The Monkey's Finger

"The Monkey's Finger" is a science fiction short story by Isaac Asimov. It was first published in the February 1953 issue of Startling Stories and reprinted in the 1975 collection Buy Jupiter and Other Stories. The story is based on a disagreement between Asimov and editor H. L. Gold over the story "C-Chute". The title is a reference to W. W. Jacobs' story "The Monkey's Paw".

Plot summary

Fantasy writer Marmaduke Tallinn has a heated dispute with his editor Lemuel Hoskins about a story that Tallinn is writing for Hoskins' magazine. To prove his point, Tallinn introduces Hoskins to a university professor; the professor is conducting an experiment in which a monkey is trained to write stories of any given style and flavor. The professor demonstrates the monkey's ability by asking Hoskins for a random sample of writing. Hoskins recites two stanzas from G. K. Chesterton's poem "Lepanto", and the monkey produces a copy of the next stanza that, spelling errors aside, matches Chesterton's original text exactly.

The monkey is then given Tallinn's unfinished story to consider; it finishes the story exactly as the editor requested, inserting a scene change where Tallinn wanted to leave it out. Tallinn declares this as proof of his point: if he changes his story to match Hoskins' request, he is no better than a machine or a monkey. Hoskins accepts Tallinn's argument and takes the story as-is.

The professor later asks Tallinn what he would have done if the monkey had reproduced Tallinn's version of the story. Tallinn sheepishly reveals that that was exactly what he expected would happen.

External links

• The Monkey's Finger title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database