Mimsy Were the Borogoves
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"Mimsy Were the Borogoves" is a
science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...
short story by
Lewis Padgett Lewis Padgett was the joint pseudonym of the science fiction authors and spouses Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore,Nicholls 1979, p. 445. taken from their mothers' maiden names. They also used the pseudonyms Lawrence O'Donnell and C. H. Liddell, as wel ...
(a pseudonym of American writers
Henry Kuttner Henry Kuttner (April 7, 1915 – February 3, 1958) was an American author of science fiction, fantasy and horror. Early life Henry Kuttner was born in Los Angeles, California in 1915. Kuttner (1829–1903) and Amelia Bush (c. 1834–1911), the ...
and
C. L. Moore Catherine Lucille Moore (January 24, 1911 – April 4, 1987) was an American science fiction and fantasy writer, who first came to prominence in the 1930s writing as C. L. Moore. She was among the first women to write in the science fiction and ...
), originally published in the February 1943 issue of '' Astounding Science Fiction Magazine''.. It was judged by the
Science Fiction Writers of America The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, doing business as Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association, commonly known as SFWA ( or ) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization of professional science fiction and fantasy writers. While ...
to be among the best science fiction stories written prior to 1965 and included in the anthology ''
The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume One, 1929–1964 ''The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume One, 1929–1964'' is a 1970 anthology of English language science fiction short stories, edited by Robert Silverberg. Author Lester del Rey said that "it even lives up to its subtitle", referring t ...
''. In 2007, it was loosely adapted into a feature-length film titled ''
The Last Mimzy {{Infobox film , name = The Last Mimzy , image = The Last Mimzy.jpg , caption = US Promotional poster , director = Robert Shaye , producer = Michael Phillips , based_on = {{Based on, " Mimsy Were th ...
''. The title of the original short story was directly inspired by a verse from "
Jabberwocky "Jabberwocky" is a nonsense poem written by Lewis Carroll about the killing of a creature named "the Jabberwock". It was included in his 1871 novel ''Through the Looking-Glass'', the sequel to ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865). The bo ...
", a poem found in the classic novel ''
Through the Looking-Glass ''Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There'' (also known as ''Alice Through the Looking-Glass'' or simply ''Through the Looking-Glass'') is a novel published on 27 December 1871 (though indicated as 1872) by Lewis Carroll and the ...
'' by author
Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (; 27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet and mathematician. His most notable works are ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865) and its sequel ...
.


