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Mimsy Were The Borogoves
Millions of years in the distant future, a posthuman scientist is attempting to build a time machine and tests it by sending a box with a hastily gathered batch of educational toys into the past. When the box fails to return, he constructs another and tests it the same way, but it also fails to return. Believing the entire experiment to be a failure, he discontinues his efforts and gives up on time machines. The first box arrives in the middle of the twentieth century and the second in the latter part of the nineteenth century. Both have had their time-travel circuitry irreparably damaged by the journey.
Originally published in the February 1943 issue of "Astounding Science Fiction Magazine.
Novelette, Classic science fiction, the basis for the film "The Last Mimsy"
Originally published in the February 1943 issue of "Astounding Science Fiction Magazine.
Novelette, Classic science fiction, the basis for the film "The Last Mimsy"
Audio Cassette
First published February 1, 1943
About the author
Lewis Padgett
105 books14 followersLewis Padgett was the joint pseudonym of the science fiction authors and spouses Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore, taken from their mothers' maiden names. They also used the pseudonyms Lawrence O'Donnell and C.H. Liddell, as well as collaborating under their own names.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 66 reviews
May 22, 2019
From the far future an amateur scientist experiments with a time machine and sends children's' toys back to American in the 1940s.
Scott discovers the futuristic toys
The box jarred slightly, and lay motionless, no longer only partially in existence. Scott opened it easily now.
The soft, woven helmet was the first thing that caught his eye, but he discarded that without much interest. It was just a cap. Next, he lifted a square, transparent crystal block, small enough to cup in his palm—much too small to contain the maze of apparatus within it. In a moment Scott had solved that problem. The crystal was a sort of magnifying glass, vastly enlarging the things inside the block. Strange things they were, too. Miniature people, for example.
They moved, like clockwork automatons, though much more smoothly. It was rather like watching a play. Scott was interested in their costumes, but fascinated by their actions. The tiny people were deftly building a house. Scott wished it would catch fire, so he could see the people put it out.
Flames licked up from the half-completed structure. The automatons, with a great deal of odd apparatus, extinguished the blaze.
It didn’t take Scott long to catch on. But he was a little worried. The manikins would obey his thoughts.
The future teaching/conditioning changes the children...
Scott was not awake, but his mind worked in slow, careful building. Thus— ‘They’ll take the toys away. The fat man—listava dangerous, maybe.
But the Ghoric direction won’t show—evankrus dun hasn’t them. In-transdection—bright and shiny. Emma. She’s more khopranik-high now than—I still don’t see how to—thavarar lixery dist. .
A little of Scott’s thoughts could still be understood. But Emma had become conditioned to x much faster. She was thinking, too.
Not like an adult or a child. Not even like a human being. Except, perhaps, a human being of a type shockingly unfamiliar to genus Homo.
This short tale gives us an insight on Lewis Carrol's strange poem of how to travel to other places
Enjoy!
Scott discovers the futuristic toys
The box jarred slightly, and lay motionless, no longer only partially in existence. Scott opened it easily now.
The soft, woven helmet was the first thing that caught his eye, but he discarded that without much interest. It was just a cap. Next, he lifted a square, transparent crystal block, small enough to cup in his palm—much too small to contain the maze of apparatus within it. In a moment Scott had solved that problem. The crystal was a sort of magnifying glass, vastly enlarging the things inside the block. Strange things they were, too. Miniature people, for example.
They moved, like clockwork automatons, though much more smoothly. It was rather like watching a play. Scott was interested in their costumes, but fascinated by their actions. The tiny people were deftly building a house. Scott wished it would catch fire, so he could see the people put it out.
Flames licked up from the half-completed structure. The automatons, with a great deal of odd apparatus, extinguished the blaze.
It didn’t take Scott long to catch on. But he was a little worried. The manikins would obey his thoughts.
The future teaching/conditioning changes the children...
Scott was not awake, but his mind worked in slow, careful building. Thus— ‘They’ll take the toys away. The fat man—listava dangerous, maybe.
