href="http://www.wowio.com/users/product.asp?BookId=4767"><span style="font-style: italic;">WOWIO</span></a> as part of <span style="font-style: italic;">Mutant</span> collection (no download) (needs <span style="font-style: italic;">a lot of</span> clicks to reach the story text).<br />This is the second story of authors' <span style="font-style: italic;">Baldy series</span>.<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Related</span>: Stories of <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Henry%20Kuttner?max-results=100">Henry Kuttner</a>, <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/C%20L%20Moore?max-results=100">C L Moore</a> (as by <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Lewis%20Padgett?max-results=100">Lewis Padgett</a>).<br />Listed among <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/2008/08/astounding-analog-of-cambell-annotated.html">the stories from John Campbell's <span style="font-style: italic;">Astounding</span>/<span style="font-style: italic;">Analog</span></a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7172359179613729870.post-35468973559949629892009-08-19T23:30:00.004+05:302009-08-28T01:13:14.584+05:30Henry Kuttner & C L Moore's "The Piper's Son" (as by Lewis Padgett) (novelette, racism, free): Zero tolerance for racists poisoning children's minds<img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 178px; height: 90px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCv2ShKYrC433DMmYdprFnLo9IPEqJUJVxvLHM7FheQp37otG9Y0POHKKM4NeLI26GmPK-hZsTk1_829yyXVuua-Qc6DYYQiRRPKAIwwlUMcmqmNba_VDU5gsLUeEiMO35qluOc8uy2Mg/s200/Henry+Kuttner+%26+C+L+Moore+-+The+Piper%27s+Son+%28as+by+Lewis+Padgett%29.GIF" alt="Quote from short story titled The Pipers Son by Henry Kuttner and C L Moore, writing under their joint pseudonym Lewis Padgett" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5371663728672876770" border="0" />Ed Burkhalter, of the minority community of "Baldy" telepaths that must be ever watchful against antagonizing far more numerous normal humans because retaliations would be fatal, has just learned about the "I'm of superior race" type of behavior of his 8-year old son Al.<br /><br />Probing the child, he learns of a Baldy man named Venner behind the racial superiority propaganda to poison the children's mind. He & others of Baldy race must now take action against this man...<br /><h4>Collected in.</h4><ol><li><a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Henry%20Kuttner?max-results=100">Henry Kuttner</a> & <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/C%20L%20Moore?max-results=100">C L Moore</a>'s "<a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/2009/08/henry-kuttner-c-l-moore-mutant-as-by.html">Mutant</a>" (collection).</li><li><a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Isaac%20Asimov?max-results=100">Isaac Asimov</a> & <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Martin%20Greenberg?max-results=100">Martin H Greenberg</a> (Eds)' "Isaac Asimov Presents Great SF Stories 7 (1945)".</li></ol><h4><span style="font-size:100%;">Fact sheet.</span></h4><span style="font-size:100%;"> <span style="font-style: italic;">First published</span>: </span><span style="font-style: italic;"></span><a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Analog?max-results=100"><span style="font-style: italic;">Astounding</span></a>, February <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/1945?max-results=100">1945</a>.<br /><a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://arthur-clarke-fansite.blogspot.com/2007/04/note-my-on-story-quality-ratings.html">Rating</a>: B.<br />Read full text at <a href="http://www.wowio.com/users/product.asp?BookId=4767"><span style="font-style: italic;">WOWIO</span></a> as part of <span style="font-style: italic;">Mutant</span> collection (no download) (needs <span style="font-style: italic;">a lot of</span> clicks to reach the story text).<br />This is the first story of authors' <span style="font-style: italic;">Baldy series</span>.<br />Nominated for Retro <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Hugo%20award?max-results=100">Hugo Award</a> 1996 in novelette category.<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Related</span>: Stories of <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Henry%20Kuttner?max-results=100">Henry Kuttner</a>, <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/C%20L%20Moore?max-results=100">C L Moore</a> (as by <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Lewis%20Padgett?max-results=100">Lewis Padgett</a>).<br />Listed among <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/2008/08/astounding-analog-of-cambell-annotated.html">the stories from John Campbell's <span style="font-style: italic;">Astounding</span>/<span style="font-style: italic;">Analog</span></a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7172359179613729870.post-21761668786574835632009-08-19T00:28:00.010+05:302013-09-10T07:50:06.214+05:30Henry Kuttner & C L Moore's "Mutant" (as by Lewis Padgett) (collection, racism): Annotated table of contents & review<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<img alt="Cover image of the 1953 short story collection titled Mutant by Henry Kuttner and C L Moore, writing under their pseudonym Lewis Padgett" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5371384745643336466" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip-L0Pb-35RgRYcJlDBe0DglD5vhUMeI0ogifT4gTUhW6zm8V0_Rgu-vCNbju4G8j_Hz5E3WlVOg3YcfGZ2CuP85Q8U5yxH5UUq_w3yQfnlTjK91JwCndoyWpY0PjsrxDXtQt7xBicdWE/s200/Henry+Kuttner+and+C+L+Moore+-+Mutant+%28as+by+Lewis+Padgett%29.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; float: right; height: 200px; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; width: 135px;" />This is the first of a series of 6 posts - remaining ones on individual stories. Hopefully over the next fortnight or so.<br />
<br />
These are important stories. Going by the imitations I've seen, they define a useful template in which to set racism stories of the genre. These are also good reads, though not among the authors' best, & in spite of occasional feel of tediousness I got. I recall having seen at least one of the stories in one of the books of "<a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/2009/03/isaac-asimov-martin-h-greenberg-eds.html">Isaac Asimov Presents Great SF Stories</a>" series.<br />
<br />
All but last are from 1945, the last year of WWII. Series is a reaction to Hitler's brand of racism, though he's explicitly named only once - in "<a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/2009/08/henry-kuttner-c-l-moore-pipers-son-as.html">The Piper's Son</a>".<br />
<br />
Stories are generally novella or novelette length; nothing very short here.<br />
<br />
Stories need to be read in order; later stories make use of ideas & situations introduced in earlier ones.<br />
<h4>
Background.</h4>
A genetic mutation has created a new parallel race of humans called "baldies" (because of their remarkable lack of body hair). This is a race of telepaths.<br />
<br />
Baldies are numerically very few compared to normal humans. They are widely resented, or at least looked upon with suspicion, because they can potentially read normals' mind without the victim knowing. Because of numerical differences, baldies could also be wiped out if scales got really tipped against them.<br />
<br />
So baldies are very careful in their dealings with normal humans; in fact, they wear wig to hide the visible differences, & consciously not aspire to higher social positions. That's normal baldies. There are two deviant subraces too - one are mental cases, others racial supremacists who keep plotting to wipe out non-baldies.<br />
<br />
Stories are about the fight of normal baldies against the racial supremacist baldies. Normal baldies suspect that any precipitation of crisis with normal humans will result in complete wiping out of all baldies; normal humans don't distinguish between baldy variants.<br />
<br />
There will be much conflict, but a happy ending in last of the stories - where there is a promise that all of humanity can become telepaths - normal ones by wearing a certain device.<br />
<br />
The world it describes, or at least the US where the stories are set, has pretty much (administratively) independent city states where every such state maintains atom bomb piles as deterrence.<br />
<br />
Stories are all narrated via reminiscences of an accident victim who's stuck at a location where he cannot telepathically reach rest of humanity & is feeling very lonely.<br />
<h4>
Table of contents (in original order).</h4>
<span style="font-style: italic;">Note</span>: Will add annotations with individual stories as I post the series.<br />
My <a href="http://arthur-clarke-fansite.blogspot.com/2007/04/note-my-on-story-quality-ratings.html">rating</a> is in brackets.<br />
<ol>
<li>"<b><a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/2009/08/henry-kuttner-c-l-moore-pipers-son-as.html">The Piper's Son</a></b>" (B); <a href="http://henrykuttner.bravehost.com/Kuttner,%20Henry%20-%20The%20Piper%27s%20Son.html">download</a>; <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Analog?max-results=100"><span style="font-style: italic;">Astounding</span></a>, February <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/1945?max-results=100">1945</a>: Zero tolerance for racists poisoning children's minds.<br />
