F COMMENTARY independent magazine about science fiction No. 62/63/64/65/66 June 1981 * 72 PAGES AUSTRALIA $5 (Sub. $10 for 10) I USA/CANADA $8 (Sub. $12 for 10) Aldiss’s puzzles ° Herbert’s God • Australia’s best Disch’s Daniel « Stellar gadflies • Damien’s dragons Everybody’s letters <> Susan Wood: a tribute CONTENTS: Home, Sapiens!: The Awakening of Myth; Mystery Within Mystery (Anne Brewster; Rowena Cory) 2. Three Novels from Cory and Collins: Australian SF Lurches Forward; A Succession of Different Cultures (Bruce Gillespie; Wynne N Whiteford) 4. Gauging the Stellar Gauge (Bruce Gillespie) 7. The Lately Great Alfred Bester (Damien Broderick) 11. Bishop Can't Transfigure It Out (Henry Gasko) 14. God, Frank Herbert, and the Concept of Deity in Science Fiction (George Turner) 16. The Philip Dick Forum: The Really Real; Staying Alive in a Fifteen-Cent Universe (Lesleigh Luttrell; Claudia Krenz) 18. Sing a Song of Daniel (Bruce Gillespie) 23. A Window on Creation: Some Thoughts on Brian W Aldiss' 'Report on Probability A' (John McPharlin) 27. Up from His Midnight Bed (Damien Broderick) 29. 8 Point Universe (Bruce Gillespie) 30. I Must Be Talking to My Friends (Editor; Denny Lien; Joyce Scrivener; Eli Cohen; John D Berry; Thomas M Disch; Brian W Aldiss; Andrew Wiener; Ian Carmichael; Peter Coomber; Stephen Hitchings; Angus Taylor; Christopher Priest; GeorgeTurner; Donald G Keller; Eric Lindsay; Sneja Gunew; Neville J Angove; Philip Stephensen-Payne; John Foyster.)39. Sins of My Old Age (3) (Elaine Cochrane) 63. Criticanto (John D Berry; Cy Chauvin;Tom Whalen; Rowena Cory) 64. ARTWORK: Mostly pen-and-ink renderings by Elaine Cochrane, with apologies to various originals, such as William Blake (p 7), Jack Gaughan (p 11—from Go/em^OO) and Escher (p 27). PP 18, 20: Stephen Campbell. PHOTO P 39: Dick Eney; from cover of Eli Cohen's Kratophany 7. Edited, published, designed, pasted up by Bruce Gillespie, GPO Box 5195AA, Melbourne, Victoria 3001, Australia. Phone (03) 419 4797. Proof-reading, advice, and considerable financial aid: Elaine Cochrane. Printed by Print Mint, Bank Place, Melbourne. Agent for USA/Canada: Hank Luttrell, 2501 University Ave, Madison, Wl 53703.

Australian S F: 1

HOME, THE AWAKENING OF MYTH SAPIENS! by Anne Brewster Damien Broderick's novel, The Dream­ ing Dragons, is subtitled 'A Time Opera', yet the central metaphor of time is somewhat obscure. The first three of the five sections are set in THE DREAMING contemporary Australia. Beneath Ayers Rock a vault which is, in fact, 'a dull white sphere on a flat surface' is discovered. It possesses strange qualities DRAGONS: and interferes with the neurophysio­ logical functions of the brain, plunging the unfortunate who approaches too TWO VIEWS closely into the psychic chaos of the id. To what else would a competent Australian writer, telling his tale of the Reviewed: Great Outback, take recourse? Patrick White has set the pattern for the The Dreaming Dragons second half of the twentieth century, by Damien Broderick it seems. Yet Broderick's story is not intro­ (Norstrilia Press; 1980; spective. It takes the Aboriginal crea­ 245 pp; $12.95; tion myth of the rainbow serpent as its Pocket Books 83150.X; 1980; focal motif, translating this myth into 224 pp;$US 2.25; the post-Darwinian vocabulary of a Penguin 14005823; 1981; technological super-culture. Man is no 245 pp;$A4.50) longer determined by blind environ­ mental forces; he is responsible for his own development. The potency at the Damien Broderick had a short story collection, A Man Returned, source of the rainbow serpent myth published when he was extraordinarily young. A novel, Sorcerer’s comes not from the natural elements, World, appeared in USA when he wasn’t much older. In The Zeitgeist the spirits of animals, or even uranium Machine, he gathered the third collection of Australian sf stories to oxide. The vault beneath Ayers Rock be published by Angus and Robertson. The Dreaming Dragons is is a complex machine, the artifact of a past Terran civilisation whose remain­ Damien’s first novel to reach a wide public, with a simultaneous ing members are suspended on their release in Australian hardback and US paperback. It is the second crippled space craft in 'deep time'. The novel that Norstrilia Press has published. vault is, in fact, the 'Soul Core' of that race and embodies its collective uncon­ Anne Brewster is a tutor in the English Department at Adelaide scious. The race has evolved from a University. dinosaur contemporary to that ape from which we claim descent. Saurus Rowena Cory is a member of that vast multi-activity conglomerate, erectus evolves into Saurus sapiens, a Cory and Collins. plumed reptile that towers above man. 2 problems of presenting a mystery of This race cultivates 'pongid' slaves, this kind. At times the grammar strange, fur-covered animals with changes from past to present tense to straight, square teeth, and five digits on make a section more immediate. each hand. . . . The Saurians' space MYSTERY WITHIN MYSTERY Characters are introduced, allowed to ship's controls are disabled by the play their roles in the story's develop­ explosion of a supernova and their by Rowena Cory ment, then fall into the background. civilisation stands on the brink of col­ At one point after Bill delFord joins lapse. In the meantime, the pongid An alien artifact. Aboriginal legends, the team at Ayers Rock, the story­ slaves, who have developed intelligence foreign intervention: do these sound line is interrupted, and we are treated unobserved by their masters, revolt. familiar? Parallel (one assumes) to the mal­ to a chilling first-person account of a The Dreaming Dragons begins with brilliant Russian who finds he has been functioning of the Ancillary Core of the Aboriginal anthropologist, Alf infected by a strange virus. He is told the space craft, the Vault becomes de­ Dean, and his autistic nephew, Mouse, it was an accident, but he suspects that fective and erases the Saurians' past searching for the Rainbow Serpent, They are experimenting on him. Soon history from the face of the earth. which Alf believes is the skeleton of he forgets these nagging doubts as the Without competition, the early apes some ancient dinosaur. But deep endorphin peptide, which is being are now able to evolve unhindered, within the cave system they find a produced at a phenomenal rate in his into Homo sapiens. This explanation portal. A faint breeze reaches Alf as brain, interferes with the cortical summarises the last chapter of The he stands before it and, unable to re­ Dreaming Dragons. neuron receptors, causing mental re­ strain his curiosity, he steps through. tardation. Finally the process is halted The first three chapters describe the Mouse watches his uncle collapse and, adventures of an Aboriginal anthropo­ and he returns to normal, still able to unaware of the danger, runs to his aid. recall in humiliating detail his helpless logist and his autistic nephew, aided They have been transported to the by Bill delFord, a Californian psycho­ infantile behaviour. underground chamber which houses When the sequence ends, we learn scientist researching OOBE (out-of- the Sphere. Mouse drags his uncon­ body experience), who speaks like that this is the Sphere's attempt, scious uncle through the Sphere's through Mouse, to precipitate a Timothy Leary, Arthur Janov, and cavern to where the American and Philip K Dick rolled into one, in inves­ nuclear war. Some argue that it is an Russian personnel watch, unable to aid instruction to use this process on tigating the various psychic properties them. Alf the anthropologist is near of the Vault and cracking the meta­ volunteers for the Sphere's field. death, but the Sphere's shield has no A new break in the narrative intro­ phoric code of the unconscious. They effect on Mouse. They are the first to work among top American and Russian duces a ship (which, as we learn later, survive the field: all others have died travels through time), manned by rela­ scientists and military officials in a bid or returned insane. to simulate the various properties of tively stupid pongids, which is faced On Alf's advice, an out-of-body by a crisis. The damaged master com­ the Vault and tension runs high in this experience (OOBE) expert is flown in puter raises a generation of Saurus atmosphere of co-operative yet not from USA. While it appears that erectus, the ship's builders, to deal wholly stable suspension of hostilities. Mouse is somehow in tune with the with the situation. It seems that ten In his search to plumb the meaning be­ Sphere, he begins to communicate in thousand years before, a nearby nova hind mythic symbols. Bill delFord falls many languages. His cryptic messages, occurred and somehow the ship's even deeper than a yogi's trance. . . . transcribed verbatim, astound listeners. shield was pierced. Those pongids per­ The Dreaming Dragons is textually So we are presented with the first forming their simple tasks at the time uneven and frequently repetitive and, level of the mystery in these three were treated to a massive dose of despite consistent references to tech­ chapters. The narrative shifts to the radiation. The faulty computer raised nological, sociological, and historical viewpoint of Bill delFord, the OOBE a fresh generation of pongids, and data to substantiate the plot, the ambi­ expert, and we find out more about those who were cancerous and crippled guity of place and time (the reader has the total situation. retreated to the Ancillary Core to fend the impression, for example, that the Upon discovering a ruined base on for themselves. Left alone, the radiated Saurians live on another planet rather the far side of the moon, the Russians survivors evolved in a short ten than in a past/para I lei world) is un­ and the Americans form an uneasy thousand years to something which settling. It remains, however, an ambi­ alliance. Some of the machines still might be Homo sapiens. Now the com­ tious and inspired foray by Australian operate after twenty million years. puter has decided that they threaten sf. The use of the Aboriginal legend, These pinpoint a large natural feature the ship's ability to achieve its pro­ while studied, is never self-conscious. in the centre of the Australian conti­ grammed task, and the reptilian officers Here in Cairo, surrounded by ancient nent. As the men work to discover must solve this dilemma. The saurians Egyptian Thoth symbols which are what lies beneath Ayers Rock, the are reluctant to believe that the feral continually being recreated in com­ Sphere makes its presence felt. From pongids are intelligent, despite the fact mercial products, popular art, and what remains of the alien moon base, tourist artifacts, I am struck by both that they still speak an accented version the scientists can duplicate the shield of the ship's language (an event almost their overt and covert cultural im­ which partially protected it from mediacy. It is this balance that as unlikely as the forced genetic evolu­ nuclear attack. Under this gluon shield, tion precipitated by radiation Broderick achieves in his treatment of their people react in a way similar to the Wanambi myth. poisoning). the actions of those who step within Gradually the reader begins to grasp the Sphere's influence. It is left to Bill the aliens' reasoning. To accept that Anne Brewster, delFord to discover a way to approach Cairo, December 1980 the feral pongids are intelligent would the Sphere. elevate killing them to a crime, since This isn't a formal novel: the con­ all intelligent beings are linked. The struction is unusual, because of the 3 source of the link is the ancillary core, write objectively about events which lective consciousness of all who have the same place which houses these occur in the minds of his characters lived, both Saurus erectus and our­ threatening beings. The officers decide when they are hallucinating? And will selves. to seal off this section of the ship and the reader glean enough knowledge of I have not given away the whole open it to space, even though it will these characters to understand the plot, but I could not discuss the novel mean their own 'death'. reality which is distorted through the without revealing so much background. But we later learn that these same prisms of their minds? From the first page I was wrestling evolved pongids built the moon base. DelFord and Lapp do not survive with the mystery, trying to anticipate Apparently they survived their eviction their confrontation with the Sphere, the answer. Having it all explained so since the ship was travelling in time though we are led to understand that neatly by Mouse made me feel cheated, and not space. An sf reader must be this alien artifact is not inimical to though the clues were there. willing to accept certain concepts— man. Before they die a little more of The Dreaming Dragons is a difficult faster-than-light drive, etc—but when the mystery is revealed, but not to the novel, with its narrative leaps and reading this novel I felt my credulity other characters. tense changes. The chapters dealing suffering under the impact of these They are back where they started, with the Saurian officers in the ship plot devices. except for Mouse. The autistic boy are particularly enjoyable, for the Now all the facts are there, yet the takes his uncle and General Sawyer, a action is fast and the characters alien mystery still remains beyond the un­ minor character suddenly elevated to enough to intrigue. While I might derstanding of the reader, not to men­ greatness, into the Sphere's cavern. quibble about the mixture of mys­ tion the main characters, who do not Here, through Mouse, all is explained. ticism and science, others could think know the events of chapters 11, 12, Instead of discovering that the ad­ otherwise. It is an ambitious novel and and 13. The narrative returns to the vanced aliens will 'show us the way', I can only gasp at the breadth that original story as Bill delFord and Hugh it seems that our race's maturity will Broderick covers. Lapp, the ex-astronaut, enter the come from within, forced upon us by Sphere's field. How does an author the Sphere, which houses the col­ Rowena Cory, November 1980

