The Total Devotion Machine and Other Stories (Twelfth Planet Press Classic Reprints)

Published in 1989 by the Women’s Press, The Total Devotion Machine and Other Stories was Rosaleen Love’s second short story collection. The title story was later reprinted in Gerrand’s The Best Science Fiction Writing: A Fifty Year Collection. Aurealis Award winner, twice longlisted for the Tiptree Jr longlist and winner of the A Bertram Chandler Memorial Award for outstanding achievement in Australian SF, Love is one of Australia’s masters of SF short story writing.
The Total Devotion Machine and Other Stories is the first book in Twelfth Planet Press’ new Classic Reprints ebooks line which brings back into print titles we believe deserve fresh life.

Excerpts

They will talk about us as once we talked about the dinosaurs. ‘Their brains were too small for their huge bodies,’ they will say, nodding wisely to each other.
One day we shall be food for alien thought.
– from “Tremendous Potential for Tourism”

I heard a scientist on the radio, scoffing at the way the research grants went that year. ‘This bunch of sociologists!’ he said. ‘They get a grant for doing research on housework! While real science, physics and chemistry, is starved for funds. It’s outrageous!’ I bet he never does any housework. I feel it, in my bones.
– from “The Children Don’t Leave Home Any More”

Miss Lovell imposed some conditions on her visitors. ‘It is a sea serpent of a gentle disposition. I do not wish it to be cut up for soup.’
‘Of course not,’ said Ramsay. ‘It will be cut up for science.’
– from “The Sea Serpent Snake”

The children don’t leave home any more. They stay on and expect to be loved, once they are well into the age of reason. They may make various attempts at escape, smiling and waving with joy the first time they take off, butterflies from the cocoon. Six months later back they come, bringing their live-in lovers and their dogs.
I wake in the morning and I find strange bodies on the floor of my house, people I have yet to meet over morning coffee. They lie curled up in sleeping bags or on the couch, back to the womb, my womb, though I cannot recollect I ever gave them birth. They are warm and comfortable, and sheltered, and my children’s friends.
– from “The Children Don’t Leave Home Any More”