Project Gutenberg 2008-09-05 Public domain in the USA. 58 Pangborn, Edgar 1909 1976 The Good Neighbors Reading ease score: 72.3 (7th grade). Fairly easy to read. Produced by Greg Weeks, David Wilson and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net "The Good Neighbors" by Edgar Pangborn is a science fiction short story published in the early 1960s. The narrative explores themes of otherness and compassion through the lens of an extraterrestrial visit. Set against the backdrop of a near-futuristic Earth, it deals with the repercussions of an alien creature's unintended arrival, turning a moment of curiosity into chaos and tragedy. The story follows a massive alien creature that escapes from a spaceship, causing panic as it drifts through major American cities, creating destruction without malice. The creature's lamentation echoes through urban spaces, stirring fear as military forces scramble to address the situation. Eventually, the alien is brought down in New York City by a misguided military pilot, leading to catastrophic damage and loss of life. In the aftermath, the alien's home species sends an apology, expressing regret for the chaos caused by their child's mishap with the airlock and offering a comically inadequate reimbursement to those affected. Through this tale, Pangborn critiques human reactions to the unknown, illustrating how fear can lead to misunderstanding and tragedy, while also hinting at a shared responsibility among neighbors—whether human or extraterrestrial. (This is an automatically generated summary.) en Science fiction Short stories Human-alien encounters -- Fiction PS Text Science Fiction Browsing: Literature Browsing: Science-Fiction & Fantasy Browsing: Fiction 40696 2024-10-11T10:34:59.351619 2023-09-12T03:58:55.164776 text/html text/html 36789 2021-01-04T02:40:07 text/html; charset=iso-8859-1 98451 2021-01-04T02:40:07 text/html; charset=iso-8859-1 application/zip 166699 2024-10-11T10:35:04.644652 application/epub+zip 165466 2024-10-11T10:35:02.093577 application/epub+zip 80658 2024-10-11T10:35:00.066600 application/epub+zip 249370 2024-10-11T10:35:06.626573 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 241463 2024-10-11T10:35:03.884587 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 132795 2022-09-12T10:04:07.339993 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 32346 32249 2024-10-11T10:34:59.056586 2023-09-12T03:58:54.973773 text/plain; charset=us-ascii text/plain 32223 2021-01-04T02:40:07 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 12651 2021-01-04T02:40:07 text/plain; charset=us-ascii application/zip 20336 2024-10-11T10:35:06.766627 application/rdf+xml 12587 2024-10-11T10:35:01.389623 image/jpeg 3408 2024-10-11T10:35:01.105621 image/jpeg 163185 2024-10-11T10:34:59.360600 application/octet-stream application/zip Archives containing the RDF files for *all* our books can be downloaded at https://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Gutenberg:Feeds#The_Complete_Project_Gutenberg_Catalog en.wikipedia