| "The Beast that Shouted Love at the Heart of the World" | |
|---|---|
| Author | Harlan Ellison |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction short story |
| Published in | Galaxy Science Fiction |
| Publication type | Periodical |
| Publisher | Galaxy Publishing Corp |
| Media type | Print (Magazine, Hardback & Paperback) |
| Publication date | June 1968 |
"The Beast that Shouted Love at the Heart of the World" is a 1968 science fiction short story by American writer Harlan Ellison. It won the Hugo Award for Best Short Story in 1969.[1]
Contents |
The story was first published in the June 1968 edition of Galaxy Science Fiction,[2][3] and was collected with other Ellison short stories as the first story in The Beast that Shouted Love at the Heart of the World in 1969. Subsequent publications have been in collections such as Dark Stars, edited by Robert Silverberg, in 1969,[4] The Hugo Winners: Volumes One and Two, edited by Isaac Asimov, in 1971,[5] and as part of Ellison's own retrospective collection, Edgeworks 4, in 1997.[6]
The story includes many related threads, starting with a man named William Sterog who goes on a killing spree after talking with a pest control man. In the next thread, an expedition discovers a new planet with a 37-foot-tall (11 m), beatific statue on it. The statue has the face of Sterog. Next, a violent and insane seven-headed dragon is captured and "drained" using a technique invented by a man named Semph. Another thread involves Semph discussing ethics with a friend. Finally, Djam Karet (roughly translated as "the hour that stretches"[7]) investigates a field that pulses with violence and madness and it is revealed that a race of advanced beings have been "draining" madness from their world and dumping it on ordinary humans.
According to Ellison, the story was intended as an experiment. It is not a sequential story but is written as though events were taking place on the rim of a wheel with everything coming together at the centre.[7] The end result is that the structure of the story is difficult to analyse and only makes sense as a whole work.[7]
The short story has been called a "marvelously effective meditation on the nature of evil"[8] that weaves magic into its unpromising premise.[9] As one of the stories that signalled Ellison's development into a thoughtful and mature fantasist[8] and secured his reputation as a bold science-fiction innovator,[10]
Harlan Ellison plotted a story, scripted by Roy Thomas, for Marvel Comics' The Incredible Hulk comic book, issue #140 (June 1971), under the title: "The Brute that Shouted Love at the Heart of the Atom".[11][12]