F/SF

Piccolo capolavoro della fantascienza, quella bella della golden age degli anni 50, ma potrebbe anche essere catalogato nel genere fantastico, visto che evita sapientemente gli stereotipi classici degli alieni umanoidi verdi con gli occhi grandi su una faccia triangolare così come quelli delle astronavi e dei pianeti sconosciuti.
Scrittura scorrevole e piacevole, si divora in pochissimo tempo; la storia si svolge tutta sulla terra e parla essenzialmente di "umanità", toccando con delicatezza e sensibilità i temi dell'accettazione del diverso e dei freaks e rendendo di fatto questo libro un piccolo gioiello. ( )

Interesting concept about alien life and what it means to be human. The prose is straightforward and easily understood. The characters were well developed, but I had no strong feelings about any of them. ( )

The original cover is incredibly pulpy. I love it so much.


The way this book unfolds is so subtly scifi and I love it. There’s no robots, no space travel (except implied), no aliens trying to take over (intentionally). Just aliens that aren’t intednding to impact humanity at all.

Theodore Sturgeon builds a word that has one foot in the mundane and one in the unusual. The introduction of carnies will tend to do that. For some reason I can’t explain, Sturgeon’s world works incredibly effectively even when logical leaps are made that I just can’t make. It all seems totally consistent. When another character says “wait that doesn’t make any sense”, the first says “of course it doesn’t!” and the narrative powers on. This sounds negative, but it isn’t! I think this may be due to Sturgeon’s sparse, efficient style and not at all the author trying to skim over something he hasn’t fully thought out. You get the feeling that Sturgeon has sat on this one for quite a while, and thought about this from every angle.

Just because it’s sparse doesn’t mean it isn’t memorable. Horty, the midgets of the carnival, and the Snidely Whiplash-esque Maneater (née Monetre) all seem fully-realized, which is kind of remarkable of a feat in a story as short as this. As the book progresses, Horty learns what it is to be human on the inside and the outside, and sometimes being biologically human doesn’t mean your mind is. Interestingly, my next Sturgeon book to read is More Than Human. With where this book goes, and knowing what I know about Sturgeon’s Vulcan work on Star Trek, I’m starting to think that might be a theme of his career.

If I was underlining in this book (I can’t, it’s Lauren’s), I would have underlined…

- I used to think everybody had something like that. Something they'd be sick if they lost it, like. I never thought to ask anyone about it, even.

- There was something in this man, with his frightening changes of voice and his treacherous humor, his kindness and his cruel aura, which the boy found deeply appealing.

- But a man with [an attitude of disgust and hatred] is like a child with a whip–or a nation with battleships. For a while it is sufficient to stand in the sun, with one's power in sight for all to see. Soon, however, the whip must whistle and crack, and rifles must thunder, the man must take more than a stand; he must take action.

- You don't know what you think until you tell someone else about it.

- Human affairs refuse to be simple... human goals refuse to be clear.

- There are two ways of hurting people–outside, where it shows, and inside, in the mind, where it scars and festers.

- There are things a man can do, and things he can't. When he does something, what's the point of wondering whether or not he's actually done it? Don't you think he knows?
( )

En este debut novelístico, Theodore Sturgeon, recoge la cautivadora historia de Horty, el huérfano que huye de sus padres adoptivos con todo lo que tiene, su muñeco Junky, de misteriosos ojos de cristal, y a quien el destino une a un grupo de fenómenos de feria. Entre ellos conocerá por primera vez el amor y la comprensión, pero también deberá participar en la lucha contra el malvado Monetre. Éste sabe que Junky es más que un juguete, y Horty, más que un ser humano, y pretende explotar esa diferencia para someter el mundo a su voluntad.