But the Ghoric direction won’t show—evankrus dun hasn’t them. In-transdection—bright and shiny. Emma. She’s more khopranik-high now than—I still don’t see how to—thavarar lixery dist. .
A little of Scott’s thoughts could still be understood. But Emma had become conditioned to x much faster. She was thinking, too.
Not like an adult or a child. Not even like a human being. Except, perhaps, a human being of a type shockingly unfamiliar to genus Homo.
This short tale gives us an insight on Lewis Carrol's strange poem of how to travel to other places
Enjoy!
May 21, 2019
Readers who plunked down their 25 cents for the February 1943 issue of John W. Campbell's "Astounding Science Fiction Magazine" surely did get their money's worth. This particular issue not only featured an installment of A. E. van Vogt's soon-to-be-classic serial "The Weapon Makers," and an installment of one of Will Stewart's (a pen name of Jack Williamson) Seetee Ship novels, but also a short story by the great Henry Kuttner, entitled "Blue Ice." And then there was the peculiarly-titled novelette tucked away on page 52, "Mimsy Were the Borogoves," by Lewis Padgett, who had previously placed many other stories in Campbell's magazine. But what readers did not know until many years later was that "Padgett" was also a pen name, used by Henry Kuttner and his wife/fellow writing partner C. L. Moore, who at this point in their careers had become so very prolific that they required a number of aliases so as to make multiple sales per issue. Indeed, in that same year of 1943, Kuttner & Moore managed to sell 20 stories, all told, not to mention their wonderful, full-length novel "Earth's Last Citadel." And despite ultimately releasing several hundred short stories and no fewer than 13 novels over some 20 years, "Mimsy," for some obscure reason, remains the only one of their works (to my knowledge) to receive the cinematic treatment. Don’t ask me why.
And please don’t misunderstand me...it is a completely delightful story, well written (natch), and capped by a nice surprise toward the end, as well as an unexpectedly downbeat conclusion. In this tale, an alien (or perhaps Earthman?) named Unthahorsten, of the far, far distant future, builds a time machine and uses it to send two boxes loaded with his son's disused educational toys into the past, so as to be able to examine them upon their return and exactly determine (by analyzing cosmic ray-induced alterations and so on) just how far back they had been sent. But Unthahorsten's experiment is a failure, and the two boxes of toys become lost in the past. One of these boxes is found by 7-year-old Scott Paradine in the Glendale, California of 1942. Scott pries the time box open somehow and finds some very unusual toys within: an abacus-like arrangement with beads that travel along impossible angles (and sometimes disappear); a crystalline cube with little figures inside, which Scott learns to manipulate with his mind; a doll showing the anatomical makeup of the body (a not-quite-human body, but still....); and more. Scott brings his haul home and shares them with his 2-year-old sister, Emma, while his parents, Dennis and Jane, become increasingly concerned by the changes in their children's behavior. A child psychologist is consulted, who determines that the toys are somehow teaching the children to think differently than normal human beings, employing non-Euclidean patterns of thought....
"Mimsy Were the Borogoves," despite its way-out conceit, also offers the reader some serious discussion on just how very alien children really are, as compared to adults; how their thought processes are unknowable, especially when they are infants. (It is telling that 2-year-old Emma proves to be a more readily malleable pupil than her older brother.) This is, for the most part, a sweet story, a fact that makes its denouement all the more startling. And as for that title, why, it is of course a line from Lewis Carroll's poem "Jabberwocky," which initially appeared in his 1871 classic "Through the Looking Glass," and which does play an integral part of this tale, and very cleverly so. Though a tad on the dry side, and featuring a story line (kids being altered mentally by beings from the far future) perhaps better handled in John Wyndham's 1968 novel "Chocky," the tale yet manages to please. As for that film adaptation, 2007's "The Last Mimzy," I must confess that it is one that I still have not seen. But a quick scan of the movie's plot synopsis will show that it has very little in common with Kuttner's original, other than the central idea of toys from the future being sent into the past. (The producers couldn't even retain the correct spelling of "Mimsy"?) It opened to mediocre box office and mixed reviews, and although I would surely like to experience it one day (it being, as I mentioned, Kuttner/Moore's only filmization to date), I am also in no great rush to do so. Note to Hollywood: This great writing team has so many other adaptable works that could be made into blockbuster hits. Have you ever read "Fury," for example? Or "Valley of the Flame"? Trust me on this one!
