Jag försöker identifiera en novell som jag läste (förmodligen på 80-talet)
"Monsteret" , en kortfattad berättelse från R. Chetwynd-Hayes , också svaret på frågan Short Horror Story, där huvudpersonen är ett grymt freak i att gömma sig? på Literature Stack Exchange; se även Sci-Fi Stack Exchange-frågan Letar efter en antologi av skräckhistorier från slutet av 1970-talet eller början av 1980-talet . Historien återges på Fantasy Tales , våren 1991 som finns på Internetarkiv . Du kan ha läst det i 1981-antologin 65 Stora Tales of Horror redigerad av Mary Danby .
där huvudpersonen, en ung kvinna, är fascinerad av en tjänares skönhet, en bronsig, muskulär ungdom som arbetar i trädgården.
She had been in the new room three days when the young man appeared in the far garden. He was not the first young man she had seen, for many had passed along the street, but he was the first she had been able to study for any length of time. He erected a garden chair, then seated himself and stretched out his long legs, clearly determined to absorb as much of the sunlight as he could before moon rising. He was, she decided, a most handsome young man, and there was an unaccountable quickening of her heart when he stripped off his tunic and bared his torso. A man minus his clothes was a phenomenon she had never considered; in fact any human being undressed had been, to that moment, an impossibility. Aunt Mabs always made her bath in the dark, maintaining it was sinful to see evenone’s own naked flesh, and Caroline jerked back from the window like a frightened bird, and took refuge on her bed.
[. . . .]
The sin in Caroline’s heart became a canker, and Satan Atomo, no doubt gloating over his conquest, made sure temptation was always before her. The young man seemed to live in the garden. He hoed the black earth that glowered beneath the linen-white flowers, he trimmed the dark green grass with a scythe, and all the time his naked brown back screamed its untranslatable message to Caroline, so that her mind became a hothouse of searing, forbidden thoughts. She kept away from the window for as long as she could, walked round and round the room, and prayed silently to Almighty Jehovah for forgiveness, but always, whenever her attention flagged, she came back to that fatal hole in the curtain.
Berättelsen slutar med en twist, eftersom hennes religiösa pappa förmanar henne för att intressera sig för en "mutant"
Hennes föräldrar är döda; Det är hennes farbror som förmanar henne. Enligt hans åsikt är den unge mannen normal; flickan själv är en mutant, vars familj har hållit henne gömd istället för att vända henne in enligt lag. (Ur vår synvinkel är tjejen normal, resten av mänskligheten har muterat till monster.)
"You thought the young man beautiful?"
"Yes, gracious Uncle, and I sinned . . ."
The Uncle raised his hand.
"You did not sin in that, for it is good that one gaze upon the beauty that Jehovah has created. Your sin is a far greater one."
Caroline trembled and waited for the enormity of her transgressions to be revealed.
"Your sin is that of ugliness. Listen to me, and I will read the holy word."
Uncle Carl opened the good book, and began to read slowly, raising his voice in the traditional style, so his words were full and sonorous.
[. . . .]
"Then the daughters of men, in their fear, took unto themselves the sons of Satan Atomo, and they did bring forth monsters.
"And Jehovah brought down the moon, and it hovered over the earth, and His voice spoke from a thunder cloud. 'Ye shall destroy all that is not born in my image.'
"And all those that still followed in the ways of the Godly obeyed this commandment. They took the ugly, the monster-born, and burnt them on the altar, and behold the smoke of the burning was good unto the Almighty, and He did withhold His hand, and the moon fell not on to the earth, and some men lived."
Uncle Carl slammed the book closed with such force, Caroline jumped, then he spoke in the same awesome tone.
"A thousand summers have passed, and rarely are monsters born, but when they are, the people take them into the temple and burn them upon the altar."
Caroline at first did not understand, then the man's cold, expressionless stare relayed its message, and she whimpered:
"I'm not a monster."
"Child, can you not see?" The Uncle snapped out the question. "Put out your hand. Now I will lay mine alongside. Look. Mine is shaped by the Almighty, yours . . . Do not force me to describe what your eyes must see. Look at my face, then feel your own, the skin — the monstrous growth that covers your head. Can’t you understand that I feel sick in your presence, and I have gazed upon you for nigh on sixteen years. Think how that young man would react were he to see you as you are. He would hand you over to the temple elders for burning, as indeed I should have long since.
och påminner henne om att den perfekta människan som skapats i Guds bild är relaterad till en apa. Det avslöjas att historien är inställd i framtiden där mänskligheten har muterat till en djurliknande form och traditionella pre-apokalyps människor betraktas som mutanter och en avskyvärdhet i Guds ögon.
The priest raised his voice to a near scream.
"And what shall there be on the head?"
"There shall be two ears."
"And how shall the ears be shaped?"
"They will be large, and black, and shall hang down, even to the shoulders."
"And what shall be on the face?"
"There shall be two eyes, one large, one small, and two noses, and twin tusks will grow forth from the cheeks, and the lips shall be black and spread wide, and the teeth shall never be covered. Thus saith the Almighty Jehovah."
"And what shall be on the hands?"
"Two fingers, and they shall have talons, even as the feet hath two toes, and a small tail, not more than twelve inches long, shall hang from the spine, even as Jehovah has decreed."
Caroline was crying now, not because they had lighted the faggots, but because she could see her reflection in the bronze mirror. She was ugly — it was good that all this ugliness was about to be burnt. She had no lovely brown wrinkled skin; hers was obscenely white and smooth; her head, instead of being nobly domed and ridged, was covered with a grotesque mop of corn-coloured growth, which covered her horrible small ears; she only had one nose, and her eyes were both the same size, but, and this was worst of all, not delicately addled, but blue, surrounded with white, and fringed by the same hideous growth that marred her head. Each hand had four long fingers and a shorter one that stuck out at an angle, and there were five toes to each foot. Her lips were red, not black, and covered her teeth, which should have been irregular, one behind the other; hers were disgustingly white and even.