(Found) Short Story with Teddy Bears

[essiecab]

My husband read this short story years ago, and has never been able to remember the name of it. He can't remember all of it, but here goes:

It's set in the future where all of the children have teddy bears that are assigned to them. The teddy bears act as nannies/guardians to the children, and they keep them for life.

The story revolves around a boy whose teddy bear gets re-programmed to teach the boy to assassinate somebody. The boy has to break into a museum to steal a gun, because the only guns left are in museums.

That's all he remembers! It sounds familiar to me but I can't place it.

 

[Ian Whates]

This sounds like the Brian Aldiss story "Supertoys Last All Summer Long", which Stanley Kubrick bought the film rights to and always wanted to make a film out of, to be called: A.I. Artificial Intelligence.

In fact, the author Ian Watson worked for a year with Kubrick until they had a screen story the producer was happy with, but unfortunately Kubrick died before the film was made. The screen story was subsequently bought from Ian by Steven Spielberg, who made the film as a tribute to his friend, Stanley (and which, contrary to many reviews at the time, was very true to the film Kubrick and Ian had planned).

 

[essiecab]

I don't think that's it. Actually, I think I might have found it, a short story by Harry Harrison called "I Always Do What Teddy Says." The only thing I can find out about it is that it's set in a world where children worldwide are assigned teddy bears. I'll have to look for a book that includes this story but it sounds like the one.

Anyway, thanks for your help!

 

[Ian Whates]

Ah, yes, I've got that story as well, in an old paperback collection Two Tales and Eight Tomorrows and also in the more recent career retrospective 50 in 50. Good luck with finding it!

 

[BeckyF]

We had a compilation in the early 80s in high school that I've looked for since the late 80s when my copy was stolen.
It was "Science Faction" and the story I believe you're referencing is "I Always Do What Teddy Says"