Transcribe
Translate
Neophyte, v. 1, issue 1, January 1948
Page 8
More information
digital collection
archival collection guide
transcription tips
THE CASE OF THE DWINDLING DOME Cy Condra "... he was all one gigantic head......a little two-holed knoll where the nose customarily is, lidded caverns where the eyes belong, small craters where the ears commonly are...and his pipe of a neck, unable alone to support his head, gave most of that job to two curved metal pieces that came out of the wall..." From: Alas, All Thinking! by Harry Bates. But -- what has happened to him? Where is he? Surely you remember our Big Brained Descendent, so frequently seen some years ago in many SF stories of cherished memory? The ultimate spawn of the human race, he was Evolution's End; possessor of that giant intellect, within an enormous head, which is the logical conclusion of humanity's present struggle for supremacy through intelligence. Has he vanished--and with that perilous story situation so beloved by older readers? That last proud flower of our race, he was usually pictured as few in number and tottering over the abyss of extinction, and nearly always the author gave him that gentle shove which toppled hum and wrote Finis to our species. And can it be that someone took seriously a process intended only to be fun, and accidently, or abruptly -- and why have so few remarked his passing? May he possibly return? Someone should investigate; there are too many questions here, and too few answers. As a point of respect--because we took our Big Brained Descendant quite seriously in his hey-day--we owe him the courtesy of seeking him in those stories which attempt to deal in probabilities rather than impossibilities. He was, in the truest sense, a product of Science Fiction, and for that reason and for the purpose of this article, references has been made to Astounding Science Fiction issues of the past three years, with illuminating results. A check reveals that from July, 1943 to January, 1946, our subject was absent. On the latter date appeared Guest in the House, by Frank Belknap Long, with one BBD. "His cranium bulged so that his face seemed much more shrunkan than it actually was...". Significantly, this flower of reason was clipped by an intellectual mutation, the product of an atomic explosion. In When the Bough Breaks, by Lewis Padgett (Nov. 1944) we find, "Their
Saving...
prev
next
THE CASE OF THE DWINDLING DOME Cy Condra "... he was all one gigantic head......a little two-holed knoll where the nose customarily is, lidded caverns where the eyes belong, small craters where the ears commonly are...and his pipe of a neck, unable alone to support his head, gave most of that job to two curved metal pieces that came out of the wall..." From: Alas, All Thinking! by Harry Bates. But -- what has happened to him? Where is he? Surely you remember our Big Brained Descendent, so frequently seen some years ago in many SF stories of cherished memory? The ultimate spawn of the human race, he was Evolution's End; possessor of that giant intellect, within an enormous head, which is the logical conclusion of humanity's present struggle for supremacy through intelligence. Has he vanished--and with that perilous story situation so beloved by older readers? That last proud flower of our race, he was usually pictured as few in number and tottering over the abyss of extinction, and nearly always the author gave him that gentle shove which toppled hum and wrote Finis to our species. And can it be that someone took seriously a process intended only to be fun, and accidently, or abruptly -- and why have so few remarked his passing? May he possibly return? Someone should investigate; there are too many questions here, and too few answers. As a point of respect--because we took our Big Brained Descendant quite seriously in his hey-day--we owe him the courtesy of seeking him in those stories which attempt to deal in probabilities rather than impossibilities. He was, in the truest sense, a product of Science Fiction, and for that reason and for the purpose of this article, references has been made to Astounding Science Fiction issues of the past three years, with illuminating results. A check reveals that from July, 1943 to January, 1946, our subject was absent. On the latter date appeared Guest in the House, by Frank Belknap Long, with one BBD. "His cranium bulged so that his face seemed much more shrunkan than it actually was...". Significantly, this flower of reason was clipped by an intellectual mutation, the product of an atomic explosion. In When the Bough Breaks, by Lewis Padgett (Nov. 1944) we find, "Their
Hevelin Fanzines
sidebar
