R - Short Works
A different take on the aliens-are-among-us theme: an alien observer disguised as human becomes the object of a woman's amorous attention. The setting is New York around 1970, and the alien has the ability to communicate with his home world easily. Personal isolation (alienation even) is the main theme. Warning: this story contains some excruciatingly bad poetry written by the smitten woman. Proceed at your own risk!
Welcome to Club Archetype, a kind of cosmic Cheers where you can hang out for eternity with the other archetypal personalities.
There's a new leisure activity for wealthy thrill-seekers. It's called shunting. A group of people get together in a hospital and swap consciousness for a while, see the world through one of the other shunters' eyes. Then there's an equipment malfunction, and nobody knows which body goes with which consciousness. The technicians repeatedly shunt the minds until the body signals it's a match. But what if the body lies?
This story was written in 1954 and rejected many times before finally seeing publication. It's a very depressing post-nuclear scenario: most of the world's agricultural regions are destroyed by radiation, and starving people resort to cannibalism as a means of short-term survival. There is no long term.
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Last updated October 21, 2002
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