The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag is a science fantasy novella by American writer Robert A. Heinlein.
It was originally published in the October 1942 issue of Unknown Worlds magazine under the pseudonym of "John Riverside".
Furthermore, when he washes his hands in the evening, he discovers a red-brown substance, possibly dried blood, under his fingernails.
Ted has a series of "dreams" in which he is taken through a mirror into the offices of Detheridge & Co., where he is told to leave Hoag alone by an assemblage of conservative businessmen.
After a few questions, Hoag wakes up with a strong, dominant personality, completely different from the nervous, weak man they have heretofore worked with.
Reaching the park, with the collection of fine foods and wines Hoag requested, Ted and Cynthia find him there.
Another is sex, but this is thought to be ridiculous until Hoag realizes that it is the basis for "the tragedy of human love" that he sees between Ted and Cynthia.
The sons were an early artistic mistake, hurriedly "painted over" rather than eliminated in the rush to complete the work, but still holding power.
Alexei and Cory Panshin described the novella as "the last and strangest of the stories that Robert Heinlein contributed to the Golden Age before he ceased to write during World War II.
"[1] Galaxy's Floyd C. Gale in 1961 found it "a brand of fantasy-mystery [that] would shock-present-day Heinlein lovers",[2] while the SF Site's Dale Darlage stated in 2011 that it seemed more like the work of Philip K. Dick than of Heinlein, and that although not all the aspects of the story have aged well, "the underlying story overcomes all of that window dressing.
He asserted that the luminous mist which confronts Ted and Cynthia as they drive out of town could only represent the Lacanian Real, "the pulsing of the presymbolic substance in its abhorrent vitality.