Plot summary

Millions of years in the distant future, a
posthuman Posthuman or post-human is a concept originating in the fields of science fiction, futurology, contemporary art, and philosophy that means a person or entity that exists in a state beyond being human. The concept aims at addressing a variety of ...
scientist A scientist is a person who conducts Scientific method, scientific research to advance knowledge in an Branches of science, area of the natural sciences. In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, ...
is attempting to build a
time machine Time travel is the concept of movement between certain points in time, analogous to movement between different points in space by an object or a person, typically with the use of a hypothetical device known as a time machine. Time travel is a w ...
and tests it by sending a box with a hastily gathered batch of educational toys into the ancient past. When the box fails to return, he constructs another and tests it the same way, but it also fails to return. Believing the entire experiment to be a failure, he discontinues his efforts and gives up on time machines. However, the first box arrives in the middle of the twentieth century and the second in the latter part of the nineteenth century, but both have had their time-travel circuitry irreparably damaged by the journey. The first box of toys travels back to 1942 and is discovered by a seven-year-old boy named Scott Paradine, who takes it home. The toys include a small transparent cube that both follows and interacts with the holder's thoughts, a wire maze puzzle employing a fourth dimension, and a detailed anatomical doll that possesses modified versions of human organs, plus unknown additional structures. As Scott and his two-year-old sister, Emma, play with the toys, the brain activity of the two develop in unusual ways. Although their parents are often preoccupied with their own lives, they notice unusual things going on with their children, such as strange conversations and nonsensical drawings, and the parents become worried. They consult with a child psychologist, Rex Holloway, who quickly recognizes the strangeness of the toys, and suspects them to be of extraterrestrial origin. Holloway surmises that the toys are "educating" the children and introducing an "X factor" into Scott's and Emma's thought processes, such as geometry that is unrelated to, and incompatible with, Euclidean geometry. He believes their developing young minds are pliable enough to be profoundly affected by the devices. While still behaving mostly as normal children, the two occasionally show signs of developing unusual thought patterns, such as a conversation between Scott and his father about how salmon reproduce, in which Scott thinks it would be natural for a species to "send" its eggs upstream in a river, to hatch, and the young would choose to return to "the ocean" when they were sufficiently developed. Scott also wonders why humans still choose to live here, in the time and space of Earth, an idea that puzzles his father. Holloway convinces the Paradine parents to take the toys away from the children, so that the children can return to normal development, and he attempts to study the toys himself, with little success. Meanwhile, the children continue thinking in the new patterns and communicating with each other in strange ways, including in their sleep and using strange words. Out of their parents' view, Scott begins collecting and creating small items for an abstract machine, largely at Emma's direction and guidance; she has more knowledge about how to construct the machine, but he has the skill to create it. The second box arrives in 19th century England and is found by a child (implied to be
Alice Liddell Alice Pleasance Hargreaves (''née'' Liddell, ; 4 May 1852 – 16 November 1934), was an English woman who, in her childhood, was an acquaintance and photography subject of Lewis Carroll. One of the stories he told her during a boating trip beca ...
), who one day recites some verse learned from one of its contents to her "Uncle Charles" (Charles Dodgson, better known today as
Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (; 27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet and mathematician. His most notable works are ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865) and its sequel ...
). Intrigued, he asks her its meaning; whereupon she, uncertain, identifies it as "the way out". Dodgson, in reply, promises to include it in his collection of writings about the stories she tells him, which are based on the toys from the box. He tells her that, unlike the other parts, which he has to modify so that adults can understand them, he will include this verse exactly as she told it to him. Back in 1942, Scott and Emma have encountered Carroll's
fantasy book Fantasy literature is literature set in an imaginary universe, often but not always without any locations, events, or people from the real world. Magic, the supernatural and magical creatures are common in many of these imaginary worlds. Fan ...
''
Through the Looking-Glass ''Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There'' (also known as ''Alice Through the Looking-Glass'' or simply ''Through the Looking-Glass'') is a novel published on 27 December 1871 (though indicated as 1872) by Lewis Carroll and the ...
'', containing the poem "
Jabberwocky "Jabberwocky" is a nonsense poem written by Lewis Carroll about the killing of a creature named "the Jabberwock". It was included in his 1871 novel ''Through the Looking-Glass'', the sequel to ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865). The bo ...
". In its words, they identified the time-space equation that guided their production, organization, and operation of the abstract machine; the title of the short story is a line from the poem. One day, their father hears the children's cries of excitement from upstairs in their house and he arrives in the doorway of Scott's bedroom, just in time to see his young son and daughter vanish in a direction he cannot comprehend.


Adaptations

* '' Tout spliques étaient les Borogoves'' (1970) directed for French TV by
Daniel Lecomte Daniel is a masculine given name and a surname of Hebrew language, Hebrew origin. It means "God is my judge"Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 68. (cf. Gabriel (given ...
. * In 1976,
Caedmon Records Caedmon Audio and HarperCollins Audio are record label imprints of HarperCollins Publishers that specialize in audiobooks and other literary content. Formerly Caedmon Records, its marketing tag-line was Caedmon: a Third Dimension for the Printe ...
released a spoken word album of the short story (TC 1509), narrated by William Shatner. * ''
The Last Mimzy {{Infobox film , name = The Last Mimzy , image = The Last Mimzy.jpg , caption = US Promotional poster , director = Robert Shaye , producer = Michael Phillips , based_on = {{Based on, " Mimsy Were th ...
'' (2007) directed by
Robert Shaye Robert Kenneth Shaye (born March 4, 1939) is an American businessman, film producer, actor, director, and writer. He is the founder of New Line Cinema, a film production studio that distributed films such as ''A Nightmare on Elm Street'', ''Tee ...
.


References


External links

*
Full text in 'The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume One 1929-1964', Edited by Robert Silverberg
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mimsy Were The Borogoves Science fiction short stories 1943 short stories American short stories Short stories adapted into films Works originally published in Analog Science Fiction and Fact Works published under a pseudonym Short fiction about time travel Fiction set in 1942 Cultural depictions of Alice Liddell Cultural depictions of Lewis Carroll