Introduction
The Fly is a science fiction short story written by George Langelaan and was published in the 1957 June issue of Playboy magazine. It is the story of a scientific experiment gone horribly wrong. While working on his teleportation device Andre Delambre accidentally combines his DNA with that of a common house fly deforming both of them in the process. The story is told from two perspectives, the first being Francois Delambre the brother of the scientist that transforms into the fly. Francois receives a phone call from his sister-in-law, who is the other perspective character, informing Francois that she had just killed Andre (the fly) and that he should call the police. The sister-in-law, Helene, gives Francois a transcript of what led to the death of Andre and his horrific transformation.
Creatures in The Fly
The titular creature is a human-fly hybrid that appears as an ordinary human body with the overgrown sized head of a fly. Given the nature of the fly's mouth the character can only drink milk that is mixed with bourbon for sustenance. On the other hand there is a tiny fly with the head of a human flying around. Andre hides away from his family after the accident for fear that he is loosing his mental faculties. The story takes into consideration the lifespan of a common house fly because Andre and the fly would need to go through the teleporter a second time to reverse the mutation process but enable to do that the tiny fly with the human head would still need to be alive.
An underlining theme of the story is the inconvenient and pesky nature of house flies and how easily humans dispose of them without any concern even though it impacts the larger ecosystem.
An underlining theme of the story is the inconvenient and pesky nature of house flies and how easily humans dispose of them without any concern even though it impacts the larger ecosystem.