AUSTRALIAN SF Australian SF: 2 LURCHES FORWARD by Bruce Gillespie Bruce Gillespie discusses: Breathing St>ace Only by Wynne N Whiteford THREE NOVELS (Void 3; 1980; 150 pp; $12.95 hb, $2.95 pb.) FROM Looking for Blucher by Jack Wodhams (Void 1; 1980; 207 pp; CORY & COLLINS $12.95 hb, $3.95 pb.) The Fourth Hemisphere by David Lake (Void 2; 1980; 208 pp; $12.95 hb, $3.95 pb.) Bruce Gillespie I continue to admire the publishing work achieved by Paul Collins and Rowena Cory, without always agreeing Wynne N Whiteford with their judgment. They continue to 4 publish, despite extraordinary setbacks, heroes and tempestuous action. The are soon onto Roy's plans, and pursue including the refusal of major distribu­ action is here, all right, but it does not him all over the countryside. Here is tors to handle these books because fit any of the cliches of overseas where Wynne Whiteford's talent for they were Australian paperbacks. science fiction. authenticity shows itself splendidly. 'Void Publications' has become 'Cory Breathing Space Only could well Not that he indulges in elaborate scene­ and Collins' within recent months, and have begun with the second chapter, setting, but he does give us a remark­ I presume we can expect a new set of where we find Roy taking the cap­ able picture of the Snowy Mountains books from them during 1981. tured ancient motor-bikes to Jinda- in summer, and the rest of the Aus­ But for now, I have to make some­ byne. Whiteford disposes of explana­ tralian countryside covered in a perma­ thing of their offerings during 1980: tions as quickly as possible: extra­ nent smog. Breathing Space Only is three novels, which vary so widely in ordinary pollution levels throughout filled with memorable scenes: Roy levels of ambition and achievement as Australia have been raised by the need flying a plane for the first time when to make it dismaying to review them of an oil-poor country to turn entirely the pilot is killed unexpectedly, then under the one heading. (Fortunately, back to coal, and then the burning of crash-landing when fuel runs out; Wynne Whiteford relieved me of some the coal-fields by 'Perms' during a Roy 'breaking out' of a HEP service of the burden by sending me the general social breakdown. The Snowy tunnel when pursued by righteous accompanying review of The Fourth Mountains plateau's settlements are citizenry; Roy hiding out in a deserted Hemisphere.} One novel I liked a lot; still powered by the ancient hydro­ farmhouse as the settlement's only one I liked in bits; and one I detested. electric scheme. Their inhabitants working helicopter hovers overhead. So, in order: fear everybody from the permanently All basic stuff, yes, but imagined care­ smog-ridden plains below, and guard fully and seen clearly. Whiteford's I can still remember seeing Wynne all entrances to the plateau. Hence prose is full of authentic-sounding dia­ Whiteford's distinguished face peering Roy's tour of guard duty, and his logue (not merely realistic), technical at me from the cover of one of Ted abrupt conversion into a killer of details, and an appreciation of the Carnell's New Worlds when I first be­ three. gritty surfaces of a real world that hap­ gan buying the science fiction maga­ Not much of this is intrinsically ori­ pens to be in the future. zines in the early 1960s. I was inter­ ginal. What is original is Wynne White­ It would be no insult to eitherwriter ested to note that there were people in ford's way of looking at the world, to say that Wynne Whiteford could Australia writing science fiction, and I and his pleasant way of making his well be the Wilson Tucker of Australia. enjoyed the Whiteford story in that ideas come to life. His characters are Both writers give the impression of issue. (That must have been his last fic­ alive, and his landscape is vivid. having experienced much, and being tional publication for nearly twenty Roy is no great brain, but he is an able to convey the texture of that years.) When I joined fandom, I began authentic enough down-to-earth experience. Yet, with both writers, be­ to meet Wynne regularly at conven­ decent Australian. He is not paranoid, hind the surface detail is a commitment tions. The face was a lot older, though. for a start. He cannot really-see why to idealism. Breathing Space Only gains And there were no more stories. This the settlements' elders, especially Max force from the fact that both sides of hiatus continued until Paul Collins and Lang, need be so distrustful of the the conflict are idealistic. Most of the Rowena Cory began publishing Void outside world that they will kill all citizens of the settlements want to sit magazine a few years ago. The Wynne intruders. Worse, when terrestrial tight on their mountains and re-occupy Whiteford byline began appearing descendants, arrived back at Earth the plains 'for civilisation' when the again, and eventually Void Publications from a distant planet, try to make con­ smog has gone away and the Perms achieved an unprecedented feat: a tact, the influential councillors forbid have all died of unchecked diseases. novel from Wynne N Whiteford. any signals to the visitors. Roy dis­ Roy hates the constriction of such a The years between stories for Wynne covers information which shows that conventional social atmosphere. Cer­ have not been wasted. Breathing interstellar visitors must be immortal, tainly the star-travellers offer immor­ Space Only is a fine novel—in some and probably have much else to offer. tality, but they also offer a way to es­ ways, the best Australian sf novel to Roy's attempts to make contact cape from the past. But Roy refuses to appear so far. It's an achievement of with the visitors takes up much of the see that he might have caused a lot of clarity, modesty, and authenticity­ rest of the book. It could have been trouble for nothing, and that the visi­ qualities which I admire in anyone's boring, but isn't. For instance, White­ tors from the overhead satellite might work, and find so rarely in science fic­ ford could have made the book tedious have nothing for him. tion. I suspect that it is not a book by making Roy into a superhuman We know that Roy will be disap­ which could be written by a young goody-goody. He isn't. He refuses to pointed, and so will his girl friend Jill, person. consider that Max Lang and the others who accompanies him onto the alien Not that some readers will believe might have a good point when they lander just as it is leaving for home. me if they have read only the first say about the visitors: 'If they are But nothing quite prepares us for the chapter. Slam-bang action is the style human, they've been living in some real poignancy of the last few pages, set by the first few pages, and it's a alien environment for generations. when Roy and Jill realise just how pity that this section misrepresents the They'll be further apart from us than alien humans might become after rest of the novel. Roy with his laser the Perms of the Outlands.' Which gives many generations away from the rifle disposes of three would-be invad­ away the end of the book, but not original environment. The end of the ers of the last bastion of technological really. We know all along that Roy will book, in particular, makes Breathing civilisation in Australia: the mountain get a rude shock when he achieves Space Only a satisfying novel. plateau around Adaminaby in the his aims. If Roy had had time to sit Snowy Mountains. After reading the down and think, he might have worked I can't say that I found any satisfaction first section I was prepared for a fairly this out as well. in Looking for Blucher, by Jack Wod- tedious book, full of clenched-jawed But the settlements' noble citizens hams. It only confirms my impression

