Guest Expert by Allen Kim Lang
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"Guest Expert" by Allen K. Lang is a science fiction short story written in the early 1950s. The narrative explores the dark moral dilemmas surrounding overpopulation and the drastic measures proposed to resolve it through the perspective of a Martian visitor. The story examines themes of survival, ethics, and the consequences of human choices. In this chilling tale, Earth faces severe issues due to overpopulation, prompting a Martian visitor to propose a
radical solution: culling the human population by half. The protagonist, a Secretary, grapples with the moral implications of this proposal while hearing the Martian's justification based on historical suffering caused by famine, war, and disease. After a vote among his colleagues, the Secretary ultimately consents, leading to a horrifying conclusion where each woman and girl on the planet inexplicably dies, leaving behind a stark reality that starkly contrasts the Martian's promise of survival through sacrifice, effectively addressing the immediate population crisis at an unfathomable cost. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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About this eBook
| Author | Lang, Allen Kim, 1928- |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Orban, Paul, 1896-1974 |
| Title | Guest Expert |
| Series Title | Produced from Planet Stories January 1951 |
| Credits |
Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net |
| Reading Level | Reading ease score: 76.1 (7th grade). Fairly easy to read. |
| Language | English |
| LoC Class | PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature |
| Subject | Science fiction |
| Subject | Short stories |
| Subject | Martians -- Fiction |
| Subject | Overpopulation -- Fiction |
| Subject | Earth (Planet) -- Fiction |
| Category | Text |
| eBook-No. | 63931 |
| ISBN (HTML) | 979-8-238-63931-4 |
| Release Date | Dec 1, 2020 |
| Last Update | Oct 18, 2024 |
| Copyright | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 202 downloads in the last 30 days. |
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