To Serve Man
| "To Serve Man" | |
|---|---|
| Author | Damon Knight |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction short story |
| Published in | Galaxy Science Fiction |
| Publication type | Periodical |
| Publisher | Galaxy Publishing Corporation |
| Media type | Print (Magazine, Hardback & Paperback) |
| Publication date | November 1950 |
"To Serve Man" is a science fiction short story written by Damon Knight. It first appeared in the November 1950 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction and has been reprinted a number of times, including in Frontiers in Space (1955), Far Out (1961) and The Best of Damon Knight (1976).[1] The title is a double entendre, meaning either "to perform a service for humanity" or "to serve a human as food."
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[edit] Synopsis
The story is set in what appears to be the present time (i.e., 1950), in cold war America, and is told in first-person narrative by a United Nations translator. The story opens at a special session of the UN where three alien emissaries, the pig-like "Kanamit," are testifying that the purpose of their mission to Earth is "to bring to you the peace and plenty which we ourselves enjoy, and which we have in the past brought to other races throughout the galaxy." The aliens soon supply Earth with cheap unlimited power, a device that suppresses explosions, and drugs for prolonging life. As a further token of friendship, they allow humans to visit their home planet via ten-year "exchange groups."
A friend of the narrator, a UN translator named Gregori, steals one of the Kanamit books, and he and the narrator attempt to translate it, via a basic Kanamit-English dictionary provided by the aliens. After some weeks, they determine that the title is "To Serve Man." Two weeks later, the narrator returns from a trip to find Gregori distraught. Gregori says that he has translated the first paragraph of the book:
"It's a cookbook," he says.
[edit] Background
About this story, Knight wrote: [2]
"To Serve Man" was written in 1950, when I was living in Greenwich Village and my unhappy first marriage was breaking up. I wrote it in one afternoon, while my wife was out with another man.
[edit] Awards
In 2001, the story was awarded a Retro Hugo Award as the "Best Short Story of 1951."[3]
[edit] Adaptations
Knight's story was adapted for use as an episode of the 1959-64 television series The Twilight Zone.[4]
[edit] References in other works
George Scithers, writing under the pseudonym "Karl Würf," wrote a book titled To Serve Man[5], which consists almost entirely of recipes for meat dishes, ostensibly intended to require "long pig" (human flesh) as their main ingredient.
In his 1982 novel Space, James Michener has astronaut Randy Claggett reading the story to hospitalized engineer Stanley Mott.
In John Ringo's book A Hymn Before Battle[6], "To Serve Man" is mentioned as a classic example of aliens seeming to be benevolent, while in fact using humans for their own purposes.
The story has been implicitly referenced in two of Matt Groening's television series: in an early Treehouse of Horror episode of The Simpsons, the aliens Kodos and Kang invite the Simpsons to their ship, and then run through a series of gags revealing, alternately, that they have a book about cooking humans, and that they have a book about cooking for humans (with further revelations seeming to reverse the sentiment again). Later, in the episode of Futurama "Mother's Day", a remote is shown with buttons "To serve man" and "to serve man (ironic)". Both references are likely referencing the Twilight Zone episode based on the story as well as the original work.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Index to Science Fiction Anthologies and Collections
- ^ Malzberg, Barry N., ed (1976). The Best of Damon Knight. Nelson Doubleday.
- ^ 2001 Retro Hugo Awards
- ^ Belasco, Warren James (2006). Meals to come: a history of the future of food. University of California Press. p. 130. ISBN 0520241517. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=fL0HvQ-HcxYC&pg=RA1-PA130&dq=%22to+serve+man%22+%22twilight+zone%22+%22damon+knight%22&as_brr=3&cd=6#v=onepage&q=%22to%20serve%20man%22%20%22twilight%20zone%22%20%22damon%20knight%22&f=false. Retrieved 3 May 2010.
- ^ To Serve Man: A Cookbook for People at Google Books
- ^ Ringo, John (2000). A Hymn Before Battle. Riverdale: Baen Books. ISBN 0671319418. http://openlibrary.org/b/OL6786937M/hymn-before-battle.
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