~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ With All My Love A Touch of Strange: The Deep Humanitarianism of Theodore Sturgeon His biography, the struggles

and self-doubts he dealt with, are available to anyone to read, on the world wide web. His humanity -- his deep love for and understanding of humanity's frailties and magnificence ("It Opens the Sky" is only one example) -- is in his stories. His other recurring theme: 'things must grow, or die.' ("Need," "Hurricane Trio," Godbody, "The [Widget], the [Wadget], and Boff," and others) And the powerful theme: that the "unwanted" among us can find real love. ("The Clinic," "A Touch of Strange," "A Saucer of Loneliness," "The Silken Swift") And the nova-burst discovery that it's all right to be yourself -- at last. The very best of the stories examine the innermost heart of human suffering; and provide solutions, too. The gems, the jewels, that rest quietly in his readers' minds, sometimes forever after putting a story of his down -- these are some of those gems. Lost gems, buried gems. Gems for eternity. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "I have something in my head that just won't quit: it's a way I have of asking the next question: Why is so-and-so the way it is? Why can't it be such-and-such instead? There is always another question to be asked about any thing or any situation; especially you shouldn't quit when you like an answer because there's always another one after it. And we live in a world where people just don't want to ask the next question!" "Slow Sculpture," 1970, in Sturgeon is Alive and Well... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I found out the differences between 'the truth' and 'all the truth.' You can know some pretty terrible things about a person, and you can know they're true. But sometimes it makes a huge difference if you know what else is true too. I read something in a book once about an old lady who was walking along the street minding her own business when a young guy came charging along, knocked her down, rolled her in a mud puddle, slapped her head and smeared handfuls of wet mud all over her hair. Now what should you do with a guy like that? But then if you find out that someone had got careless with a drum of gasoline and it ignited and the old lady was splashed with it, and the guy had presence of mind enough to do what he did as fast as he did, and severely burned his hands in the doing of it, then what should you do with him? "The Graveyard Reader," 1958, in The Worlds of Theodore Sturgeon. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The analogy of the Sahara smash is the anecdote of one of the desert crashes of a B-17 in Africa. Unlike tragic others, this one had a happy ending, and this is why: the crew made no attempt to trek out of there in a body, but instead assigned one man to march out and get help. The significant thing is that he carried with him not only a compass, but almost their entire water supply. The rest of the crew rationed themselves down to three tablespoons a day and lay as still as possible buried in the sand under the broken fuselage. "Tandy's Story," 1961, in The Stars Are the Styx.

That was at the same quarry where the big Finnish blast foreman was killed by a premature shot. He was out in the open and knew he couldn't get clear. He stood straight and still and let it come, since it was bound to come, and he raised his right hand to his head. My mechanic said he was trying to protect his face but I thought at the time he was saluting something. "It Wasn't Syzygy," 1948, in E Pluribus Unicorn. "It was me, see. I guess if I got stung every wasp done it should get killed. Maybe burned even. But them wasps in the nest-es, they din't sting nobody, an' here they are all...all brave, that's what, brave, comin' and fallin' and comin' and fallin' and gettin' squashed. Why? Fer me, thass why! Me, it was me, I hadda go an' holler because I got stung an' make all that happen." "Perhaps one day you will fly into the fire and burn your wings and die, because it's all you can do to save something dear to you," she said softly. "Perhaps you will be a flame yourself, and see the brave ones fly at you and lose their wings and die. Either way, you'd know a little better what you were doing, because of the wasps, wouldn't you?" "...and my fear is great...," 1953, in The Golden Helix. ...and the sight of my hippogriff flailing down into the water, short of the shore line. One wet wingelbow rises like a sail and sinks as slowly; his neck, so pathetically thin without the dry golden ruff of feathers, is stretched toward the rock, but not far enough: he has died for me, and his laughter is dead with him; does thee know now, fool knight, what it was he told thee with that touch of his beak? Only that for all his jibes and hurtful scorn he was ready to die with thee. . . . And dying, Rogero, thy steed could not know thee heard, or would ever understand. "To Here and the Easel," 1954, in Sturgeon is Alive and Well... "It's the same thing as that story I told you--about the man knocking me down. It really happened. He knocked me down and beat me, right in broad daylight, in front of witnesses, and everything I said about it is true." "Bastard." "There was a loading-dock there, in front of a warehouse. A piece of machinery in a crate got loose and slid down a chute toward the street. It hit a drum of gasoline and struck a spark. The first thing I knew, I was all over flames. That man knocked me down and beat them out with his bare hands. He saved my life. "It makes a difference when you know all the facts, doesn't it? Even when the first facts you got are all true?" "Extrapolation," 1953, in Sturgeon in Orbit. "Don't confuse logic and truth, however good the logic. You can stick one end of logic in solid ground and throw the other end clear out of the cosmos without breaking it. Truth's a little less flexible." "The Golden Helix," 1954, in The Golden Helix. I caught Abernathy in the contraption the very first night. He was a small gray mouse with very round ears. They were like the finest tissue, and covered with the softest fuzz in the world. [...] No one with pretensions to a soul could destroy such divine tracery. [...] I pushed cheese through the bars until his tummy was round like a ping-pong ball. Then I let him go. [...] You never saw such beautiful ears in your life. "It Wasn't Syzygy," 1948, in E Pluribus Unicorn.

