[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-seo-325095-105":3,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":73,"doc-detail-325095-en":122},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"ok",{"site_id":7,"language":8,"slug":9,"title":10,"keywords":11,"description":12,"schema_data":13,"social_meta":66,"head_meta":68,"extra_data":70,"updated_unix":72},105,"en","ultima-thule-short-fiction-science-fiction","Ultima Thule - Short Fiction, Science Fiction","","“Ultima Thule” is a 1961 short science fiction narrative presenting Ronny Bronston’s interview for a rare interplanetary assignment. After applying through an automated cycle that usually ends in rejection, Ronny finally faces a placement officer who probes his politics, racial prejudices, and religion. 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His pen names included Clark Collins, Mark Mallory, Guy McCord, Dallas Ross and Maxine Reynolds. Many of his stories were published in Galaxy Magazine and Worlds of If Magazine. He was quite popular in the 1960s, but most of his work subsequently went out of print. He was an active supporter of the Socialist Labor Party. Consequently, many of his stories have a reformist theme, and almost all of his novels explore economic issues to some degree. Most of Reynolds' stories took place in Utopian societies, many of which fulfilled L. L. Zamenhof's dream of Esperanto used worldwide as a universal second language. His novels predicted manythings which have come to pass, including pocket computers and a world-wide computer network with information available at one's fingertips. Source: Wikipedia  \nAlso available on Feedbooks for Reynolds:  \n• Adaptation (1960)  \n• I'm a Stranger Here Myself (1960)  \n• Medal of Honor (1960)  \n• Mercenary (1962)  \n• The Common Man (1963)  \n• Gun for Hire (1960)  \n• Unborn Tomorrow (1959)  \n• Revolution (1960)  \n• Subversive (1962)  \n• Summit (1960)  \nCopyright: Please read the legal notice included in this e-book and/or check the copyright status in your country.  \nNote: This book is brought to you by Feedbooks.  \n[http://www.feedbooks.com](http://www.feedbooks.com)  \nStrictly for personal use, do not use this file for commercial purposes.  \nTranscriber's Note: This text was produced from Analog Science Fact & Fiction March 1961. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.  \nAt least he'd got far enough to wind up with a personal interview. It's one thing doing up an application and seeing it go onto an endless tape and be fed into the maw of a machine and then to receive, in a matter of moments, a neatly printed rejection. It's another thing to receive an appointment to be interviewed by a placement officer in the Commissariat of Interplanetary Affairs, Department of Personnel. Ronny Bronston was under no illusions. Nine out of ten men of his age annually made the same application. Almost all were annually rejected. Statistically speaking practically nobody ever got an interplanetary position. But he'd made step one along the path of a lifetime ambition.  \nHe stood at easy attention immediately inside the door. At the desk atthe far side of the room the placement officer was going through a sheaf of papers. He looked up and said,“Ronald Bronston? Sit down. You'd like an interplanetary assignment, eh? So would I.”  \nRonny took the chair. For a moment he tried to appear alert, earnest, ambitious but not too ambitious, fearless, devoted to the cause, and indispensable. For a moment. Then he gave it up and looked like Ronny Bronston.  \nThe other looked up and took him in. The personnel official saw a man of averages. In the late twenties. Average height, weight and breadth. Pleasant of face in an average sort of way, but not handsome. Less than sharp in dress, hair inclined to be on the undisciplined side. Brown of hair, dark of eye. In a crowd, inconspicuous. In short, Ronny Bronston.  \nThe personnel officer grunted. He pushed a button, said something into his order box. A card slid into the slot and he took it out and stared gloomily at it.  \n“What're your politics?” he said.  \n“Politics?” Ronny Bronston said.“I haven't any politics. My father and grandfather before me have been citizens of United Planets. There hasn't  \nbeen any politics in our family for three generations.”“Family?”  \n“None.”  \nThe other grunted and marked the card.“Racial prejudices?”  \n“I beg your pardon?”  \n“Do you have any racial prejudices? Any at all.”  \n“No.”  \nThe pe","cbCaim5L9XNBETf9","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaim5L9XNBETf9","pdf",332875,74,"English","# Ronny Bronston’s Application\n## Interview With the Placement Officer\n## Screening Questions: Politics, Race, Religion","[{\"question\":\"What does Ronny’s response about religion suggest about his attitude toward future authorities?\",\"answer\":\"He believes there is a higher power or greater powers, but that any contact would be initiated in its own time. His stance rejects religious institutions and frames authority as something withheld until it chooses to act.\"}]","Ultima Thule - Short Fiction, Science Fiction | PDF",1789969665,114]