Conditionally Human
by Walter M. Miller
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In CONDITIONALLY HUMAN (February 1952), gene-alteration raises animal intelligence to near human levels, posing ethical and emotional questions for those involved in the animals' care. Miller handles the story's horrifying implications with prescient force and cool detachment. He had only been writing for publication for a little over a year when this story appeared GALAXY, and this, the first of his two contributions to the magazine, showed that he had already achieved full control of his show more talent. The ethical questions raised here ("Are they therefore human?" "Can we continue to treat them like property"?) are at the center of societal concern and debate sixty years later and are nowhere closer to being resolved. This version of the novelette is significantly shorter than the version which appears in the major 1980 collection THE BEST OF WALTER MILLER, JR. and it is reasonable to speculate that the version published in GALAXY was a reduction by its editor Horace Gold, who was well known to have engaged in that kind of imperious editing. There is no question that this more economical version fits better into GALAXY's format and serves Gold's views of editorial consistency. Miller's own views of the presumed alteration are unknown but the fact that his COMMAND PERFORMANCE appeared in the magazine nine months later suggests that he found this editorial intervention acceptable. (Some of GALAXY's authors did not. Theodore Sturgeon was notably discontented and Isaac Asimov left the magazine and science fiction writing in the late 50's, probably for that reason.). show less
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56+ Works 15,399 Members
Miller's participation in the bombing of Casino, Italy, during World War II apparently had a lasting impact on the writer, for his only novel, A Canticle for Leibowitz (1960), is rife with images of massive destruction caused by war. Miller began writing short stories in 1950 while recovering from an automobile accident, and most of his writing show more was done between 1950 and 1960. Often regarded as one of the best science fiction novels ever written, A Canticle for Leibowitz is a complex, beautifully written book that traces human history from a twentieth-century nuclear war forward to another war in a.d. 3781. It stands as one of the best examples of the fear that millions of people have of the power of nuclear weapons and the aftermath of nuclear holocaust. Richly symbolic and multilayered, the novel lends itself to critical commentary more than do most popular works of literature. Critic John B. Ower remarks that, perhaps because of his conversion to Catholicism, "Miller's religious belief is complex and comprehensive enough to contain within itself the dark misgivings, the ironies, and the ambiguities of our deeply disturbed century." (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Original title
- Conditionally Human
- Original publication date
- 1979
- First words
- He knew there was no use hanging around after breakfast, but he could not bear leaving her like this.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)They walk like kings.
- Original language*
- English
- Disambiguation notice
- There are, apart from the stand-alone novelette with the same name, TWO Conditionally Human collections, this -the first one- has just three stories.
Do not confuse this title with "Conditionally Human ''and ... (show all)Other Stories''" - that has more in it.
The other (ISBN 0-552-11991-1) is an abridged collection from The Best of Walter M. Miller, Jr. and has six stories. / Hugo Award (Novelette 1955) for The Darfsteller
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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- Members
- 146
- Popularity
- 223,140
- Rating
- (3.30)
- Languages
- English, French, Spanish
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 9
- ASINs
- 14
