Including Venture Science Fiction NOVELET And Madly Teach LLOYD BIGGLE, JR. 4 SHORT STORIES Three For Carnival JOHN SHEPLEY 32 The Colony MIRIAM ALLEN deFORD 48 Breakaway House RON GOULART 61 Flattop GREG BENFORD 71 The Third Dragon ED M. CLINTON 100 Man of Parts H. L. GOLD 117 ARTICLE H. P. Lovecraft: The House and the Shadows J. VERNON SHEA 82 FEATURES Cartoon GAHAN WILSON 39 Books JUDITH MERRIL and FRITZ LEIBER 40 Beamed Power THEODORE L. THOMAS 70 Science: Time and Tide ISAAC ASIMOV 106 F&SF Marketplace 129 Cover by Mel Hunter (see page 116) Joseph W. Ferman, PUBLISHER Eduoard L. Ferman, EDITOR Ted White, ASSISTANT EDITOR Isaac Asimov, SCIENCE EDITOR Judith Merril, BOOK EDITOR Robert P. llfil/s, CONSULTING EDITOR Dale Beardalt, CIRCULATION MANAGER The Magazine of Fafltasy aftd Scitflct Fiction, Volume 30, No. 5, Whole No. 180, Ma;, 1966. Published monthly by Mercury Preu, Inc., at 50¢ a copy. Annual subscription $5.00; $5.50 in Canada and tht Pan American Uniofl, $6.00 in all other countries. PublicatioN office, 10 Ferry Street, Concord, N. H. 03302. Editorial and general mail should be sent to 347 East 53rd St., New York, N. Y. 10022. Second Clau postage paid at Concord, N. H. Printed in U.S.A. © 1966 by Mercury Preu, Inc. All rights including translatioou onto other languages,_ reservtd. Submissions must be accompanied by stamped, sel/·addreued nvelo;es; tlu rublishw .usumts no responsibilil' for return of Uftsolicited manuscripts. A college sophomore, applying for a summer ;ob, was asked to give the names of two professors as references. She couldn't think of anybody whose names she could put down. Nobody knew her/ This comes to us second hand, but in a day when an educational tool is likely to be pictured as a hunk of machinery, we find it both credible and disturbing. Whether or not you agree with the point of view expressed in this story by Lloyd Biggle, Jr., you are cer­ tain to find it an absorbing and, more than likely, frightening extrapolation of the impact of technology on education. AND lfiADL.Y TEACH h,. Lto,.d Riggle, .Jr. Miss MILDRED BoLTZ CLASPED 'The school," Miss Boltz said. her hands and exclaimed, "What "It has a lovelv color." a lovely school!" They threaded their way It shimmered delightfully in through an interchange, circled, the bright morning sunlight, a and maneuvered into the· proper pale, delicate blue-white oasis of lane. Then the driver turned to her color that lay gem-like amidst the again. "I've heard of schools. They nondescript towers and domes and used to have some out west. But spires of the sprawling metropoli­ that isn't a school." tan complex. Miss Boltz met his serious gaze But even as she spoke she qual­ confusedly, and hoped she wasn't ified her opinion. The building's blushing. It just wasn't proper for form was box-like, utilitarian, a woman of her age to blush. She ugly. Only its color made it beau­ said, "I must have misunderstood tiful. you. I thought that was-" The aircab driver had been "Yes, Ma'am. That's the address muttering to himself because he'd you gave me." gotten into the wrong lane and "Then-of course it's a school! missed his turn. He turned quick­ I'm a teacher. I'm going to teach ly, and said, "I beg your pardon?" there." 4 AND MADLY TEACH 5 He shook his head. "No, Ma'am. blank expression which resolved We don't have any schools." into the hair-framed oval of a bald ~The descent was so unsettlingly head as she moved forward. She abrupt that Miss Boltz had to swal­ blinked her eyes nervously and low her protests and clutch at her wished she'd worn her contact safety belt. Then they were in the lenses. Mr. Wilbings's attention ground level parking area, and he was fixed upon the papers that lit­ had the door open. She paid him, tered the top of his desk, and he and stepped out with the dignity indicated a chair for her without demanded of a middle-aged school bothering to look up. She walked teacher. She would have liked to tightrope-fashion across the room investigate this queer notion of his and seated herself. about schools, but she didn't want "One moment, please," he said. to be late for her appointment. She ordered herself to relax. And anyway-the idea! If it was­ She was not a young lass just out n't a school, what was it? of college, hoping desperately for a first job. She had a contract and In the maze of lettered and twenty-five years of tenure, and double-lettered corridors, each she was merely reporting for reas­ turning she took seemed to be the