The story, which is about people who use technology, such as anti-gravity belts, to emulate birds, is set in a future with restrictions on population size that encourages the elderly to be euthanized. The Department of Rest establishes how much the population has to fall and sends out a monthly brochure Your Choice for Peace to senior citizens with a form in which that are asked to “describe all that is good about their life, and a few of the things which bug them. At the end of the form is a box in which the oldster indicates his preference for Life or Peace. If he does not check the box, or if he fails to complete the form, it is assumed that he has chosen Peace, and the send the Wagon for him” (189). This is a very small part of the story.
BT - Changes: Stories of Metamorphosis. An Anthology of Speculative Fiction About Startling Metamorphoses, Both Psychological and Physical C5 -Merril, PSt
C6 -The author (1932-2005) was born in England and moved to Canada in 1973.
C7 - 1983 CY - New York DA - 01/1983 LA - eng N1 -Rpt. in Northern Stars. The Anthology of Canadian Science Fiction. Ed. David G. Hartwell and Glenn Grant (New York: Tor, 1994), 188-99.
N2 -The story, which is about people who use technology, such as anti-gravity belts, to emulate birds, is set in a future with restrictions on population size that encourages the elderly to be euthanized. The Department of Rest establishes how much the population has to fall and sends out a monthly brochure Your Choice for Peace to senior citizens with a form in which that are asked to “describe all that is good about their life, and a few of the things which bug them. At the end of the form is a box in which the oldster indicates his preference for Life or Peace. If he does not check the box, or if he fails to complete the form, it is assumed that he has chosen Peace, and the send the Wagon for him” (189). This is a very small part of the story.
PB - Ace Books PP - New York PY - 1983 SP - 97 EP - 111 T2 - Changes: Stories of Metamorphosis. An Anthology of Speculative Fiction About Startling Metamorphoses, Both Psychological and Physical TI - "The Byrds" ER -