Spring story review: "It" by Theodore Sturgeon

I've been bingeing on some short stories so I'm posting a few of my Springy Short Story reviews (stories that keep springing to mind) to remember the details of the ones I know will pleasantly haunt me. I'll also post a review of a few great collections I've read recently (in the running for my personal Book of the Year).

"It" by Theodore Sturgeon

Why it springs to mind: The origin story for swamp creatures!
Where read: The Complete Stories: Volume I: The Ultimate Egoist
Summary: A creature made of mud, plants, debris and the skeleton of Roger Kirk kills out of curiosity as it investigates its world.
Memorable: A unique and curious monster.
Notable: Written in 1940, some characterizations feel particularly dated — violent men, passive women and puzzling relationships and reactions to events.
Read this, for writers: A short story told in shifting points of view: the monster, a dog, a man, a young girl.
Quote:

"It crawled out of its mound in the wood and lay pulsing in ^the sunlight for a long moment. Patches of it shone wetly in the golden 'glow, parts of it- were nubbled and flaked. And whose dead bones had given it, the form of a man?"

Personal connection: Stories about chaotic-neutral plants — I can't resist them and I'm working on a project of classic monster utopias (one inspired by The Creature From the Black Lagoon, Black Orchid, Swamp-Thing, Man-Thing, Animal Man, hive minds).
About the author: Theodore Sturgeon, 1918-1985, was a prolific and esteemed science fiction author. The Complete Stories collection of his works includes 222 stories collected in 13 volumes!
Added to my to-read list: Sturgeon's More Than Human
Pairs well with: The Girl With All the Gifts by M.R. Carey

Comments

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Shel Graves' Sensorium

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