"They" is a

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction. It can typically be read in a single sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the old ...

by American writer

Robert A. Heinlein Robert Anson Heinlein ( ; July 7, 1907 – May 8, 1988) was an American science fiction author, aeronautical engineer, and naval officer. Sometimes called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was among the first to emphasize scientific acc ...

. It was first published in the April

1941 The Correlates of War project estimates this to be the deadliest year in human history in terms of conflict deaths, placing the death toll at 3.49 million. However, the Uppsala Conflict Data Program estimates that the subsequent year, 1942, wa ...

issue of ''

Unknown Unknown or The Unknown may refer to: Film and television Film * The Unknown (1915 comedy film), ''The Unknown'' (1915 comedy film), Australian silent film * The Unknown (1915 drama film), ''The Unknown'' (1915 drama film), American silent drama ...

'', and can be found in Heinlein's short story collection '' The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag''. It also appears in a number of multi-author anthologies.

Plot summary

The story concerns an unnamed man who is confined to a

mental institution A psychiatric hospital, also known as a mental health hospital, a behavioral health hospital, or an asylum is a specialized medical facility that focuses on the treatment of severe mental disorders. These institutions cater to patients with ...

because he is suffering from the delusion that he is one of the few "real" entities in the universe, and that the other "real" entities have created the rest of the universe in a conspiracy to deceive him. He spends much of the story engaged in verbal sparring with the psychiatrist who is caring for him, and in pondering his predicament, trying to figure out a way to prove that his belief is true. On the final page of the story, the reader discovers that his belief ''is'' true; the god-like character "the Glaroon" is behind the conspiracy. However, this revelation is kept from the protagonist.

Reception

The story has been noted as "both a paranoid and a

solipsistic Solipsism ( ; ) is the philosophy, philosophical idea that only one's mind is sure to exist. As an epistemology, epistemological position, solipsism holds that knowledge of anything outside one's own mind is unsure; the Reality, external world ...

fantasy", containing "the most complex discussion of those philosophical matters that have troubled einleinthroughout these early years f his career as a writer"The Heritage of Heinlein: A Critical Reading of the Fiction
by Thomas D. Clareson and Joe Sanders; p. 45; published January 23, 2014 by

McFarland & Company McFarland & Company, Inc., is an American independent book publisher based in Jefferson, North Carolina, that specializes in academic An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tert ...

Gary K. Wolfe Gary K. Wolfe (born Gary Kent Wolfe in 1946) is an American science fiction editor, critic and biographer. He is an emeritus Professor of Humanities in Roosevelt University's Evelyn T. Stone College of Professional Studies. Life Wolfe was bo ...

describes it as a "classically paranoid vision of the world", and states that the story only qualifies as fantasy because Heinlein does not offer any explanation of "who or what the Glaroon is and what its motives are".Evaporating Genre: Strategies of Dissolution in the Postmodern Fantastic"
by

, in ''Edging Into the Future: Science Fiction and Contemporary Cultural Transformation'', edited by Veronica Hollinger and Joan Gordon; published 2002 by

University of Pennsylvania Press The University of Pennsylvania Press, also known as Penn Press, is a university press affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. History The press was originally incorporated with b ...

References

1941 short stories Short stories by Robert A. Heinlein Fiction about virtual reality Works originally published in Unknown (magazine) {{1940s-sf-story-stub

Plot summary

Reception

See also

References