5 Breathing Space Only ... in some ways, the created by Jack Vance and Ursula Le Guin, there is a complex basis of geo­ graphy and history underlying the best Australian sf novel so far. Looking for stage on which the drama of the novel is acted out. As a result, there are no Blucher: ... astonishingly bad. The Fourth jarring inconsistencies of scene or character. The central character, Andrew Hemisphere ... latest example of Dull Adams, is sent on a one-man mission to the planet of another star, 54 Australian SF. Piscium, thirty-four light years from our solar system. The author always of Wodhams as the most infuriating sf might have been attempting. Stop it, stays within the range of what is theo­ writer we have, somebody who is so Jack, stop it. Keep writing novella­ retically possible. His space ships never often astonishingly bad, sometimes length pieces, like 'One Clay Foot', exceed the velocity of light, and equally astonishingly good, and never and we'll stay with you. But we are Adams knows that his journey will be seems to know the difference in his not looking for Looking for Blucher. one-way, the distance making it neces­ own work. Some people have described sary for him to be frozen into con­ Looking for Blucher as brilliant. One The Fourth Hemisphere is a book trolled hibernation for the duration of such is Larry Buttrose, whose review which not even the author likes very the voyage. appears in Australian Book Review for much, so I suspect that Wynne White­ We are supplied with a double-page November 1980. Unfortunately, Butt­ ford is being over-polite about it in his map of the planet Eran in the front of rose's review describes the plot with accompanying review. Perhaps not. the book. For the first few chapters, sufficient clarity to make any reader The Fourth Hemisphere does have the we can keep checking back quickly to instantly aware of the idiocy of the qualities which Whiteford ascribes to see where the hero's travels have whole book. it. But it also has its hero a most ob­ brought him. After that, it isn't neces­ Perhaps 'plot' is too strong a word. jectionably pompous twit, who is sary—the alien continents and seas Looking for Blucher consists of a always right. Even when his guesses have been imprinted on the memory. series of strange incidents which are and conjectures are incorrect, there is Compared with some sf, The Fourth gradually perceived to have some loose always somebody standing by con­ Hemisphere may seem slow-moving, pattern. This pattern is completed by veniently to give him the right infor­ but this tempo gives the story its an incident at the end of the book mation. Because Andrew Adams has strength. When Adams parachutes on which is slightly more memorable than a charmed life, there is very little to the planet from the disintegrating the other incidents. Why any of these drama in The Fourth Hemisphere. landing craft, he is left with no means incidents should have been considered Lots of incidents, and most of them of defence other than a sheath-knife. interesting enough to be written down well told. But nothing is really at issue, He does not immediately contact in the first place remains a puzzle except when Adams will get the humanoid aliens who speak perfectly which this reviewer cannot solve. goodies and the girl. With Wynne understandable English, like the charac­ Eventually a story does appear, a Whiteford's Roy as the main character. ters in Doctor Who. In fact, he has to story which need not have existed. The Fourth Hemisphere might have learn their languages—and their cus­ The strange protagonist with the ever­ been rollicking good fun. As it stands, toms—by slow degrees, something we changing names occupies a kind of it is David Lake's most recent contri­ accept because we have been told in dream environment over which he has bution to Dull Australian SF. He does the first page that he has specialised as some, but not total, control. I still so much better in his short stories. a linguist. don't know why he is granted such a A word of warning: don't make a privilege. A bureaucrat named Bald­ Bruce Gillespie, February 1981 snap judgment of The Fourth Hemi­ cock (subtle Wodhamism) wants to sphere by reading the first few pages gain some control over the dream en­ and looking at the end. A browser in vironment and its occupant. He must A SUCCESSION OF a book store might easily skim the persuade the occupant to let him in. DIFFERENT CULTURES opening scene where Adams is selected Dream environments being what they for the voyage, read the President's are, why couldn't he have let himself view on 'Russkies' and 'Commies', in? If he had done so, there would by Wynne N Whiteford look at the Chinese symbol for peace have been no story. I wish there had on the last page, and toss the book been no story. Wynne Whiteford reviews: aside as just another propaganda Enough. I suspect that Jack Wod­ The Fourth Hemisphere vehicle. A pity, because he'd be miss­ hams hates writing novels, and ex­ by David Lake ing a subtle, complex, carefully pressed his hatred in the form of a (Void; 1980; 208 pp; wrought story of the hero's gradual manuscript delivered to Void Publica­ $3.95 pb, $12.95 hb) mental growth as he adjusts to a suc­ tions. It's not that Looking for cession of different cultures. Blucher is confusing in a New-Wave- The vital thing about The Fourth Perhaps David Lake's own back­ eloquent sense; it's confusing in a Hemisphere is that it creates for the ground has been of help here—his life getting-lost-in-the-middle-of-a-badly- reader an alien yet thoroughly believ­ in India, and as a teacher of English in told-joke sense. The dreary, sexist, able world, a world which David Lake Vietnam and Thailand (and Queens­ music-hall-gag quality of the sexual appears to have thought through in land!). innuendo is depressing, and shows the considerable detail. kind of humour which Wodhams As in some of the environments Wynne N Whiteford, July 1980 6 GAUGING by THE Bruce STELLAR Gillespie GAUGE

Bruce Gillespie reviews: The Stellar Gauge: Essays on Science Fiction Writers edited by Michael J Tolley andKirpal Singh (Norstrilia Press; 1980; 288 pp; $14.95.)

