George Loves Gistla - James McKimmey - ★★★★.¼

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AUTHOR: James McKimmey
GENRE: Sci-Fi Short Story
RATING: 4.25 stars.

Want a sci-fi short story that makes you introspect? Try this one!

Story Summary:
Sixteen year old George is in love with Gistla. The problem is that Gistla is not a fellow human but a Venusian he met when humans colonised the planet. His family seems to be the elite among the settlers and can’t understand their son’s love for a weird-looking alien. Is there any future to this young love story?


George initially comes across as a level-headed boy and mature beyond his years. Sample these thoughts from his heartbroken mind:
“But she was a person. The beauty was inside of her. Did you have to point to a girl's face and say, "Here is where the nose should be, here is where the ears should be?" Did you have to measure the width between eyes and test the color of the skin? Did you have to check the size of the teeth and the existence of hair? Was all of this necessary to understand what was inside someone?”

But it is Gistla who steals the show. Her head is firmly screwed onto her shoulders and she shows us the fallacy of human thought. I simply loved the way she was portrayed.

This story was first published in 1954, and the author’s optimism about the future is shown in this sentence: “By 2022, most of the Earth countries had sent colonizers to Mars.” No, Sirree! We are still on earth, fighting the battle of our lives with a tiny virus. But he was right about one thing: we haven’t changed in our attitude to outsiders. Our xenophobia has multiple layers, whether it is people from other religions, other castes, others races or other countries. If any of us were to meet a Venusian, I think most of us would behave like George’s family did. And some of us would be George, enamouring ourselves with the idea of breaking the limits while still wanting the known.

I enjoyed this little unknown gem. As the story is in the public domain, you can read it online here:

Happy reading!

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