Hello, and welcome to Queer's Fiction, where we talk about queer historical media.

I'm Jason.

I'm Alice, and I'm Eli.

And today we're talking about Theodore Sturgeon's science fiction short story, first published in 1953, The World Well Lost.

Before we get started, we have some content warnings for this episode. Period, typical homophobia in both fiction and reality, and a brief mention of fictional incest. There are also mentions of the

threat of gun violence, as well as mentions of sex. If any of that sounds like something you

don't want to listen to, please feel free to check out one of our other episodes. So often on this show, I start with the origins

of the story and then move on to analyzing the text. But this time around, I decided I'm going

to summarize the story, and then we can discuss that first before we discuss the author and the

context into which the story was published. So I'm going to give a summary of this story, but also the whole thing is only 17 pages.

It's great.

It's very readily available online.

So I'd highly recommend pausing this episode, giving it a read yourself, and then coming back.

I would second that.

So, welcome back.

The World Well Lost is a short story focused on the wondrous arrival and traumatic extradition of a pair of alien refugees known as the loverbirds.

The arrival of these aliens in a futuristic human society where space exploration is widespread and aliens are commonly interacted with is not unexpected.

The initial reaction by humanity is of delight, as the aliens are commonly interacted with is not unexpected. The initial reaction by

humanity is of delight, as the aliens are clearly in love and futuristic forms of media display

their affection across the globe. However, it is soon discovered that the aliens are from

the planet Derbano, which inexplicably turned its back on humanity after cursory initial contact

years before. The diplomatic silence is broken by the

...