Background of the Study
Zenna Henderson (1917-1983), was born and spent most of her life in Arizona. She was a graduate of Arizona State, and worked as an elementary school teacher. In addition to teaching in Arizona, she taught in Air Force Dependents schools in France, at a school for children with tuberculosis, and in Japanese-American internment camps during World War II. She was a Christian throughout her lifetime, baptized in the Mormon church, at one time identifying as a Methodist, and reportedly worshiping in more independent congregations later in life. Her faith had a large influence on her writing, which often dealt with matters of religion and belief.
Henderson’s first SF publication was in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in 1951, and it was followed that same year by her first story of the alien visitors called “The People,” the stories for which she remains best known. She was one of the early female voices in science fiction, and unlike others, did not employ a masculine pen name or the more ambiguous initials. Her stories were notable for the range of viewpoint characters, which included males, females, children, and the elderly. She received one nomination for a Hugo, in 1958.
Two of her works were adapted for television. In 1972, ABC produced a TV movie, The People, starring William Shatner and Kim Darby, which was based on one of her stories. Another story was adapted as an episode on the TV anthology series Tales from the Darkside. Her stories are also a clear, if uncredited, inspiration for the Alexander Key novel used by Disney as the basis for their film Escape to Witch Mountain.
Literature Review
The People: No Different Flesh
This collection of short stories begins with a framing narrative, “No Different Flesh.” A human couple, Meris and Mark, hear strange noises during the night, and in the morning find an infant in strange clothing, who can float in the air. They name her Lala and take her in. They also find an object that Mark suggests might be some sort of alien lifeboat. A young man, Tad, who had fallen in with a dangerous crowd, comes to their house to tell them about a hit and run accident he and his friends had been involved in. The injured man, Johannan, is not dead, and is clad in the same kind of mysterious fabric as Lala. They report the incident to the police, and in revenge, the boys responsible for the accident come and destroy a textbook that Mark had been working on. Johannan’s friends use mysterious powers to help reassemble the book so that Mark can meet his deadline, and when it comes time to return Lala to her people, Meris finds she is pregnant. Lala returns to meet the new baby, Tad and the others discover that they share a love of old cars, and Johannan and his friends begin to tell Mark and Meris the stories of their People.
The next tale, “Deluge,” is told from the viewpoint of an aging grandmother, Eva-lee. As the People prepare for Gathering Day, they notice strange signs and discover that their world, Home, will soon be destroyed. They access racial memories, and begin to build starships that will scatter through space in search of new habitable worlds. We see how the people react and adapt to the news, with little Eve having to decide which of her precious dolls will make the trip, and Lytha and Timmy—a young couple in the early stages of love—rebelling at being separated as their families are placed on different ships. In the end, Eva-lee feels that she will soon be Called back to the Presence, and decides to stay behind to be Called along with her homeworld, which allows Lytha and Timmy to travel on the same ship together.
Next up is “Angels Unawares,” the story of Nils and Gail, a young Earth couple in the late 19th Century, traveling to his first job as a mine manager. On the way, they come upon a homestead with a burnt outbuilding. The building is full of dead bodies, bound and murdered. They find a young girl, badly burnt, and treat her. They also find a piece of paper with a Bible verse—Exodus 22:18, “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.” The next town they travel through is a community of religious fanatics, and one of them, Caleb, admits to having participated in the murder. I remember being struck by how easily these people plucked solitary verses from the Bible to justify the most heinous acts; something I sadly learned as I grew older was all too common. Nils and Gail take the girl in, calling her Marnie and telling people she is their niece. They find that Marnie has strange powers, including the ability to float in the air, read minds, and find minerals. Marnie grows older and stronger, and learns to fit into human society. Caleb, however, comes into town, trying to kill Marnie and finish the job his people started. In defending herself, Marnie accidentally collapses the mine, and the town begins to shrink. She uses her abilities to find a new mine, however, and Nils and Gail’s kindness is rewarded by new prosperity. And in the framing story, we find that Marnie’s real name was Lytha, the girl who was so desperate to be with her love, Timmy.
In the next story, “Troubling of the Water,” we meet another family in the late 19th Century: a farming family dealing with a drought. The story is narrated from the viewpoint of the young son. Objects falling from the sky start a fire, and they soon find a badly burned man, his eyes destroyed by whatever burned him. The boy begins to sense the man’s thoughts, and realizes his name is Timothy. As the man heals, he begins to communicate with the others in the family without words, but the father insists that he start speaking. The drought grows worse, and Timothy claims he can find water for them, and starts to dig. They find bedrock, use explosives to blast it, and water starts to flow in huge quantities. They are barely able to remove their belongings from the home as the water comes rushing up, and have to tie off the house, which floats right off its foundation. In the end, thanks to their trust of their strange visitor, the family has a lush and prosperous farm. Moreover, Timothy finds that there is a woman named Marnie Lytha a few towns over. But after teasing us with a reunion of the separated couple, the framing material takes us to the next story.
