Group Read 92 – #02 of 25

“Brightness Falls from the Air” by Margaret St. Clair was first published in the April 1951 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction as “?” F&SF ran it as a name-the-story contest. You can read it online here.

If I had been a reader in 1951, I would have submitted “The Plague.” If I had precognition, I would have submitted “The Ugly Terrans,” inspired by the 1958 bestseller, The Ugly American.

“Brightness Falls from the Air” shows writing development for Margaret St. Clair over her “The Listening Child,” published a year earlier. This story has bite. Humans occupy an alien planet where they treat the local intelligent life like the Romans treated conquered people. St. Clair instills this comparison in the first sentence, telling us her protagonist, Kerr, is in the tepidarium. Tepidarium was the name of a warm room positioned between the frigidarium and caldarium in Roman baths.

Kerr meets Rhysha, a bird person, and befriends her when she comes to claim the body of her brother, who died in a gladiatorial battle held by the humans. Throughout this short story, we learn humans have never curbed their population growth and have spread across the galaxy like a pandemic. We are not nice. Kerr tries to give Rhysha hope by telling her humans will one day change. Reading this story 73 years later, we know that’s unlikely.

I liked “Brightness Falls from the Air” so much more than “The Listening Child” (Group Read 92 #01 of 25) because it’s so dark. F&SF began as a light fantasy magazine, but as it included more science fiction, the overall tone of the magazine became heavier and darker. We’d entered the Cold War. Thoughts of nuclear annihilation become rampant.

Worrying about overpopulation in 1951, put Margaret St. Clair ahead of most other science fiction writers. Overpopulation wasn’t a major theme in SF until the 1960s – or so I thought until I read Joachim Boaz’s “Science Fiction Novels/Short Stories about Overpopulation.” Her story would be tied with “The Marching Morons” by C. M. Kornbluth as first since it was also published in April 1951, in Galaxy Magazine. Is it coincidence that both stories claim Homo sapiens are losers?

“Brightness Falls from the Air” could also fit into Boaz’s series concerning science fiction critical of space exploration. (I wish Joachim would put this series on the menu like his series on overpopulation, generation ships, and immortality.)

Even though I liked “Brightness Falls from the Air” much more than “The Listening Child,” they both have the same simple plot: a nice person sympathizes and befriends a tragic person who dies. In both stories, characterization is minimal. Each character is described by their relationship to the plot. None of these characters has their own agenda.

I admire “Brightness Falls from the Air” because it’s a vicious attack on humanity and says we shouldn’t colonize the galaxy. This feels even more valid in 2025. Yet, that’s not enough to make it a great story. It was included in David Hartwell’s The Science Fiction Century, so it’s better remembered than “The Listening Child.” However, it doesn’t have the lasting impact of “The Marching Morons.” It’s too slight.

“Brightness Falls from the Air” is a nice little story, but it’s not good enough to be great.

James Wallace Harris, 4/24/25