Today, I might add, 76 years after its first publication, "Mimsy Were the Borogoves" is up for some long-overdue recognition. It has been nominated for no less an award than the Retro Hugo, for Best Novelette of 1943. But it is up against some pretty stiff competition. Leigh Brackett has two nominations in that category, for "Citadel of Lost Ships" (which I've never read) and for "The Halfling" (which I enjoyed to a degree but do not think as deserving as "Mimsy"). And then there's "The Proud Robot," another wonderful Lewis Padgett story. (I told you these guys were prolific! As a matter of fact, the team is also up for two other Retro Hugos this year, for the novella "Clash by Night" and for the short story "Doorway Into Time"!) One of the delightful Professor Gallegher stories, "The Proud Robot" is, for me, a lot more entertaining than "Mimsy." But there are two other contenders in this year's Retro Hugo novelette race: Fritz Leiber's "Thieves' House," which again, I have not read, and Eric Frank Russell's "Symbiotica," a fantastic story that would later appear in his "Men, Martians and Machines" collection in 1956. Of the four novelettes that I’ve experienced, I would say that "Symbiotica" is the most fun, and the most exciting. Still, I wouldn't be surprised if "Mimsy" took home the prize. It is surely the most thoughtful of the four, and probably the most often anthologized. But whichever piece cops the prize this coming August 18th, one thing is very clear: 1943 may have been a lousy year in world history, but it sure was a good one for magazine sci-fi!
(By the way, this review originally appeared on the FanLit website at http://www.fantasyliterature.com/ ... a most ideal destination for all fans of Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore....)
And please don’t misunderstand me...it is a completely delightful story, well written (natch), and capped by a nice surprise toward the end, as well as an unexpectedly downbeat conclusion. In this tale, an alien (or perhaps Earthman?) named Unthahorsten, of the far, far distant future, builds a time machine and uses it to send two boxes loaded with his son's disused educational toys into the past, so as to be able to examine them upon their return and exactly determine (by analyzing cosmic ray-induced alterations and so on) just how far back they had been sent. But Unthahorsten's experiment is a failure, and the two boxes of toys become lost in the past. One of these boxes is found by 7-year-old Scott Paradine in the Glendale, California of 1942. Scott pries the time box open somehow and finds some very unusual toys within: an abacus-like arrangement with beads that travel along impossible angles (and sometimes disappear); a crystalline cube with little figures inside, which Scott learns to manipulate with his mind; a doll showing the anatomical makeup of the body (a not-quite-human body, but still....); and more. Scott brings his haul home and shares them with his 2-year-old sister, Emma, while his parents, Dennis and Jane, become increasingly concerned by the changes in their children's behavior. A child psychologist is consulted, who determines that the toys are somehow teaching the children to think differently than normal human beings, employing non-Euclidean patterns of thought....
"Mimsy Were the Borogoves," despite its way-out conceit, also offers the reader some serious discussion on just how very alien children really are, as compared to adults; how their thought processes are unknowable, especially when they are infants. (It is telling that 2-year-old Emma proves to be a more readily malleable pupil than her older brother.) This is, for the most part, a sweet story, a fact that makes its denouement all the more startling. And as for that title, why, it is of course a line from Lewis Carroll's poem "Jabberwocky," which initially appeared in his 1871 classic "Through the Looking Glass," and which does play an integral part of this tale, and very cleverly so. Though a tad on the dry side, and featuring a story line (kids being altered mentally by beings from the far future) perhaps better handled in John Wyndham's 1968 novel "Chocky," the tale yet manages to please. As for that film adaptation, 2007's "The Last Mimzy," I must confess that it is one that I still have not seen. But a quick scan of the movie's plot synopsis will show that it has very little in common with Kuttner's original, other than the central idea of toys from the future being sent into the past. (The producers couldn't even retain the correct spelling of "Mimsy"?) It opened to mediocre box office and mixed reviews, and although I would surely like to experience it one day (it being, as I mentioned, Kuttner/Moore's only filmization to date), I am also in no great rush to do so. Note to Hollywood: This great writing team has so many other adaptable works that could be made into blockbuster hits. Have you ever read "Fury," for example? Or "Valley of the Flame"? Trust me on this one!
