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foxmoon's review
4.0
A lovely, near perfect piece of speculative fiction. Just the right amount of creativity and eeriness in exploring the way human beings interpret the world. Just how much of our behavior is learned, and what possibilities do we have to learn to become something no longer perceptively human?
This would be a 5-star review except the story is essentially Alice in Wonderland fan-fiction and I just can't get over the horrible 1940s sexism: "I'm trying to understand," Jane said slowly, "All I can think of is my Mixmaster." Eek.
This would be a 5-star review except the story is essentially Alice in Wonderland fan-fiction and I just can't get over the horrible 1940s sexism: "I'm trying to understand," Jane said slowly, "All I can think of is my Mixmaster." Eek.
storytimed's review
3.0
Pretty standard adult fear horror/sci-fi. I expect I'd like it better (or, well, dislike it better) if I was a parent myself.
villyidol's review
3.0
***Winner of the 2019 Retro Hugo (1944) for Best Novelette***
Mimsy Were the Borogoves by Lewis Padgett
Interesting how views and opinions change over time.
When I first read this in 2017 I thought it was a bit boring. Maybe because I was expecting a time travel story, which it kinda is, but it isn't the main point.
It is more about how upbringing and education, and experience as well, shape the way we think and act. How we rely on patterns instead of instinct. But what would a child do?
Interesting.
Basis for the movie "The Last Mimzy".
Can be read here.
Mimsy Were the Borogoves by Lewis Padgett
Interesting how views and opinions change over time.
When I first read this in 2017 I thought it was a bit boring. Maybe because I was expecting a time travel story, which it kinda is, but it isn't the main point.
It is more about how upbringing and education, and experience as well, shape the way we think and act. How we rely on patterns instead of instinct. But what would a child do?
Interesting.
Basis for the movie "The Last Mimzy".
Can be read here.
oleksandr's review
3.0
This is a novelette, first published in 1943, so it is eligible for Retro-Hogo this year.
In a far, far future, a sentient being experiments with time machine and sends their offspring toys to somewhere around XX century. Twice. Without response. They declare it a failure and move on. In the mid-20th century a boy finds the stuff and starts to play with it, giving it also to his younger sister. And as all good toys, those are educational.
One of popular at that time ideas, based presumably on behaviorist paradigm in psychology, that kids are tabula rasa and can be taught anything and become anyone. Here it even leads to quite surprising statements like: ”Babies, of course, are not human—they are animals, and have a very ancient and ramified culture, as cats have, and fishes, and even snakes; the same in kind as these, but much more complicated and vivid, since babies are, after all, one of the most developed species of the lower vertebrates. In short, babies have minds which work in terms and categories of their own, which cannot be translated into the terms and categories of the human mind.”
An interesting read of old school SF
In a far, far future, a sentient being experiments with time machine and sends their offspring toys to somewhere around XX century. Twice. Without response. They declare it a failure and move on. In the mid-20th century a boy finds the stuff and starts to play with it, giving it also to his younger sister. And as all good toys, those are educational.
One of popular at that time ideas, based presumably on behaviorist paradigm in psychology, that kids are tabula rasa and can be taught anything and become anyone. Here it even leads to quite surprising statements like: ”Babies, of course, are not human—they are animals, and have a very ancient and ramified culture, as cats have, and fishes, and even snakes; the same in kind as these, but much more complicated and vivid, since babies are, after all, one of the most developed species of the lower vertebrates. In short, babies have minds which work in terms and categories of their own, which cannot be translated into the terms and categories of the human mind.”
An interesting read of old school SF
ashleym10148's review
4.0
I really enjoyed this story. From the title I knew that Alice in Wonderland had to be tied in somewhere so when quotes from the book came into this short story, I was very happy. I thought that this was a very interesting read and I highly recommend it.
june_moon's review
4.0
A lovely, near perfect piece of speculative fiction. Just the right amount of creativity and eeriness in exploring the way human beings interpret the world. Just how much of our behavior is learned, and what possibilities do we have to learn to become something no longer perceptively human?
This would be a 5-star review except the story is essentially Alice in Wonderland fan-fiction and I just can't get over the horrible 1940s sexism: "I'm trying to understand," Jane said slowly, "All I can think of is my Mixmaster." Eek.
This would be a 5-star review except the story is essentially Alice in Wonderland fan-fiction and I just can't get over the horrible 1940s sexism: "I'm trying to understand," Jane said slowly, "All I can think of is my Mixmaster." Eek.
chocklad's review
3.0
I watched the movie yesterday and read the book today. And for the first time I'm dissapointed with the book. I expected more, I know it's a short book it couldn't have many details but I wanted more action, most part of the book is just psychology.
lamnatos's review
4.0
It all boils down to the fact that 'One can no more think like a baby than one can think like a bee.'
An imaginative and inventive investigation into what makes children's minds seems so strange and alien to adults. What if that strangeness was preserved and not smoothed into "adulthood", "reason" and "common sense"? All it takes is a small fictional device and the story's two children are never shoehorned into our plain common reality with its common restrains and rules.
An imaginative and inventive investigation into what makes children's minds seems so strange and alien to adults. What if that strangeness was preserved and not smoothed into "adulthood", "reason" and "common sense"? All it takes is a small fictional device and the story's two children are never shoehorned into our plain common reality with its common restrains and rules.
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