Sun 24 Feb 2019
SF Stories I’m Reading: FREDERIK POHL & C. M. KORNBLUTH “The Meeting.”
Posted by Steve under Science Fiction & Fantasy , Stories I'm Reading[4] Comments
LESTER del REY, Editor – Best Science Fiction Stories of the Year: Second Annual Edition. E. P. Dutton, hardcover. 1973. Ace, paperback, December 1975.
#5. FREDERIK POHL & C. M. KORNBLUTH “The Meeting.” Short story. First published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, November 1972. First collected in Critical Mass by Frederik Pohl & C. M. Kornbluth (Bantam, paperback, 1977. Co-winner of the 1973 Hugo Award for Best Short Story.
Most science fiction readers of his era considered Cyril Kornbuth to be of the most gifted writers of them all — myself included — and considered his early death in 1958 at the age of 34 to be an absolute tragedy. He was known largely for his short fiction, starting at the age of 15, but before his death he wrote two novels on his own, plus several more in collaboration with others. “The Meeting” was a story that was finished by Frederik Pohl, working from notes Kornbluth left behind.
A married couple named the Vladeks have a young boy with severe developmental disabilities, and they have just moved to a new town to find a school specializing in students like him. Most of the story takes place during the first PTA meeting of the year, after which Mr. Vladek has a brief moment to talk to the principal about how nine-year-old Tommy is doing. His wife had to stay home, as Tommy has too many emotional issues to be left with a baby sitter.
What makes this a science fiction story comes very nearly at the end. There is a possibility that an experimental brain transplant procedure will solve Tommy’s problems, but a decision has to be made right away. The story ends with Mr. Vladek reaching for the telephone to tell the doctor what they’ve decided.
I don’t think anyone has had any doubt what that decision was going to be. This is a very sentimental, old-fashioned story — the portion that Kornbuth wrote was written in the 50s, after all, with Pohl finishing and polishing it up in 1972. It’s a good, well-structured story and was awarded a Hugo at the time, but I don’t believe it would today.
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Previously from the del Rey anthology: ISAAC ASIMOV “The Greatest Asset.”
February 24th, 2019 at 9:19 pm
The genre was reaching for a more diverse audience and wider appeal seeking stories where the SF angle was sometimes a bit lost in a more mainstream subject matter, but this one certainly works in terms of the skill involved even if the story is only just SF.
February 24th, 2019 at 10:39 pm
I also wonder if Kornbluth was something of a sentimental favorite in the Hugo voting, which is a fan award. He’d been nominated several times before, but this story was the first time he was a winner.
There is a book put out by NESFA PRESS titled HIS SHARE OF GLORY (1997) which says that it’s The Complete Short Science Fiction of C. M.Kornbluth. It’s big and fat enough that I don’t doubt that it’s true. I’ve gotten only a little way into it — too many books! — but I highly recommend it to anyone reading this.
The contents:
xiii • Cyril • (1997) • essay by Frederik Pohl
xix • Editor’s Introduction (His Share of Glory: The Complete Short Science Fiction of C. M. Kornbluth) • essay by Timothy P. Szczesuil
1 • That Share of Glory • (1952) • novelette by C. M. Kornbluth
24 • The Adventurer • (1953) • short story by C. M. Kornbluth
35 • Dominoes • (1953) • short story by C. M. Kornbluth
42 • The Golden Road • (1942) • short story by C. M. Kornbluth
59 • The Rocket of 1955 • (1939) • short story by C. M. Kornbluth
61 • The Mindworm • (1950) • short story by C. M. Kornbluth
72 • The Education of Tigress McCardle • (1957) • short story by C. M. Kornbluth (variant of The Education of Tigress Macardle)