Today, I might add, 76 years after its first publication, "Mimsy Were the Borogoves" is up for some long-overdue recognition. It has been nominated for no less an award than the Retro Hugo, for Best Novelette of 1943. But it is up against some pretty stiff competition. Leigh Brackett has two nominations in that category, for "Citadel of Lost Ships" (which I've never read) and for "The Halfling" (which I enjoyed to a degree but do not think as deserving as "Mimsy"). And then there's "The Proud Robot," another wonderful Lewis Padgett story. (I told you these guys were prolific! As a matter of fact, the team is also up for two other Retro Hugos this year, for the novella "Clash by Night" and for the short story "Doorway Into Time"!) One of the delightful Professor Gallegher stories, "The Proud Robot" is, for me, a lot more entertaining than "Mimsy." But there are two other contenders in this year's Retro Hugo novelette race: Fritz Leiber's "Thieves' House," which again, I have not read, and Eric Frank Russell's "Symbiotica," a fantastic story that would later appear in his "Men, Martians and Machines" collection in 1956. Of the four novelettes that I’ve experienced, I would say that "Symbiotica" is the most fun, and the most exciting. Still, I wouldn't be surprised if "Mimsy" took home the prize. It is surely the most thoughtful of the four, and probably the most often anthologized. But whichever piece cops the prize this coming August 18th, one thing is very clear: 1943 may have been a lousy year in world history, but it sure was a good one for magazine sci-fi!
(By the way, this review originally appeared on the FanLit website at http://www.fantasyliterature.com/ ... a most ideal destination for all fans of Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore....)
May 1, 2025
Millions of years into the future a post-human scientist is testing out a time travel machine. He needed something solid in the box he was sending into the past so he grabbed some discarded children's toys. He sent one box to 1942 and another to the 19th Century.
A seven-year-old boy discovers the box of futuristic toys and brings them home to play with his two-year-old sister in 1942. The educational toys help develop a different type of thinking in their pliable young minds. Their parents and a child psychologist are starting to worry.
The title of the story comes from Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky" poem in Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There. I liked the futuristic look at teaching and learning in this time travel story. It had a great ending too!
A seven-year-old boy discovers the box of futuristic toys and brings them home to play with his two-year-old sister in 1942. The educational toys help develop a different type of thinking in their pliable young minds. Their parents and a child psychologist are starting to worry.
The title of the story comes from Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky" poem in Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There. I liked the futuristic look at teaching and learning in this time travel story. It had a great ending too!
May 9, 2021
It was some powerful stuff. Great story.
April 2, 2023
Last read too long ago. I went to reread it, and it's linked at the story's Wikipage:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimsy_W...
Story is here (it's missing one page):
https://www.google.com/books/edition/...
Just as wonderful as I recalled. Even more remarkably, this is a 1943 story! Even older than me!
It presupposes that you are familiar with the wonderful Lewis Carroll nonsense verse: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jabberw...
"Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe."
Don't miss John Tenniel's 1871 drawing of the Jabberwock!
A bit of a bother the read the story's etext, so I just ordered a Kuttner/Moore collection that has it from the library, that I'm sure will have other treats. Great story: 4.4 stars!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimsy_W...
Story is here (it's missing one page):
https://www.google.com/books/edition/...
Just as wonderful as I recalled. Even more remarkably, this is a 1943 story! Even older than me!
It presupposes that you are familiar with the wonderful Lewis Carroll nonsense verse: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jabberw...
"Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe."
Don't miss John Tenniel's 1871 drawing of the Jabberwock!
A bit of a bother the read the story's etext, so I just ordered a Kuttner/Moore collection that has it from the library, that I'm sure will have other treats. Great story: 4.4 stars!
