The Darfsteller

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"The Darfsteller"
Author Walter M. Miller, Jr.
Language English
Genre(s) Science fiction short story
Publication date 1955

The Darfsteller is a 1955 novelette by Walter M. Miller, Jr. which won the first Hugo Award for Best Novelette.

It is the 21st century story of an old stage actor who has become a theater janitor in order to remain near "show biz". The theater has been overtaken by robot actors, made to look like humans, which act out plays under the direction of each venue's central computer. This "Maestro" runs the show, accommodating the kinds of factors which real actors would contend with: audience reactions, failing mechanical actors (when they are broken or one of the tapes that they get their programming from is worn), and other inconstant factors.

The old actor dreams up a scheme to get himself back on stage, despite the prejudice against real acting. He destroys one of the robot's tapes, and since he knows the part from his previous career, he is the only way the show can go on.

The old actor's problem is that he has always been a darfsteller (likely a portmanteau of "darsteller", German for "actor/actress",[1] with "darf", inflected form of "dürfen", "to be at liberty to do something"[2]) which the narrator explains was a "self-directed actor... the undirectable portrayer whose acting welled from unconscious sources with no external strings", generally hated by directors even when they performed excellently. The meaning of the story comes from the point that he cannot just walk onto the stage and deliver lines; as a "Darfsteller", he must live them, and transform himself into his role, and once that process begins, it is difficult to stop it.

References

  1. ↑ "Darsteller entry at dict.leo.org". 
  2. ↑ "Darf entry at dict.leo.org". 

External links

Novels
Novelettes
Short stories
  • "Anybody Else Like Me?" (1952)
  • "The Big Hunger" (1952)
  • "Big Joe and the Nth Generation" (1952)
  • "Bitter Victory" (1952)
  • "Blood Bank" (1952)
  • "Cold Awakening" (1952)
  • "Command Performance" (1952)
  • "Conditionally Human"
  • "Crucifixus Etiam" (1953)
  • "Dark Benediction" (1951)
  • "Death of a Spaceman" (1954)
  • "Dumb Waiter" (1952)
  • "The First Canticle" (1955)
  • "Gravesong" (1952)
  • "The Hoofer" (1955)
  • "I, Dreamer" (1953)
  • "I Made You" (1954)
  • "Izzard and the Membrane" (1951)
  • "Let My People Go" (1952)
  • "The Lineman" (1957)
  • "The Little Creeps" (1951)
  • "Memento Homo" (1954)
  • "No Moon for Me" (1952)
  • "The Reluctant Traitor" (1952)
  • "Secret of the Death Dome" (1951)
  • "Six and Ten Are Johnny" (1952)
  • "The Song of Marya" (1957)
  • "The Song of Vorhu" (1951)
  • "The Soul-Empty Ones" (1951)
  • "The Sower Does Not Reap" (1953)
  • "The Space Witch" (1951)
  • "The Ties that Bind" (1954)
  • "The View from the Stars"
  • "The Will" (1954)
  • "The Yokel" (1953)
  • "Vengeance for Nikolai" (1957)
  • "Way of a Rebel" (1954)
  • "Wolf Pack" (1953)
  • "You Triflin' Skunk!" (1955)
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