7 To review The Stellar Gauge involves a You can guess where they turned— usually sink into babbling admiration bit of hat-trickery. Under one hat, I Norstrilia Press. (But that's supposi­ or not-so-helpful non sequiturs. John am Bruce Gillespie, partner of Norstrilia tion; maybe they investigated over­ Sladek comes very close to perfection, Press, publisher of the book. Under seas publishers first.) The partners of and in quite a short essay. another hat, I am Bruce Gillespie, Norstrilia Press drooled over the list of Much of the quality of Sladek's author of an essay in the book. Yet contents, and said that they would essay comes from his brevity, helped another hat (enough to start a hat love to publish the book. There was, by much wit and flair. His 'four reasons shop) makes me the Editor o^SFCom­ however, the slight problem of money. for reading Thomas M Disch' are: mentary, dedicated to covering every­ Now, I'm not sure why honourable 1. To learn why Minnesota needs pyra­ thing published in or about science fic­ gentlemen in academic pursuits do not mids; 2. To learn why your country tion in Australia, and unable to find a realise that it takes considerable needs you; 3. To learn why the squirrel reviewer who isn't otherwise connect­ amounts of money to publish a book. needs to keep running; and 4. To learn ed with the book. Also, as editor of We worked out that $6000 was the why New Yorkers and others need to this magazine, I offer the contents of lowest possible figure. Norstrilia Press, dress up nice. No. 3 is the most impor­ The Stellar Gauge as a kind of extra as usual, had no capital. So Michael, in tant item. It's a common observation SFC for the year: I would love to have Adelaide, and Kirpal, in Singapore, that Disch's early story, 'The Squirrel been able to publish the articles here were sitting back and waiting for the Cage', is the key to his work, but only first. book to appear, while we were waiting Sladek's essay shows that key turning. Finally, there's the funniest hat of for some source of cash to appear. My own guess, in an article published all: Bruce Gillespie, reviewer. But first, Only after The Stellar Gauge failed to eight years ago about Disch's short fic­ a word from your publisher. . . . appear, and much if-ing and but-ing tion, is that the squirrel cage, in which and to-ing and fro-ing happened did a we all tread our lives, is a symbol of The Stellar Gauge was an idea in the major miracle happen (all praise to very ordinary life, a prison. Escape this, mind of Dr Kirpal Singh (then of Ade­ Rosemary White!) and The Stellar even through death, or some kind of laide University) which eventually be­ Gauge was on its way. And here it is. death-transfiguration-rebirth, and one came the chief occupation of Dr Of course, the project could not can escape the squirrel cage. You will Michael Tolley (still at Adelaide Uni­ fail to be damaged to some extent by remember that, in Camp Concentra­ versity). Michael began as a contributor the publication delays. For instance, tion, Sacchetti comes close to dying, in 1978, when the idea was first raised no book published since early 1978 is then lives again through what seem of publishing in Australia a collection mentioned. (John Sladek has a little like a series of miracles. I always took of new essays about science fiction. on On Wings of Song, but no lengthy this ending as false reassurance; The contributor became one of the discussion; with David Sless' article, it Sacchetti should have died, damn it! editors, and then had to do most of is a pity that he had not seen The Sladek shows that Sacchetti's deliver­ the negotiations when Kirpal took up Fountains of Paradise.} For instance, ance is illusory—he steps from one an appointment at the University of several authors have gone ahead and squirrel cage into a much larger one. Singapore in 1979. Meanwhile, Brian placed their essays elsewhere. As The life lived wholly in the body is Aldiss, here in March/April 1978, publisher of The Stellar Gauge, I re­ a kind of tyranny. It is a life of helped the editors to locate some con­ serve the right not to tell you where. numbness, routine, mindless in­ tributors who would suit the aims of stinctive behaviour. It leaves neither the collection. Perhaps the happiest Okay, let's take off that funny hat. time nor scope for thought. The result was persuading John Sladek to It's hot under there, especially if The alternative is freedom of thought. write about the works of Thomas Stellar Gauge sells badly. Save Carey But there is always a risk that the Disch. and Rob and Bruce from the bank­ free mind will choose to become Persuading people to write in- ruptcy court, dear readers. (say) a Thomist, endlessly engaged depth articles about sf writers? Surely in pointless disputation, endlessly money was involved. (Now I have on Now the reviewer's hat. Much more revolving the same meaningless my contributing-author hat.) A major refreshing, really. Gimlet eyes in propositions. This too is a tyranny university press in Australia would front, nasty put-down cliches at the of routine. Indeed, the free-wheeling fund the project and publish the book. ready. Of course, I will have problems mind is never far from the squirrel­ Money would flow—eventually. Essays skating over my own piece, but I could cage. were written hurriedly in mid-1978. hardly ask for George Turner's review The paradox is apparent in writers. The book was complete by the begin­ of The Stellar Gauge, since he has an They pursue a sedentary, body­ ning of 1979. A silence fell. This parti­ essay here as well. destroying occupation in order to . cular contributing author got married Not that I've finished with the gamble on immortality. They avoid and moved house. Some overseas con­ handy inside information from the human company and sit alone in tributors presumed the book was pub­ publisher. The essays are arranged in order to gamble on communicating lished already, and so felt free to sub­ the order of the birth dates of the something. Only in solitary confine­ mit articles to scholarly journals. sf authors being discussed. (Is Alfred ment can they manage to dream of There was a hitch. Neither of the Bester really older than Arthur Clarke?) freedom. editors had signed contracts with the This has a number of odd results— Sladek has much that is interesting particular university press—which de­ in particular, that the best essay in the to say about 334, about the kind of cided The Stellar Gauge could only book appears last. It is John Sladek's death-in-life which is 'lived' by the lose money, and therefore would not 'Four Reasons for Reading Thomas M characters, about the way they change be published. The editors could hardly Disch'. clothes, appearances, bodies to hide sue for breach of contract, but they I don't think anyone can do com­ evidences of the whirling squirrel cages were left with an entire book waiting plete justice to the works of Tom beneath the skin. Sladek shows why for a publisher. Disch. I've tried several times, and style is all-important to Disch. To a

8 romantic, such as me, who believes will too easily accept it as 'social things this way: in The Demolished that one might, somehow, some day, realism'. . . . Suspension of disbelief Man, its 'psychological penetration escape the squirrel cage or glimpse the is not achieved and no intellectual makes the novel particularly amenable possible path of such an escape, words reward is offered, no view of a pro­ to psychological analysis, especially can be used as instruments to jemmy bable or even reasonably possible Jungian and Freudian interpretation'. your way out of jail. Disch does not future, no statement about man So the authors go off psychologically believe in escape, but he knows that now or then. Gateway, for all its analysing for page after page, and do his characters do. They are alive and panorama of savagery and far stars, not even ask whether the books are kicking, and their belief in something- comes close to being meaningless. any good or not. I'm told that, if you other - than - the - squirrel - cage gives George Turner shows that The Age of do admire The Demolished Man and pathos to 334 and On Wings of Song the Pussyfoot is remarkably awful, and Tiger! Tiger! already, you will find in particular. so are most of Pohl's most famous much of value in the essay. But the short stories, especially 'The Midas important questions have been left out. My major criticism of most of the con­ Plague'. tributions to The Stellar Gauge is that Not that George's attack is aimed Much the same could be said about most commentators are too nice to primarily at Frederik Pohl's person. 'Beyond the Enigma: Dick's Questors', their subjects. This is understandable- One takes it for granted that he is a by Michael J Tolley—but in this case I given carte blanche to write about working writer who does the best he am already a fan of the work of Philip your favourite writer, you tend to can when he can. George is mainly K Dick, and so I found much of value show why he or she is so good. (Sladek sniping at the readers—those who gave in the essay. If I were not a Dick ad­ makes some differentiation between Gateway a Hugo, a Nebula, and one or mirer, I would have to make much the Disch's works, pointing out the real two other awards in the same year; same points as I made about the Bester problems in Echo Round His Bones. those who have listed 'The Midas essay: what about the two thirds or But Sladek was on safe ground writing Plague' (for instance) as an all-time more of Dick's novels which are for­ about Disch, who wrote second-rate great sf story on many a poll. gettable?; how do you account for the work only during his early years as an memorable stuff which is very badly author.) I suspect that George is the only written? (I asked these questions in George Turner, in 'Frederik Pohl as contributor to write an essay for the Philip K Dick: Electric Shepherd, and a Creator of Future Societies', is not book that The Stellar Gauge could only Stanislaw Lem has as yet offered nice about his subject. This fact alone have been—the next stage beyond the any answer to them.) makes the essay refreshing. A second level of development represented here. So Tolley does not tackle what I fact, that George Turner hits the mark Tolley and Singh wanted to present a consider are the really intriguing quest­ every time, makes his piece my second book which showed both the academic ions about Philip Dick's work. But favourite in The Stellar Gauge. reader and the intelligent public the given space limitationsand the implied 'Frederik Pohl as a Creator of Future real achievements of some of the best aims of The Stellar Gauge, could Tolley Societies' is so full of provocative and science fiction writers. Such an aim have varied much from the approach delightful goodies that I cannot hope fails to recognise that most of these he uses, ie, to base an exploration of to share them all with you. You'll re­ achievements are illusory. The next Dick's art and thought on a few of member, for instance, that George has stage of book about science fiction his best novels? spent years challenging luckless would be something like Anatomy of Indeed, the range of exploration attendees at sf conventions and Nova Horror (reviewed elsewhere in this and accumulation of detail in this Mob meetings to define science fiction. issue), in which the author debunks all essay are quite breath-taking. Surely After all this time, George has at last his 'masters', but with wit and grace, there is no better account of The provided his own definition! It's there and at the same time showing just why Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch! on page 112. readers like these awful writers. Surely nobody could have more to George provides a pocket history of My point is made best for me by say about 'Faith of Our Fathers', Deus future societies in science fiction—an Jane Hipolito and Willis E McNelly, in Irae, or A Scanner Darkly! The essay interesting essay in itself without any their essay, 'The Statement is the Self: almost becomes drowned under the need to refer Frederik Pohl. When Alfred Bester's Science Fiction'. This detail, so much so that I have diffi­ George challenges Pohl, he attacks him is quite a detailed survey of Bester's culty in summarising Tolley's argu­ at his weakest point—Gateway. This is two science fiction novels, Tiger! Tiger! ment. Instead, some of his most in­ the review, more than any other, I (The Stars My Destination) and The teresting observations: wish I could have stolen from Tolley Demolished Man. As a map of the One of the characteristics of Dick's and Singh and run in SEC. It's a ripper sources and strategies of the novels, people, one which perhaps also —so much so that almost no flesh is the essay works fine—as long as you marks them out as denizens of sf, left on the book. don't question for a moment the not mainstream fiction, is that they Any attempt to rationalise the authors' assumption that Bester is a are often not surprised by surprises. workings of the Gateway Authority great author, at the top of his form They make a quick readjustment reveals the Corporation as an organi­ when writing these books. So the and carry on, rationally or obsessive­ sation of monsters, the products of essay rings false to me. Bester had ly as the case may be.. .. Partly a seriously deteriorated but unex- some great moments—but only in the this is because so many of them in­ plainedly psychotic culture, unable best of his short stories. Both Tiger! habit a paranoid society that they to practise simple business effi­ Tiger! and The Demolished Man read almost expect their worst suspicions ciency. It is a misfortune inseparable like hysterical diatribes to me: almost of life to be confirmed at every from such loaded writing that many comic-strippy in their approach, with­ turn.... Some of Dick's characters a reader, bludgeoned by the emo­ out the self-mockery of the best comic rush eagerly to meet their surprises, tional violence of the presentation. strips. Hipolito and McNelly don't see ... they are compulsive trap-

