Death of a B.e.m.

The bug-eyed monsters have had enough. For decades, human writers and artists have reduced them to snarling, one-dimensional horrors, and now they're doing something about it. In this sharp 1940s satire, an artist and a writer find themselves mysteriously transported to planet XYZ268PDQ, where the B.E.M.s have a simple demand: stop making us stupid. What follows is a mock torture party with a twist, the monsters aren't interested in revenge. They're interested in redemption. The chief B.E.M., Hiah-Leugh, has strong opinions about character development, and he won't let his creators return to Earth until they understand what it means to be flattened into a trope. Livingston's brief, biting tale asks a question that still resonates: what do our monsters reveal about us? And can the creatures we imagine ever demand something more than what we give them?