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"Absalom" is a 5000-word short story by Henry Kuttner, about a family of geniuses who are so brilliant that they comprise the beginnings of a new species. The story was first published in the Fall, 1946 issue of Startling Stories.

Spoiler Warning: Plot details and/or information about the ending follow. If you wish to enjoy the work first, stop reading here and return at another time.

Plot

Joel Locke is a professor with a brilliant son, Absalom. The father tries to restrict his son’s education, preventing him from studying entropic logic, which he says is too difficult for the boy. But Absalom has been studying the subject anyway, and corresponding with other brilliant children. He says that this family line (Joel’s father, Joel, and son Absalom) is part of an increasingly brilliant new species of human, and that the father is only restricting his son’s development out of jealousy. The father tries to whip his son, but is knocked unconscious; the boy calls his friends, and they arrange to alter the father’s mind, making him externalize all his wishes and dreams onto his son. It works, but the father is left wishing for the day when Absalom will have a son of his own.

Additional Notes

This story has been reprinted in, among other places, Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories 8 (1946).

The name Absalom is from the Bible; he was one of the sons of King David, and he led a revolt against his father's rule.