“Human Is” by Philip K. Dick
It‘s basically a daily ritual — having to prove I’m not a robot. We are living in a Philip K. Dick novel, in the world he prophesied where boundaries between technology and humanity are constantly and paranoiacally questioned.
In the short science fiction story “Human is” we are presented with a different problem — distinguishing alien from human.
Jill’s husband, Lester, is a terrible person. He is not only toxic, it his actually what he does for a living, he is a toxicologist developing poisons for the military. He hates children, he nitpicks, he enjoys nothing but his work. He makes Jill cry. A work trip takes him to the dying planet Rexor IV. On his return Jill notices something’s off. He thanks the robot, compares her eyes to a virgin lake fed by mountain streams and offers his help making dinner.
Jill discusses the change with her brother who understands the situation immediately. While on Rexor IV Lester was abducted by an alien life form, his mind swapped with that of a Rexorian, a specie eager to emmigrate out of the dying planet. Lester, or the alien disguising himself as Lester, is brought for questioning but when Jill realizes she will get the original Lester back she denies anything has changed and takes her grateful new and improved husband back home.
This is such a great story for what I’ve set up to do — asking who has to clean in the stories I read — because one of the clues suggesting an alien mind swap has occurred is Lester offering help with dinner and later on actually cooking. The set up to this story is the fifties version of future domesticity. Food is prepared by machines but it is still the wife’s job to take care of it. You know, like in the animated TV show “The Jetsons”. We have the technology, just like in those old home appliances ads, but it is still the Mrs. who has to man the vacuum cleaner.
The change in her husband’s attitudes to food and cooking, such a basic function of our being, is a sign something is wrong. But later what should have been a warning sign becomes desirable. As Jill’s brother explains, The Rexonians learn about humans but their sources of information are limited to 200 year old books. Secondary materials, fantasies, product of imagination. How would an alien who only has Jane Austen books as reference to human behavior be accepted? I’d like an eight episode TV show of that premise, please,
The happy ending according to this story is that Jill’s original husband is trapped in life-suspension on some other planet while she saves the invading alien’s life. The hero of the fifties sci-fi stories, that is the cold rational scientist, is replaced by a romantic, thoughtful, metaphor using alien-being. If you dare go down the rabbit hole of sci-fi inspired erotic romance novels with ripped blue, green or crimson aliens on their covers you might see that Philip K. Dick foresaw that as well: the romantic alien’s victory over the rationale suit-wearing male as an object of desire.
