Robert Sheckley, "The Smell of Thought": a summary

Many wonderful insights were presented to mankind by science fiction writers. You can recall, for example, Herbert Wells or Jules Verne. But in this article we will not talk about them. In the focus of our attention is the "Smell of Thought": a brief summary of the work. Robert Sheckley creatively created it from nothing.

"Sixth Sense"

The person has five basic generally recognized ways to study the external world: sight, hearing, smell, touch, taste. When they say about the sixth sense, it is usually understood by them as a well-developed intuition or telepathy. Are there really those who can read minds? It is difficult to say, during the Soviet period, for example, for unknown reasons, this issue was given much attention, and one seemingly a true psychic could be found in the vastness of our homeland. Speech, of course, about Nelly Kulagina.

In the rest it is "a mystery covered in darkness". And that is why writers so willingly take it (especially authors who are creative in the genre of fiction). Robert Sheckley could not bypass it with his attention.

Crash

Everything begins, as in classical space history. A starry postman plying from one planet to another, suddenly discovers that his ship, already already terribly old, heats up with incredible speed. He feels wrong and goes to check the tanks with fuel. It turns out that the high temperature spoiled the fuel. Leroy Clevy (pilot) understands that if he does not land on the nearest oxygen-containing planet, he has no chance to survive. About what he tells his chief on the radio, as well as the coordinates of a possible crash. The postmaster comforts the pilot and says that he sends a rescue team for him. Later, the ship makes an emergency landing on the planet Z-M-22.

The "Scent of Thought" starts screaming (brief content, we hope, as long as possible will preserve the intrigue). This will not happen later.

Strange animals

Naturally, when the hero made a forced landing, he did not immediately recover and for a while lost consciousness. I woke up from the fact that a squirrel ran next to him, but the animal looked strange: it had no eyes and ears, and wool had a greenish tinge. Then a wolf appeared. "Gray" did not possess the organs of hearing and sight. As beasts were guided in the world - a mystery. And Cleeve watched the hunting scene: the squirrel ran away or hid, and the wolf walked after her. For a while, the predator lost his way, although the victim was with him, but he seemed to have lost it, then discovered and ate. But the squirrel obviously could not satisfy the wolfish appetite, and he went to the barely living postman. It's hard to understand how he smelled it. Clevy did not even have time to get scared, as he lost consciousness again. The highlight of Shackley's story "The Smell of Thought" (a brief summary shows it) is just in these mysterious animals.

Panther

Has come to itself in the evening of the same day. Cleavi seemed to sleep not only the wreck of the ship, but also the hunting scene, then he wondered if these animals have neither eyes nor ears, how they hunt each other.

From reflection he was distracted by another inhabitant of the planet, lurking in the bushes, he resembled a panther, but with a certain cost in appearance. While Cleavi was given abstract reflections, a large black cat without ears and eyes could not distinguish a person from the general background of the environment, but as soon as he thought about it, the predator immediately showed interest to him.

And then the hero dawned: "Telepathic animals, of course!". Then he again made a wild cat the object of reflection, and she again "smelled" it. Realizing that such experiments to the good will not bring, he tried to throw off the predator from his mental wave. Clevy tried to think of an outsider, but, unfortunately, could not, all the time returning to the word "Panther". Robert Schackley wrote an extremely inventive story. "The smell of thought" (a summary of it) is considered by us not only with interest, but also with pleasure.

In the end, Leroi came up with the idea: pretend to be a Panther female. The male believed and began courting the imaginary "girl." Then, apparently, he realized that he had been deceived and fled with a cry. It captivates even the brief content of the story "Smell of Thought" by Robert Sheckley. The writer masterfully builds the plot.

Fight with wolves

After the adventure with Panther, Leroy fell asleep. I woke up only the next morning and found out that his flying weapon was completely burnt, and he was alive. He picked up a metal rod - part of the ship, which could still be used as a weapon. And yet, when the postman understood the basic principle of the functioning of the planet, it became a little easier for him to live, but the most interesting was ahead. After the Panthera the Cleavis visited wolves. So describes the events of Robert Sheckley. "The smell of thought" (this will be briefly explained later) is an extremely dynamic work.

