When Godzilla Speaks

Abstract

In 1956, Clifford Simak, an American science fiction writer, published Strangers in the Universe, a collection of short stories that included the piece “Shadow Show.” The story describes a group of scientists who have been sent to a lonely asteroid and commissioned with the task of creating life, specifically sentient human life that could take alien form, thus allowing humans to populate inhospitable planets throughout the universe. To keep the scientists amused and also psychologically sound, an entertainment known as the Play has been created for them in which they can mentally project images of made-up characters onto a screen and have them interact with the mental projections of the other scientists. The characters projected by the scientists are a varied group, ranging from the grotesque—such as the “Alien Monster”—to the comic, the so-called Out at Elbows Philosopher. In the story’s surprise denouement the scientists realize that they have indeed succeeded in creating life, not through their experiments but through the machine that enables the Play. In a shocking reversal, the characters declare independence from their creators and begin to speak and act for themselves, coming down from the screen and appearing on the stage. At the end of “Shadow Show,” Bayard Lodge, the story’s protagonist, walks down the auditorium to meet his projected persona, the “Rustic Slicker.”