June 21, 2021
-Read in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume One-
Delightfully clever story that successfully operates on two levels. As a science fiction story it works by utilizing time travel and it’s effects on the past. And through it’s examinations of strange ‘alien’ toys that have a profound influence on their users. As a human story it’s striking for it’s look at children and how different they are, and how maybe if we didn’t push them quite so hard to be like us, they could be something else altogether.
Delightfully clever story that successfully operates on two levels. As a science fiction story it works by utilizing time travel and it’s effects on the past. And through it’s examinations of strange ‘alien’ toys that have a profound influence on their users. As a human story it’s striking for it’s look at children and how different they are, and how maybe if we didn’t push them quite so hard to be like us, they could be something else altogether.
February 10, 2011
This is the short story that The Last Mimsy is based on. It is a great movie, and a great short story...though somewhat independent of each other.
May 1, 2025
This was amazing! I loved it!
February 14, 2024
I literally think about this story like every day. Something about it and its philosophies make me feel so so scared but also so fascinated. I often feel limited by my own human brain/consciousness/perspective and this story depicts that feeling so perfectly.
Also I still don’t rlly know how to use Goodreads but this was a reread
Also I still don’t rlly know how to use Goodreads but this was a reread
February 5, 2020
Научная (литературная) фантастика, где взрослые пьют коктейли перед ужином, а дети пухлые и играют у реки.
Очень здорово получился "реткон" с объяснением, как же Кэрролл написал свою Алису.
Немного резали глаза объяснения про геометрию, но как умный и забавный рассказ - отлично.
Очень здорово получился "реткон" с объяснением, как же Кэрролл написал свою Алису.
Немного резали глаза объяснения про геометрию, но как умный и забавный рассказ - отлично.
March 7, 2025
This is probably one of the most complex, thought-provoking, and yet unputdownable short stories of all time. It encapsulates nearly everything that had compelled readers towards science fiction.
This was my sixth or seventh read. Yet, it succeeded in simultaneously boggling my mind, and chilling it outright.
A timeless classic.
This was my sixth or seventh read. Yet, it succeeded in simultaneously boggling my mind, and chilling it outright.
A timeless classic.
Read
March 7, 2022I thought this was a funny and interesting story. I tried to explain it to some people at a party, they didn’t care.
June 4, 2020
A nice little story which is both sci-fi, and a whole lot about parenting. I haven't seen Last Mimsy, but is in my to-watch list after this. Also, this story seems like an inspiration for that The Diamond Age book by Neal Stephenson. Loved the overall flow. I do believe we can possibly have a more efficient way to teach children than what we currently have. (But then, I also think life is more than simply chasing efficiencies.) I'd love to parent a kid who got that toy and witness first hand the developmental path.
Want to Read
June 14, 2022It seems that the short science fiction story (which was the basis of the film, The Last Mimzy,) is out of print, but it available to read online HERE:
http://jabberwockland.blogspot.com/20...
May 22, 2025
20 minutes light sci-fi reading, what can be better)
Only when it proves your thoughts that "Alice in the Wonderland" is way way deeper than just a fairy tale
Reminds of some student's (or your own) novel about time travel that could have been published in some sci-fi magazine or sent to some literary contest for young writers :))
Only when it proves your thoughts that "Alice in the Wonderland" is way way deeper than just a fairy tale
Reminds of some student's (or your own) novel about time travel that could have been published in some sci-fi magazine or sent to some literary contest for young writers :))
February 7, 2023
A 1943 sci-fi classic. The title is a line from the poem Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll found in Through the Lookin-Glass. A young boy finds a mysterious box of toys sent from millions of years in the future. He and his two year old sister begin using them with unusual results.
August 22, 2024
Read for future episode of my SF Hall of Fame podcast mini-series.
Stay tuned.
Stay tuned.
December 24, 2022
The plot is used many times later
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wade;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.” Lewis Carroll
"Mimsy Were the Borogoves" is on tape and even on vinyl at one time. It can also be found in some of Henry Kutner’s books.
