The Rediscovery of Man

"It’s about a prison planet in the far, far future, when humanity has started traveling through the stars. This planet is one of the worst places you could possibly imagine. It’s a planet where humans start to grow extra limbs and organs, and those are then surgically removed from them and sent back via a donor process for organ transplantation. It is absolutely horrible. It’s really the first time I can remember coming across sci-fi body horror, and I was fascinated. I would have been a late teenager when I read this story in an anthology. It stopped me in my tracks. Cordwainer Smith is one of those writers who creates an amazing universe that’s incredibly vivid to the reader. He’s so imaginative. The idea of these extra fingers, toes, heads, limbs, and organs emerging from people in this terrible prison environment—I never forgot it. That’s why I chose this story. “If you’re going to read all five of these books at once, make sure you take regular breaks!” The strange thing is that when I first came across it in an anthology, I didn’t pay attention to who had written it. For many years, I’ve thought about it quite regularly as this example of something I found really upsetting and was entranced by: a nightmare of the future. When you contacted me and asked me about the best science fiction horror writing, I thought: I would love to choose that story, but I can’t—I never found out who wrote it. But I asked around online, and somebody pointed me in the direction of Cordwainer Smith. It’s been only about two weeks that I’ve known the name of the story again. It’s been a lovely reconnection."