He found food and water. The beasts could not be seen, but only he thought: "Perhaps today I will meet with a wolf or wolves," and they, as if by magic, arose. In other words, the idea is material - this is the main idea that is "mounted" in the summary of the work "The Smell of Thought". Of course, it is quite commonplace, but in fiction, the main thing is performance, and it is at Shekli's heights.

The hero did not immediately engage with them in the fight, first he tried to find cover, when he did not find him, but also found out that the vultures were circling the place of the alleged battle, understood: there is nothing to do - we must take the fight.

She-wolf

At first he mentally pretended to be a wolf, tried to press on the pity of the opponents and outwit them. It turned out not to be too much: those predators who faced him seemed to believe in deception, but one wolf went to the hero from behind and rushed, "knocking" him out of the image. By the way, one "gray" Cleeve managed to injure.

Then Leroy left the venture with the wolf and turned to images of stronger animals, for example, panthers. He played very well, realistically, but his opponents did not intend to retreat so simply. They closed the ranks and rushed at him all together (there were four of them).

Panther and snake

He feverishly thought how he could defeat the wolves, then it dawned on him: "Snake!". Indeed, the beasts were frightened, but now the postman did not fulfill the role. As soon as the wolves weakened the grip, he fled.

True, not far away, it was overtaken by both "forest orderlies" and vultures. And he decided to use the experience of an astronaut - he pictured himself as a bird. This caused the hungry wolves to be confused, and they lost it. Conducts his hero through a consistent change of images of R. Sheckley. "The smell of thought" (short content including) turns into an action-packed action movie.

Final battle. Wolves, panther, vultures

In the morning, as if he had few adventures yesterday, Leroy thought about the panther and the wolves. They did not force themselves to ask twice, immediately emerging. Given that the hero did not sleep at all, he realized that he could not cope with the panther and wolves at once. Clevy imagined something so useless and not very tasty for animals. In his head came only the image of a bush, and he became it.

For a while this was enough, but then the woodpecker flew in and began to hammer a man as if he were really hiding worms in his womb. Leroy again had no luck, he had to leave the image and again run away from predators, then, when they almost caught up with him, he imagined himself dead, and this saved him. Realizing what was going on, Cleve began to add to his corpse of age, i.e. He began to smell strongly of rot. Panther and wolves hero away, but vultures, on the contrary, attracted. And again it's time to change the shell. Next is a description of the actual final scene of the work of Shekli, she also crowns the brief content of the story "The Smell of Thought".

Fire

And then the space pilot recalled the fire and the fear of almost all living beings. He imagined himself a torch. The animals fled. A rescue spaceship arrived just in time. Leroy was unnoticed for himself on board. The chief who flew after him said that Cleave was very lucky, because he was at the very center of a terrible fire. The crew watched the fire on the surface of the planet at the time they landed. However, when Leroy left the planet, the terrain did not leave any traces of the spree of the elements, he did not find the boss and burns on the body of his subordinate.

This turned out to be a retelling of the work of Robert Sheckley "The Smell of Thought". Very brief content, probably, is not our hobby, but the reader will have a three-dimensional view of the story.

The usual fate of an unusual person. The seer from the "Dead Zone" by Stephen King

And yet, finally, I want to talk a little about the ambivalence of such an ability as reading thoughts. It is generally believed that telepathy is good for the carrier, for it acquires power, stands out from the crowd.

In fact, the story of real psychics suggests that they did not know much happiness in life. And not even because they read people as an open book, but because they were hunted by special services and ordinary citizens who wanted to take advantage of their gift for their own purposes.

Stephen King has a novel "Dead Zone", he is not about a telepath, but a seer. However, the fate of an extraordinary person in it is represented quite clearly. For his gift, he paid the future to a happy family man, possibly a father. On his altar, Johnny Smith put everything he had. At first he considered the gift of seeing the future, touching people, curse. So it was until providence did not confront him with the one he had to stop in order to prevent the second Hitler from coming to power.

And in the end, the hero pays for his mission and mission. In other words, any gift (writer's or supernatural) involves not only certain abilities, but also a huge responsibility.