9 impressive enough pieces about Verne, Wells, Orwell, Blish, and Ballard, but my lack of specialist interest leaves me with little to say about them. The Stellar Gauge', new essays about Aldiss and Priest, as professional writers rather than academics, certain­ ly write much better than the others. sf; first of its kind. John Sladek comes (And they don't use footnotes!: how I hated footnotes by the time I finished close to perfection in writing about setting The Stellar Gauge.) But Aldiss does rather lump all of Disch ... Turner nasty about Pohl ... Blish's stuff together as One Great Achievement, whereas much of it was second-rate or downright unreadable. Tolley’s detailed study of Dick. But Chris Priest's article began as a short fanzine article, and it could well have been much longer. Ballard de­ serves more detail than Bester. But I cannot see the point of spend­ springers; greedily they engorge good essay, one of the two or three to ing much space on very limited aspects without restraint, even though they exhibit some scepticism about its of the work of either Wells or Verne, know they are eating their own subject matter. Sless sees Clarke although I'm pleased to see that David death. as 'repeatedly indifferent to man and Lake shares my high opinion of The Like Tolley, I am not sure whether morality': downright inhuman, in fact. Invisible Man. this lets them be tragic characters or Readers respond to the Clarke hero: But Kirpal Singh could have said so not. Tolley points to an aspect of 'always male, adventurous, daring, and much more about 1984, although his Dick's characters which has also inter­ intelligent, the schoolboy image of the is an admirably thorough piece. ested Ursula Le Guin: their frailty and explorer-hero . . . thoughtful, kind to Who's left? There's Bruce Gillespie humility. Could really frail characters animals, in control of his destiny, and writing about 'Literature Which Awa­ survive in Dick's worlds? I suspect not. yet overcome with awe and a sense of kens Us: The Science Fiction Novels There is always the touch of the magic insignificance in the face of nature's of Brian W Aldiss', but I won't go into wand in Dick's books to save the char­ wonders'. This humility in the face of that here. More problems with moving acters upon whom the perceptions fall. the wondrous saves many of Clarke's hats. One source of smugness can be For this reason, I suspect that Tolley is heroes, especially as Clarke's admira­ allowed me: that Aldiss, in an interview making too much of Dick when he tion is saved for exotic landscapes, with Charles Platt in Dream Makers, says that: 'objects of solitary contemplation'. shares my dissatisfaction with the It is not unusual for us to find in Clarke 'makes the incredible cred­ current state of the English novel, and Dick's novels that the struggle ible', and Sless writes some brilliant tells some nice yarns to prove his point. against evil is being conducted by pages of analysis showing just how means of elaborate deceits; indeed, Clarke grabs us with that Sense of So here it is: a long journey through it is not an uncommon narrative Wonder every time. It's the kind of an epic book. (I've put on my pub­ pattern in his work to have a rela­ conjuring trick you can't see through lisher's hat again.) The Stellar Gauge tively good hero find that the 'evil' until Sless explains it to you. (And it is an epic because it took most of the deceit he has unmasked is itself still works: I was enthralled by much efforts of Elaine Cochrane, Carey being perpetrated by another in The Fountains of Paradise, even Handfield, Michael Tolley, Rosemary relatively good hero against a com­ after reading Sless' essay.) Sless shows White, and me for five months in 1980, mon enemy. that Clarke's ideas about the possible and is the first of its kind. It faced Tolley's exposure of multiple levels of future of humanity are actually im­ extraordinary production difficulties, deceit and approaches to reality is so plausible, even monstrous. some of which were never solved. It is thorough-going that I'm not sure how By contrast, Frederick Yuan's too expensive, but we cannot afford to he can argue at the end of the essay 'Immortality and Robert Silverberg' charge less than the cover price. The that 'Dick has a fair claim in some is the most conspicuous example of cover is awful. (I was outvoted by the works to be regarded as a tragic artist'. the kind of essay I have already com­ other two-thirds of Norstrilia Press.) Tragic? Ironic? Somehow Dick goes plained about: that in which the The book includes no woman contri­ beyond such labels. Or is that such author presumes his subject is a Great butor, and has no essay about a woman labels hardly apply to the intricate Artist, without taking the trouble to sf writer. This is the main inadequacy magic shows which are Dick's works? prove it. Most of the Silverberg books of The Stellar Gauge. (In the Introduc­ discussed by Yuan are awful. tion, the editors say they could find See what I get into when I become David Ketterer's 'Fathoming no available contributor! This is in­ really intrigued by some part or an­ 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea', David credible.) By the time we finished pro­ other of The Stellar Gauge! Perhaps J Lake's 'White Sphinx and Albino ducing The Stellar Gauge, we were sick it really is a giant SFC, to be dipped Griffin: Images of Death in the Scien­ of it. Reviewing it has given me a into and tasted in the way in which tific Romances of H G Wells', Kirpal chance to read large chunks of the (I presume) most people read a maga­ Singh's 'Technology in George Owell's essays again, and—you know what?— zine like this. So, a few remarks about 1984', Brian W Aldiss' 'Blish and the they don't seem too bad. I leave a final the other offerings: Mathematics of Knowledge', and verdict to you. 'Landscape Artist: The Fiction of J G David Sless' 'Arthur C Clarke' is a very Ballard', by Christopher Priest are Bruce Gillespie, February 1981 10 Past Masters 1: Damien Broderick discusses: Golem.100 by Alfred Bester (illustrated by Jack Gaughan; Simon and Schuster; 1980; THE 384 pp;$US 11.95. Pocket Books/Timescape 82047.8; LATELY GREAT March 1981; 392 pp;$US2.95)

Warning: The following remarks do ALFRED BESTER not necessarily presume that you have read Golem100, but I do mean to dis­ cuss plot and character: in short, to give the game away. To be fair to by Bester, you should read the book first. What's the bugger up to? Alfred Bester's strategy has always been to Damien Broderick lead the reader a merry dance, not to say a danse macabre, to leap from con­ cealment with shouts and firecrackers, to lure and entice and disguise and . . . Unmask! Explosion! Concussion! When he's in form, his pace, attack, payoff are exemplary. Dazzling. Out of form, he is. . . not flabby, which you might expect, but strained, herni­ ated, desperate, clattering maniacally with his wooden leg and his goddamned varicose veins on a stage stuffed with burst toys, while the last of the audi­ ence grit their teeth in humiliation and pity. When I was fourteen,fifteen, I loved Bester like a father. I loved Arthur C Clarke like a father, too, I suppose, the sort with a white reversed collar and a vision of the City of God. Strange chariots, sir. But Bester! Yes, imagine how it would be if your old man had a brain like that, sizzling with lunacy, knowing, cynical but flushed with a kind of baroque unashamed romanti­ cism that wasn't all that common under the grey banner of Menzies. So now I have the guilt of conspiring with the other sibs, spiteful and oedipal, in kick­ ing the old man off to Sunshine Acres; indeed, making it plain that he should have taken himself there while he still possessed some decent control over his sphincter. Do you remember anything at all from The Computer Connection, aka Extro, aka The Indian Giver! Ah, a clue, wasn't there a wild-man Indian in it? And . . . and . ., that's right, a bunch of immortals who'd judoed Death by yielding at the nastiest pos­ sible moment. And . . . some super- intelligent slugs, the first of a new breed of Man. And ... a global computer? And ... a narrator whose name was either Daniel Curzon or Edward Curzon

