The Darfsteller

Last updated
"The Darfsteller"
Author Walter M. Miller, Jr.
Language English
Genre(s) Science fiction
Published inAstounding Science Fiction January 1955
Publication typeMagazine
Publication dateJanuary 1955

"The Darfsteller" is a 1955 science fiction novelette by American writer Walter M. Miller, Jr., which won the first Hugo Award for Best Novelette. It was originally published in Astounding Science Fiction of January 1955.

It is the 21st century story of an old stage actor who has become a theater janitor in order to remain near "show biz". The theater has been overtaken by robot actors, made to look like humans, which act out plays under the direction of each venue's central computer. This "Maestro" runs the show, accommodating the kinds of factors which real actors would contend with: audience reactions, failing mechanical actors (when they are broken or one of the tapes that they get their programming from is worn), and other inconstant factors.

The old actor dreams up a scheme to get himself back on stage, despite the prejudice against real acting. He destroys one of the robot's tapes, and since he knows the part from his previous career, he is the only way the show can go on.

The old actor's problem is that he has always been a darfsteller (likely a portmanteau of "Darsteller", German for "actor/actress", [1] with "darf", inflected form of "dürfen", "to be at liberty to do something" [2] ) which the narrator explains was a "self-directed actor... the undirectable portrayer whose acting welled from unconscious sources with no external strings", generally hated by directors even when they performed excellently. The meaning of the story comes from the point that he cannot just walk onto the stage and deliver lines; as a "Darfsteller", he must live them, and transform himself into his role, and once that process begins, it is difficult to stop it.

Related Research Articles

Brian Aldiss British science fiction writer

Brian Wilson Aldiss was an English writer and anthology editor, best known for science fiction novels and short stories. His byline reads either Brian W. Aldiss or simply Brian Aldiss, except for occasional pseudonyms during the mid-1960s.

Harlan Ellison American writer

Harlan Jay Ellison was an American writer, remembered for his prolific and influential work in New Wave speculative fiction, and for his outspoken, combative personality. Robert Bloch, the author of Psycho, described Ellison as "the only living organism I know whose natural habitat is hot water".

Isaac Asimov American writer

Isaac Asimov was an American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University. He was known for his works of science fiction and popular science. Asimov was a prolific writer, and wrote or edited more than 500 books. He also wrote an estimated 90,000 letters and postcards.

James Tiptree Jr. American science fiction writer (1915–1987)

Alice Bradley Sheldon was an American science fiction author better known as James Tiptree Jr., a pen name she used from 1967 to her death. It was not publicly known until 1977 that James Tiptree Jr. was a woman. From 1974 to 1977 she also used the pen name Raccoona Sheldon. Sheldon was inducted by the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2012.

Leigh Brackett American novelist and screenwriter

Leigh Douglass Brackett was an American writer, particularly of science fiction, and has been referred to as the Queen of Space Opera. She was also a screenwriter, known for her work on such films as The Big Sleep (1946), Rio Bravo (1959) and The Long Goodbye (1973). She also worked on an early draft of The Empire Strikes Back (1980), elements of which remained in the film; she died before the film went into production. She was the first woman shortlisted for the Hugo Award. In 2020, she won a Retro Hugo for her novel The Nemesis From Terra, originally published as "Shadow Over Mars".

Paul Muni Austrian-born American stage and film actor

Paul Muni was an Austro-Hungarian-born American stage and film actor who grew up in Chicago. Muni was a five-time Academy Award nominee, with one win. He started his acting career in the Yiddish theater. During the 1930s, he was considered one of the most prestigious actors at the Warner Bros. studio, and was given the rare privilege of choosing which parts he wanted.

Story within a story Technique in which one narrative is embedded inside another narrative

A story within a story, also referred to as an embedded narrative, is a literary device in which a character within a story becomes the narrator of a second story. Multiple layers of stories within stories are sometimes called nested stories. A play may have a brief play within it, such as Shakespeare's play Hamlet; a film may show the characters watching a short film; or a novel may contain a short story within the novel. A story within a story can be used in all types of narration: novels, short stories, plays, television programs, films, poems, songs, and philosophical essays.

<i>Return to the Forbidden Planet</i> Musical

Return to the Forbidden Planet is a jukebox musical by Bob Carlton, based on Shakespeare's play The Tempest and the 1956 science fiction film Forbidden Planet, which is itself loosely based on The Tempest. The show features a score of 1950s and '60s rock and roll classics and dialogue largely adapted from well-known passages from Shakespeare.

"The Bicentennial Man" is a novelette in the Robot series by American writer Isaac Asimov. It was awarded the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award for best science fiction novelette of 1976.

Frank M. Robinson American science fiction writer

Frank M. Robinson was an American science fiction and techno-thriller writer.

Daniel F. Galouye Deceased American science fiction writer.

Daniel Francis Galouye was an American science fiction writer. During the 1950s and 1960s, he contributed novelettes and short stories to various digest size science fiction magazines, sometimes writing under the pseudonym Louis G. Daniels.

"The Last of the Masters" is a science fiction novelette by American writer Philip K. Dick. The original manuscript of the story was received by the Scott Meredith Literary Agency on July 15, 1953, and the story was published by the Hanro Corporation in the final issue of Orbit Science Fiction in 1954. It has since been reprinted in several Philip K. Dick story collections, beginning with The Golden Man in 1980.

George Nader American actor and writer

George Nader was an American actor and writer. He appeared in a variety of films from 1950 through 1974, including Sins of Jezebel (1953), Congo Crossing (1956), and The Female Animal (1958). During this period, he also did episodic television and starred in several series, including NBC's The Man and the Challenge (1959–60). In the 1960s he made several films in Germany, playing FBI agent Jerry Cotton. He is remembered for his first starring role, in the low-budget 3-D sci-fi film Robot Monster (1953), known as "one of the worst films ever made".

Jim Harmon American author and popular culture historian

James Judson Harmon, better known as Jim Harmon, was an American short story author and popular culture historian who wrote extensively about the Golden Age of Radio. He sometimes used the pseudonym Judson Grey, and occasionally he was labeled Mr. Nostalgia.

With Folded Hands science fiction novelette by Jack Williamson, later rewritten into a novel (as The Humanoids); about paternalistic robots ruling Earth and her colonies

"With Folded Hands ..." is a 1947 science fiction novelette by American writer Jack Williamson. Willamson's influence for this story was the aftermath of World War II and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and his concern that "some of the technological creations we had developed with the best intentions might have disastrous consequences in the long run."

Mary Robinette Kowal American author and puppeteer (born 1969)

Mary Robinette Kowal is an American author and puppeteer.

The killing off of a character is a device in fiction, whereby a character dies, but the story continues. The term, frequently applied to television, film, video game, anime, manga and chronological series, often denotes an untimely or unexpected death motivated by factors beyond the storyline.

Actor Person who acts in a dramatic or comic production and works in film, television, theatre, or radio

An actor is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is ὑποκριτής (hupokritḗs), literally "one who answers". The actor's interpretation of their role—the art of acting—pertains to the role played, whether based on a real person or fictional character. This can also be considered an "actor's role," which was called this due to scrolls being used in the theaters. Interpretation occurs even when the actor is "playing themselves", as in some forms of experimental performance art.

Clifford D. Simak American science-fiction writer

Clifford Donald Simak was an American science fiction writer. He won three Hugo Awards and one Nebula Award. The Science Fiction Writers of America made him its third SFWA Grand Master, and the Horror Writers Association made him one of three inaugural winners of the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement.

References

  1. "Darsteller entry at dict.leo.org".
  2. "Darf entry at dict.leo.org".