"Expendable" 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 uni ...

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...

by American writer Philip K. Dick. It was first published in ''

The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction ''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'' (usually referred to as ''F&SF'') is a U.S. fantasy and science fiction magazine first published in 1949 by Mystery House, a subsidiary of Lawrence Spivak's Mercury Press. Editors Anthony Boucher ...

'' issue of July 1953. The plot centers on an unnamed human being caught in the middle of the ongoing, million year conflict between the degenerate descendants of the insects (Earth's original inhabitants) and humans (the invading species). Dick later explained where the inspiration for the story came from: "I got the idea when a

fly Flies are insects of the order Diptera, the name being derived from the Greek δι- ''di-'' "two", and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwings having evolved into advanced ...

buzzed by my head one day and I imagined (

paranoia Paranoia is an instinct or thought process that is believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of delusion and irrationality. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs, or beliefs of conspiracy c ...

indeed!) that it was laughing at me."Philip K. Dick. ''The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick, Volume 1: The Short Happy Life of the Brown Oxford''. Citadel Press. 1987. p 403.

References

External links

* Short stories by Philip K. Dick 1955 short stories Works originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction Fiction about insects Talking animals in fiction {{1950s-sf-story-stub