</li>
<li>"<b><a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/2009/08/henry-kuttner-c-l-moore-three-blind.html">Three Blind Mice</a></b>" (B); <a href="http://henrykuttner.bravehost.com/Kuttner,%20Henry%20-%20Three%20Blind%20Mice.html">download</a>; <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Analog?max-results=100"><span style="font-style: italic;">Astounding</span></a>, June <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/1945?max-results=100">1945</a>: Racist organization needs to be nipped in the bud.<br />
</li>
<li>"<b>The Lion and the Unicorn</b>"; <a href="http://henrykuttner.bravehost.com/Kuttner,%20Henry%20-%20The%20Lion%20and%20the%20Unicorn.html">download</a>; <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Analog?max-results=100"><span style="font-style: italic;">Astounding</span></a>, July <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/1945?max-results=100">1945</a>.</li>
<li>"<b>Beggers in Velvet</b>"; <a href="http://henrykuttner.bravehost.com/Kuttner,%20Henry%20-%20Beggars%20in%20Velvet.html">download</a>; <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Analog?max-results=100"><span style="font-style: italic;">Astounding</span></a>, December <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/1945?max-results=100">1945</a>.</li>
<li>"<b>Humpty Dumpty</b>"; <a href="http://henrykuttner.bravehost.com/Kuttner,%20Henry%20-%20Humpty%20Dumpty.html">download</a>; <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Analog?max-results=100"><span style="font-style: italic;">Astounding</span></a>, September <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/1953?max-results=100">1953</a>.</li>
</ol>
<h4>
<span style="font-size: 100%;">Fact sheet.</span></h4>
<span style="font-size: 100%;"> <span style="font-style: italic;">First published</span>: </span><a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/1953?max-results=100"><span style="font-style: italic;"></span>1953</a>.<br />
Read full text online at <a href="http://www.wowio.com/users/product.asp?BookId=4767"><span style="font-style: italic;">WOWIO</span></a>. I've not read this online version, but it appears to be the right one.<br />
<span style="font-style: italic;">Related</span>: Stories of <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Henry%20Kuttner?max-results=100">Henry Kuttner</a>, <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/C%20L%20Moore?max-results=100">C L Moore</a> (as by <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Lewis%20Padgett?max-results=100">Lewis Padgett</a>).<br />
Individual stories also listed among <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/2008/08/astounding-analog-of-cambell-annotated.html">the stories from John Campbell's <span style="font-style: italic;">Astounding</span>/<span style="font-style: italic;">Analog</span></a>.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7172359179613729870.post-76984299562319756702009-03-21T23:24:00.002+05:302009-03-21T23:24:00.677+05:30Free fiction: Klint Finley's "Evolution of the mutant in popular fiction" at Renegade Futurist links some stories<a href="http://renegadefuturist.com/archives/2009/03/18/evolution-of-the-mutant-in-popular-fiction/">Link</a>.<br /><br />Lists some relevant works, several of them with download links.<br /><br />Among the included links is one to an online copy of <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Henry%20Kuttner?max-results=100">Henry Kuttner</a> & <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/C%20L%20Moore?max-results=100">C L Moore</a>'s collection "Mutant" (as by <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Lewis%20Padgett?max-results=100">Lewis Padgett</a>). Very readable stories involving uncomfortable living side-by-side of normal humans & a telepathic branch of humanity. These stories are a reaction to Hitler's brand of racism, & occasionally the anger of authors becomes very visible.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7172359179613729870.post-14965517804778161892009-02-23T00:31:00.005+05:302009-02-24T01:13:44.238+05:30Henry Kuttner & C L Moore's "Private Eye" (as by Lewis Padgett) (novelette, crime)<img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 104px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkOsM7tVYp2om2FxEu9l7RoRE4mad8dSLIsxAnoVkrh8dkyR2UcnxzEpRbDLhn-kf9DfJqqougfvu01EWBj5fdDRX3dYNRn2UotHaz4b__nSKAyY4H8ra8JgcdkQhXVECyqAEjDSxeG8k/s200/Lewis+Padgett+-+Private+Eye.GIF" alt="Quote from short story titled Private Eye by Henry Kuttner and C L Moore, writing under the pseudonym Lewis Padgett" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5305701139754081058" border="0" />A world where we have a device that can see & hear things happening anywhere in the past - upto a range of some 50 years. Cops use it in investigations. But they cannot see <span style="font-style: italic;">inside</span> your mind - they can only observe your external actions.<br /><br />How do you kill someone & get acquitted, in spite of the fact that cops will see & hear everything you did - including in your life before the crime? That's what Sam Clay will do in this story. Very good read.<br /><br />Story is a bit longer than necessary, & drags on after acquittal. Parent/child relations is a theme in many stories of Kuttners'. It usually takes the form: "Children will do things that parents <span style="font-style: italic;">cannot</span>; will go places where parents <span style="font-style: italic;">cannot</span>. And that is the cause of much parental heartburn." It comes out most strongly in "<a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/2008/03/henry-kuttner-absalom-short-story.html">Absalom</a>", & is a major theme in "<a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/2008/01/lewis-padgett-mimsy-were-borogoves.html">Mimsy Were the Borogoves</a>" & "<a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/2008/08/henry-kuttner-c-l-moore-clash-by-night.html">When the Bough Breaks</a>".<br /><br />Here we have an variation of "<a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/2008/03/henry-kuttner-absalom-short-story.html">Absalom</a>": Both stories feature a father acting in a way that is not in the interests of the child, though probably with good intentions (from father's point of view). In "<a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/2008/03/henry-kuttner-absalom-short-story.html">Absalom</a>", son is too strong, & there are tragic consequences for father. Here, child is weak, & there are tragic consequences for the child.<br /><h4>Notes.</h4><ol><li>I think there is an <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Alfred%20Bester?max-results=100">Alfred Bester</a> novel with an even more stringent constraint on getting away with murder - telepathic society can know murderer's intentions before hand. But I haven't read it beyond first few pages, & cannot recollect the name.</li></ol><h4><span style="font-size:100%;">Fact sheet.</span></h4> <span style="font-size:100%;"> <span style="font-style: italic;">First published</span>: </span><a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Analog?max-results=100"><span style="font-style: italic;">Astounding</span></a>, January <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/1949?max-results=100">1949</a>.<br /><a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://arthur-clarke-fansite.blogspot.com/2007/04/note-my-on-story-quality-ratings.html"><span style="font-size:100%;"></span></a><a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://arthur-clarke-fansite.blogspot.com/2007/04/note-my-on-story-quality-ratings.html">Rating</a>: <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/A?max-results=100"><span style="font-size:100%;">A</span></a>.<a href="http://vintage.failed-dam.org/tomato.htm"></a><br />Listed among <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/2008/08/astounding-analog-of-cambell-annotated.html">the stories from John Campbell's Astounding/Analog</a>.<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Related</span>: Stories of <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Henry%20Kuttner?max-results=100">Henry Kuttner</a>, <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/C%20L%20Moore?max-results=100">C L Moore</a>. As by <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Lewis%20Padgett?max-results=100">Lewis Padgett</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7172359179613729870.post-73473442217677767982009-01-23T00:26:00.003+05:302009-01-23T00:59:41.506+05:30Free fiction: HTML version of the Henry Kuttner & C L Moore's "Mimsy Were the Borogoves" (as by Lewis Padgett)<a href="http://bestsciencefictionstories.com/2009/01/21/mimsy-were-the-borogoves-by-lewis-padgett/"><span style="font-style: italic;">Best Science Fiction Stories</span></a> links an <a href="http://odin.himinbi.org/text/Lewis%20Pagett%20-%20Mimsy%20Were%20the%20Borogoves.html">HTML version</a> of this very widely read story.