Kurt Vonnegut, Jr's "Thanasphere" (short story)

This is Vonnegut's second published story. Going by the amount of space given to it in "Critical Companion to Kurt Vonnegut" (previous link), someone there thinks this is a very important story.

Story summary.

US sent a manned rocket ship to a lower earth orbit, the first such ship, to spy weather conditions over enemy territory & to warn of inbound atomic missiles. But it found near earth space already inhabited, in fact teeming, with ... ghosts - & that the man there in the rocket can see them & talk to them!

Here is the story's explanation of title: Beyond atmosphere, it's dead space. "Thanatos, that's Greek for death. May be instead of 'deadspace" you'd prefer 'Thanasphere'".

Fact sheet.

First published: Collier's, 2 September 1950.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Kurt Vonnegut.

Henry Kuttner's "Ghost" (short story, free): Exorcising a computer center of its resident ghost!

There is a Hal Clement story in a somewhat similar vein - a "logical" explanation for existence of vampires! May be I'll dig it out one of these days.

I've an impression this is one of the better known stories of Kuttner; at least I'd heard of it long before I actually saw the story.

Story summary.

"Integrators" are thinking machines - very powerful computers, AIs, ... whatever you want to call them. They're super powerful "radioatom brains" that can solve any problem, & they don't have an ego.

Thirty of these machines are housed in a Station in Antarctica - a highly automated facility that needs manning only by a single human operator.

Recently, there has been trouble at the Station. An operator committed suicide, another had a madness attack, many quit, & current one is feeling very depressed.

Dr Elton Ford, "the greatest living psychologist", has an idea: the place is haunted. Man who committed suicide transmitted his depression telepathically ("by induction") to the Integrators; Integrators now continuously broadcast this pattern. So anyone in the facility is as good a living next to a maniac. Depression is contagious.

The psychologist will cure the machines. But this is a Kuttner story - so you know it cannot have a happy ending. Machines will get reinfected, with something even more dangerous, ...

Notes.

This is one Kuttner story that could have turned out better with a happy ending; reinfection process sounded very contrived to me. Story before that is far more interesting.

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, May 1943.
Download full text.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Henry Kuttner; fiction from 1940s.

Henry Kuttner's "Call Him DEMON" (novelette, haunted house, free): Little child "beats" the ghost

Kuttner is back here with his favorite subject - children can see things & think in ways that makes them aliens so far as adults are concerned; younger the children, more alien their psychology.

Story summary.

The house with Grandmother Keaton, Aunt Bessie, & 4 uncles - Simon, James, Lew, Bert. Plus 5 children - Jane Larkin (9), from whose point of view the story is told, & Beatrice, Charles, Emily, & Bobby (youngest).

And the "Wrong Uncle" - uncle with whom adults see nothing wrong but kids do (older kids are afraid of him; younger ones don't know fear). Uncle who came 3 weeks back from god knows where & modified the minds of adults to think he had always been around. Uncle who comprises of two parts - a human shaped one here, & an indescribable one that kids can sense after crossing some sort of multi-dimensional portal in the cellar. Uncle whose presence in the house is wearing down the grown-ups for reasons they cannot place.

Uncle who must be fed red raw meat regularly to avoid bad things from happening. Since only kids can sense him (it), they do what they can.

And a very Kuttnerish climax, where the youngest child Bobby is trying to outsmart the demon & "win" the game. And we will see the dreadful meaning of "win" - a meaning the child doesn't realize.

Notes.

"Demon" of title is used in two senses - the cross-dimensional alien haunting the place, & the youngest child Bobby whose behavior would be as alien to grown-ups...

See also.

1. Henry Kuttner & C L Moore's "Mimsy Were the Borogoves" (download): Another story with somewhat similar adult/child mental alienation theme.
2. "Makdee" (2002); movie description at IMDB: Another story with a haunted house, & a little girl who must regularly feed meat to the witch living there because...
   
   Original is a Hindi movie; I don't know if an English dubbed version is a available.
3. Philip K Dick's "The Father-Thing"; read online (no download, need a lot of clicks; is it a novelization? I'd read the original short story version): Similar situation - an alien impostor has conned mom into believing he's dad, but it cannot fool the kid.
   

Collected in.