11 (and here I'm cheating, relying on the In Tiger! Tiger!, the dyad is princi­ buried deep within us all'—as Bester provocative Hipolito/McNelly paper in pally Gully Foyle/Olivia Presteign, at simple-mindedly characterises Freud's The Stellar Gauge}, which perhaps least in terms of narrative impulse, but id (having evidently learned nothing indicates exactly how riveted Bester the dialectic in reality is something from his critics after the same silliness himself was by the whole exercise. grandiose and almost unspecifiable: in The Demolished Man}—emerges and Some twenty years earlier, in 1956, the emergent salient of Life, versus the merges and purges its urges in hideous Bester's masterwork left you in no uncaring frigid vacuum of spacetime. splurges. These atrocities defy normal doubt of the protagonist's name. The On the social level, so to speak 'half­ explanation, to the chagrin of Police Penguin blurb caught it nicely: 'What way' between the psychological ram­ subadar Adida Alkhand-Sarangdhar- is Gully Foyle? . . . saviour, liar, lecher, paging of individual compulsion and ind'dni. Meanwhile, the events from ghoul, walking cancer ... a man pos­ the magisterial epiphany of Foyle-the- Bester's 1974 story, 'The Four-Hour sessed ... a blazing hero of a science god, the dyad is manifest as common Fugue', are modified and incorporated fiction novel that transcends its humanity versus power elite. Foyle as an alternate narrative strand. Scent category.' effects a one-man revolution in human chemist Dr Blaise Shima (nee Skiaki) Indeed. Samuel Delany: 'The Stars consciousness by dispersing PyrE to is slacking at work. Warlock Salem My Destination (or Tiger! Tiger!, its the brutalised masses of the world. Burne (sic!} and psychodynamician original title) is considered by many PyrE is the primal stuff of the universe, Gretchen Nunn determine that readers and writers, both in and out­ latent force in its purest form, re­ Shima's supernal olfactory sense, side the field, to be the greatest single sponsive only to Will and Idea. (It is coupled . with his neurotic self-pity, sf novel. ... It chronicles a social edu­ puzzling that no critic, to my know­ make him obsessively vulnerable to cation, but within a society which, ledge, has yet explored this crucial pheromone trails emitted by humans: from our point of view, has gone mad.' reference to Schopenhauer's philo­ specifically, the trail of would-be More than that. It is the peak of sophy.) On the one hand, Foyle's act suicides. In the mask-persona of 'Mr Bester's consistent struggles with a seems precisely an unwitting metaphor Wish', Shima pursues those unfor­ single theme: the heightened image of for small-l liberal aspirations. On the tunates and becomes the occasion a compulsively driven individual burst­ other, it is an intriguing figure (no though not agent of their demise. For ing through the prison bars of nature doubt overweighted) for thedevastating no clear reason, the Golem monster and nurture both, marked by stigmata, potential of both art and science in the makes its presence known in such a a Bergsonian emergent evolutionary conduct and context of human affairs. way as to implicate Nunn and Shima salient embodied in one passionate, A quarter of a century later, writing in its list of crimes. To clear them­ driving creature, hurtling through a Golem100, Bester has recused from selves, they must find the monster and world stripped to hard, brilliant, teleo­ the social dimension. His imagined defuse it. Their attempts to do so logical metaphors. This is his central society in both The Computer Connec­ merely destroy its original embodi­ notion, long abandoned by practising tion and Golem100 is a pot-pourri of ment, the eightfold 'hive', and provoke biologists: that Nature is in some sense gaudy images with no underlying tex­ Gretchen Nunn (meanwhile revealed as a Designer with a Plan and Purpose, ture, no embeddedness in gritty reality. 'the new Primal Man') into re-establish­ shaking the bottle of elan vita! until it Neither, in any literal sense, has the ing the hive with herself as Queen. As seethes and spurts. Bester's books are social order of Tiger! Tiger!, but there part of the murderous nuptial flight rank with grotesque coincidences, the apparent cartoons are emblematic, preceding this consummation, Nunn which have the obvious merit of ad­ at once shimmering with wit and couples with numerous 'drones', in­ vancing the story with maximum satirical laughter and darkening into cluding a dog, and climaxes by tearing attack, but convey as well, through depths of authentic pain, cruelty, and Shima's penis from his body with the their failure to offend us, a sub­ aspiration. The Guff, loathliest sector muscles of her clenched vulva. Coming terranean awareness that in these uni­ of the Northeast Corridor, is 'a lunacy to herself, she learns with horror (?) verses Nature is a participant, a parti­ of violence inhabited by a swarming that honest cop Ind'dni has been re­ san, rooting for the seed-bearers. population with no visible means of placed by his negative self, a perverted In a half-arsed way. The Computer support and no fixed residence'. being from the same Collective Under­ Connection persists with this theme, Portions of Third World cities today realm which gave birth to the Golem. but blurs its expression hopelessly by no doubt resemble this description, Fortunately, he is now a truly extra­ skeining the dialectic, by shortsheeting which is why Bester calls it 'a mon­ ordinary lover, and a Primal Man fit the narrative, by splitting the typical strous raree show', but below the sur­ for a Queen. He is, in fact. Golem101. Besterian dyad into a multitude of face it possesses no rationale except Bolstering this attenuated 'plot' are funny hats doing comic capers, some Bester's patent desire to strut his (1) the usual Bester helter-skelter of them not so comic. Golem100 re­ exhausted obsessives one more time on pyrotechnics, inventive setpieces, and vives the dyad (male/female, though the peep-show stage. concrete poetry format variations, this is not self-evident: the male com­ The story line is pitifully frail. segueing to and from (2) about 100 ponent is further bifurcated, without Eight bourgeois 'bee' ladies with twee pages of rather fine integrated graphics thereby generating a triad) which The 'secret names' while away their bored by Jack Gaughan, by and large doing Demolished Man evoked so stunningly lives in the protected redoubts of the what could not be done byword alone. in Ben Reich/Lincoln Powell, Ben brutal Guff by playing at raising the But alas, the fireworks are by now Reich/Craye D'Courtney, Ben Reich/ devil. Their rituals bear fruit only merely ever-more bizarre variants of The Man With No Face. All of these when the husband of one of them, Bester's original brilliant games from subsume, quite consciously on Bester's Droney Lafferty, 'the celebrated the '50s. Instead, say, of Lady Olivia part, into an archetypal conflict­ necrophiliac' and piebald haploid, Presteign, albino heiress blind to all mandala which can be represented at introduces a radioactive catalyst into but the infrared range, we have some cost as Eros/Thanatos, Life/ their incense. Awakened and given Gretchen Nunn, Watusi genius who Death. focus, 'the brutal cruelty that lies sees (a) through the eyes of others, a

12 singularly unworkable notion, and (b) through the 'cloud chamber' of her ‘When I was fourteen, fifteen, I loved own flesh, in the cosmic ray spectrum, a singularly useless ability. (Visual dis­ abilities crop up again and again in Bester like a father. Imagine how it Bester. Shima himself is colour blind. Salem Burne 'sees' the meaning of would be if your old man had a brain gesture. No doubt there is some link to Bester's own eye troubles' 'my eyes failed, like poor Congreve's', he said in like that: sizzling with lunacy, 'My Affair With Science Fiction', and by God there's a clue we'll return to.) knowing, cynical....’ For the second great theme in Bester is perception: sight and insight, sleight of seen a lot of suicides but never like in 'the hive'. Still, he doesn't push it sight (The Man With No Face) and this one before. immediately: 'They were not all cut sight enhanced (telepathy, the obses­ (A gaggle of crones follows the from the identical pattern like insect­ sional rhythms of the Pi Man, the re­ falling glider avidly absorbing the type bees. They were intensely indi­ placement of vision by motion, by emissions from the spasming penis vidual, human-type ladies.' Neverthe­ presence, in teleportation, the Prome­ of the suicide.) less, their leader is Regina (Re-JYN-a), thium-induced visions of Golem100). Now on one level this is familiar 'the Queen Bee'. They 'buzzed with Yet, to stress the point, the variations territory to readers of William Bur­ gossip . . . did bee-dances. . . gorged dragged out like stones from the roughs. On another, it is an extreme on sweets. . . butted heads to establish urethra in this book are agonisingly extension of the Extrapolation Theory an informal dominance-order'. constructs', you can hear him groaning, of SF which Bester proclaimed in his From the outset, also, we learn that sweating, as he forces another one out. collection, Starlight. one of the husbands (not Regina's; she And above all, on this go-round Here's my definition: is a virgin) is nicknamed Droney. The Bester's own artistic perception and Extrapolation. The continuation moment Gretchen Nunn inveigles her tact are crusted with cataracts. If he of a trend, either increasing, decreas­ way into the hive, she is dubbed 'Black has always erred toward the senti­ ing or steady-state,to itsculmination Beauty' (for her Negro good looks), or mental, he has never before lost his in the future. The only constraint is BB, or, to spell it out, Bee-Bee. After a grip on the bannister of taste. All right: the limit set by the logic of the uni­ time the reader gets dazed, over-eager here's the Congreve comparison. My verse. to seize this motif. The Glacial Army Encyclopedia Brittanica mentions 'And good luck,' he adds, 'to the late, sing a revival-hymn titled 'Where You Congreve's 'delicacy of feeling and the great Alfred Bester, American author.' Beez Come God's Big Freeze', and perfection of his phrasing', and finds He needs more than good luck if your attention is stung, perhaps in that his The Old Bachelour 'no doubt he's to persuade us that the Hang- error. appealed to the audiences because it Glider scene (a pun with all the spritzig On a different point entirely, the handled with a new brilliance themes of the riotous Salem Burne jest) falls eruption of the inverse Ind'dni from they were familiar with'. Quite. 'If within the constraints of the social the contra-universe is specified like an some of the repartee seems cheap and universe inhabited by human beings. Attic fate in the shape of his palin­ schoolboyish, that was the manner of A more niggling question concerns dromic name: not merely Ind'dni, the the time.' Hmmm. tone. In the same book just cited, circa short form of his patronymic, but in As an example of the schoolboyish 1975, Bester declares against porno­ his first name, mentioned once and note, not to say behind-the-dunny-door graphy: 'A Puritan streak in my nature neglected thereafter: Adida. puerility, consider the Pukebox number has always stifled the slightest tempta­ Midway between these manifesta­ uttered by Phlegmy: tion to do that sort of work. I'm tions of The World as Word and Idea Vomitation. Vomitation. strongly opposed to censorship in any are the characters' names: Blaise Retchitation. Retchitation. form, and yet I confess to being dis­ Shima, the Japanese raised as a French Spew. Spew. gusted by the passages that diagram it Catholic (Shima is Japanese for'island', Upchuck, daddy. for you.' Disgusted. By golly. not to say the opportunity for the hor­ With a solid pour. So what's the silly thing about? rendous pun 'Hero Shima'). Gretchen I can only assume that this is meant Right from the outset, Bester builds Nunn reeks of metonymy and meta­ as a scathing if-this-goes-on satire on, clues to his sociobiology blowoff. The phor. Other names are purely for fun, let's say, Alice Cooper (which is of eight middle-class nitwits are referred if that's your idea of fun: the thespian course a great deal less alarming than to as 'charming bee-ladies' who meet Sarah Heartburn, the lesbian Yenta the robot fascists which were jerking around Countdown until very recently). But what then should be our ‘So now I have the guilt of conspiring reading of the play-format scene on the subsequent page? (A Hang-Glider sails low overhead, in kicking the old man off to Sunshine slowly descending. A man hangs by the neck from the glider, the Acres.... The more I scour these strangling noose knotted into the traditional 13 turns of the rope.) PI pages, the more miserable I get.’ Ooo look, Miz Gretch person. I

13 Calienta (you need Yiddish for that tion), and the more schoolboy nasty originally meant to stand at the begin­ one), the twins Oodgedye and the pustules become. Poor Shima's ning) and how the book was due to Udgedye, which Bester tells us is deracinated dong is unobjectionable, wonder-editors Dave Hartwell and Chekhovian Russian for 'Guess who' true; it's the stuff of myth, harvest John Douglas and how even so they and 'Guess which'. festivals, P J Farmer, you know. But cannot spell 'architectonic' correctly The driving conceit, of the bee-ladies the ripping-wings-off-flies grottiness of or decide on a consistent abbreviation and their hive, seems to be a conse­ the Golem atrocities is simply and un- for Promethium (Pm, or P-M, although quence of the primary story, 'The rewardingly unpleasant: on page 88 it is explicitly spelled out) Four-Hour Fugue', and its earlier use The man was circling a pillar stub or chide Bester with the intelligence of the pheromone-compulsion motive. of the decayed opera-house portico; that Golem to the hundredth power is Bester has, I think, taken very much crawling, falling, rising, stumbling, a rather larger quantity than 100 times the lazy way out in developing this crying piteously, shrieking, calling Golem, which he had in mind, or how concept. Yes, pheromones are typical on Christ and cursing his gods. impoverished the Apollinaire caiii- of insects and not humans, yes. Yes, There was a gash in his belly that grammes have become when they take this is a good reason for supposing that oozed blood and extruded in­ the form of Sarah Heartburn's tawdry humans do not use pheromones, rather testine. One end of his gut had been expostulations and so on, all, as I look than for supposing that if humans did fastened to the pillar, and as he despairingly on the botched torso of use pheromones they would become circled and circled it was torn out Golem!, dim to irrelevancy before like insects. Or whatever his dumb of him, inch by inch, to garland the the heartbreaking need to cry out: implied premise is. column with a bloody, grey hawser. Give the game away, the late, great The more I scour these pages the The discussions of masks and Alfred Bester, American author. Break more miserable I get. As Bester's body persona theory in Jung and how Bester your staff and bury it. juices dry up, I speculate nastily, he gets Freud ludicrously wrong in his Quit shitting in your own nest. turns to an always-present but pre­ gutter psycho-analysis and how the viously-contained taste for Grand theme of transcendence finally gets its Damien Broderick, January 1981 Guignol (the nickname, after all, of come uppance in the Epilogue (set 105 the narrator of The Computer Connec­ years later, but, on internal evidence,

Michael Bishop continues to be the Past Masters 2: most frustrating writer in sf today. If we had only the evidence of his novels, it would be easy to dismiss him as just plain bad. But then, every few years Bishop writes a superb short story, such as 'Collaborating', in The Rooms of Paradise, and again I look forward to reading his next novel. Maybe this ISHOP time that miraculous combination of 'alienness' and clarity in his short stories will be sustained, and the result CAN'T will be the best science fiction novel in years. But instead, the result is Trans­ figurations, and my despair is even deeper. TRANSFIGURE 'Death and Designation Among the Asadi', which forms the first part of Transfigurations, is the sort of Bishop IT OUT story that I am referring to: a com­ pletely alien culture (a surprisingly rare achievement in sf). In appearance, the Asadi are apes with manes, with eyes like multi-coloured pinwheels. While the rest of the expedition gets on with the serious business of colonis­ ing the planet, anthropologist Egan by Henry Gasko Chaney watches the Asadi for months but comes no closer to understanding them. There is only the one small tribe Henry Gasko discusses: of Asadi on the entire planet. Every day they enter a clearing in the jungle Transfigurations at sunrise, shuffle about aimlessly all by Michael Bishop day, and run off in all directions at (Gollancz; 1979; dusk. Except for multi-coloured star­ 362 pp; 6 pounds 95. ing matches, there seems to be no communication between them. Berkley/G P Putnam’s Sons; The mystery deepens when an old 1979; 362 pp; $US 10.95. 'chieftain', with grey, lifeless eyes, and Berkley 425.04696; 1980; with a bat-like familiar on his shoulder, 311 pp;$US 2.25.) enters the camp one afternoon carrying

