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FIRST PUBLICATION

•     Science Fiction Quarterly, Feb 1957 {ill. by Emshwiller}

 HISTORY:

      The manuscript for "Misadjustment" arrived at the SMLA on May 14 1954. It was published in Science Fiction Quarterly in Feb 1957. The story is illustrated by Ed Emshwiller. After this initial publication the story was not reprinted until THE COLLECTED STORIES.

    "Misadjustment" is another story about mutants. A powerful industrialist is detected as a mutant by the government’s security arm and despite his efforts to flee he eventually gives himself up at a party. The occasion for the party is to reveal a fine jet transport craft that another man has grown in his back yard… Unfortunately, that makes him a mutant too and he is killed by the industrialist as the party-goers flee in panic. But, what exactly is this industrialist’s mutation?

    This is a powerful story if you stop and think about it because it treats ‘mutation’ as somehow subjective – delusional – as well as objective – real. If a man can grow a rocket-ship and another can walk through walls then what does that say about reality? No wonder the Government in the story is scared; if this is allowed to continue then pretty soon there will be no consensus to which society can adhere.

    "Misadjustment" is similar to "The Golden Man" and gets ó ó ó ó

Other Magazine and Anthology appearances

NOTES:

Ken Lopez: "Misadjustment" in Science Fiction Quarterly, 1957 (1^st). FAIR. . Signed by the author. Pages heavily stained from water. $65

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