The Man with the Strange Head

Breuer, Miles J. "The Man with the Strange Head." Amazing January 1927. Anthologized Big Book of Science Fiction. Groff Conklin, ed. New York: Berkley, 1957.[1] Collected The Man with the Strange Head and Other Early Science Fiction Stories (Bison Frontiers of Imagination, University of Nebraska Press). Lincoln, Nebraska: Bison Books, 2008.[2][3]

According to John J. Pierce ("Retrofitting Humanity," manuscript), deals with a "man whose head doesn’t match his Charles Atlas[4] torso.[5] He has never pumped iron in a gym, but simply acquired a mechanical body-suit that keeps pacing back and forth even after he has been shot dead through the heart" (p. 14). Cf. and contrast exoskeletons, fighting suits, and other prosthetics and bionic aids.

Also in this collection: "Mechanocracy" and Paradise and Iron, "a dystopian novel that warns against the coming prosperity of technological ease. The hero of this novel is a man from 'our' world who travels to a mysterious island where all toil has been taken over by machines. Initially seen as something of an uncivilized brute, the hero winds up being the only person who can fight the machines’ increasing tyranny, because he does not take their superiority for granted." — Quoting A. E. Guy, SFRA Review #288 (Spring 2009): p. 11.[6]

RDE with thanks to JJP, 29June20, 21Jan21