# Anybody know the title and author of this sci fi story? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 20, 2004, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-know-the-title-and-author-of-this-sci-fi-story/246167 "2004-05-20T13:02:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Gail](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Gail](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gail)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-know-the-title-and-author-of-this-sci-fi-story/246167/1 "2004-05-20T13:02:35Z")
Years ago, I read a sci fi short story in high school, which would have been in the mid-seventies. It was about a group of scientists observing a family. Except the family was made up of 3-dimensional shapes…for example, the mom was a pink triangle and the baby was a blue cube, or something. Then you, later found out that the mother and child looked human to each other…They were living in another dimension. Anybody know the title and author of this story? ---
**Author:** ![enigmatic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@enigmatic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enigmatic)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-know-the-title-and-author-of-this-sci-fi-story/246167/2 "2004-05-20T13:39:27Z")
I remember reading finding a similar story in my schools library as well. Did the story start with the baby being born as a cube and end with the mother being deliberately moved to the other dimension (transformed into a triangle) so she could be with her baby? I can’t remember anything else about the story other than that it was probably in a science fiction anthology, which knowing the state of our school library could easily have been from the seventies or earlier. A lot of the anthology books from our library were in one series, “futuretrack” or something so that might be a good place to start if you really to find the story. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-know-the-title-and-author-of-this-sci-fi-story/246167/3 "2004-05-20T14:01:03Z")
It was by Ray Bradbury & included in his I SING THE BODY ELECTRIC anthology. I can’t lay my hand on it at the moment but I’ll do a search to see what it might be. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-know-the-title-and-author-of-this-sci-fi-story/246167/4 "2004-05-20T14:13:01Z")
The title is “The Shape of Things”. Here’s a way-out-of-date list of anthologies that it’s appeared in: [http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pw.cgi?96147f](http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pw.cgi?96147f) ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-know-the-title-and-author-of-this-sci-fi-story/246167/5 "2004-05-20T14:22:25Z")
OK, a search revealed… it’s “Tomorrow’s Child”, AKA “The Shape of Things”, originally published in 1948 & made into an episode of RAY BRADBURY THEATRE for USA Network/SciFi Channel, starring Carol Kane & Michael Sarrazin as the parents. ---
**Author:** ![Gail](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Gail](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gail)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-know-the-title-and-author-of-this-sci-fi-story/246167/6 "2004-05-20T14:22:30Z")
The Shape of Things…That’s right, now I remember. Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2004, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-know-the-title-and-author-of-this-sci-fi-story/246167/7 "2004-05-21T11:50:03Z")
aka TOMORROW’S CHILD!