← Back

La mouche et l'araignée

Serge Brussolo

First published October 1978
Type Short Fiction
Length Short Story

Notes

It is a strange world, consisting of rows upon rows of rooms and corridors on countless levels. In those rooms, women lie on identical beds, linked to their mothers by an umbilical cord, and to a child by another one. The child lies on a mat by the front door of the room, until it is big enough — and the cord long enough — to move to another room : women try and find a free bed to lie on and be inpregnated, men try and find a room with a woman to inpregnate her before returning to their mat. They are Immortals, constantly fed through each other's umbilical cord.
Accidentally, a man's cord is severed by a slamming door. Forced to look for food, he sets off in this nightmarish maze, determined to understand the meaning of all this…

Publications (7)

Date Publication Publisher Type Page
October 1978 Futurs (1ère série), #4 Futurs Presse Éditions MAGAZINE 26
May 1980 Vue en coupe d'une ville malade Denoël Collection 56
August 1985 Vue en coupe d'une ville malade Denoël Collection 56
December 1988 L'hexagone halluciné Le Livre de Poche Anthology 278
June 1999 Soleil de soufre et autres nouvelles Librio Collection 33
March 2006 Cauchemars parallèles Omnibus (France) Omnibus |1.2
October 2013 Trajets et itinéraires de la mémoire Denoël Collection 70