“Return” follows a couple of the People, Thann and Debbie (who is pregnant), who return from Earth to one of the worlds the People have come to live on. Debbie misses Earth, however, and begs Thann to travel back so that the baby can be born there. They crash, Thann is killed, and Debbie is taken in by an old human couple, Seth and Glory. In her grief, Debbie treats them horribly, and looks down on them as inferior even though they do their best to care for her despite their own poverty. Debbie has her baby, and during a huge storm, is reunited with members of the People. She realizes that she has behaved horribly, in a rare story where one of the People acts in a way that is less than admirable.
The final story of the volume, “Shadow on the Moon,” takes place in the present of the 1960s. We see the tale unfold through the eyes of a young girl whose brother, Remy, is obsessed with traveling to the moon, and wants to do it openly, revealing the abilities of the People to outsiders. They find an old hermit who is trying to build a spaceship himself. He is doing it for his son, who they soon find was killed in an accident. The old man’s only desire is to bring his son’s body to the moon, so that his dream can be fulfilled. The idea of a bootstrap effort to build a spaceship seems ludicrous at first, but they find that the old man’s son must have had some ties to the People, and that the trip is indeed possible. Remy finds that he can help fulfil the old man’s dream, and his own, and grows in the process. The story is both a sweet tribute to the power of dreams and a tip of the hat to the growing abilities of the human race to travel through space.
Significance of the Study
“No Different Flesh”: This is one of the lightest and I think one of the weaker stories in this collection. A couple find a baby after a mysterious crash and bring her into their lives, having previously lost a child of their own. The baby of course is one of the People and starts exhibiting special abilities, they make contact with the People, and some devastating human meanness is overcome with their help. It’s a typical Henderson story with good-hearted protagonists, a sense of healing, and a happy ending, just without much meat. (6)
“Deluge”: Here, Henderson finally tells in detail what happened to Home. Its destruction is the defining background of the People stories, the event that created the diaspora and led to their encounters with Earth and humans. Seeing it happen does satisfy some curiosity, but it’s the story that needs to be the most grounded in SF explanations, and that’s not Henderson’s strong point. There is, therefore, a lot of handwaving. It’s never clear just what happened to the planet or why, and there’s a lot of mysticism without a lot of understanding. I would have liked the story better if Henderson had used the opportunity to dig further into how a fully-structured and complete society of the People would function and respond to significant problems, but most of that happens in the background and she “cheats” a little by employing prophets. I found “Deluge” largely unsatisfying; there’s a poignant ending, but even there Henderson pulls her punches to keep the ending happier (and to explain how the People know the full story). (6)
“Angels Unawares”: Another story of humans finding a scarred and traumatized one of the People, this one focuses on an older child and a human-caused catastrophe. This is one of the few Henderson stories with clear-cut villains, in this case a breakaway religious sect with an exceptionally harsh interpretation of the Bible. Given the often religious tone of the People stories, there is some interesting contrast, but unfortunately it rarely runs deeper than the classic contrast between rules and love so common in Protestant religious analysis. The best part of the story is Marnie’s slow recovery of her memories and abilities. (6)
“Troubling of the Water”: I think this is the best story of this collection and perhaps the best People story period. It has the same structure as many others: a human family discovers a child of the People after some calamity (this time, another lifeship crash) and takes care of him in the midst of their own troubles. But here, the trouble (a drought that may make their farm no longer viable) and the wonderful characterization of the gruff, well-read father make the story. Nothing is easy, including the power-assisted solution to their problems. It’s a story about trust and hope, with a nice link at the end to other stories in this book. (8)
“Return”: “Deluge” gives a glimpse of Home. “Return” gives a similar glimpse of New Home, by way of one of the characters who left for it at the end of Pilgrimage and now returns. That part was somewhat interesting, particularly the way that Henderson captures the emotional feel of a terraforming planet and a fully-populated ecosystem. Unfortunately, the story centers on the most appallingly self-centered, arrogant, vicious, and uncaring character that I’ve seen in any of Henderson’s stories, making most of it actively painful to read. It is, like most of these stories, a healing story, so of course this does improve, but that isn’t enough to make me want to read it. Ugh. (4)
“Shadow on the Moon”: Two children of the People, Shadow and her older brother, run across an old man holed up in a cabin who has apparently gone somewhat crazy. Shadow’s brother is wild to go into space and frustrated that the People won’t show all the humans how to do it, so when they discover a link between that and this half-crazy man, it becomes an exciting project.