[apocalypstyx]

It's been a lot of years since I first read Scanners Live in Vain, but I always remember the first two lines.

...

Martel was angry. He did not even adjust his blood away from anger. He stamped across the room by judgment, not by sight. When he saw the table hit the floor, and could tell by the expression on Luci's face that the table must have made a loud crash, he looked down to see if his leg were broken. It was not. Scanner to the core, he had to scan himself. The action was reflex and automatic. The inventory included his legs, abdomen, Chestbox of instruments, hands, arms, face and back with the Mirror. Only then did Martel go back to being angry. He talked with his voice, even though he knew that his wife hated its blare and preferred to have him write.

"I tell you, I must cranch. I have to cranch. It's my worry, isn't it?"

[pmoriarty]

That story stunned me when I first read it, because it was so far ahead of its time. It reads like something out of Warhammer 40k, but it was written in 1950.