It is a small sci-fi story about a formula that allows you into an alternate universe that everyone used to have access to. The problem with getting there is that it requires a different paradigm and a formula. The paradigm requires a mindset that diapers as we get older and the formula is in front of us if we know where to look. An added plus is that the recorded version is read to us enthusiastically by William Shatner.
Playing around with time travel he needed something to put into the cube. He chose some of his old toys. The box never came back. After trying for a second time with no success he gave up and moved on.
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wade;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.” Lewis Carroll
"Mimsy Were the Borogoves" is on tape and even on vinyl at one time. It can also be found in some of Henry Kutner’s books.
It is a small sci-fi story about a formula that allows you into an alternate universe that everyone used to have access to. The problem with getting there is that it requires a different paradigm and a formula. The paradigm requires a mindset that diapers as we get older and the formula is in front of us if we know where to look. An added plus is that the recorded version is read to us enthusiastically by William Shatner.
Playing around with time travel he needed something to put into the cube. He chose some of his old toys. The box never came back. After trying for a second time with no success he gave up and moved on.
February 26, 2021
I haven't been much of a short story reader up until recently, but every one I've read has presented me with something that I haven't experienced anywhere else. It gave me actual chills at points, like the ending. Amid all of my dumb romance reading, it's nice to read something that will actually stay with me.
September 18, 2008
Actually, I never listened to the cassette, I read the story out of "The Best of Henry Kuttner".
June 24, 2023
Mimsy Were The Borogoves
Lewis Padgett
Read June 2023
In The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume One 1929-1964
There seems to be a common theme that psychologist often play a large role in science fiction from 1940-1960. But really? He looked at something that was strange and he had not seen before, and jumped right to the conclusion that it was of extraterrestrial origin? Just like that? Because of its “strange angles”. (He clearly has not seen my notes and drawings....)
And the nonsense about Euclidean geometry... Big sigh! I hate when authors don’t understand what they write about. Non-Euclidean geometry is *not* extraterrestrial! We live on a surface of an (almost) sphere. A fine example of non-Euclidean geometry. We live perfectly well with that without loosing our minds over it.
I liked the nice twist with "Uncle Charles".
Lewis Padgett
Read June 2023
In The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume One 1929-1964
There seems to be a common theme that psychologist often play a large role in science fiction from 1940-1960. But really? He looked at something that was strange and he had not seen before, and jumped right to the conclusion that it was of extraterrestrial origin? Just like that? Because of its “strange angles”. (He clearly has not seen my notes and drawings....)
And the nonsense about Euclidean geometry... Big sigh! I hate when authors don’t understand what they write about. Non-Euclidean geometry is *not* extraterrestrial! We live on a surface of an (almost) sphere. A fine example of non-Euclidean geometry. We live perfectly well with that without loosing our minds over it.
I liked the nice twist with "Uncle Charles".
June 21, 2023
'Toys' dispatched to two places and two different times - from an unknown future. An arguably dangerous 'Trojan horse' except that developed and therefore prejudiced adult minds cannot (fortunately) understand.
One of the recipients is Alice Liddell insufficiently small to take her gifts as far as the second and his even more receptive younger sister.
Alice communicates her discoveries to benevolent 'uncle' Charles from which the title is derived.
Speculative ideas at their very best.
Shame that this type of writing tends to end up in ancient anthologies, gets pigeon-holed and diminished as sf, science fantasy, speculative fiction and generally disappears into the ether like gifts sent back (or forward) in time..
One of the recipients is Alice Liddell insufficiently small to take her gifts as far as the second and his even more receptive younger sister.
Alice communicates her discoveries to benevolent 'uncle' Charles from which the title is derived.
Speculative ideas at their very best.
Shame that this type of writing tends to end up in ancient anthologies, gets pigeon-holed and diminished as sf, science fantasy, speculative fiction and generally disappears into the ether like gifts sent back (or forward) in time..
August 14, 2019
Complicated. A man a million years in advance invents a time machine and needs to test it out. So he puts his sons toys in the box. Twice he tries to send them back in time and then back to his present. Both times they go but do not return. So, he gives up.
