Is this short sci-fi piece online anywhere?
August 11, 2017 8:57 AM   Subscribe

This thought experiment from 1981 is making its way around social media because of its obvious timeliness for current events. Seeing it again reminded me that I've never read Nancy Collins' 1991 short story, Iphigenia, which is based on the same premise.

It's told from the perspective of a young girl with the codes in her chest, half overhearing scary conversations and slowly realizing that all these adults in the White House have started looking at her differently, with sad eyes. The volume it originally appeared in (There Won't Be War, Harrison & McAllister, eds) is out of print, and I don't think Iphigenia has been anthologized anywhere else. I was hoping to find the text of Collins story online somewhere, but I haven't had any luck. I suppose I could just hunt down a used copy of the book, but I thought I'd see if anyone has other leads/suggestions. Thanks!
posted by brozek to Writing & Language (5 answers total) 9 users marked this as a favorite
 
I've been searching my library's catalog as well as WorldCat, and I believe I've found an anthology that includes Iphigenia.

Wild Women
Hall, Melissa Mia; Schwartz, Jill Karla (eds)
New York : Carroll & Graf Publishers, 1997.
ISBN 0786704152
ISBN-13 9780786704156

So, if you can't source it online, at least you're armed with a bit more information to take with you to your local bookseller. Although I will point out that five libraries in MN have the book - where are you located? I can check to see if a library near you has a copy.
posted by Elly Vortex at 9:54 AM on August 11, 2017 [2 favorites]


This short story isn't easy to find. It isn't in any of her collections. Doesn't seem to be available to buy digitally.

It also appears in the anthology There Won't Be War ed. Harry Harrison and Bruce McAllister (1991)
posted by monopas at 12:47 PM on August 11, 2017


And apparantly I can't read today, apologies.
posted by monopas at 12:47 PM on August 11, 2017


Best answer: It's not completely clean, but there's an OCR'd copy of the anthology here.
posted by lucidium at 1:07 PM on August 11, 2017 [1 favorite]


Best answer: You got me curious, so I took the OCR link lucidium posted, copy-pasted, and cleaned it up a bit. Resulting Word file here.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 1:33 PM on August 11, 2017 [11 favorites]


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