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Contagion
Minos was such a lovely planet. Not a thing seemed wrong with it. Excepting the food, perhaps. And a disease that wasn't really. Originally published in Galaxy Science Fiction, October, 1950. Katherine Anne MacLean (born January 22, 1925) is an American science fiction author best known for her short fiction of the 1950s which examined the impact of technological advances on individuals and society. - Summary by wikipedia, story heading, and david wales
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Published February 9, 2016
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About the author
Katherine MacLean
147 books20 followersKatherine Anne MacLean (born January 22, 1925) is an American science fiction author best known for her short stories of the 1950s which examined the impact of technological advances on individuals and society.
Brian Aldiss noted that she could "do the hard stuff magnificently," while Theodore Sturgeon observed that she "generally starts from a base of hard science, or rationalizes psi phenomena with beautifully finished logic." Although her stories have been included in numerous anthologies and a few have had radio and television adaptations, The Diploids and Other Flights of Fancy (1962) is her only collection of short fiction.
Born in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, MacLean concentrated on mathematics and science in high school. At the time her earliest stories were being published in 1949-50, she received a B.A. in economics from Barnard College (1950), followed by postgraduate studies in psychology at various universities. Her 1951 marriage to Charles Dye ended in divorce a year later. She married David Mason in 1956. Their son, Christopher Dennis Mason, was born in 1957, and they divorced in 1962.
MacLean taught literature at the University of Maine and creative writing at the Free University of Portland. Over decades, she has continued to write while employed in a wide variety of jobs -- as book reviewer, economic graphanalyst, editor, EKG technician, food analyst, laboratory technician in penicillin research, nurse's aide, office manager and payroll bookkeeper. photographer, pollster, public relations, publicist and store detective.
It was while she worked as a laboratory technician in 1947 that she began writing science fiction. Strongly influenced by Ludwig von Bertalanffy's General Systems Theory, her fiction has often demonstrated a remarkable foresight in scientific advancements.
Brian Aldiss noted that she could "do the hard stuff magnificently," while Theodore Sturgeon observed that she "generally starts from a base of hard science, or rationalizes psi phenomena with beautifully finished logic." Although her stories have been included in numerous anthologies and a few have had radio and television adaptations, The Diploids and Other Flights of Fancy (1962) is her only collection of short fiction.
Born in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, MacLean concentrated on mathematics and science in high school. At the time her earliest stories were being published in 1949-50, she received a B.A. in economics from Barnard College (1950), followed by postgraduate studies in psychology at various universities. Her 1951 marriage to Charles Dye ended in divorce a year later. She married David Mason in 1956. Their son, Christopher Dennis Mason, was born in 1957, and they divorced in 1962.
MacLean taught literature at the University of Maine and creative writing at the Free University of Portland. Over decades, she has continued to write while employed in a wide variety of jobs -- as book reviewer, economic graphanalyst, editor, EKG technician, food analyst, laboratory technician in penicillin research, nurse's aide, office manager and payroll bookkeeper. photographer, pollster, public relations, publicist and store detective.
It was while she worked as a laboratory technician in 1947 that she began writing science fiction. Strongly influenced by Ludwig von Bertalanffy's General Systems Theory, her fiction has often demonstrated a remarkable foresight in scientific advancements.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
April 5, 2021
Terrifying. Liberating. Vivid conscious life of the protagonist. Strange ideas bristling with the tensions between love, selfishness, ego, identity, desire-type shit. I think a horror story for Westerners and a bit duhh/amen for the less egoic. Would love to read her speculations on how people identify after the ending. Does the sense of self grow to the whole group? How does memory remain if everything about everyone is relatively identical? Do we just zoom in on difference enough to have distinctions which lay down foundation for memories? Do they become immortal psychotics? Or blissful paired off pairs of romantic twinsy monks? Pothead says before coughing out smoke, “Is there a difference?”
It sort of references something like the greek myth of each having a primordial perfect half and poses the challenge of “would you join it and lose your selfhood/be subsumed”, and it also reads that myth/concept as a mirror-pairing rather than a scale/balancing-pair which is unique.
Certainly brings up ideas of happiness/fulfillment and relativity. Becoming someone else/having the self subsumed, one no longer exists, and so, no longer delights or suffers as that one. Can anyone be more of something/a quality than another? On one level yes, but on another, all they can be is what they are then, alone and incomparable. But this so close to identical (at least on the outside) so as to be negligible/indistinguishable is quite disturbing. I think this crazy fuckin story circles around all that psychedelic gibberish type shit that I love. Bit heteronormative only drawback. Still way ahead of it’s time.
