"If There Were No Benny Cemoli" 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 by American writer
Philip K. Dick, first published in the December, 1963 issue of ''
Galaxy'' magazine with illustration by Lutjens.
[Levack, Daniel (1981). ''PKD: A Philip K. Dick Bibliography'', Underwood/Miller, p. 100. ]
"The Proxmen rebuilding war-torn Earth want to prosecute its leaders for war crimes. Benny Cemoli would be the biggest catch of all, if they could just find him. -- Steven Owen Godersky
Plot summary
On the tenth anniversary of a devastating atomic war on Earth, more
Proxima Centaurians arrive to continue the rebuilding of the planet. A war crimes tribunal is looking for names of war criminals and a surviving
homeopape of
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
seems to provide an answer. Benny Cemoli.
Themes
Per
Darko Suvin
Darko Ronald Suvin (born Darko Šlesinger) is a Yugoslav-born academic, writer and critic who became a professor (now emeritusDavid JohnstonConvocation: Honorary degrees and emeritus professorships McGill Reporter, Volume 33, No. 05, November ...
, "If There Were No Benny Cemoli" has the theme of the "transformation or transubstantiation of classical European fascism into new American power".
Reception
Algis Budrys
Algirdas Jonas "Algis" Budrys (January 9, 1931 – June 9, 2008) was a Lithuanian-American science fiction author, editor, and critic. He was also known under the pen names Frank Mason, Alger Rome (in collaboration with Jerome Bixby), Jo ...
said that Dick's story "is, as usual, markedly individual, and distinguished for his ability to draw fine-line social caricatures paradoxically freighted with verisimilitude".
Further reading
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References
External links
*
"If There Were No Benny Cemoli"on the
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...
Short stories by Philip K. Dick
1963 short stories
Fiction set around Proxima Centauri
Works originally published in Galaxy Science Fiction
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