Science Fiction & Fantasy Asked on March 10, 2021
I read this amusing tale – in an American anthology of otherwise serious SF stories – in the 1960s. I checked the copyright and it pre-dated the ‘Flintstones’ by several years – can’t remember just how many. Like ‘The Flintstones’ it featured cave people who act and talk like modern folk. In one scene the MC visits a famous artist who has painted an abstract on his cave wall. Famous Artist: "I call this ‘The Soul Of Man’." MC (who doesn’t get it at all): "I guess it does look like a foot." That is all I can remember – the exact plot and the ending escapes me. I have wondered ever since if Hanna-Barbara got their idea from this story.
The Age of Invention by Norman Spinrad. I read it in Perilous Planets but that was published in 1980 so you must have read it in an earlier anthology.
It starts:
One morning, having nothing better to do, I went to visit my cousin Roach. Roach lived in one of those lizard-infested caves on the East Side of the mountain. Roach did not hunt bears. Roach did not grow grain. Roach spent his daylight hours throwing globs of bearfat, bison-chips and old rotten plants against the walls of his cave. Roach said that he was an Artist. He said it with a capital 'A'. (Even though writing has not yet been invented.)
The pun is this section:
On the nearest wall of the cave, there was this big blob of bearfat. In the middle of it was this small piece of bison-chip. Red and green and brown plant stains surrounded this. It smelt as good as it looked.
'Uh... interesting..." I said.
'Like a masterpiece, baby,' Roach said proudly. 'I call it "The Soul of Man".'
'Uh... "The Sole of Man" ? Er... it does sort of look like a foot.'
'No, no, man! Soul not sole!'
But Roach, spelling hasn't been invented yet.'
Sorry. I forgot.'
Correct answer by John Rennie on March 10, 2021
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