Love Virus

Wired patient.

 Back in 2018, I blogged about "The Wages of Synergy" by Theodore Sturgeon (1953), a story about the fictional chemistry of orgasm. In 1954 there appeared "Mate in Two Moves" by Winston Marks, a story about a virus that causes people to fall in love. "Mate in Two Moves" was originally published in a 1954 issue of Galaxy and later collected along with 17 other stories in Great Science Fiction About Doctors. Here in this blog post (and the next one, too) I'm going to comment on several stories about doctors, much as I did previously (in April of this year) for Groff Conklin's anthology called Great Science Fiction by Scientists.

 Winston Marks. "Mate in Two Moves" is of interest to me because I'm currently writing my own science fiction story called The Nanites of Love. My story concerns imaginary nano-scale devices (nanites) and genetic engineering that makes possible telepathic humans with great amounts of empathy and who can only establish telepathic mind links to those who they love.

Introducing the Author: Winston Marks

I have not been able to learn very much about Winston Marks. In an autobiographical essay ("Introducing the Author: Winston Marks") written for the July 1954 issue of Imagination, he stated that he was going to try making a living by writing. Back in July I commented on "Manic Perverse", a story from his "early phase" (two of his stories were published in the early 1940s then there was a pause of 12 years before he resumed publishing Sci Fi in 1953).

interior artwork by W. E. Terry

Back in February of this year, I briefly commented on two other stories by Marks: "Kid Stuff" (1955) and "John's Other Practice" (1954). Since February, I've investigated Sci Fi stories about baseball, and "John's Other Practice" mentions baseball. The story is set in Hi Tek™ New York City of the future: in spring 1984, the centennial year of the Dodgers in Brooklyn. Sadly, the Dodgers actually left Brooklyn in 1957, just three years after "John's Other Practice" was published.

"John's Other Practice" features several doctors including Dr. Calicoo, a doctor of philosophy (Ph.D.) who readers quickly learn is a cute blue-eyed redhead with shapely hips. 

in the Ekcolir Reality

Near the beginning of the story, Dr. Calicoo crosses paths with Dr. Klinghammer who works for the Malpractice Board of Control. I'd like to know which medical school Dr. Klinghammer attended; he is soon telling readers that he has "a virulent case of the quim-quim". Is this a disease you can get from the love virus?

Dr. Calicoo claims expertise in mathematics and electronics. Dr. Klinghammer meets Dr. Calicoo in the women's room of the Hotel Celt where she services electronic devices that look rather like slot machines, but they dispense medical advice for specific medical conditions. Dr. Calicoo has in red letters on her blouse: JaySee Symptometer Service. Apparently worried that Dr. Klinghammer is going to interfere with her job, Dr. Calicoo is soon smooching Dr. Klinghammer. Only after a long, sultry kiss does Klinghammer learn that her name is Sue.

Approved by the IMA.

The driving force behind the JaySee Symptometer is Dr. John Cunningham who lasted only three years as a gynecologist before learning that he needed a way to apply his medical knowledge that did not involve any contact with patients. Dr. Klinghammer is told that with the help of Sue, John is building an electronic diagnostic computer, an electronic brain, that will "reduce physician error to practically zero". Dr. Klinghammer is told that the less complex Symptometer is simply a way to earn money to finance development of the more complex full diagnostic computer. 

The end of the story is something of a let-down. Dr. Klinghammer sells the Malpractice Board of Control and the International Medical Association on the idea of licensing the Symptometers for use in doctors' offices, but then Klinghammer learns that the partially constructed full diagnostic computer was just a fake. 😞

interior artwork by Ashman

Maybe Marks had plans for a sequel, set in 2022, in which that super-duper physician-computer would have been built by Sue's daughter, Sofia Klinghammer, a Ph.D. in Computer Science.

However, Klinghammer does get the girl and the story closes with more fiery kissing between Sue and Klinghammer. We are supposed to believe that Sue has long had her eye on Klinghammer as the dude who could get Symptometers into doctors' offices and I guess the hot romance that develops between Sue and Klinghammer is just icing on the cake.

medical research

 Murt's Virus. "Mate in Two Moves" was originally published in the May 1954 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction. The artwork for the first page of the story by William Ashman was rather strange. Maybe Ashman had no idea what a virus is, but that hand on the lady's face is sure creepy. The story is set during the pandemic of 1961. When the pandemic begins, pathologist Dr. Sylvester Murt is working quietly at High Dawn Hospital and training his assistant, Phyllis Sutton, a resident, who has lovely eyes and a shapely body that includes "generous breasts" which can't be hidden by her lab coat. 

Hi Tek™ wonders: nylon and
higher-than-practical heels

During working hours at the hospital, Sylvester spends much time in contemplation of Phyllis' sheer nylon stockings and her sexy legs. However, he's a bachelor and does not want his life complicated by a wife or even a girl friend. Sylvester and Phyllis maintain a strictly professional working relation for six months, but then one day Phyllis takes off her lab coat and seems even sexier than usual: "He looked back at the profile of his assistant's body, which was now stretched out full length, suspended at three points- her higher-than-practical heels on the linoleum tile, her spine and curved hips using only an inch off the chair's edge, and her head tilted over the chair's back". At that moment, with Phyllis in such a provocative pose, Sylvester can't help but notice the way that Phyllis' breasts bounce when she speaks. Sylvester starts having sexual fantasies about his assistant, an affliction which he aggressively treats with long cold showers. Readers don't find out until later in the story that Phyllis has been infected by the "love bug".

the travails of virus research

 The pathology of pantie raids. Her keen eye always on the look-out for a new research project, Phyllis calls to Sylvester's attention the fact that college campuses are being swept by an epidemic of pantie raids and unprecedented levels of intramural romance. Statistical analysis indicates that the marriage rate among high school students is also rising. Phyllis offers her preliminary assessment of the news: the poor school kids "can't control their glands". Can Phyllis control her own glands?

The entire story is constructed around the idea that love is the result of over-active endocrine glands and a virus can target those glands and cause people to fall in love. While Phyllis and Sylvester work to understand the love pandemic, eventually they are both infected by the virus ("the love bug") and in dramatic fashion they use their own bodies to test a newly discovered chemical cure for the affliction. 

the cure

 Move 1. By July of 1961, the marriage rate has doubled. Since this is the early 1960s, when Sylvester catches the virus and falls in love, although his hormones are raging, he and Phyllis take the time to get married before they hop in bed. Phyllis reveals that she has been infected and in love with Sylvester for months before Sylvester became infected. 

Move 2. Winston Marks never explains why Phyllis seems to be the one person on Earth who can resist the effects of the "love bug". However, in the end, having taken the cure and now free of the virus, Sylvester and Phyllis fall in love again without any microbial help. Yes, it was 1961, so Winston Marks only depicted boys in love with girls, but maybe in the Ekcolir Reality there could have been more variety.

in the Ekcolir Reality

 Science? Winston Marks explicitly stated in the story that the chemical cure (a "sulfa drug") functions by forming deposits in the endocrine glands. This soon leads to the virus being eliminated from a patient's body. I wonder which gland(s) Marks had in mind. And more importantly, how would a virus change the activity of a gland so as to cause someone to fall in love? It seems like there should have been a follow-up story about answering that question and then applying that knowledge.

Foster's Fever. Winston Marks published "The Naked People" in the September 1954 issue of Amazing Stories. "The Naked People" concerns the young Dr. Foster who, after a dangerous brain infection, is able to see the hard-to-see "naked people" who co-inhabit Earth with we humans. 

cover art by Jeff Jones

 Telepathy, too. Using their telepathic abilities, the "naked people" normally can prevent humans from being aware of the existence of the "naked people" as they live among humans, but Foster's fever-damaged brain is now resistant to telepathic control. Marks never bothers to explain any of this and the story seems more like magical fantasy than science fiction. Later, "The Naked People" was anthologized in Demon Lovers and Strange Seductions.      

Dr. Foster quickly gives up trying to convince other people that the "naked people" exist. Dr. Foster marries his nurse, the fetching Miss Kelly, and they live happily ever after, sharing their house with a cute blonde naked person.

Hidden Telepaths. As was the case for "Mate in Two Moves", I have to wonder if Winston Marks ever wrote a sequel story in which he provided readers with more backstory for the "naked people". Dr. Foster asks several of the "naked people" about their origins, but no satisfying answer is ever provided.

in the Ekcolir Reality

 Intelligent Asteroid. Before moving on from Winston Marks and his stories about doctors, I must mention four more of his stories. In the December 1954 issue of Fantastic Universe there was "The Pompous Asteroid". I've previously complained about science fiction stories that depict life as existing on every planet and asteroid of the galaxy. For "The Pompous Asteroid", Marks imagined a well-traveled, sentient asteroid that arrives in our Solar System. I wonder if Arthur C. Clarke was influenced by "The Pompous Asteroid" when he wrote Rendezvous with Rama. 

"The Pompous Asteroid" is a first contact story about Spud Herley's encounter with a talking asteroid. As strange as it is for Spud to encounter a sentient asteroid, the inter-galactic wandering asteroid feels much the same way about meeting Spud. 

Playing catch in the Ekcolir Reality

The asteroid claims to have visited billions of galaxies and Spud is the first chemistry-based lifeform it has found. The story seems like magical fantasy with an iron-containing asteroid that can cruise through the universe and telepathically communicate with the first human it encounters.

 Fantastic Fantasy. "The Pompous Asteroid" reminds me of "Proof" by Hal Clement, a 1942 story in which readers are asked to accept that living creatures could be composed of neutronium. Winston Marks tries to add drama to "The Pompous Asteroid" by telling readers that this intergalactic asteroid is composed of antimatter. I have to wonder if "The Pompous Asteroid" may have been written in the 1940s, but Marks could only get it published in the 1950s when there was a proliferation of Sci Fi magazines such as Fantastic Universe.

interior art by Frank Kelly Freas

 A Pitch Man. Sadly, Spud's scout ship does not have a baseball onboard, but he throws a handy wrench at the alien asteroid. The resulting explosion destroys the sentient asteroid, completing this silly First Contact story.

Telepathy. In the Spring 1955 issue of Startling Stories was "Double Date". Set in the not-too-distant future, a pill is now available, that when swallowed, can give people telepathic powers. These telepathic abilities are limited to "hearing" the language-like thoughts of another person who has also ingested a magical telepathy pill.

in the Ekcolir Reality

 Smith and Jones. "Double Date" is told from the perspective of "Smitty" who gets an invitation from his girl friend, Ms. Jones, to go on a double date with Betty. Yes, we wonder: what kind of drama will ensue when Smitty pops a telepathy pill and gets to listen in on the telepathic "conversations" between Betty and Ms. Jones?

Easy as 1, 2, 3. Here is how Winston Marks explains human telepathy. 1) Telepathy evolved as a way for the various parts of the brain to communicate with each-other using a high-frequency signal that had long been over-looked by scientists. 2) Further, there is a chemical in the blood which absorbs the telepathic waves, preventing their escape from the brain. 3) After 1 and 2 were discovered, then it was then easy for pharmacologists to make a drug that neutralizes the telepathic wave absorber. 

double dating in the Ekcolir Reality

So, just take the magic pill and PRESTO! You can telepathically communicate your thoughts to other people who also use the neutralizer. Smitty takes the magic neutralizer pill and soon telepathically learns that Ms. Jones only wants to marry Smitty for his money. From then on, with his telepathic insights, Smitty can't help noticing that Betty is actually much nicer than Ms Jones. Betty quickly falls for Smitty and he dumps Ms. Jones. Betty and Smitty soon learn that they are telepathically quite compatible.

in the Ekcolir Reality

 Telepathy in 1958. "Go to Sleep, My Darling", in the November 1958 issue of Infinity Science Fiction, is another telepathy story by Marks that ends up with a man transferring his mind into that of his young daughter. The possibility of human telepathy is discovered when a father wishes for his young daughter to sleep through the night.

Last Gasp. "The Cure-All" by Winston Marks was published in the July 1968 issue of If. According to the ISFDB, Marks only published two stories after 1959, so I'll say that "The Cure-All" is from the third and final phase of his Sci Fi career. "The Cure-All" reminds me of Hal Clement's 1949 story Needle. Spacemen return to Earth after exploring distant worlds and bring back a microscopic lifeform that has health benefits when it infects humans. The story ends with the discovery that women who become hosts for the aliens all become pregnant through parthenogenesis.

Spread the aliens. Internal art for "The Cure-All" by Brock.

Rappaccini's lovers in
the Ekcolir Reality.

Age Discrimination. Returning to the collection Great Science Fiction About Doctors, I'll bluntly ask: is "Rappaccini's Daughter" (1844) science fiction? In the story, it is suggested that Dr. Rappaccini created a poisonous plant that is like a sister to his daughter, Beatrice. Through long, close association with the poisonous plant, Beatrice has become toxic to other people, which curtails her love life. You can read the story here.

"The Man Without an Appetite" by Miles Breuer was apparently written sometime around 1916. When asked for a story by Conklin, this old story was found among Breuer's papers by his wife and there was no clear record of its prior publication in English. You can read the story here. A brilliant physician (Dr. Volny) discovers how to make his hemoglobin do a job similar to that accomplished by chlorophyll and photosynthesis in plants... capture usable energy for cells from readily available chemicals in the environment and sunlight. With his hemoglobin doing photosynthesis, now Volny does not need to eat food. Sadly, the story includes no details about this magical biochemistry. 😞

Dr. Wentworth checks the size of
the Ananias gland of a patient.

In the November 1928 issue of Amazing Stories was "The Psychophonic Nurse" by David H. Keller (himself a medical doctor). However, in that issue, there was also a very short and very silly story called "The Ananias Gland" by W. Alexander. As told in "The Ananias Gland", Dr. Wentworth has discovered a small gland near the base of the brain that controls the human capacity to lie. If the Ananias gland is too large, then a person will continually tell lies. I would have call this story concept completely silly except for having lived through a Trump presidency... 

Is there a doctor in the house? In "The Psychophonic Nurse" there are practical robots, including a nurse who cares for a young baby. I have to wonder if Isaac Asimov was influenced by this story, but it may have passed through the news stands about a year before the young Asimov began reading all the Sci Fi he could get his hands on.

A child care robot in "The Psychophonic Nurse". Interior art by Frank R. Paul.
Special bonus for 1929; liberated mothers are smoking in the baby's room.

interior art for "Expedition Mercy".

 PTH. "Expedition Mercy" by Joseph A. Winter (himself an M.D.) is a painfully sloooooowwww account of visiting a distant exoplanet where the water contains a chemical that apparently activates parathyroid hormone receptors. A team of medical doctors takes a very loooong time to figure this out and I suspect only a fellow medical doctor or fan of House would enjoy this story. "Expedition Mercy" originally appeared in the November 1948 issue of Astounding Science Fiction.

Fig. 1. interior art for "The Little Black Bag"

 Doctor of Time Travel. I'm generally a sucker for stories about time travel, but "The Little Black Bag" by C. M. Kornbluth has a slow start, introducing readers to the miserable life of disgraced physician, Dr. Full. 

Kornbluth imagined a future that is similar to what Asimov would use in his 1967 story "Profession". In the 25th century, most people are just smart enough to use the machines that keep society humming. A small minority population is intelligent enough to invent new machines... such as a time travel device. So, presto, a futuristic medical tool kit gets sent into the past and arrives in the hands of the miserable drunkard, Dr. Full. 

This basic plot was later used in The Gods Must Be Crazy.

Dr. Full tries 25th century medicine.

 Blue Pill. In The Voyage Home, McCoy gives a sick woman a pill and she quickly regenerates a fully functioning kidney. Dr. Full opens up the medical tool kit from the future, pops a blue pill and his drunkenness is cured. 

For a time, Dr. Full uses the futuristic medical tool kit to help sick people, but he meets the fate shown in Figure 1, above. His assistant uses the super-advanced surgical instruments to cut Dr. Full into small bits that are disposed of by the medical tool kit's Hi Tek™ waste incinerator. When Dr. Full's murder is detected in the future, the "lost" medical tool kit is automatically inactivated and can be used no more.

Next: more stories about doctors

visit the Gallery of Movies, Book and Magazine Covers