First published in
Astounding Science Fiction, January 1950.
There’s a tendency to
over-think the relationship between surrealism and science fiction.
The entry in the Science Fiction Encylopedia (1999 print edition)
refers you on to the absurdist SF, illustration and the New Wave.
There doesn’t seem anywhere to address the fact that SF has been a
vehicle for bringing dream-like imagery into the real world since the
beginning.
SF grew up at the same
time as the surrealist movement, and shared its post-war Golden Age.
Its rational and analytical approach gives its imagery the same
pin-sharp focus as Dali, Magritte or Max Ernst. This story presents
us with a complex scientific justification but its premise wouldn’t
be out of place in a movie by Luis Bunel: what would happen if colour
drained from the world.