signment. wrong one, and she was breathing Her nerves disregarded the or­ heavily and fighting off a mild der. seizure of panic when she reached Mr. Wilbings gathered up his her destination. A receptionist papers, tapped them together, took her name and said severely, and returned them to a folder. "Mr. Wilbings is expecting you. "Miss-ah-Boltz," he said. Go right in." His curiously affected appearance The office door bore a bristling fascinated her. He was wearing label. ROGER A. WILBINGS. spectacles, a contrivance which DEPUTY SUPERINTENDENT she hadn't seen for years; and he OF EDUCATION (SECOND­ had a trim little patch of hair on ARY). NORTHEASTERN his upper lip, the like of which she UNITED STATES SCHOOL had never seen outside of films DISTRICT. PRIVATE. Miss and theatricals. He held his head Boltz hesitated, and the reception­ thrust forward and tilted back, ist said again, "Go right in." and he sighted at her distastefully "Thank you," Miss Boltz said along the high arc of his nose. and opened the door. · He nodded suddenly, and The gentleman behind the desk turned back to his desk. "I've gone at the distant center of the room through your file, Miss-ah­ was awaiting her with a fiercely Boltz." He pushed the folder aside 6 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION impatiently. NMy recommenda­ pie's profession, and you are near­ tion is that you retire. My secre­ ly fifty. And then-we must con­ tary will give you the necessary sider your health." papers to fill out. Good morning." "Which is perfectly good," she The suddenness of the attack said. "Of course I had cancer of the startled her out of her nervousness. lung. It isn't uncommon on Mars. She said calmly, "I appreciate It's caused by the dust, you know, your interest, Mr. Wilbings, but I and it's easily cured." have no intention of retiring. Now "You had it four times, accord­ -about my new assignment." ing to your records." "My dear Miss Boltz!" He had "I had it four times and I was decided to be nice to her. His ex­ cured four times. I returned to pression altered perceptibly, Earth only because the doctors felt and hovered midway between a that I was unusually susceptible smile and a sneer. "It is your own to Martian cancer." welfare that concerns me. I un­ "Teaching on Mars-" He ges­ derstand that your retirement tured disdainfully. "You've never might occasion some financial taught anywhere else, and at the sacrifice, and under the circum­ time you were in training your stances I feel that we could obtain college was specializing in train­ an appropriate adjustment in your ing teachers for Mars. There's pension. It would leave you secure been a revolution in education, and free to· do what you like, and I Miss Boltz, and it has completely can assure you that you are not-" passed you by." He tapped his He paused, and tapped his desk desk again, sternly. "You are not with one finger. "-not suited for suited for teaching. Certainly not teaching. Painful as the idea may in this district." be for you, it is the blunt truth, She said stubbornly, "Will you and the sooner you realize it-" honor my contract, or do .I have to For one helpless moment she resort to legal action?" could not control her laughter. He He shrugged, and picked up her broke off angrily and stared at her. file. "Written and spoken English. "I'm sorry," she said, dabbing at Tenth grade. I assume you think her eyes. "I've been a teacher for you can handle that." twenty-five years-a good teacher, "I can handle it." as you know if you've checked ''Your class meets from ten-fif­ over my efficiency reports. Teach­ teen to eleven-fifteen, Monday ing is my whole life, and I love it, through Friday." and it's a little late to be telling "I am not interested in part­ me that I'm not suited for it." time teaching." "Teaching is a young peo- "This is a full-time assignment." AND MADLY TEACH 7 "Five hours a week?" examinations, either. I suppose "The position assumes forty the educational svstem on Mars hours of class preparation. You11 still uses examin-ations and as­ probably need much more than signments to coerce its students that." into learning, but we have pro­ "I see," she said. She had never gressed beyond those dark ages of felt more bewi1dered. education. If you have some idea "Classes begin next Monday. of bludgeoning your material into 1'11 assign you to a studio and ar­ your students with examinations range an eng:ineering conference and papers and the like, just forget for you immediately." it.