80 • Shark Ship • (1958) • novelette by C. M. Kornbluth (variant of Reap the Dark Tide)
105 • The Meddlers • (1953) • short story by C. M. Kornbluth
108 • The Luckiest Man in Denv • (1952) • short story by C. M. Kornbluth
118 • The Reversible Revolutions • (1941) • short story by C. M. Kornbluth
129 • The City in the Sofa • (1941) • short story by C. M. Kornbluth
141 • Gomez • (1954) • novelette by C. M. Kornbluth
160 • Masquerade • (1942) • short story by C. M. Kornbluth
169 • The Slave • (1957) • novelette by C. M. Kornbluth
196 • The Words of Guru • (1941) • short story by C. M. Kornbluth
202 • Thirteen O’Clock • [Thirteen O’Clock (C. M. Kornbluth) • 1] • (1941) • novelette by C. M. Kornbluth
221 • Mr. Packer Goes to Hell • [Thirteen O’Clock (C. M. Kornbluth) • 2] • (1941) • novelette by C. M. Kornbluth
240 • With These Hands • (1951) • novelette by C. M. Kornbluth
253 • Iteration • (1950) • short story by C. M. Kornbluth
257 • The Goodly Creatures • (1952) • short story by C. M. Kornbluth
267 • Time Bum • (1953) • short story by C. M. Kornbluth
274 • Two Dooms • (1958) • novella by C. M. Kornbluth
309 • Passion Pills • (1958) • short story by C. M. Kornbluth
313 • The Silly Season • (1950) • short story by C. M. Kornbluth
324 • Fire-Power • (1941) • novelette by C. M. Kornbluth
341 • The Perfect Invasion • (1942) • novelette by C. M. Kornbluth
356 • The Adventurers • (1955) • short story by C. M. Kornbluth
361 • Kazam Collects • (1941) • short story by C. M. Kornbluth
372 • The Marching Morons • (1951) • novelette by C. M. Kornbluth
396 • The Altar at Midnight • (1952) • short story by C. M. Kornbluth
402 • Crisis! • (1942) • short story by C. M. Kornbluth
413 • Theory of Rocketry • (1958) • short story by C. M. Kornbluth
424 • The Cosmic Charge Account • (1956) • novelette by C. M. Kornbluth
441 • Friend to Man • (1951) • short story by C. M. Kornbluth
447 • I Never Ast No Favors • (1954) • short story by C. M. Kornbluth
458 • The Little Black Bag • (1950) • novelette by C. M. Kornbluth
479 • What Sorghum Says • (1941) • short story by C. M. Kornbluth
485 • MS. Found in a Chinese Fortune Cookie • (1957) • short story by C. M. Kornbluth
494 • The Only Thing We Learn • (1949) • short story by C. M. Kornbluth
502 • The Last Man Left in the Bar • (1957) • short story by C. M. Kornbluth
512 • Virginia • (1958) • short story by C. M. Kornbluth
517 • The Advent on Channel Twelve • (1958) • short story by C. M. Kornbluth
520 • Make Mine Mars • (1952) • novelette by C. M. Kornbluth
543 • Everybody Knows Joe • (1953) • short story by C. M. Kornbluth
546 • The Remorseful • (1953) • short story by C. M. Kornbluth
551 • Sir Mallory’s Magnitude • (1941) • novelette by C. M. Kornbluth
570 • The Events Leading Down to the Tragedy • (1958) • short story by C. M. Kornbluth
575 • Early “to spec” Stories • (1997) • essay by uncredited
577 • King Cole of Pluto • (1940) • novelette by C. M. Kornbluth
593 • No Place to Go • (1941) • short story by C. M. Kornbluth
597 • Dimension of Darkness • (1941) • short story by C. M. Kornbluth
605 • Dead Center • (1941) • novelette by C. M. Kornbluth
620 • Interference • (1941) • short story by C. M. Kornbluth
627 • Forgotten Tongue • (1941) • short story by C. M. Kornbluth
632 • Return from M-15 • (1941) • novelette by C. M. Kornbluth
648 • The Core • (1942) • novelette by C. M. Kornbluth
March 1st, 2019 at 12:42 pm
You may recall that the Kornbluths had a severely disabled child, and one of the Pohls’ kids also faced a milder sort of challenge.
Hence the putting the guts through the platen. Maybe it’s because I haven’t read it for almost forty years…but I don’t recall it being all that sentimental.
Maybe compared to “Mute, Inglorious Tam”…
March 1st, 2019 at 1:29 pm
Todd
I was using the word sentimental in the sense of appealing to emotions rather than reasoning, though I’d have to to say that the decision that was probably made was the reasonable one as well.