Jeffty Is Five

"Jeffty Is Five" is a fantasy short story by American author Harlan Ellison. It was first published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in 1977, then was included in DAW's The 1978 Annual World's Best SF in 1978 and Ellison's short story collection Shatterday two years later. According to Ellison, it was partially inspired by a fragment of conversation that he misheard at a party at the home of actor Walter Koenig: "How is Jeff?" "Jeff is fine. He's always fine," which he perceived as "Jeff is five, he's always five." Additionally, Ellison based the character of Jeffty on Joshua Andrew Koenig, Walter's son. He declared:

... I had been awed and delighted by Josh Koenig, and I instantly thought of just such a child who was arrested in time at the age of five. Jeffty, in no small measure, is Josh: the sweetness of Josh, the intelligence of Josh, the questioning nature of Josh.[1]

"Jeffty Is Five"
AuthorHarlan Ellison
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Genre(s)Fantasy short story
Published inThe Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
Publication typePeriodical
Media typePrint (magazine, hardback and paperback)
Publication date1977

Plot

Jeffty is a boy who never grows past the age of five — physically, mentally, or chronologically. The narrator, Jeffty's friend from the age of five well into adulthood, discovers that Jeffty's radio plays all-new episodes of long-canceled serial programs, broadcast on radio stations that no longer exist. He can buy all-new issues of long-discontinued comic books such as The Shadow and Doc Savage, and of long-discontinued pulp magazines with all-new stories by long-dead authors like Stanley G. Weinbaum, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and Robert E. Howard. Jeffty can even watch films that are adaptations of old pulp fiction novels like Alfred Bester's The Demolished Man. The narrator is privy to this world because of Jeffty's trust, while the rest of the world (the world that got older as Jeffty did not) is not. While waiting in line at the local movie house, Jeffty borrows a portable radio. He tunes in a radio show from the past. The other children, upset that they cannot return the radio to the broadcast of a ball game, beat him badly. Once returned to his home, Jeffty’s mother turns on Jeffty's radio after cleaning him in the bathtub (thus tuning the radio in the modern stations, rock music in this case,) and as Jeffty attempts to change the radio to something he would like to hear, and presumably knocks the radio into the tub, killing him. There are many interpretations of this ending by readers, most commonly of which being that Jeffty's mother had drowned him, though from examination of the line, "I jumped up just as the sound of hideous crackling blotted out the music and the table lamp dimmed and dimmed and flickered[2]," it would be reasonable to assume this would indicate the power cutting off and on again due to the previously said radio falling into the tub of water. Still, it is not confirmed and as of the authors death in late June 2018, never will be. Speculation on this ending can also go deeper as it is somewhat unclear whether Jeffty's parents were intent on killing Jeffty or if it truly was an accident, but when examining the text it is also reasonable to say it can be interpreted from the way Donny speaks of not being upset at Jeffty's parents for wanting to "live in the present world again[2]" that he does not blame Jeffty's mother for killing Jeffty, implying that it was indeed her intent.

Reception

"Jeffty Is Five" won the 1977 Nebula Award for Best Short Story[3] and the 1978 Hugo Award for Best Short Story,[4] and was nominated for the 1978 World Fantasy Award—Short Fiction.[5] It was also voted in a 1999 online poll of Locus readers[6] as the best short story of all time.

Publishers Weekly called it "touching but scary",[7] and Tor.com called it "heartbreaking",[8] while at the SF Site, Paul Kincaid described it as "a wonder of sustained nostalgia coupled with despair at the modern world", but noted that it "only really succeeds because of the tragedy of [its] ending."[9]

References
  1. Ellison, Harlan (1980). Shatterday. Houghton Mifflin. p. 10. ISBN 978-0-395-28587-9.
  2. Ellison, Harlon. Jeffty Is Five.
  3. Nebula Award Winners 1965-2011, at Science Fiction Writers of America; retrieved February 26, 2017
  4. 1978 Hugo Awards Archived 2011-05-07 at the Wayback Machine, at TheHugoAwards.org; retrieved February 26, 2017
  5. Nominees, at the World Fantasy Convention; retrieved February 26, 2017
  6. 1999 Locus Poll, at Locus Online (via archive.org)
  7. The Essential Ellison: A 35-Year Retrospective, at Publishers Weekly; reviewed January 1, 1987; retrieved February 26, 2017
  8. 3 Quick Ways to Introduce Yourself to the Work of Harlan Ellison, by Ryan Britt, at Tor.com; published May 27, 2012; retrieved February 26, 2017
  9. Shatterday, by Harlan Ellison, reviewed by Paul Kincaid, at the SF Site; published 2007; retrieved February 26, 2017
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