The Drug by C.C. MacApp (1970)
Amos Parry, regional manager for Whelan, Inc., visits his nervous chief chemist, Frank Barnes, who has been secretly testing a supposed hormone on pigs. The animals show accelerated maturity and, in one isolated piglet dosed weeks earlier, an alarming transformation: black, thickened hair and cat-like movements after prolonged exposure to the lab's tomcat. Barnes reveals the "hormone" is actually a mescaline derivative, not a growth agent, and its effects on the pig appear permanent. Amos returns to his office to face the daily grind of corporate management: sales manager Bill Detrick pushing for the drug's release despite a year needed for state and federal testing and registration; a $15,000 damage claim from a bad batch of arsenical insecticide; plant superintendent Jim Glover's demand for $50,000 in new equipment and a control chemist; and a union agent demanding raises. At home, his wife pressures him about their son's drunken-driving ticket, a nephew seeking a job, and obligatory social engagements, leaving Amos reliant on prescribed medication and martinis. A call from company president Stu in Buffalo pressures Amos to speed the drug's development while offering no real support against the Legal Department, Production, and Sales. Barnes resigns unexpectedly, having taken the drug himself the night before. Free of his former timidity and eyeglasses, he gives Amos the remaining vial of powder and the lab file, having falsified the records to bury the project. He explains that the mind is normally only "one per cent awake," with the unconscious controlling the body's cellular colony; the drug removes the barrier between conscious and unconscious. He demonstrates control over bleeding from his palm and claims he could reshape his own bone structure. He predicts a world without disease, ugliness, or law, since a person's identity — face, fingerprints, teeth — could be changed at will. After Detrick interrupts, Amos explodes in uncharacteristic rage, then takes the drug himself once alone. He experiences his unconscious mind ("Unconscious") as a separate entity scanning memory in a rapid, associative monologue, while an inner "Id" cries out in fear against change and is overridden by "Intellect." Amos becomes integrated, gaining minute internal awareness of his body's processes and a matter-of-fact good health, along with newly surfaced feelings toward his secretary, Alice Grant. That night, Barnes is found dead in the lab of an apparent heart attack, without any typical struggle. Investigating alone, Amos is confronted by the lab's black tomcat, who addresses him — Barnes has transferred his personality into the cat's brain over five hours, intending to observe the world unburdened, and predicts a connection between Amos and Alice. Amos undergoes his own extended transformation, taking nearly two months. He returns to observe Detrick, who has taken over his old office and is mishandling the business, chewing out an unfairly blamed salesman while facing critical scrutiny from Buffalo over profit margins. Amos, now radically changed, decides not to release the drug to the world while people like Detrick hold power. The story ends with Amos and a transformed Alice Grant, now both altered beings resembling pigeons that other pigeons avoid, at the office window ledge, Amos affectionately addressing her as "Pigeon" and suggesting they leave since Detrick won't feed them.
By C.C. MacApp · First published 1970 · Genre: Science Fiction, Dystopian, Psychological · 5,868 words
First lines
It could be deadly. It had to be tested. But Sales wanted a new product this very minute.
Amos Parry, a regional manager for Whelan, Inc. (Farm & Ranch Chemicals & Feeds), had come to work a few minutes early and was waiting in the lab when Frank Barnes arrived. He saw that the division's chief chemist was even more nervous than usual, so he invested a few minutes in soothing small talk before saying, "Frank, Sales is beginning to push for that new hormone."
What this Textopian page supports
The Drug is listed on Textopian as a novel by C.C. MacApp, dated 1970 CE.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Novel
- Author: C.C. MacApp
- Date: 1970 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Science Fiction, Dystopian, Psychological, Adventure
- Length: 5,868 words
- Structure: 1 section, 170 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)
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- Work identity for The Drug by C.C. MacApp
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- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
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Discussion starters
- What should a reader notice first when entering The Drug?
- How does this novel by C.C. MacApp fit its genre, period, or classroom use?
- Where does Science Fiction first become important in the reading?
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Genres
- Science Fiction — The book 'The Drug' by C.C. MacApp typically falls under the science fiction genre. It involves concepts like advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel universes, and extraterrestrial life.
- Dystopian — The story is set in a future, dystopian society, which often characterizes dystopian novels.
- Psychological — Deals with manipulation and psychological control, hence it contains elements of the psychological genre.
- Adventure — The plot contains dynamic elements and various incidents happening to the protagonist, introducing the adventure genre.
Tags
science fiction · dystopia · drugs · addiction · society · technology · control · government · psychology · human behavior · morality · ethics