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Prott
“Prott” • (1953) • short story by Margaret St. Clair (1911–1995).
An ambitious explorer learns that where first contact is concerned, nothing fails like success.
The moral of SF might “be very sure you know what you are getting into.”
Title: Prott
Author: Margaret St. Clair
Date: 1953-01-00
Type: SHORTFICTION
Length: short story
Language: English
Publication: Galaxy Science Fiction, January 1953
Editors: H. L. Gold
Publisher: Galaxy Publishing Corporation
An ambitious explorer learns that where first contact is concerned, nothing fails like success.
The moral of SF might “be very sure you know what you are getting into.”
Title: Prott
Author: Margaret St. Clair
Date: 1953-01-00
Type: SHORTFICTION
Length: short story
Language: English
Publication: Galaxy Science Fiction, January 1953
Editors: H. L. Gold
Publisher: Galaxy Publishing Corporation
11 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 1953
18 people want to read
About the author
Margaret St. Clair
155 books59 followersMargaret St. Clair (February 17, 1911 Huchinson, Kansas - November 22, 1995 Santa Rosa, CA) was an American science fiction writer, who also wrote under the pseudonyms Idris Seabright and Wilton Hazzard.
Born as Margaret Neeley, she married Eric St. Clair in 1932, whom she met while attending the University of California, Berkeley. In 1934 she graduated with a Master of Arts in Greek classics.
She started writing science fiction with the short story "Rocket to Limbo" in 1946. Her most creative period was during the 1950s, when she wrote such acclaimed stories as "The Man Who Sold Rope to the Gnoles" (1951), "Brightness Falls from the Air" (1951), "An Egg a Month from All Over" (1952), and "Horrer Howce" (1956). She largely stopped writing short stories after 1960. The Best of Margaret St. Clair (1985) is a representative sampler of her short fiction.
Apart from more than 100 short stories, St. Clair also wrote nine novels. Of interest beyond science fiction is her 1963 novel Sign of the Labrys, for its early use of Wicca elements in fiction.
Her interests included witchcraft, nudism, and feminism. She and her husband decided to remain childless.
Born as Margaret Neeley, she married Eric St. Clair in 1932, whom she met while attending the University of California, Berkeley. In 1934 she graduated with a Master of Arts in Greek classics.
She started writing science fiction with the short story "Rocket to Limbo" in 1946. Her most creative period was during the 1950s, when she wrote such acclaimed stories as "The Man Who Sold Rope to the Gnoles" (1951), "Brightness Falls from the Air" (1951), "An Egg a Month from All Over" (1952), and "Horrer Howce" (1956). She largely stopped writing short stories after 1960. The Best of Margaret St. Clair (1985) is a representative sampler of her short fiction.
Apart from more than 100 short stories, St. Clair also wrote nine novels. Of interest beyond science fiction is her 1963 novel Sign of the Labrys, for its early use of Wicca elements in fiction.
Her interests included witchcraft, nudism, and feminism. She and her husband decided to remain childless.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 14, 2017
Prott – Margaret St. Clair (1953)
Intelligent, intriguing and spooky. Verging on horror at the final realisation that aliens don't just confront and frighten, but gradually permeate and become absorbed!***
Introduction: “In her classic work, St. Clair's stories contain traps and mazes and hidden doors. … St. Clair thought the field [of science fiction] didn't always understand or reward sophisticated humor, too invested in a headlong rush toward the earnest. .. 'Prott' is darkly absurd, at times horrific, and engaged in playing out the implications of its own twisted logic no matter where it leads.”
Opening line: “'Read it,' said the spaceman.”
“Dating a diary in deep space offers special problems. Philosophical problems, I mean – that immense 'When is now?'...”
“dioecious” = (of a plant or invertebrate animal) having the male and female reproductive organs in separate individuals.
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Intelligent, intriguing and spooky. Verging on horror at the final realisation that aliens don't just confront and frighten, but gradually permeate and become absorbed!***
Introduction: “In her classic work, St. Clair's stories contain traps and mazes and hidden doors. … St. Clair thought the field [of science fiction] didn't always understand or reward sophisticated humor, too invested in a headlong rush toward the earnest. .. 'Prott' is darkly absurd, at times horrific, and engaged in playing out the implications of its own twisted logic no matter where it leads.”
Opening line: “'Read it,' said the spaceman.”
“Dating a diary in deep space offers special problems. Philosophical problems, I mean – that immense 'When is now?'...”
“dioecious” = (of a plant or invertebrate animal) having the male and female reproductive organs in separate individuals.
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September 18, 2020
HILARIOUS i love it so much omg
August 12, 2025
Prottologist needed… The Prott are a kind of celestial barfly; annoying, ever-present, and vaguely parasitic.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews