02389cam a22003613u 450000100060000000300070000600500170001300600020003000700050003200800410003704000110007804100170008905000070010610000200011324500240013326400510015730000470020833600260025533700260028133800360030749000580034350000310040150801140043252012270054653400450177365300200181865300180183865300240185665300290188083000580190985600430196799900170201030539UtSlPG20260610133709.0mcr n260607r2009||||utu|||||o|||||||||||||| d  aUtSlPG 7aen2iso639-1 4aPS1 aHill, Arthur G.14aThe Terrible Answer 1aSalt Lake City, UT :bProject Gutenberg,c2009  a1 online resource :bmultiple file formats  atextbtxt2rdacontent  acomputerbc2rdamedia  aonline resourcebcr2rdacarrier1 aProduced from If Worlds of Science Fiction July 1952.  aRelease date is 2009-11-24  aProduced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net  a"The Terrible Answer" by Arthur G. Hill is a science fiction novella written in the early 1950s. The story unfolds on Mars, where a group of men from Earth land with aspirations of building an empire. Driven by greed and the desire for exploitation, they encounter the native Martians, whose grinning and seemingly submissive demeanor sets the stage for a dark exploration of imperialism and subjugation.  As the narrative progresses, the men, led by the domineering Larkin, conduct brutal experiments to assert their dominance over the Martians. They initially attempt to manipulate the Martians through symbolic gestures, but quickly revert to overt violence and coercion, culminating in a chilling climax where Larkin is betrayed and killed by the very beings he sought to control. This shocking turn of events reveals not only the perilous consequences of arrogance and exploitation but also serves as a critique of the dehumanizing nature of imperialism, illustrating that the oppressed may not be as powerless as they appear. The story culminates with a tense atmosphere as the surviving Earthmen flee in their ship, leaving the fate of their initial conquest ambiguous. (This is an automatically generated summary.)  nOriginal publication data not identified  aScience fiction  aShort stories  aMartians -- Fiction  aMars (Planet) -- Fiction 0aProduced from If Worlds of Science Fiction July 1952.40uhttps://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/30539  c71385d71385