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90s (?) short story: a society where everyone is eternally young except one man with the disease of age

Science Fiction & Fantasy Asked by fastmultiplication on June 11, 2021

The whole world is filled by people whose completion of puberty is delayed, so they stay young forever. Their world is mostly just fun and play, with few people understanding science.

One man’s treatment fails and he starts to age. They are horrified by his grey hair and wrinkles. He becomes isolated and mournful. One of his friends or daughters realizes there is more to life, and starts talking to a scientist, and learning the basics of biology.

It’s a fairly short story, from the 90s or earlier.

One Answer

Damon Knight's novelette "The Dying Man" (1957)

In a far future, mankind has discovered the secret of immortality, and death is thought to be non-existent. But when the frustrated student Dio discovers he is mortal and death is approaching, he encounters, for the first time in his life, supreme happiness.

The story can be read online at Baen Books.

It is also collected in the 1969 book Three Novels*

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Correct answer by Klaus Æ. Mogensen on June 11, 2021

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