What's That Short Story?: Sci-Fi, A Disease Makes People See Angels

July 13, 2022 7:54 AM

The plot involved people who start seeing angels near them. One person's angel looked like Kurt Cobain. Some kind of group or cult that formed from people who had these visions. The main character believed this was a gift and eventually conspired to give it to the entire world by having affected people secretly donate blood to pass it on. Spoiler: It turned out to be some kind of brain disease, maybe a prion, and the orchestrator of this plot went to jail.

First heard it read on the Margie's Science Fiction Hour show on WRBH radio in New Orleans the week of March 17th - 23rd, 2019.

posted by julthumbscrew to Writing & Language (8 answers total)

In case it occurs to anyone else to try to look, the images still available of the daily schedules on Facebook for that week do not include titles for the Margie's Science Fiction Hour listing, though they do for some of the other shows.
posted by stormyteal at 9:10 AM on July 13, 2022

The schedule from around that time period suggests that the initial and repeat plays of the episode would have been:
Thur - 12am-1am - March 21, 2019
Fri - 1am-2am - March 22, 2019
Sat - 10pm-11pm - March 23, 2019

And I finally found a post with "Margie's" last name (Kollis)... but still doesn't list what stories were included, just "various stories from across sci-fi history".

I'm at the "if all else fails, attempt to contact Margie" point research-wise.

So, that's an option if no one recognizes the story - or comes up with better search terms to find the story itself than I've used.
posted by stormyteal at 9:26 AM on July 13, 2022

It's been posted here, as the written original, not the read version. I thought there was an aspect of seeing Jesus as well.
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 9:38 AM on July 13, 2022

Were there tiny snakes visible in the blood, sometimes interpreted as demons?
posted by clew at 9:43 AM on July 13, 2022

I just reread "The Giving Plague" , a short story by David Brin, thinking that might be it, but nope. There's no angels.

I feel like I have read the story you are looking for though, and that it is somewhat old. Was the protagonist a bit smug at the end, having believed they had achieved victory even though they had been caught?
posted by mrgoldenbrown at 11:10 AM on July 13, 2022 [1 favorite]

It sounds somewhat similar to The Screwfly Solution That was mostly about violence against women, but there were also angel sightings.

Spoiler

The angels are actually aliens clearing the earth of humans before taking possession.

There's also the Stephen King story The End of the Whole Mess. But in that, it was a pacifying drug that was spread via the atmosphere, and I don't recall angels playing a part.
posted by Eddie Mars at 12:40 PM on July 13, 2022

Response by poster: It's this one - thanks, everyone!: https://www.baen.com/Chapters/9781618248992/9781618248992___4.htm
posted by julthumbscrew at 2:12 PM on July 13, 2022 [3 favorites]

Having just chased through from that link to find out the details of the story, I'm sharing them here in case others are interested: it's "Damascus" by Daryl Gregory, published in the December 2006 issue of F&SF. It's in the collection "Unpossible and Other Stories", and also in a scattering of Year's Best-type SF anthologies.
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 1:31 AM on July 14, 2022