ALT.SF4M

  Need help finding old SF story

   • t*******k@***.com
     29/09/1997 00:00:000 UTC

     Greetings!

     I'm trying to track down a short story I read almost 20 years ago,
     because

     it is the inspiration for one of the key elements of a novel I am
     working

     on. I hope someone knows of it and can help me out.

     I read it in an anthology in the late 70s or early 80s. It was about a

     man who lives in America shortly after a plague has destroyed
     civilization.

     After wandering a bit and seeing the devastation the plague has wrought,

     he finds a totalitarian enclave of civilization free of the plague. He

     lives there for a while, but leaves when he helps an infected woman
     escape.

     She later infects him, and they both end up in an enclave of
     civilization

     where everyone is infected. It turns out the plague is a virus sent to
     us

     from an alien civilization. The virus causes numerous beneficial changes

     and improvements to human physiology, like the ability to taste with
     one's

     fingertips. The aliens had intended for us to decipher and understand
     the

     messages on the capsules, so that we would understand what the virus was

     and how it worked, but some idiot had blindly cut one open on his lathe,

     infecting an unsuspecting world, which reacted badly to the outbreak,
     not

     realizing it wasn't a disaster.

     Can anyone give me a hint as to the title and/or author of this story

     and/or the anthology where it is collected?

     Or can anyone direct me to a good reference which can help? The Internet

     Science Fiction Database is an excellent reference, with a fairly

     exhaustive list of all works of sf. But it doesn't contain any
     information

     about stories other than author, title, and where it has been printed. I

     can pull up a list of titles with "plague" in them, but can't confirm if

     any is the right one, and I don't want to have to track down 20 obscure

     anthologies, only to find out it isn't in any of them.

     I've tried scouring any and all sf anthologies I could find at local

     libraries without luck.

     I would greatly appreciate any help or advice. Thank you.

     SIAI

     Z

     Tim

       • r*******w@h******n.com
         29/09/1997 00:00:000 UTC

         In article <1*************.********5@l*******.****.***l.com>,

         t*******k@***.com (TCurwick) wrote:

         > Greetings!

         > I'm trying to track down a short story I read almost 20 years ago,
         because

         > it is the inspiration for one of the key elements of a novel I am
         working

         > on. I hope someone knows of it and can help me out.

         > I read it in an anthology in the late 70s or early 80s. It was
         about a

         > man who lives in America shortly after a plague has destroyed
         civilization.

         > After wandering a bit and seeing the devastation the plague has
         wrought,

         > he finds a totalitarian enclave of civilization free of the
         plague. He

         > lives there for a while, but leaves when he helps an infected
         woman escape.

         > She later infects him, and they both end up in an enclave of
         civilization

         > where everyone is infected. It turns out the plague is a virus
         sent to us

         > from an alien civilization. The virus causes numerous beneficial
         changes

         > and improvements to human physiology, like the ability to taste
         with one's

         > fingertips. The aliens had intended for us to decipher and
         understand the

         > messages on the capsules, so that we would understand what the
         virus was

         > and how it worked, but some idiot had blindly cut one open on his
         lathe,

         > infecting an unsuspecting world, which reacted badly to the
         outbreak, not

         > realizing it wasn't a disaster.

         > Can anyone give me a hint as to the title and/or author of this
         story

         > and/or the anthology where it is collected?

         "Dark Benediction" by Walter M. Miller, Jr. Don't know what
         anthologies

         you could find it in; but it appears in collections of his stories.
         Check

         used book stores or libraries.

         --

         r*********d@***.com

         r*******w@h******n.com

         c******a@p******y.com