Critical Introduction

Theodore Sturgeon (1918–1985) was an American science-fiction writer. Though not as well known as Ray Bradbury, Philip K. Dick, or Robert Heinlein, he is still revered in the science-fiction community some thirty years after his death. “It!,” first published in the pulp magazine Unknown in 1940, is distinctive among the monster tales included in this volume in that the monster is vegetable-based. Aside from John Wyndham's triffids, Audrey from Little Shop of Horrors, the monster in The Thing from Another Planet (directed by Christian Nyby, 1951), and the comic book character Swamp Thing, there are almost no popular monsters that are plants— and since Sturgeon published his story some eleven years before Day of the Triffids, it more than deserves a closer look.

The narrative proceeds along the lines of a detective story, for although the unnamed creature is the main character, its origins and motivations are mysterious—to both the reader and the creature itself. Only at the end of the story do we learn where it came from, but Sturgeon's tale still haunts because it refuses to answer how this monster came to be and why it does what it does. Though one may be tempted to see a moral about greed or the conflict between human consumption and the natural world, the narrative does as much to occlude those readings as it does to support them. Sturgeon, it seems, understands that monsters disallow easy answers.

Reading Questions

Unlike many monsters, the creature from this story does not seem to have any real intention. It cannot rightly be called “evil” since it is unclear it knows it has done wrong. But one certainly would not call it “good” or “innocent,” either—even though it clearly is attempting to learn what it is and how the world around it works. Think about the amoral nature of the creature. Is it more or less frightening than outright evil creatures? Why?

What are the differences and similarities between Sturgeon's creation and other monsters in this volume? (Some points of reference might be creation stories, development, and relationship with humans.)