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The Screwfly Solution, by Raccoona Sheldon

Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 1:20 pm
by Omphalos
Here is a link to one of my favorite stories by one of my favorite unknown authors. Raccoona Sheldon is a pseudonym, along with the name James Tiptree, Jr., of Alice Sheldon, a former CIA officer turned author. Mrs. Sheldon lived in a home in Washington DC that had a stream running through the living room. Her name is an homage to the raccoons that frequently got into her home through the openings in her exterior wall which allowed the stream to course through, much like the stream in the Frank Lloyd Wright B&B, Fallingwater, in Pennsylvania.

In a few weeks I will be putting up an review of a posthumas anthology of Tiptree's, which happens to include this story. Tiptree has gained some recognition in the last few years, due almost entirely to a very well received biography of her troubled life. This story is an end-of the world entry that has one of the coolest twists at the end that I have ever come across. Have fun!