Walter J. Sheldon 53 min read

'What's in a name?' can be a dangerous question in certain societies, and in conformist Northem, where a seductive voice whispers 'Do it, please, for me,' it is very dangerous indeed.

Walter J. Sheldon's 1951 story builds a sharp dystopian social-SF tale of individuality against a smothering, name-controlling state. Tense, provocative golden-age SF. Read it for a story about the perilous power of a name in a world engineered to erase the self.

In its time

Published in 1951, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

53 min read (a novelette, room for a turn or two).

Illustrated by

Louis Marchetti