Sci Fi in the New Yorker

The New Yorker website has put up a science fiction short story which was published in its most recent issue. "The Invasion From Outer Space," a delightful work of short science fiction by Steven Millhauser, is generally leaving science fiction fans cold.

The most remarkable thing about this story isn't the story itself, but that it was published in the New Yorker of all places. Although the New Yorker has long supported short fiction, when was the last time it published something as distressingly genre as science fiction?

Presumably Millhauser's Pulitzer helped soothe editorial fears at the New Yorker. Along with the fact that Millhauser isn't actually a science fiction writer. ("Slumming" isn't the kindest word, but it's the first that comes to mind.)

The story is much more about how nothing ever lives up to its hype, and about how anyone who says "Everything from this point forward is different" is wrong. It also echoes the 9/11 attacks, which makes me wonder how long it will be before we stop flinching at accounts of a fall of particulate matter (in this case, yellow dust) falling from the sky.

Steven Millhauser has several credits to his name, including a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his 1996 novel, Martin Dressler. He is also the author of the short story "Eisenheim the Illusionist," which became the movie "The Illusionist," for which he wrote the screenplay.

The full text of "The Invasion From Outer Space" can be read here.