NEAR the beginning of his writing career (which would eventually span almost seventy-five years), Ray Bradbury latched onto the notion of "substitute people," that is, exact replicas of human beings, and with it he explored both the possible emotional, social, and criminal implications and the resulting ramifications of that idea in three stories that have become known as the "Marionettes, Inc." series, after the title of the first one. While other writers have covered the same territory, leave it to Bradbury to put his own unique twists in the tales . . .
(1) "Marionettes, Inc."
By Ray Bradbury (1920-2012).
First appearance: Startling Stories, March 1949.
Reprints page (ISFDb HERE).
Wikipedia (WARNING! SPOILERS! HERE).
Filmed for the Alfred Hitchcock Presents TV series in 1958 as "Design for Loving" (IMDb WARNING! SPOILERS! HERE) and in 1985 for The Ray Bradbury Theater series (IMDb WARNING! SPOILERS! HERE).
Short short short story (4 pages).
Online at The Luminist Archives (HERE; go to text page 125).
(Note: Text quite faded.)
"There's a lot they don't know about us."
IT would have saved a lot of trouble if someone had said something like that to Victor Frankenstein . . .
Principal characters:
~ Braling ("You're lucky, at least, that your wife loves you. Hate's my problem. Not so easy"), Smith ("It will be my task to make her love me comfortably"), Braling Two ("I don't like that tool box"), Nettie (""Tic-tic-tic-tic-tic-tic-tic-tic-tic-tic-tic"), and Mrs. Braling ("Why—you haven't done that in years").
Typo: "appaled".
References:
- "Bond Street and melachrinos":
"According to Westminster City Council, Bond Street has the highest density of haute couture stores anywhere in the world, attracting 'the rich, the famous, and the simply curious'." (Wikipedia HERE.)
"Melachrino: traditional aromatic cake with raisins and walnuts, resembling syrupy walnut pie. Perfect with coffee during fasting." (GastronomyTours.com HERE.)
- "kidney-desk":
"A kidney desk is a desk that has a curvy top that is similar in shape to a human kidney. Many kidney desks are very ornate, showing off details like vellum-lined tabletops and parquetry inlay." (1stDibs Expert HERE).
(2) "Changeling."
By Ray Bradbury (1920-2012).
First appearance: Super Science Stories, July 1949.
Reprints page (ISFDb HERE).
Short short short story (6 pages).
Online at The Luminist Archives (HERE; go to text page 98).
(Note: Text mildly faded.)
"He couldn't be in two places."
THE Heisenberg uncertainty principle says that you can't confidently test something
without somehow interfering with the results. On a warm summer evening a suspicious
wife decides to test the theory: "She walked over to the other couch, reached down and
drew out the gun" . . .
Principal characters:
~ Leonard Hill ("he watched her with the eye of a psychiatrist witnessing a not-unusual phenomenon") and Martha Hill ("She had seen the news item last week, the item that had finally set her worrying and planning").
Typos: "No dairy"; "Is Says".
(3) "Punishment Without Crime."
By Ray Bradbury (1920-2012).
First appearance: Other Worlds, March 1950.
Artist uncredited.
Reprints page (ISFDb HERE).
Filmed for The Ray Bradbury Theater TV series in 1988 (IMDb (WARNING! SPOILERS! HERE).
Short short story (8 pages).
Online at The Luminist Archives (HERE; go to text page 6).
(Note: See page 5 for the editor's mildly enthusiastic comments about this story.)
(Further note: Text faded but legible.)
"Better men than he had taken young wives only to have them dissolve away in their hands like sugar crystals under water."
WHEN is a murder not a murder? When it's a non-murder. And when is a non-murder a murder? Poor George is about to find out what the Bard noted centuries ago: "We have
strict statutes and most biting laws" . . .
Principal characters:
~ "the dark man at the desk" ("You wish to kill your wife?"), George Hill ("I don't want to kill you"), Katherine Hill ("One part of you does"), the lawyer ("they had to have an object case, a whipping boy"), and Leonard Phelps ("the man took her arm").
References:
- "Thou art fair" and so on:
Bradbury plunders the Song of Solomon (HERE).
................................................................................................................................................................
More references and resources:
- Bradbury's "marionettes" would seem to conform largely to the usual picture of a mechani-cal android:
"Authors have used the term android in more diverse ways than robot or cyborg. In some fictional works, the difference between a robot and android is only superficial, with androids being made to look like humans on the outside but with robot-like internal mechanics. In other stories, authors have used the word 'android' to mean a wholly organic, yet artificial, creation. Other fictional depictions of androids fall somewhere in between.
"Eric G. Wilson, who defines an android as a 'synthetic human being', distinguishes between three types of android, based on their body's composition:
the mummy type – made of 'dead things' or 'stiff, inanimate, natural material', such as mummies, puppets, dolls and statues
the golem type – made from flexible, possibly organic material, including golems and homunculi
the automaton type – made from a mix of dead and living parts, including automatons and robots.
"Although human morphology is not necessarily the ideal form for working robots, the fascination in developing robots that can mimic it can be found historically in the assimilation of two concepts: simulacra (devices that exhibit likeness) and automata (devices that have independence)." (Wikipedia HERE.)
- We last beheld Ray Bradbury's work with his "Half-Pint Homicide" (HERE).
The bottom line:
We must not make a scarecrow of the law,
Setting it up to fear the birds of prey,
And let it keep one shape, till custom make it
Their perch and not their terror.
Unless otherwise noted, all bibliographical data are derived from The FictionMags Index created by William G. Contento & edited by Phil Stephensen-Payne.
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