Command Performance

COMMAND PERFORMANCE (November 1952) was Miller’s second and final contribution to GALAXY and appeared less than two years after his first sale, SECRET OF THE DEATH DOME, to AMAZING STORIES. An uncomfortable speculation on the true nature and penalty of telepathy, it shows his characteristic thoroughness and depth and is in fact a story whose central theme (and conclusion) were appropriated in the decades to come by many writers. Its female protagonist, able to read the minds of others, has always felt herself to be solitary in her gift; she learns that she is not and the consequences of that knowledge are managed with a remorselessness which was always central to Miller’s work.