<br /><br />Only online version I'd previously linked was <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/43321/Mimsy-were-the-borogoves-Lewis-Padgett-">one at <span style="font-style: italic;">scribd</span></a>. But that must be read online. Download requires registration, & has never worked for me even after registering.<br /><br /><a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Henry%20Kuttner?max-results=1000">Henry Kuttner</a> & <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/C%20L%20Moore?max-results=1000">C L Moore</a>'s "<a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/2008/01/lewis-padgett-mimsy-were-borogoves.html">Mimsy Were the Borogoves</a>" (as by <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Lewis%20Padgett?max-results=1000">Lewis Padgett</a>).Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7172359179613729870.post-87289430174544999142008-09-11T23:28:00.002+05:302008-09-11T23:28:00.649+05:30Henry Kuttner & C L Moore's "Mimsy Were the Borogoves" is online!<a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/2008/01/lewis-padgett-mimsy-were-borogoves.html">One of the most interesting science fiction stories by anyone</a> is <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/43321/Mimsy-were-the-borogoves-Lewis-Padgett-">online</a> at scribd. Note the author is officially Lewis Padgett, a joint pseudonym of Kuttner/Moore.<br /><br />While it can be read online by anyone, I think the downloads (in multiple formats) require registration. Not sure if registration is free.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7172359179613729870.post-29589489803465476062008-08-28T23:30:00.002+05:302008-09-01T20:05:29.327+05:30Henry Kuttner & C L Moore's "See You Later" (as by Lewis Padgett) (novelette, humor): It doesn't pay to enlist Hogbens in a bad deed!<img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSqS5DaXOTqE-ltVc1Wj6cF6htUdoqLFx76PPZMLrOVvACz2AUK2pTr_5GPq8oKm2gkNojOLHYSkpxmVbqMTbpr4DK8jM9EpHzNrKqjvNAahc_iC0lZw03TurNJirKYyVDXNlEW4Qxuvs/s320/Henry+Kuttner+%26+C+L+Moore+-+See+You+Later.GIF" alt="Quote from short story titled See You Later by Henry Kuttner and C L Moore" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5237669465793333170" border="0" />Indian readers will find the plot <span style="font-style: italic;">very</span> familiar - there are innumerable local stories, including many ancient Sanskrit ones, on the general idea: A demon, or occasionally an evil man, goes through a lot of pain to please some specific god. It's time for boon. He seeks a boon that will make him some kind of a despot. But god is smart. The boon is granted literally, leaving a loophole that will backfire on would-be despot at the critical hour.<br /><br />This is nowhere near as interesting as the almost magical first Hogbens story - "<a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/2008/02/henry-kuttner-exit-professor-short.html">Exit the Professor</a>." But it still made an interesting read.<br /><br />This is the first story in Hogbens series where Atlantis is explicitly mentioned; "grandpaw" was born there! At least I don't recall its mention in other two stories I've read from this series of 5 or 6. We also learn that the little baby is just "four hunnerd years old & big for his age - 'bout three hunnerd pounds"!<br /><h4>Story summary.</h4>Hogbens is a family of very long lived supermen mutants - now living an anonymous existence in some remote place in the US. More details on family in my earlier "<a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/2008/02/henry-kuttner-exit-professor-short.html">Exit the Professor</a>" post. In this story, they play the role of gods in Indian lore.<br /><br />They've very nasty neighbors - Yancey Tarbell & his 8 boys. During a mischief-causing mission at Hogbens' home (they thought they had stealthily entered to wreck havoc), the boys are accidentally killed - but not through any action of Hagbens. Hogbens are feeling remorse. That's how Yancey, the kid's dad & sole surviving member of family, will get his boon granted.<br /><br />What does Yancey want? It gets crazy & hilarious. 30 years ago & in a drunken state, he was stepped on at one of the New York suburban train stations. He could not trace the culprit in the crowds to get even. He now wants to get even!<br /><br />How? He still doesn't know who the culprit was. Well, <span style="font-style: italic;">if</span> the culprit is still alive, he must be one of the humans somewhere on earth!! If dead, he very likely would have married, & had kids. Yancey wants Hogbens to replicate him - one for each human anywhere on earth - men, women, & kids. They will place him "approximately two feet away from each human being." He plans to carry "a big, rusty monkey wrench". Each of his copies will hit corresponding victim with it "on top of the haid"! His copies will then be brought back into his unique current self.<br /><br />Hogbens grant the wish, with 3 constraints: each avatar will exist for 5 seconds (so he doesn't get beaten back in return), each avatar will be physically "the same size" & "exactly as strong" as the corresponding victim (so he doesn't have to face the more powerful & it's only fair!), & Hogbens are not among the people he's going to hit.<br /><br />A gadget to enable this is quickly put together - using "a washbasin & some old scrap iron" in "'bout ten minutes"! But before sending Yancey, the narrator Saunk Hogben wants to test the machine. Narrator also takes with him a "stick of firewood" which his avatars will hand out to every befuddled person in the world & "spit right smack in their eye". Saunk returns safely. Now Yancey goes. Each of his intended victim is not only angry, but has just been equipped with a club. "He never even had a chance to swing that monkey wrench. The whole world had got in the fust lick."<br /><br />Title comes from a little mistake in the replicating gadget. It actually sent the copies a week into future. So their village, included in the adventure, is still quiet. Wait till next week for some local retaliation. "See you later."<br /><h4>Fact sheet.</h4> <span style="font-style: italic;">First published</span>: <span style="font-style: italic;">Thrilling Wonder Stories</span>, June 1949.<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Related</span>: All stories of <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Henry%20Kuttner">Henry Kuttner</a>, <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/C%20L%20Moore">C L Moore</a> (as by <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Lewis%20Padgett">Lewis Padgett</a>); <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Hogbens">Hogben series</a>.<br /><a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://arthur-clarke-fansite.blogspot.com/2007/04/note-my-on-story-quality-ratings.html">Rating</a>: AUnknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7172359179613729870.post-44865730891309171672008-02-16T21:00:00.011+05:302010-03-25T21:32:46.208+05:30Henry Kuttner & C L Moore's "The Proud Robot" (short story, science fiction): A robot in love with itself<img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnVaq5rdredMonqB_g250l0Z13NCmxhQhFwIMBqB5ErAI0h6ls22k6JOZwm-XD7zo_jujqUY8PXDVEsYZB7nRxEuJcHfWDrKGqXA42796rouiXZZiZ5StofEOAsjKTduHrVs4zRuPGbSY/s400/Henry+Kuttner+%26+C+L+Moore+-+The+Proud+Robot.GIF" alt="Quote from short story titled The Proud Robot by Henry Kuttner and C L Moore" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5167604866674426386" border="0" />Apart from great entertainment, this hilarious story touches upon issues that are still relevant: frivolous patents to curtail competition, unconventional ways of distributing video that both annoys the content owners & hurts their bottomlines, & DRM (yes - DRM in a 1943 story!). While its technology is unrecognizable today, some of the issues remain relevant.<br /><br />But the best part of the story is humor - story to be read with suspended credulity.<br /><h4>Corporate fight.</h4>The story is set substantially later than 1980 in New York city. This is a world where movie theaters have all shut down. People prefer watching TV at home. Broadcasters hand out TV sets for free, but charge based on number of hours the set is tuned in.<br /><br />Two big operators are Vox-View Pictures, owned by Harrison Brock, & Sonatone Television Amusement Corp, owned by Ella Tone. The story is about their corporate fight - because Sontatone has invented a new device called "Magna enlarger" that changes the market dynamics, hurting Vox-View. Sontatone has also taken enough patents on the device to ensure the competition just cannot build a competitive device!<br /><br />What does Magna do? It takes the incoming broadcast, & makes it suitable for viewing on large screen. Sonatone have (re)opened a lot of movie theaters - all powered by Magna. Expensive ones show feeds of Sonatone, cheap ones show feeds of Vox-View. Of course, Vox-View doesn't get any share from theater earnings of its feed.<br /><br />There is a part that probably involves suspension of belief because of the age of the story. Watching broadcast on large screen in a cinema house has become fashionable, & Vox-View customers have been canceling their subscriptions - adding to its vows.<br /><br />And Sonatone has enough political connections that a court case will likely be lost. Vox-View needs a technical solution that doesn't violate Magna patents. It will eventually end up inventing DRM. But for that, we need to introduce Gallegher - an eccentric drunkard, but a brilliant inventor.<br /><br />But wait a moment. There is an irrelevant romantic thread behind this corporate competition. James, Ella's son, wants to marry Patsy, Harrison's daughter. And she is not interested. Hence the pressure tactic. But the story would still be the same without this marriage talk.<br /><h4>The complication.</h4>Harrison had hired Gallegher to work out a technical solution - at a time when Gallegher was in a drunken state. When the story opens, Gallegher is just sobering up. And finds himself in company of this no-good narcissist robot Joe. He has a vague recollection he built the robot for some purpose, but cannot recollect why!<br /><br />This is the state where he gets a visit from Harrison, reminding him of the project. He will also get another visitor - Kennicott, from whom Gallegher had recently purchased some diamonds. <span style="font-style: italic;">Powdered</span> form of those diamonds has apparently ended up inside Joe! Kennicott wants his payment - $12,000. Gallegher makes a promise & goes out to understand the project.<br /><br />While at Vox-View office, he will get a visit from Joe. How did Joe come to know he was there? Following dialog fragment enlightens us:<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">"How'd you know where to reach me?"</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">"I vastened you," the robot said... "I vastened you were at the Vox-View studios, with Patsy Brock."</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">"What's vastened?" Gallegher wanted to know.</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">"It's a sense I've got. You've nothing remotely like it, so I can't describe it to you. It's like a combination of sagrazi and prescience."</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">"Sagrazi?"</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">"Oh, you don't have sagrazi, either..."</span><br /><br />Anyway, Joe has come to inform Gallegher that Gallegher is now working for Sonatone rather than Vox-View!! "when Ella and James Tone came to the laboratory, ... I hypnotized them," Joe explained. "I made them think I was you. ... I signed the contract - it's your signature, by the way..."<br /><br />Why did Joe do this? "they offered a hundred thousand, and two thousand a week for five years. But I merely wanted enough to pay Kennicott and make sure he wouldn't come back and bother me." You see, he didn't like Kennicott!<br /><br />There will be a court case, but Gallegher cannot come out free because Joe is refusing to cooperate.<br /><h4>The resolution.</h4>Dejected, at home, Gallegher will eventually make Joe hypnotize himself. Because that way, Joe can perhaps appreciate hidden parts of his beauty - accessible only via his subconscious! It's during this state that robot will tell Gallegher why he was created: "You were drinking beer, ... You had trouble with the can opener. You said you were going to build a bigger and better can opener. That's me." OK - so we know Joe is a can opener!!<br /><br />Turns out - this revelation of purpose to Gallegher has taken away Joe's volition; he must now do what he is ordered. We will be told that the solution to Vox-View's problem is built into Joe: "You made me capable of a certain subsonic tone that Brock must broadcast at irregular time intervals over his televiews".<br /><br />We are told humans cannot feel these subsonics at audio amplification at homes, but the response at a bootleg theater's volume is different: "They can be felt as a faint, irrational uneasiness at first, which mounts to a blind, meaningless panic."<br /><br />Soon, bootleg theaters will lose their audience. And, by association, the expensive Sonatone theaters showing their own feed too will lose their customers. Heroes win!<br /><h4>See also.</h4><ol><li><a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/2008/04/lawrence-odonnell-vintage-season.html">Henry Kuttner & C L Moore's "Vintage Season"</a>: Another story that makes use of a device to create subsonics to create a sense of terror in people.<br /></li></ol><h4>Collected in.</h4><ol><li>"<a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/2008/02/lewis-padgett-twonky-short-story.html">The Best of Henry Kuttner</a>".</li><li>Raymond J Healy & <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/J%20Francis%20McComas?max-results=100">J Francis McComas</a> (Eds)' "<a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/2009/05/raymond-j-healy-j-francis-mccomas-eds.html">Adventures in Time and Space</a>".</li><li><a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Isaac%20Asimov?max-results=100">Isaac Asimov</a> & <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Martin%20Greenberg?max-results=100">Martin H Greenberg</a> (Eds)' "<a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/2009/09/isaac-asimov-martin-h-greenberg-eds.html">Isaac Asimov Presents the Great SF Stories 5 (1943)</a>".</li></ol><h4>Fact sheet.</h4>"The Proud Robot", short story, review<br />This story has also been published as by Lewis Padgett, joint pseudonym of the two authors.<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">First published</span>: Astounding Science Fiction, October 1943.<br /><a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://arthur-clarke-fansite.blogspot.com/2007/04/note-my-on-story-quality-ratings.html">Rating</a>: A<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Related</span>: All stories by <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Henry%20Kuttner">Henry Kuttner</a>, <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/C%20L%20Moore">C L Moore</a> & as <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Lewis%20Padgett">Lewis Padgett</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7172359179613729870.post-34846444321383970292008-02-11T19:56:00.003+05:302008-09-27T20:33:50.838+05:30Henry Kuttner & C L Moore's "Exit the Professor" (short story, fantasy): Threatening your betters can have dangerous consequences<img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl4ycLgk_VQIe1HBp0vp-85KYkvSZHk81-vqFH6YfEldxm9k1ogdgBFh9yCKibtGaJwq-AzCMLlZylc7GpBxaPjXZreYA4_Fo0WO9pqHlEQ26WycAaZyBwMiodXoBaZm0jvabBlnhvOb4/s400/Henry+Kuttner+%26+C+L+Moore+-+Exit+the+Professor.GIF" alt="Quote from short story titled Exit the Professor by Henry Kuttner and C L Moore, sometimes as by Lewis Padgett" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5165731444889584114" border="0" />Combine the best of Mike Resnick's <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/2007/11/mike-resnick-lucifer-jones-series-of.html">Lucifer Jones</a> with Kuttner's own "<a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/2008/02/lewis-padgett-twonky-short-story.html">The Twonky</a>", & add bits of Arabian Nights, Theodore Sturgeon's "<a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/2008/01/theodore-sturgeon-more-than-human-novel.html">More Than Human</a>", & the magical remedies of the druid Getafix from Asterix, & you get this tale of magic. Lovely humor.<br /><h4>Story summary.</h4>An nuclear accident in England exposed a lot of people to radiation - killing nearly all, but turning the Hogbens family into freaks with powers of gods themselves. The family has since been consciously avoiding mainstream society, & hiding their powers. Now based in Kaintuck, US, they comprise of "grandpaw", "maw", "paw", uncle Les, Little Sam, & Saunk (the narrator & a youngster).<br /><br />We are not shown all their powers, but some of them are: ability to turn invisible; ability to fly; effortlessly & intuitively build gadgets that will befuddle the best engineers, but without the slightest idea of the underlying principles; ability to change the size of physical objects; ...<br /><br />And yes - Little Sam has two heads, throws out subsonics when he cries, & is telepathic & sometimes used as a sort of telephone exchange when family members want to talk to each other over long distances!<br /><br />Of course, people get curious. Sometimes, too curious for their own good. Like with "the Haley boys" a while back who claimed Little Sam was a freak & had three "haids" rather than only two! Well, the narrator & his maw rigged up a shotgun gadget & killed them! There was warning from Sheriff Abernathy but nothing could be proved. Grandpaw has now forbidden killing, "for a while, at least".<br /><br />Now, this "Perfesser Thomas Galbraith", a biogeneticist, from some New York foundation has come visiting & is showing too much curiosity. We get some fun during his visit to Hogbens' home. During the later part of his trip, he has been getting interested in the shotgun gadget lying around. You see - it makes holes in things. It doesn't need to be loaded: "Trouble with a shotgun is you gotta keep loading it. We sorta thought if we hooked on a few things it wouldn't need loading no more." Saunk & maw had quickly rigged up a ray gun! Anyway, Saunk lets Professor take the gun back to his hotel for testing.