Melancholy Elephants
 | This article relies largely or entirely on a single source. (October 2024) |
"Melancholy Elephants" is a 1982 science fiction short story by Canadian writer Spider Robinson. The story examines the interaction of copyright and longevity, and the possible effects of the extension of copyright to perpetuity. Its title is a reference to the popular belief that elephants are incapable of forgetting.
Premise
[edit]The story is set in a future in which powerful entities seek to pass a bill to enact perpetual copyright. A woman named Dorothy Martin believes this to be a threat to civilization and seeks to bribe a powerful senator into killing the proposal.
Reception
[edit]"Melancholy Elephants" won the 1983 Hugo Award for Best Short Story.[1]
References
[edit]- ^ "1983 Hugo Awards". The Hugo Award. 2007-07-26. Archived from the original on 2024-10-07. Retrieved 2025-03-11.
External links
[edit]- Melancholy Elephants title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- Text of Melancholy Elephants at the Baen Free Library
- Melancholy Elephants, by Spider Robinson in his site.
 | This article about a science fiction short story (or stories) published in the 1980s is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |