SHORT STORY WEDNESAY: SELECTION

 "Selection" by J. T. McIntosh  (from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, January 1955)

From the editor Anthony Boucher's introduction in F&SF:  "To the stars!" we cry in our most ringing tones; and even the antique Romans used the journey to the stars as the symbol of reaching glory over harsh ways -- per aspera ad astra.  But ad astra may also mean ad aspera; the harsh hardships of interstellar colonization may be such that "To the stars!" is no cry of triumph, but a remorseless sense of doom...

What can humanity do when overpopulation becomes a major problem?  They can send some of it's population to the stars on a one-way trip -- no going back.  Those chose to go are the Selected.  about seven in an hundred will be chosen in their lifetime -- anyone over the age of ten -- no excuses, no arguments.  The chosen are the unlucky ones, destined to face unnamed hardships, and probable death far away from their home planet.  Lew Stevenson has been notified that he has been Selected.

For the Selected there is a thirty day grace period, time enough to wrap up one's affairs.  Lew's girlfriend -- the woman he had hoped to marry -- cut off contact with him as soon as she learned of his status.  With nothing else to look forward to, Lew decided to opt for an earlier departure date.  But then he met Clio, another one of the Selected.  Clio was naive and alone and desperate, but also willing to opt for an early departure.  Somehow the two clicked, perhaps not passionately, but at least practically.  And if they wanted to be sent to the same planet, they would have to marry.

Their destination was the planet Logan, whose main drawback was that for ten minutes out of every ninety one experienced incapacitating, agonizing spasms.  The aftereffects of each spasm were negligible, but for nearly fifty years no cure had been found.  Given the options, Logan was the best of a bad situation.

So this is the story of Lew Stevenson, a man who would go along to get along.  But would Clio also be able to go along to get along?  and an interesting study of a dystopia trying very hard not to be a dystopia.

James Murdoch McGregor (1925-2008) signed virtually all of his science fiction work as J. T. McIntosh (some early stories appeared as by J. T M'Intosh), beginning with "The Curfew Tolls" (Astounding Science Fiction, December 1950).  He published many stories, both in his native England, and in the Unite States through 1980, after which he fell silent.  His most accomplished work was in the 1950s, which also saw publication of his four best books -- World Out of Mind, Born Leader (a.p.a. Worlds Apart), One in Three Hundred, and The Fittest (a.p.a. The Rule of the Pagbeasts).  Some of his stories were also chosen for significant anthologies during the 1950s and 1960s.  Quoting critic John Clute, "McIntosh never lost the vivid narrative skills that made him an interesting figure of 1950s sf, but his failure to challenge himself or his readers in his later career that led to results that verged on mediocrity.  His early work warrants revival."  Sadly, no collection of his short stories was ever published, and Clute was spot on about the need for his early work to be revived.  Now, won't some enterprising publisher...

The January 1955 issue of F&SF that contains this story is linked below.  Also included are stories by Shirley Jackson (a classic!), Mack Reynolds, Robert Abernathy, Isaac Asimov (a Wendall Urth story), William Sansom, and John Dickson Carr  (a Department of Queer Complaints story), and the first part of an essay about L. Frank Baum by Martin Gardner.

https://archive.org/details/Fantasy_Science_Fiction_v008n01_1955-01/mode/1up