Summary

Brian Aldiss’ short story “Supertoys Last All Summer Long” follows the Swinton family, who lives in a dystopian future. Monica Swinton offers her son, David, a rose from her garden, which is always in bloom. The boy merely grins and runs away with the flower. Monica finds him standing in the pool, and she scolds David and takes him inside. David then goes to look for Teddy, his animated teddy-bear. 

Monica feels lonely despite having the company of David and Teddy. While her husband is working, she stays at home all day. Sitting in her living room, she changes the landscape shown by her windows.  

In a different part of the city, Henry Swinton, one of the directors of Synthank, is giving a speech about the synthetic life-forms that the company has created in the past. He mentions how, in their part of the world, starvation is not an issue because of population control. On the contrary, obesity is a problem but this is solved by ingesting an artificial parasite, a tapeworm. ...