"Two Steps Right"

TTHC 390: Manuscript received at SMLA June 4, 1954              

(1954 Oct): GALAXY {ill. by Kossin}

(1957): THE VARIABLE MAN, Ace,D261, pb
(1987): THE FATHER-THING
(1991): SECOND VARIETY, Citadel Twilight only

SRG 44

... "A World Of Talent" considers mental gifts from the viewpoint of the possessor. The talented parents of a "normal" child (normals in this future are labeled mute) search for evidence of talent in their offspring, but for the wrong reason, to preserve social approval for him and by extension for themselves.

TTHC    262:    Dick expressed considerable annoyance at {John W.} Campbell, to me and to others over the years, for his dogmatic insistence in the early '50s that a positively portrayed "psionics" (such extrasensory powers as telepathy. telekinesis, and precognition) "was the necessary premise for science fiction stories."¹⁸   Dick's Galaxy story "A World Of Talent" (October 1954) replies to this assertion, showing the prices of these talents, and the distorted personalities that result: chiefly through the perspective (how characteristic!) of a withdrawn little boy.

{fn18: IHOW 66/62; DC 75-6}