1. Samuel Mines (ed)'s "Wonder Story Annual, Vol 2 No 1 (1953 Edition)".
   

Fact sheet.

First published: Thrilling Wonder Stories, Fall 1946.
Download full text as HTML, or as part of the online scans of this anthology.
Rating: A.
Related: Stories of Henry Kuttner; Ghost stories.

Free fiction: Couple of recent stories of Stephen King

Neither particularly noteworthy, but well ... it's Stephen King. Of the two, I personally prefer "Premium Harmony".

1. "Premium Harmony"; download; The New Yorker, 9 November 2009; non genre: A man unhappy with his marriage that seems to be coming apart gets a far worse emotional shock.
2. "The Bone Church"; download; Playboy (US), November 2009: This is actually presented as verse, but reads well enough as prose too.
   
   An old man is describing an adventure of his younger years - when a group of more than 2 dozen traveled over the dangerous "greenroof" to some sort of gorge at the bottom of which lie a lot of bones of those long dead. Ghosts & sundry other dangers killed everyone except narrator.

Related: Stories of Stephen King.

J Robert Lennon's "The Wraith" (short story, ghost)

Carl Blunt & his moody wife Lurene have been leading a boring married life for 10 years, when suddenly Lurene practically splits into two - a happy charming woman & a dead ghost full of misery! Until the ghost forces Carl to have sex with her, resulting in the return of old single, moody, & unhappy Lurene - because she's now pregnant & can no longer split!

Story, set in US, has repeated references to what characters call maladministration of George Bush regime. So may be there is symbolism here that escaped me?

Author tells us (& my Webster confirms) "wraith" of title means ghost of someone still alive.

Fact sheet.

First published: Playboy (US), November 2008.
Rating: B.
Related: Playboy stories; ghost stories.

Geoff Ryman's "Pol Pot's Beautiful Daughter": Love story with a political backdrop

While sold as fantasy, this is primarily a political story. Set in Cambodia - with a love affair, & some ghosts - to make it colorful.

Good thing about the story is its readability. This is single sitting reading material - though I took a couple of coffee breaks.

Bad points are:

1. Love story is pretty mundane.
2. Political story - the main point - is something I cannot quite take seriously. My experience with stories about India by Western authors is that they nearly always trivialize the important, & are based on half-baked knowledge & no understanding. In spite of rare exceptions, & occasional very welcome outsider's perspective. To learn about political situation in Cambodia, I would much rather read something by a Cambodian. Your mileage on this might vary - it's a personal thing - what sources to trust for what kind of information.
   

None of this comes in the way of story's readability. Very good enjoy & forget story.

Full text of this story is available online.

Story summary.
Saloth Sar aka Pol Pot was a dictator (or at least an important strong man - I didn't quite catch) of Cambodia, now dead. Sith is his daughter - the heroine of this story. She lives alone in a haunted house in Phnom Penh. Her mother lives with her people in Thailand, & mother/daughter don't get along well.

Sith is living a comfortable secluded life of luxury - thanks to bad money stashed by her dad in a Swiss bank account & a helpful government. She is 18, & the year is 2004. That is when she meets 24 year old Dara, a salesman at a cellphone shop called Hello Phones in a local mall. They fall in love. Fearing she will lose him, she lies to him about her birth. That helps drag love affair a bit to falling-apart & eventually-reuniting kind of happy ending.

Political part of the story is of the ghosts of the victims of her dad's atrocities that haunt her. And of her eventual reconciliation with them.

See also.

1. Apparently, Saloth Sar aka Pol Pot aka Tol Saut aka Pol Porth was a real historical person - roughly in the same role described in this story. And he had a daughter, "born, as she is in the story, in 1986, when her father was 60" & named Sitha. This review of the story by Matthew Cheney is longer, more literary, & contains new information. Here is a more succinct biography of Pol Pot.
   

Fact sheet.
Pol Pot's Beautiful Daughter, short story, review
First published: Fantasy & Science Fiction, Oct 2006
Rating: B
Nominated for Hugo Awards 2007 in novelette category
Nominated for World Fantasy Award 2007 in Short Fiction category
Passed the preliminary nominations stage of Nebula Awards 2007 in novelette category.

Related: All Hugo Award stories.