Typecasting

Turtledove is a Craftsman of the Short Story.

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Harry Turtledove provides a master class on how to turn out an engaging short story about nothing more than a father who wants his daughter to get a fair shake in getting a good role in a college play.

Being Turtledove, though, the setting is a “different history” - in this case the imaginary state of Jefferson, formed from Southern Oregon and Northern California with its capitol in Yreka - and the father the Sasquatch governor of Jefferson.

In this imagined future - actually, since it is set in 1980, it is the past - Sasquatch, Yeti, and other “Big People” exist and Sasquatch are a tiny minority of Jefferson, necessitating an Equal Accommodations law where business has to allow access to 9 foot tall Sasquatch.

The conflict that moves the story is based on Governor Bill Williamson's trip to the (real) Ashland Shakespeare Festival and discovery that his daughter has been cast as Caliban because “she doesn't need make-up for the part.”

Think about how simple the plot is, but it is vastly entertaining story because of Turtledove's ability to imagine “what if Sasquatch were real?”