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The Dreaming Jewels
Theodore Sturgeon
1950

Sturgeon always wrote with so much compassion. He looked at what people don't want to see and transformed unfounded disgust into appreciation. The characters in Dreaming Jewels outwardly appear as "freaks" and distorted humanity. Inwardly we see their goodness, bravery, and love.

Not that he ignores the negative and evil - despicable villains also populate the stories with psychotic intricacy. Here we have Pierre Monetre who "enjoyed his disgust" who "built himself a pinnacle of hatred and stood on it to sneer at the world" as well as Thorne Smith with "a voice as low as his intentions". But Sturgeon always takes us below the surface - we can't tell by how people look or by their position in the world.

Another recurring theme focuses on going beyond common human limitations. Characters "refused to believe that any answer was the only answer", they dissolve "smug certitude, of bland assumptions that humanity was the peak of creation".

Finally, Sturgeon champions the radical morality of putting others before self. "...a magnificent ethic: the highest command is in terms of the species, the next is survival of group. The lowest of three is survival of self." "Here is the essence of good and of greed, and the wellspring of justice for all of mankind."

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