... all in this achingly pure color. He realized what was being done with the dozens of colors of house paint in little cans which had so intrigued the storekeeper. "And Now the News..." 1959, in The Golden Helix. "If you think you're quoting the first words from an astronaut on the moon, you're not. What he said was from the ladder, when he poked his boot down. He said, 'It's some kind of soft stuff, I can kick it around with my foot.' I've always liked that much better. It was real, it wasn't rehearsed or memorized or thought out and it had to do with that moment and the next." "Occam's Scalpel," 1971, in The Stars Are the Styx. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Sex!" he said scornfully. "The American Public is basically disinterested in sex." "If the public were really interested," he smiled, "do you think they'd need all that high-pressure salesmanship?" "Maturity," 1947, in The Worlds of Theodore Sturgeon. "Suppose you had a bunch of folks starving on an island and dropped them a ton of food--would they need high-pressure salesmanship?" "You mean ... the av--the ordin--you mean, people aren't really interested?" "Not that interested." ... It must reason, then, that unless it kept these appetites whipped up to a froth at all times, it might not increase itself [...]. "The [Widget], the [Wadget], and Boff," 1955, in Aliens 4. "They're all afraid they'll lose something if they don't pair off, pair off. They've been schooled and pushed and ordered and taught that that's the way it must be, so--" "Rule of Three," 1951, in The Stars Are the Styx. Why is a woman's breast--which for thousands of artists has been the source of beauty and for [countless] children the source of life--regarded as obscene? "Dazed," 1971, in The Stars Are the Styx. "It's something everybody just knows. You don't have to look at the evidence." "What does do harm--lots of it, and some of the worst kind--is guilt and a sense of sin, where the sin turns out to be some sort of natural appetite." "It's as mad, and as dangerous, as grafting in an ethical-guilt structure which forbids or inhibits yielding to the need for the B-vitamin complex or potassium." "If All Men Were Brothers, Would You Let One Marry Your Sister?" 1967, in Case and the Dreamer. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ... sympathy, empathy, forbearance, unity in the idea of their species rather than in their obedience; membership in harmony with all life everywhere. A people with such feelings and their derived skills cannot be slaves. ... there was only one concentration possible to each of them -- to be free, and the accomplished feeling of being free. As each found it, he was an expert in freedom, and [they] had no greater skill than the talent of freedom. "The Skills of Xanadu," 1956, in The Golden Helix.

"Humanity is split up into tiny groups, each clinging to some single segment of Truth, and earnestly keeping itself unaware of the other Truths that make up the great mosaic." "One Foot and the Grave," 1949, in Visions and Venturers. So the things people need and the things they need to be safe from, they're all kinds of things: it doesn't make one of them a freak if his special need is a little different. "Need," 1960, in Beyond. "One or another fear or combinations of fear are at the base of any monopoly, whether it's in industry, or in politics, or in the area of religious thought." "Embarrassment occurs when fear is not analyzed." "The Traveling Crag,"1951, in Alien Cargo. "You don't love, nor gain love, by imprisonment or command, or by treachery and lies." ... the unbridgeable hostility between the final combatants was the proof of the identity of their aim--the total domination, [...] of all human minds. Venus Plus X, 1960. "The way they use the power mostly is to stop anything from changing and to stop anything that could be fun or loving, and to fight anything that's beautiful or young just for that reason alone--that's the worst thing, that really is the enemy." "The answer is not in saving and preserving, but in growing and changing. "The answer is not death, but love. "Not death, but life. "Not death!" Godbody, 1986. "The treasure she promised us if we got it through was just what she said it was--the greatest treasure known to man--to be alive." "Crate," 1970, in Sturgeon is Alive and Well... "The word is, be kind to each other. It opened the sky." "[...] you don't, you just don't increase intelligence by a factor of five and fail to see that people must be kind to one another." "It Opens the Sky," 1957, in A Touch of Strange.

So really--why can't we all be chums? Why can't we? Why? "I Say ... Ernest...," 1973, in The Golden Helix. {With the kind permission of Copyright-holder, The Theodore Sturgeon Literary Trust} http://www.theodoresturgeontrust.com/