The story then follows the toys. The toys teach children to a new logic developed far into the future. One set of toys ends up in the hands of the girl who comes up with the gibbirish poem "Through the looking Glass." The other set ends up in the hands of two children in 1942 who are able to interpret the poem to solve the problem of how to travel through time.
The story then follows the toys. The toys teach children to a new logic developed far into the future. One set of toys ends up in the hands of the girl who comes up with the gibbirish poem "Through the looking Glass." The other set ends up in the hands of two children in 1942 who are able to interpret the poem to solve the problem of how to travel through time.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 21, 2020
Another cute novelette of extraordinary science fiction authors and spouses Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore. I really liked this story when I first read it many years ago in one great collection of science fiction stories. I love the works of our lovely children. Here, this story tells about how toys from the future become the reason for the disappearance of two children in the past, and also influence Carroll's writing of "Through the Looking-Glass". I think this is just a completely unique storyline!
September 13, 2025
This was an interesting read! The style is very much of the sci-fi of the times (mid-20th century), with some rather outdated ideas (the child psychology parts are somewhat laughable today. The overall feel of the story is good though, and it reads pleasantly and intriguingly. The ending is a bit of a letdown because it doesn't connect back to the beginning of the story at all; basically, we never really learn why the scientist even bothers to make his time machines to send back his children's toys.
September 19, 2020
This was a surprisingly enjoyable read. It’s both inspiring and chilling to think that there could be things that we are unable to perceive not because of our physical limitations, but because of how we are conditioned. Presenting those concepts through children is genius, because it makes readers think to look closer to home for scientific discoveries, rather than the stars.
Fans of science fiction should absolutely read this.
Fans of science fiction should absolutely read this.
May 4, 2021
Mimsy Were the Borogroves:
Just finished and wow, my first impression was way off. This not some quirky old sci-fi story about time travel. It it so much deeper and really examined how intelligent thought process works and how it can impact human development.
I read these old science fiction books for shameless entertainment and to point out the follies of futuristic advancements thought up so long ago.
This book really made me think and give it 4* and full recommendation.
Just finished and wow, my first impression was way off. This not some quirky old sci-fi story about time travel. It it so much deeper and really examined how intelligent thought process works and how it can impact human development.
I read these old science fiction books for shameless entertainment and to point out the follies of futuristic advancements thought up so long ago.
This book really made me think and give it 4* and full recommendation.
June 18, 2021
Two innocent children mysteriously acquire a box from the future, and from its contents, they begin to learn and are eventually conditioned into a non-Euclidian form of thinking - an "X logic" - that culminates in them figuring out how to disappear.
The idea is an excellent one, and the story is entertaining enough, but to have gotten four stars, it needed to work with the concept a little more thoroughly.
The idea is an excellent one, and the story is entertaining enough, but to have gotten four stars, it needed to work with the concept a little more thoroughly.
May 3, 2025
I recognized the title of this story as a line from Lewis Carroll, but the manner in which it was used and tied into the meaning in the story was ingenious and unexpected. The capabilities of the human mind, if we could free ourselves from our own imposed limitations, might be staggering.
I can say little about the story without ruining it for others, so I will simply say "read it".
Thanks to Lynn for pointing me to this bit of science fiction that I enjoyed and that has me pondering.
I can say little about the story without ruining it for others, so I will simply say "read it".
Thanks to Lynn for pointing me to this bit of science fiction that I enjoyed and that has me pondering.
April 8, 2026
“. . . good many million years had passed since 1942 Anno Domini.”
“. . . children are helplessly dependent on the caprice of those who give them birth and feed and clothe them. The young animal does not resent that benevolent tyranny, for it is an essential part of nature. He is, however, an individualist, and maintains his integrity by a subtle, passive fight.”
“Iconoclasm is their prerogative.”
“Only a child wouldn’t be handicap by too many preconceived ideas.”
“. . . children are helplessly dependent on the caprice of those who give them birth and feed and clothe them. The young animal does not resent that benevolent tyranny, for it is an essential part of nature. He is, however, an individualist, and maintains his integrity by a subtle, passive fight.”
“Iconoclasm is their prerogative.”
“Only a child wouldn’t be handicap by too many preconceived ideas.”
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