<br /><br />Saunk had promised the Prof he will go with him to New York, but grandpaw has forbidden this. So he goes to tell Prof at his hotel. But Prof keeps threatening to bring down a commission to study them! Saunk quickly tinkers the shotgun lying around room, & coaxes the Prof to try it out. Prof will take the shot from his hotel room window at some roof based target - with Sheriff watching from somewhere on the ground & Saunk turned invisible.<br /><br />The effect of gunshot is - half the city begins having a severe toothache, including the Sheriff!! You see, Saunk had rigged the gadget so it will turn gold throughout the city radioactive! Not only do a lot of people have gold fillings, church's decorative glass has some gold impurity & the priest is puzzled why it had become so hot to touch.<br /><br />Anyway, Prof is arrested & there is a mob out to lynch him. Sheriff wants the Prof to fix things before mob gets him. Saunk visits the Prof in lockup, & promises to fix the shotgun.<br /><br />A discussion among Hogbens telepathically later will conclude that Prof will still get the commission after them; so they really need to take care of him.<br /><br />OK - Sheriff has Prof taken to his hotel room. Wants Prof to first try the fixed gadget on him. And gets his toothache fixed. Now rest of the affected in the city are collected in the Town Hall for the treatment - only the Hogbens will tinker with the gadget again after turning themselves invisible.<br /><br />Gunshot fired by Prof. Toothache of all assembled in the Town Hall gone. Also gone is everything that does not "grow" - like their gold fillings & their cloths!<br /><br />Mob is again after the Prof. The kind Hogbens rescue him from the mob, & end up taking care of his threat of a commission too. See - they make him tiny & put him in a bottle!! "Sometimes we take out the bottle we keep him in and study him"!<br /><h4>Related.</h4><ol><li>All stories by <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Henry%20Kuttner">Henry Kuttner</a>, <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/C%20L%20Moore">C L Moore</a> (as by <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Lewis%20Padgett">Lewis Padgett</a>).</li><li><a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Hogbens">Hogben series</a>.<br /></li></ol><h4>Collected in.</h4><ol><li>"<a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/2008/02/lewis-padgett-twonky-short-story.html">The Best of Henry Kuttner</a>"</li></ol><h4>Fact sheet.</h4>"Exit the Professor", short story, review<br />This story has also been published as by Lewis Padgett, joint pseudonym of the two authors.<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">First published</span>: Thrilling Wonder Stories, October 1947.<br /><a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://arthur-clarke-fansite.blogspot.com/2007/04/note-my-on-story-quality-ratings.html">Rating</a>: AUnknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7172359179613729870.post-66093416298750954842008-02-06T23:28:00.002+05:302009-09-13T20:41:02.757+05:30Henry Kuttner & C L Moore's "The Iron Standard" (short story): When "man-hour standard" replaced "gold standard" for currency valuation<img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh60lvJNThrFW0rE8vLSpBT8c5eFWtH1pQKmOob51JjpcSdKA745b1Th42-P2740dle8rO3MLAKhRs9OPTvvtWniMWEdL87bqfOy0EawnNyzdBHO-sMTk2Z7cM-sUaUbZUgNuHPpb0m7U4/s400/Lewis+Padgett+-+The+Iron+Standard.GIF" alt="Quote from the short story titled The Iron Standard by Henry Kuttner & C L Moore, writing under their joint pseudonym Lewis Padgett" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5163933212559075538" border="0" />In spite of a fantasy setting on Venus, I think this funny & somewhat frivolous story is better classified as non-genre. An imaginary island in the tradition of Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels" would have worked as well.<br /><br />The story is about jolting a static civilization out of its slumber. Circumstances have made this jolting a survival issue for the heroes.<br /><br />I kept getting the impression the author was satirizing some political aspect of his era. May be you can see the political issues if you are familiar with the US of 1940s; they didn't mean anything to me.<br /><h4>Story summary.</h4> There is a group of 5 humans stranded on Venus, outside "the capital city, Vyring" of its world state. Year is "1964, three years after the first successful flight to Mars, five years since" moon landing. Moon "was uninhabited, save by active but unintelligent algae." "Martians ... had been friendly, and it was certain that the cultures of Mars and Earth would not clash." This expedition, on spaceship "Goodwill", was the first to explore Venus.<br /><br />They found a very habitable world, & a thriving civilization controlled by professional guilds (locally called "tarkomars"). Since most political power is in the hands of these guilds, those who control them have been thwarting all attempts at even minor social changes.<br /><br />Humans initially were warmly welcomed. They received a lot of hydroponically-grown local food as gift, & returned the welcome with earth-grown food they were carrying. The locals are so close to humans that each other's food is edible. And food available in the wild is utterly inedible - the reason locals have hydroponics in the first place. Don't ask how they evolved there!<br /><br />But "Earthmen meant change." So, after an initial honeymoon, there is "a boycott of the Earthmen." Locals will not be gifting food anymore. "They had no intention of harming the Earthmen; they remained carefully friendly. But from now on, it was pay as you're served."<br /><br />Humans don't have enough food left to return to earth. Local hydroponic food they have received till now spoils fast & is not suitable for long term storage; gifts they had received have already rotted away.<br /><br />Humans have gold, silver, etc. But they are abundant metals there. But iron is rare, & has the value that gold enjoys on earth. "Venus was on the iron standard" - hence the title.<br /><br />Explorers cannot contact earth for help. "Venus has a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennelly-Heaviside_layer">Heaviside layer</a>, so we can't wireless" earth!<br /><br />Local administration doesn't discriminate against humans. You can earn there & then buy food. But law requires that all workers be part of some guild; begging is legal, but even for that you need membership of Beggars' Guild! And membership requires an upfront payment in local currency!<br /><br />Jorust, sort of mayer of Vyring, is sympathetic to humans, but is helpless. She only enforces laws; she doesn't make them!<br /><br />Our heroes try a lot of tricks, all thwarted. One of them even builds an X-ray machine to sell to locals in return for money. "they were permitted to sell a self created device without belonging to a tarkomar". Even that is found to be illegal because it violates, in ways that only a lawyer can argue, local patents - owned & suppressed by guilds! One of these patents is on "sensitized film". When told the X-ray machine doesn't use film, another patent is produced - this one on "Machines employing vibration... Light is vibration"!!<br /><br />Ultimately, our heroes figure out a way to game the system. By replacing iron or gold standard with man-hour standard! Idea is: if a man earns X amount in an hour's work, & I suddenly make <span style="font-style: italic;">some</span> men in the economy capable of earning 2X, I have introduced an instability into the system. I can then bargain with those who don't want such instability.<br /><br />So someone concocts stamina-enhancement "Power Pills". Eat one, & if you are in a labor intensive job, you can do twice the work! Only problem is - humans cannot sell the pills unless they become guild members. So they would, instead, gift them! Now, gifting is an old tradition, & even Venusians had been gifting them food when they arrived - so there is a precedent.<br /><br />So we get a kind of fair at the "main plaza of Vyring". One member of the human contingent is showing stamina by digging a hole fast in the ground for long hours, other juggling balls, third stitching cloths, fourth typing/distributing pamphlets advertising the virtues of pills, ...<br /><br />Soon there is a crowd. And a cop. Then they are handing out the pills; more can be had at their camping site later. There are objections from cop & a visitor from guild, but they aren't really violating law by giving free gifts.<br /><br />Over the next few days, economy begins seeing changes. If two men were earning the same, & one was paid on hourly basis & other on number of units produced, second one is now suddenly earning more! Discontent among the former.<br /><br />Eventually, humans will make a blackmailing deal with the a guild president. Guild will pay them a certain amount of protection money, & they will stop distributing their free gifts!<br /><h4>The stranded earthmen.</h4> <ol><li>Captain Rufus Munn</li><li>Steve Thirkell</li><li>Barton Underhill - "supercargo and handy man"</li><li>Mike Soaring Eagle aka Redskin</li><li>Bronson - the engineer</li></ol><h4>Related.</h4><ol><li>All stories by <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Lewis%20Padgett">Lewis Padgett</a> (<a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Henry%20Kuttner">Henry Kuttner</a> & <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/C%20L%20Moore">C L Moore</a>).<br /></li></ol> <h4>Collected in.</h4><ol><li>"<a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/2008/02/lewis-padgett-twonky-short-story.html">The Best of Henry Kuttner</a>".</li><li><a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Isaac%20Asimov?max-results=100">Isaac Asimov</a> & <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Martin%20Greenberg?max-results=100">Martin H Greenberg</a> (Eds)' "<a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/2009/09/isaac-asimov-martin-h-greenberg-eds.html">Isaac Asimov Presents the Great SF Stories 5 (1943)</a>".<br /></li></ol><h4>Fact sheet.</h4><span style="font-style: italic;">First published</span>: Astounding Science Fiction, December 1943. Under the joint pseudonym Lewis Padgett - of Henry Kuttner & his wife C L Moore.<br /><a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://arthur-clarke-fansite.blogspot.com/2007/04/note-my-on-story-quality-ratings.html">Rating</a>: BUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7172359179613729870.post-42785728470666579722008-02-01T00:23:00.004+05:302009-05-30T14:39:42.771+05:30Henry Kuttner & C L Moore's "The Twonky" (short story, science fiction): A cocktail of humor & horror<img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUHC3fqOj2zvD2sm19ZLL5tGCiqmjQr_hJXNiW9jL8HLFPqrO-Wu8yOnjwA419ql0_ChyphenhyphenIyZd6qyS8ePnIR5WqIUZSstPXAE2ELBrM-I7GFZTYCpKM7jyUROxVQjV3CDiBMXZyhqF3VA4/s400/Henry+Kuttner+%26+C+L+Moore+-+The+Twonky.GIF" alt="Short story titled The Twonky by Henry Kuttner & C L Moore, original published under their joint pseudonym Lewis Padgett." id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5161717688039172274" border="0" />This one made me smile most of the way through, though I've seen its plot idea in at least 3 other stories - Kuttner/Moore's "<a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/2008/01/lewis-padgett-mimsy-were-borogoves.html">Mimsy Were the Borogoves</a>", Russell/Hugi's "<a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/2007/09/eric-frank-russell-maurice-g-hugis.html">Mechanical Mice</a>", & <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/2008/04/c-m-kornbluth-little-black-bag.html">C M Kornbluth's "The Little Black Bag"</a>: a <span style="font-style: italic;">very minor</span> toy of an advanced civilization ends up in human space, causing major upheaval.<br /><h4>Story summary. Act 1.</h4> Mickey Lloyd of Mideastern Radio (a maker of consumer audio equipment) is having attrition problems - lot of employee turnover. "So when the big-headed little man in overalls wandered vaguely out of a storeroom", Lloyd put him to work on assembly floor.<br /><br />The "little man" "Joe" is a bit dazed. He looks around - "Men in overalls were doing things. Simple, obvious things... Perhaps this was a kindergarten"! Of course he could do it; he was a trained "twonky" maker. "He began to build a Twonky... when he couldn't locate any tungsten, he hastily built a small gadget and made it"! He finished it, & gave it the external appearance of typical "console radio-phonograph combination" being assembled there. And being tired, he went to sleep in the shop.<br /><br />When he wakes up, the mists have cleared. Realized he "ran into a temporal snag!... went over to a corner, felt around in the air, nodded with satisfaction and seated himself on nothing, three feet above the floor. Then Joe vanished."<br /><br />OK - so this is how the "twonky" ended up in human space. It looks like a typical "console radio-phonograph combination", & is mixed up among other similar units.<br /><h4>Act 2.</h4> Second part of the story is of Kerry Westerfield, a teacher at a university. He lives somewhere with his wife Martha. And has just brought the new console - of course, the disguised twonky. He will soon discover the surprises.<br /><br />He is about to try the new console. He 'opened the doors ... A beam of bluish light shot out and hit him in the eyes. From the depths of the console a faint, thoughtful clicking proceeded. Abruptly it stopped... The radio said, ... "Psychology pattern checked and recorded."' Kerry thought he had tuned some funny radio station, & forgot about it.<br /><br />Thinks of picking up a cigarette. Lights, but first match stick went out. Is about to light another "when a faint noise caught his attention. The radio was walking across the room toward him. A whiplike tendril flicked out from somewhere, picked up a match, scratched it beneath the table top - as Kerry had done - and held the flame to the man's cigarette... When he could see again, the radio was back in its accustomed place."<br /><br />This walk of radio had pulled out the electric cord from wall socket; so he replaces it. He will soon find it's not necessary. The machine has some built in power source.<br /><br />Martha is to go out for a few days. Kerry drops her off, not knowing what ordeal he has in store.<br /><br />Over the next few days of living alone, he will discover that <span style="font-style: italic;">radio</span> walks over to kitchen to do his dishes, doesn't let him read certain books (physically snatches books it considers naughty from him), won't let him have more than one cup of coffee, will play some music but not other, ...!!! Looks like the twonky is some kind of a nursemaid & a censor. It can also manipulate his mind - e.g., to temporarily kill curiosity or initiative!<br /><br />As a reader, we need to remember twonky is kindergarten stuff - it's treating the subject as a child. Except for the gruesome ending.<br /><br />Kerry consults a friend & psychology teacher Mike Fitzgerald. Over the next few days, they will try all kinds of things & keep getting more & more puzzled.<br /><br />Eventually Martha is back. Kerry's initiative has been killed to the extent that he's behaving like a zombie. Martha calls Mike over. Learns the whole story. Mike has plans of wrecking the dangerous gadget. But gadget is far smarter - telepathically makes him forget the whole episode!<br /><br />Martha goes bonkers. Picks up a "hatchet" to destroy the radio. 'a beam of light shot out, and Martha vanished. A little dust floated up in the afternoon sunlight... "Destruction of life form threatening attack," the radio said'!<br /><br />By now Kerry is sober & has seen her death. Tries the same stunt. Gets killed the same way. And the machines says "Subject basically unsuitable... Elimination has been necessary... Preparation for next subject completed"!<br /><h4>Act 3.</h4> We see a new couple have brought the Westerfields place. And the estate agent seems to have some curiosity examining the radio...<br /><h4>Related.</h4><ol><li>All stories by <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Lewis%20Padgett">Lewis Padgett</a> (<a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Henry%20Kuttner">Henry Kuttner</a> & <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/C%20L%20Moore">C L Moore</a>).</li></ol><h4>Collected in.</h4><ol><li>"<a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/2008/02/lewis-padgett-twonky-short-story.html">The Best of Henry Kuttner</a>".</li><li>Raymond J Healy & J Francis McComas (Eds)' "<a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/2009/05/raymond-j-healy-j-francis-mccomas-eds.html">Adventures in Time and Space</a>".<br /></li></ol><h4>Fact sheet.</h4><span style="font-style: italic;">First published</span>: Astounding Science Fiction, September 1942. Under the joint pseudonym of the two authors - "Lewis Padgett".<br /><a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://arthur-clarke-fansite.blogspot.com/2007/04/note-my-on-story-quality-ratings.html">Rating</a>: A<br />This story was turned into a 1953 <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046475/">movie</a> of the same title.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7172359179613729870.post-45301661501223213282008-01-12T14:36:00.008+05:302009-09-13T20:43:39.020+05:30Lewis Padgett's "Mimsy Were the Borogoves" (short story, science fiction): Cognitive processes impossible to adults can be taught to very young kids<img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIm9TarUx59Odvdp5yYGZ0RdYmBd6Y6fyDKgGoOoO-4msIVzVHSfFnze2uHWxq7ITmSnA9HpE5mgXCwA3mYdHwVPvJ_k4WodJ58ZTWzOrAV15h2KgdHVPvuMpl8ZKII7e8grx52-qrc94/s400/Lewis+Padgett%27s+Mimsy+Were+the+Borogoves.GIF" alt="Quote from classic science fiction short story titled Mimsy Were the Borogoves by Lewis Padgett (joint pseudonym for Henry Kuttner and C L Moore)" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5154520701838806834" border="0" />Note the author's name Lewis Padgett is a pseudonym for Henry Kuttner & his wife Catherine Lucille Moore (better known as C L Moore) writing together.<br /><br />Title comes from a passage in Lewis Caroll's poem titled "Jabberwocky", included in his "Through the Looking Glass". A bit of nonsense that children in this story use to figure out an unrelated & profound puzzle.<br /><br />I don't know if this story is normally tagged a science fiction classic, but I have no hesitation dubbing it so. This is the kind of story that defines a genre.<br /><br />While you need to sometimes suspend credulity, I found it great fun & very imaginative. And anyway the main story is about adaptability of human mind, & that it can be shaped to think in unfamiliar ways - fantastic devices applied are only story teller's aids.<br /><br />Ending is sad, & the story is a bit cerebral - don't pick it up when you want something light.<br /><br />I collect some quotes from the story <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/2008/01/quotes-from-lewis-padgett-short-story.html">here</a>.<br /><h4>Story summary.</h4>There are three threads - an alien sending something to human space twice, & two threads in human space when this something is claimed by different individuals. Only one of the claims leads to the main story; other is generally irrelevant to story & is very small.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Thread 1: Alien sends something to human space.</span><br />Unthahorsten is either an alien, or a human "a good many million years" into the future - I could not quite figure out which. Anatomically, he is similar to humans, but there are many differences. And he is not on earth, "technically speaking"; you can interpret the last phrase based on your imagination. He is in his lab testing his "time machine" (also called "the Box").<br /><br />The test requires that he put something physical in the Box. Then he will manipulate controls to send it to someplace somewhen. The machine is programmed to return after a while. "solid in the Box would automatically be subject to the entropy and cosmic ray bombardment of the other era, and Unthahorsten could measure the changes"; hence he could determine whether the machine had been to place & time it was sent to!<br /><br />So his puts some old toys of his son Snowen in the Box. The "boy had brought with him when he had passed over from Earth", & "needed this junk no longer. He was conditioned, and had put away childish things." <span style="font-style: italic;">Text I've quoted here will come in handy later in the main story</span>.<br /><br />"The Box went away. The manner of its departure hurt Unthahorsten's eyes.<br /><br />He waited.<br /><br />And he waited.<br /><br />Eventually he gave up and built another time machine, with identical results."<br /><br />Neither machine ever returned. "Disgusted, Unthahorsten decided to make no more time machines."<br /><br />Both would be claimed by different children at different places on earth. First one would lead to the main thread, second to dud thread. Second one "should have appeared on Earth in the latter part of the nineteenth century, A.D."; I don't recall if a time was mentioned for first one, but it's close to modern times.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Thread 2 (the main thread).</span><br />Scott Paradine, a 7 year old boy would find the first Box. "The gadgetry would have given Einstein a headache and driven Steinmetz raving mad."<br /><br />He is alone near school when "Something tumbled down the bank and thudded into the muddy ground near the water". Curiosity will make him examine & claim the box. He will have difficulty opening it because the "box had not yet completely entered the space-time continuum where Scott existed, and therefore it could not be opened - ... not till Scott used a convenient rock to hammer the helical non-helix into a more convenient position."<br /><br />OK - so finally he opens it. And finds curious objects inside. We are not given the full inventory, but the stuff includes what looks like a "crystal cube", a curious kind of abacus, & an even more curious doll. A little examination of the cube, & he is hooked - he can see a whole world inside the cube, & he seems to be able to control it with his thoughts. Cube sounds a lot like ancient Indian story where Yashoda sees the whole universe inside the mouth of her little child Krishna .<br /><br />He will take the stuff home, & lie to his parents - Dennis & Jane - that it was given him by Uncle Harry. Uncle Harry is out of station, & lie will eventually be exposed; but damage would have been done by then. And Scott will share the toys with his 2 year old sister Emma. For "a week or so ... Emma and Scott had free rein with the toys", & then some more limited access for 3 months.<br /><br />Children can see things in & do things with the toys that their parents cannot.<br /><ol><li>Abacus doesn't seem to have linear wires but curious twists the adults cannot follow. It apparently is a 4-dimensional abacus! Children quickly learn to play it, but adults never figure it out - in spite of several demonstrations by children.</li><li>The Cube shows what looks like people leading normal life. You "wish" that a particular house there burn down, & it does! You wish that they build a new house & how, & they do it.</li><li>Doll, nicknamed Mr Bear by Emma, seems to be the kind that medical students will be proud to have for an anatomical dummy. You can peel off its skin & see the insides. And it seems to have organs inside that are different than humans, & some flows that either are not human or are yet to be discovered by humans.</li><li>"a crimson globe, two inches in diameter, with a protruding knob upon its surface." We don't know much about it except that the children "Hold it up in front of them and move it back and forth. No particular pattern of motion... No Euclidean pattern".</li></ol>The toys not only keep the attention of children & entertain them, they educate them & "condition" <span style="font-style: italic;">them to think using the cognitive processes of the toy's makers - processes </span><span style="font-style: italic;">totally alien to human ways of thinking</span>. Among the things thus taught to children will be a desire to return <span style="font-style: italic;">home</span>, & a method of returning home that children can follow!<br /><br />Looks like the aliens have child birth procedures similar to salmon. See - salmon swim to fresh water river, from sea where they normally live, to lay eggs. When the kids are born, they figure out how to go to sea & survive in the meantime. Alien kids are apparently born on earth, hidden from humans. "There would be incubators and robots. They would survive, but they would not know how to swim downstream, to the vaster world of the ocean." Toys apparently aid this - teaching them enough to eventually return <span style="font-style: italic;">home</span>!<br /><br />Eventually, the parents will discover something fishy, seek advice of child psychologist Rex Holloway, get worried, give up on Rex as someone who is "an alarmist" & is unnecessarily adding to their worries, & ultimately face the horror when their kids go <span style="font-style: italic;">home</span>!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Thread 3 (the dud thread).</span><br />"A very small girl" has found the second box & opened it in England in "the latter half of the nineteenth century". She also has lied to one Uncle Charles about the origin of her magical toys - that she got them from her now dead mother. While she will learn some alien ways of thinking & develops a desire to <span style="font-style: italic;">go home</span>, she is too old to really be able to do so.<br /><h4>Trivia.</h4><ol><li>The family in Thread 2 is of a college professor & has a female servant, Rosalie, who speaks like slaves did in Alex Haley's "Roots"! I haven't seen such servants in many stories of US origin.</li><li>This story makes reference to two older stories: Richard Hughes' "A High Wind in Jamaica" with reference to "All children are mad, from an adult viewpoint" (I haven't read this story). Oops, probably forgot marking the second one, & I cannot recollect the name now!</li></ol> <h4>See also.</h4><ol><li>Other stories on essentially the same theme - a "minor toy" from an advanced civilization somehow ends up in human space, causing puzzlement & chaos: <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/2008/02/lewis-padgett-twonky-short-story.html">Henry Kuttner & C L Moore's "The Twonky"</a>, <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/2007/09/eric-frank-russell-maurice-g-hugis.html">Eric Frank Russel & Maurice Hugi's "Mechanical Mice"</a>, & <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/2008/04/c-m-kornbluth-little-black-bag.html">C M Kornbluth's "The Little Black Bag"</a>.</li><li>Ted Chiang's "<a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/2007/10/ted-chiangs-story-of-your-life.html">Story of Your Life</a>" (1998): I kept seeing similarities between the two. Both are essentially about human cognition, & that training the mind to think in new ways can lead to leaps of thought that are normally beyond human.</li><li>Robert Heinlein's "<a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/2007/08/robert-heinleins-stranger-in-strange.html">Stranger in a Strange Land</a>" (1961): Another story where the hero has learned to think in ways utterly alien to humans because of his peculiar childhood, & can use that leaning to do superhuman stuff.</li><li>Arthur Clarke's "<a href="http://arthur-clarke-fansite.blogspot.com/2007/03/book-arthur-clarkes-2001-space-odyssy-4.html">2001 A Space Odyssey</a>" (1968): In a sense, the toys are smart teachers in the same way the <span style="font-style: italic;">monolith</span> was in first part of Clarke's story.</li><li><span style="font-style: italic;">Isaac Asimov's "The Gods Themselves"</span> (1972): There is a similarity in the way an apparently desirable but actually harmful alien object ends up in human hands.</li><li>Eric Frank Russell's "<a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/2007/10/eric-frank-russells-sinister-barrier.html">Sinister Barrier</a>" (1939): I cannot quite pinpoint why I kept being reminded of this story. Perhaps because aliens end up controlling humans through subtle interference.</li><li><span style="font-style: italic;">Issac Asimov's "The Ugly Little Boy"</span> (1992): In Asimov's version, humans forcibly pull a Neanderthal child from his time. In Padgett's version, they end up inadvertently pulling human kids to a future time & place.</li><li>This story was adapted as a Hollywood movie "<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0768212/">The Last Mimzy</a>" (2007). I haven't seen the movie, but SMD at "The World in the Satin Bag" has posted this uncharitable <a href="http://wisb.blogspot.com/2008/04/movie-review-last-mimzy.html">movie review</a>.<br /></li><li>This story has a French TV adaptation under the title "<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0419211/">Tout spliques étaient les Borogoves</a>" (1970); I haven't seen it.</li><li>All stories by <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Lewis%20Padgett">Lewis Padgett</a> (<a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Henry%20Kuttner">Henry Kuttner</a> & <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/C%20L%20Moore">C L Moore</a>).</li></ol> <h4>Collected in.</h4><ol><li>"<a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/2008/02/lewis-padgett-twonky-short-story.html">The Best of Henry Kuttner</a>".<br /></li><li> <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/David%20Hartwell?max-results=100">David Hartwell</a> & <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Kathryn%20Cramer?max-results=100">Kathryn Cramer</a> (Ed)'s "<a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/2007/12/david-hartwell-kathryn-cramer-ed-ascent.html">The Ascent of Wonder: The Evolution of Hard SF</a>".</li><li><a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/2008/02/robert-silverberg-science-fiction-hall.html">Robert Silverberg (Ed)'s "The Science Fiction Hall of Fame: Volume One, 1929-1964"</a>.</li><li><a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Isaac%20Asimov?max-results=100">Isaac Asimov</a> & <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/search/label/Martin%20Greenberg?max-results=100">Martin H Greenberg</a> (Eds)' "<a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/2009/09/isaac-asimov-martin-h-greenberg-eds.html">Isaac Asimov Presents the Great SF Stories 5 (1943)</a>".<br /></li></ol><h4>Fact sheet.</h4>"Mimsy Were the Borogoves", short story, review<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">First published</span>: <span style="font-style: italic;"></span>Astounding, February 1943.<a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/2008/01/helix-magazine-issue-7-winter-2008.html"><span style="font-style: italic;"></span></a><br /><a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://arthur-clarke-fansite.blogspot.com/2007/04/note-my-on-story-quality-ratings.html">Rating</a>: AUnknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7172359179613729870.post-60601553693450260772008-01-12T14:31:00.002+05:302008-09-27T20:32:27.200+05:30Quotes from Lewis Padgett's short story "Mimsy Were the Borogoves" - mostly about infant & child psychologyMost quotes are about infant & child psychology - a main plot element of the <a href="http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/2008/01/lewis-padgett-mimsy-were-borogoves.html">story</a>. Some of these are repetitive - saying the same in in different ways.<br /><ol><li>"Only babies spilled food, Emma had been told. As a result, she took such painstaking care in conveying her spoon to her mouth..."</li><li>"It is difficult to admit that children lack subtlety. Children are different from mature animals because they think in another way."</li><li>"How can an immature human being understand the complicated system of social relationships? He can't. To him, an exaggeration of natural courtesy is silly."</li><li>"From the standpoint of logic, a child is rather horribly perfect. A baby must be even more perfect, but so alien to an adult that only superficial standards of comparison apply. The thought processes of an infant are completely unimaginable. But babies think, even before birth. In the womb they move and sleep, not entirely through instinct... Nothing human is alien.<br /><br />But a baby is not human. An embryo is far less human."</li><li>"Babies think differently and see differently."</li><li>"All children are mad, from an adult viewpoint."</li><li>"Babies, of course, are not human - they are animals, and have a very ancient and ramified culture, as cats have, and fishes, and even snakes; the same in kind as these, but much more complicated and vivid, since babies are, after all, one of the most developed species of the lower vertebrates. In short, babies have minds which work in terms and categories of their own, which cannot be translated into the terms and categories of the human mind."</li><li>"One can no more think like a baby than one can think like a bee."</li><li>"you're implying that babies have a culture of their own, even a high standard of intelligence."<br /><br />"Not necessarily. There's no yardstick, you see. All I say is that babies think in other ways than we do. Not necessarily better - that's a question of relative values. But with a different matter of extension."<br />...<br />"Babies don't have different senses from ours."<br /><br />"Who said they did? ... They use their minds in a different way, that's all. But it's quite enough!"<br /><br />"I'm trying to understand," Jane said slowly. "All I can think of is my Mixmaster. It can whip up batter and potatoes, but it can squeeze oranges, too."<br /><br />"Something like that. The brain's ... a very complicated machine. We don't know much about its potentialities. We don't even know how much it can grasp. But it is known that the mind becomes conditioned as the human animal matures. It follows certain familiar theorems, and all thought thereafter is pretty well based on patterns taken for granted."</li><li><span style="font-weight: bold;">A discussion about alien abacus</span>.<br />"Your mind has been conditioned to Euclid ... So this thing bores us, and seems pointless. But a child knows nothing of Euclid. A different sort of geometry from ours wouldn't impress him as being illogical. He believes what he sees."<br /><br />"Are you trying to tell me that this gadget's got a fourth-dimensional extension?"<br /><br />"Not visually, anyway ... All I say is that our minds, conditioned to Euclid, can see nothing in this but an illogical tangle of wires. But a child - especially a baby - might see more. Not at first. It'd be a puzzle, of course. Only a child wouldn't be handicapped by too many preconceived ideas."<br /><br />"Hardening of the thought arteries".<br />...<br />"Let's suppose there are two kinds of geometry... Our kind, Euclidean, and another, we'll call x. X hasn't much relationship to Euclid. It's based on different theorems. Two and two needn't equal four in it; ... they might not even equal. A baby's mind is not yet conditioned, except by certain questionable factors of heredity and environment."<br />...<br />"The basis of Euclid. Alphabet blocks. Math, geometry, algebra-they come much later... On the other hand, start the baby with the basic principles of our x logic."</li><li><span style="font-weight: bold;">On aliens</span>.<br />"we've got yardstick trouble again. By our standards these people might seem super-dupers in certain respects. In others they might seem moronic. It's not a quantitative difference; it's qualitative. They think different. And I'm sure we can do things they can't."</li><li>"The perfect toy, you see, is both instructive and mechanical. It should do things, to interest a child, and it should teach, preferably unobtrusively. Simple problems at first. Later -"<br /><br />"X logic".</li><li>"I use the word 'madness' purely as a convenient symbol for the variation from the known human norm. The arbitrary standard of sanity."</li><li><span style="font-weight: bold;">On written languages</span>.<br />"I'm not implying that the kids are corresponding in an unknown tongue. If Emma draws a squiggle and says it's a flower, that's an arbitrary rule - Scott remembers that. Next time she draws the same sort of squiggle, or tries to - well!"<br />...<br />"Our own language is nothing but arbitrary symbolism now. At least in its application."<br />...<br />"The natural tendency is to simplify. Especially when a child is seeing something for the first time and has few standards of comparison. He tries to identify the new thing with what's already familiar to him... I had to find some familiar standard of comparison. Which is the only way of getting any conception of an entirely new thing."</li></ol> <span style="font-weight: bold;">Note</span>: Author's name Lewis Padgett is a pseudonym for Henry Kuttner & his wife C L Moore writing together.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0