It sort of references something like the greek myth of each having a primordial perfect half and poses the challenge of “would you join it and lose your selfhood/be subsumed”, and it also reads that myth/concept as a mirror-pairing rather than a scale/balancing-pair which is unique.
Certainly brings up ideas of happiness/fulfillment and relativity. Becoming someone else/having the self subsumed, one no longer exists, and so, no longer delights or suffers as that one. Can anyone be more of something/a quality than another? On one level yes, but on another, all they can be is what they are then, alone and incomparable. But this so close to identical (at least on the outside) so as to be negligible/indistinguishable is quite disturbing. I think this crazy fuckin story circles around all that psychedelic gibberish type shit that I love. Bit heteronormative only drawback. Still way ahead of it’s time.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 13, 2026
Good story.
I've always thought that most Sci-Fi stories, that take place on other planets, neglected the most obvious peril to Humans settling into a foreign, interstellar environment. The likelihood that human physiology could survive in an environment that had a different genetic heritage is, probably, statically close to 0%. That's just my theory though.
This story finds a way to overcome that challenge.
"Adapt or die." -- Leon C. Megginson
-----SPOILERS-------
It's a fun story in that it doesn't just have a twist at the end, it has a double twist.
Seeing how the story was written by a woman, I found the twist where all the men transform into Patrick Mead quite funny. I would have loved to read how the new Colonists worked out the Social Intricacies of that relationalship problem.
But then we find there is a Patricia Mead waiting outside to bless the Women Colonialists with a simular transformation. At that point things get creepy and it becomes a Horror story.
The story was a fun, entertaining thought experiment.
Think I'll go and check out "The Stepford Wives" now. I've never read the book but have seen parts of the movie.
I've always thought that most Sci-Fi stories, that take place on other planets, neglected the most obvious peril to Humans settling into a foreign, interstellar environment. The likelihood that human physiology could survive in an environment that had a different genetic heritage is, probably, statically close to 0%. That's just my theory though.
This story finds a way to overcome that challenge.
"Adapt or die." -- Leon C. Megginson
-----SPOILERS-------
It's a fun story in that it doesn't just have a twist at the end, it has a double twist.
Seeing how the story was written by a woman, I found the twist where all the men transform into Patrick Mead quite funny. I would have loved to read how the new Colonists worked out the Social Intricacies of that relationalship problem.
But then we find there is a Patricia Mead waiting outside to bless the Women Colonialists with a simular transformation. At that point things get creepy and it becomes a Horror story.
The story was a fun, entertaining thought experiment.
Think I'll go and check out "The Stepford Wives" now. I've never read the book but have seen parts of the movie.
April 28, 2024
I really enjoyed this story although it took a bit for it to get going and I won’t comment on the worldbuilding which reflects the ideas of the time. Instead, I’ll compare it to Philip K. Dick’s “Colony” in how it develops a situation into something creepy and uncanny, without all the death in MacLean’s case. I’ve read a number of stories by MacLean in the last couple of years and think it’s unfortunate how she’s been forgotten by most in the field, as her stories are easily some of the more thought-provoking ones from that time period.
June 18, 2024
Evolution only produces variation, never new speciation! But who cares, right? Evolution as species generator (Darwinism) is the preferred dogma of the dominant idiot class and the “dics” always get what the dics want, facts be damned… It didn’t stimulate the “pleasure centers” of my brain as much as my brain’s “hope centers” had anticipated via my brain’s “anticipation centers”.
September 29, 2021
this story is inclued in a book (ARC that i got through bookSirens) that i am currently reading "women of the pulps", and i must say, its the first story in the book and it's quite good, got me a feeling of twillight zone, mixed with a star trek episode, very nice.
May 14, 2017
Story about a group of colonists landing on a planet, but they soon found out other humans lived there and there had been a plague, cannot say any more as it would ruin the story.
August 14, 2019
I enjoyed this short story that manages to be fascinating yet a little spooky, and leaves you wondering about identity, genetics, and individuality.
October 30, 2023
I listened to this as part of The 11th Science Fiction Megapack. It was very interesting with will developed characters lots of action and misdirection leading to the conclustion. 2023
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August 7, 2024https://youtu.be/9H6EEWIwNd8?si=ifnrG...
I listened to the story here, from the great narrators at Dark Cosmos.
It's a very intriguing premise and really caught me off guard
I listened to the story here, from the great narrators at Dark Cosmos.
It's a very intriguing premise and really caught me off guard
October 5, 2024
Those space-travelling doctors are dumber than a group of teenagers camping in the haunted chainsaw woods. And just as horny.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews