超越凡人 (1953)

More Than Human is a 1953 science fiction fix-up novel by American writer Theodore Sturgeon. It is a revision and expansion of his 1952 novella Baby Is Three, which is bracketed by two additional parts written for the novel, "The Fabulous Idiot" and "Morality".

It won the 1954 International Fantasy Award, which was also given to works in science fiction. It was additionally nominated in 2004 for a "Retro Hugo" award for the year 1954. Science fiction critic and editor David Pringle included it in his book Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels.

Simon & Schuster published a graphic novel version of More Than Human in 1979.

Plot introduction

The novel concerns the coming together of six extraordinary people with strange powers who are able to "blesh" (a portmanteau of "blend" and "mesh") their abilities together. In this way, they are able to act as one organism. They progress toward a mature gestalt consciousness, called the Homo gestalt, the next step in human evolution.

Plot summary

The first part of the novel, The Fabulous Idiot, narrates the birth of the gestalt through the perspective of a number of characters. The story starts with an unnamed man referred to as the "Idiot", who is 25 years old and homeless. He knows he can make people do what he wants them to, but can barely speak and has never experienced real human connection. One day he encounters Evelyn Kew, an innocent girl completely sheltered in an isolated house by her domineering, religious father. They connect telepathically and Lone attempts to enter her family's compound. Evelyn's father finds out about the relationship and kills Evelyn; the idiot then pushes him to kill himself. These events traumatize Evelyn's older sister Alicia, who is later introduced to more conventional society and struggles to fit in there.

During this incident, the idiot barely survives a beating from the father; bleeding and nearly dead, he is found and then adopted by the Prodds, a poor farming couple, and lives with them for about seven years. During this time he learns to speak and takes the name Lone, which Prodd takes to be his name when the Idiot attempts to say the word "alone." When Mrs. Prodd becomes pregnant, fulfilling the couple's desire to have a child, they are about to ask Lone to leave. However, Lone can perceive their intentions and he makes his departure appear to be his own idea. Lone builds a shelter in the forest and is soon joined by three runaway children: Janie, an eight-year-old with a telekinetic gift, and the twins Bonnie and Beanie, who cannot speak properly but possess the ability to teleport. Lone returns to the farm to find Mrs. Prodd has died after giving birth to a "Mongoloid" baby. Altering Prodd's memories so that he thinks his wife is on a trip and they never had a child, Lone adopts the baby, who has a phenomenal mental capacity and thinks almost like a computer. Together, Lone, Janie, the twins and Baby form what will be later called the Homo gestalt. Prodd continues trying to farm, but his old truck is always getting stuck in the mud. When Lone asks Baby for a solution, Baby helps Lone build an anti-gravity generator. He installs it in Prodd's truck, only to find that Prodd has left for Pennsylvania, believing his wife is there.

The second part of the novel is Baby Is Three, which occurs several years after The Fabulous Idiot. Gerry Thompson, a street urchin who has grown up in abusive institutions, is possibly sociopathic. He consults a psychiatrist, trying to piece his memory back together. Gerry ran away from an orphanage and was taken in by Lone. They lived in a refurbished cave until they found the abandoned Kew house. Lone was killed in an accident and Gerry subsequently became the leader of the gestalt. Prior to his death, Lone instructed the children to seek out Alicia Kew, now a spinster living alone with a maid. In her urban house, they were educated and fed under her care. Soon, however, Gerry came to feel that domestication and normalization had weakened their gestalt. He killed Alicia, and the group returned to living alone in the woods. His amnesia was caused by Alicia's having accidentally transmitted her memories to his mind when they first met, triggered by her strong emotional reaction to hearing the words "Baby is three". He learned about her entire life, including her past relationship with Lone, in a split second. After being helped by the psychiatrist, Gerry erases the man's memory of him. However, Gerry remains troubled by the psychiatrist's questions about morality.