14 three sides of meat. He watches as the To show that she's a strong-willed tribe eat the first two sides. Then he lady, and because there's little else devours the third and later throws it happening. Bishop has Elegy sleep first up. The tribe eat the regurgitated with Benedict and later with the heli­ hunks with delight. That night the copter pilot (Kretzoi misses out). Then tribe carries the old chieftain through mild-mannered Benedict kidnaps one the jungle to the steps of a pagoda-like of the Asadi, but the native is soon temple, where Chaney witnesses the shot by a xenophobic trooper. The ritual of death and designation. The autopsy reveals that the Asadi's eyes old man is burned on a funeral pyre, can photosynthesise enough energy to and the familiar claims the only other mill about all day with no other food They press on and finally find a guano dull-eyed member of the tribe as the supply! However, before his death statue of Chaney, and then Chaney new and unwilling chief. apparently the Asadi had been able to himself hanging in a silken chrysalis. As the tribe marches off, Chaney communicate to Kretzoi which of the The revive him and even carry on a follows the new chief and his familiar millions of trees in the jungle contained long conversation. But alas, Chaney is (dubbed the 'Bachelor' and the 'huri') his 'nest'. They find the nest, and in it no longer human, having been changed into the temple. Here, obsessed, ex­ an Asadi 'reduced to little more than a by the huri for their own evil purposes. hausted, and babbling a stream-of- head and a truncated torso' (p 257). He lapses again. consciousness monologue into his tape The Asadi, it seems, are always born This gives Benedict a chance to recorder, Chaney sees the huri and his twins. The mother mutilates the explain it all to the reader in a five- mates wrap the Bachelor in a cocoon, stronger twin, which then remains in page section that is both an expository and later rip away and eat the strands. the nest for the rest of its life, photo­ lump from the author and a completely Outside again, the Bachelor dis­ synthesising from the sunshine and unjustified exercise in conclusion­ embowels another Asadi, and Chaney rainwater in order to stay alive. The jumping by Benedict. But unfortunately kills the huri in order to free the Bach­ weaker twin uses it as an auxiliary it's the only way Bishop has of inform­ elor from its domination. Chaney is food supply, nibbling on it like a dog ing the reader of further pieces in the finally rescued, still raving. He recovers biscuit. All this is related in several puzzle: how the huri ultrasonically and denies everything on the tapes. pages of fairly wild speculation by control the Asadi, their attempts to The other members of the expedition Elegy about the Asadi's evolution: escape through genetic engineering, are inclined to believe him. His notes that their ancestors bio-engineered and the building of the temple. are assembled by his trusty side-kick, them to their current condition, that Then it's back to the story, as Thomas Benedict, who has been drop­ it's a good method of population Chaney revives again and explains the ping him food supplies o'ver the control and a form of sibling love­ present vampiric relationship between months. All attempts to find the temple bond, and that the ancestors once the huri and the Asadi. The conversa­ fail. In the last scene, Chaney returns visited Earth for an abortive attempt tion turns to Elegy and her father. For to the jungle to join the Asadi 'as one at the same thing. The obvious answer, no reason, except that all novels should of the milling throng. I belong there that such an asinine arrangement could end on a suitably dramatic note, even though that throng is stupid, even only develop in some sf author's un­ Chaney says, 'I want you to kill me, though it persists in its self-developed disciplined imagination, does not Elegy.' immunity to destruction. I'm one of occur to her. 'We'll get you out of here,' Elegy them.' (p 108, Gollancz and Putnam Finally things begin to happen. said. editions) Kretzoi impersonates a chieftain, com­ 'No use. You can see I'm unre­ And that's where 'Death and Desig­ plete with rubber huri, and is soon be­ deemable. Unless.' nation' ended—a little heavy on the ing carried off to the temple. Just as 'Unless I redeem you?' allegory perhaps, but exceedingly well the Asadi are about to light the ritual 'By redeeming yourself.' Deep written. The pacing was excellent, and funeral pyre, Benedict rushes in swing­ breath.'With your love.' (p 346) the descriptions so precise that you ing the mock huri. The Asadi are And so, with not a lot more coax­ were there in the jungle beside Chaney, stunned, of course, and literally begin ing, Elegy kills him. The Climax. witnessing a truly alien way of life. to fade away. 'They're radiating a The helicopter arrives conveniently, The promise of an explanation to spectral pattern that polarizes or off- and it's back to base camp for the come in the rest of the novel made the centers our ability to perceive them,' denouement chapter (titled 'Trans­ story even more enjoyable this time Benedict explains calmly, still swinging figured Lives'). Elegy and Benedict around. the huri (p 308). The temple has both return to Earth to pick up the The remainder of the novel concerns apparently been doing the same thing pieces of their lives, older but wiser. Chaney's daughter, Elegy, who arrives all along to avoid detection from the Benedict even finds himself a good on the planet six years later determined air. Benedict finally throws the fake woman. The novel ends with one of to find her father. With her is an orang huri at them and they conveniently those awful summing-it-all-up cliches utan named Kretzoi, who has been run off into the jungle. that we all know and dread: 'And, in biologically engineered to look like an And so it's into the temple itself. the strange, doubtful hour before Asadi. Together with Benedict, they The real huri attack. Suddenly a cavern dawn, she and I will lie together anti­ set off to infiltrate the tribe, who are opens up below them and down they cipating sunrise. It's not as spectacular still milling about, throng-like, by day, go, to find dozens of huri who fashion an event as sunset, perhaps, but it's and dashing off in all directions each a statue of Benedict from their own just as dependable, and I've come to night. The plot crawls along for 150 bioluminescent excrement. 'I know appreciate that in nature as well as in pages as the science, the characterisa­ that it was meant to be me, and I felt my fellows' (p 362). The End. tions, and the writing style all dis­ that the huri had stolen some of my integrate before your very eyes. private essence in erecting it' (p 326). Henry Gasko, December 1980

15 GOD, that Ransom was an ideas man. The publisher prints his name in smaller type than Herbert's and otherwise ac­ knowledges him not at all So much for FRANK HERBERT, swinging on the coattails of the great. The novel also has its problems. With those dreary epics, Children of AND Dune and The Dosadi Experiment, I have fallen into the evil habit of skip­ ping through Herbert's books in a hurry, hoping to be hooked by some THE CONCEPT sign of his occasional brilliance. How­ ever, since Bruce Gillespie passed me this one for purpose of review, I have OF DEITY IN conscientiously read every word of it. And made notes. And even struggled to make sense of the oblique, super- SCIENCE subtle, pretentious epigraphs.

For a story resume we must reach FICTION back to Destination Void, to which The Jesus Incident is a sequel. In the earlier book an interstellar vessel was George Turner discusses: built, housing a super-computer. The The Jesus Incident task of the human complement was to endow the computer with true con­ by Frank Herbert and Bill Ransom sciousness, which they succeeded in (Gollancz; 1979; 405 pages; doing. The computer, which developed 5 pounds 95/$16.95) a stupendous mentality, took control, found the humans a planet to colonise The 'incident' is the Crucifixion of 29 AD (allowing that Jesus was born about and, when the unfortunates asked 4 BC, which seems to be the modern consensus) although the action takes place their computer master what they in a future so distant that the authors don't put a date on it. So God will be should do next, told them: 'Find a prominent in this essay, whether we like it or not. way to worship Me.' It had become, at Now, I don't know any more about God than you do—or than the Pope and least in its own mind, God. the Archbishop of Canterbury do, for that matter—but this not-very-good novel And a pretty ramshackle God, too, has forced me to do some thinking about deity in order to make sense of what I was the thought in my mind at the was reading. time, if that was the best it could man­ Atheists and agnostics may pooh-pooh my use of the capital letter, but they age for starters. spell their names with capitals, don't they? And /7 God exists he must, by defi­ On that unintentional giggle the nition, be more worthy of such respect than they. There are, of course, people first book ended, but it must be ad­ like andrew j offutt and e e cummings, but that isn't a comparison I care to pur­ mitted that in this one Herbert has sue. gone to some trouble to explain away Bibles, Concordances, and Asimov's Guide to the ready? Let's go. that piece of nonsense. In the centuries which elapse be­ II tween the two novels several attempts are made to colonise the planet. Pan­ Before attacking the monster head on, I must note Herbert's habit of decorating dora, which is indeed a savage box of his stories with epigraphs representing the widom of lost races, unwritten books, evils. They all fail. The planet seems to the characters in his novel, philosophies (mostly bogus), and Herbert himself. I be mainly ocean, with a land surface couldn't be bothered counting the chapters, which are short and unnumbered, so devoid of vegetation—at any rate none God help you if ever you want to check a specific reference. I estimate that is mentioned—but inhabited by preda­ there are about sixty, each with its epigraph which is rarely pithy and sometimes tors of extraordinary ferocity. The sea several hundred words long; there is even one five-hundred-worder which has no is mostly covered by a kelp which is chapter with it. Some are of doubtful relationship to the text following, some also highly dangerous as well as intelli­ are merely impenetrable, most are trite. There is no end to the irritating artiness gent. A hydrogen-balloon-type species of this man. controls the air and feeds on the Mystification begins, before the story proper, with a dedication to Jack predators. One is left to assume that Vance 'who . . . taught us the difference between fantasy and science fiction'. It the predators feed on each other. This, would be difficult to think of a less likely mentor (much as I enjoy Vance) and combined with the lack of land vege­ the reader isn't told the difference anyway. tation, raises problems of viability, Then there is co-author Bill Ransom. The blurb features Herbert but tells no­ ecology, and climate which are dis­ thing of Ransom, which is a pretty poor discourtesy; a man of Herbert's stature creetly ignored. This, in view of Her­ should at least have seen to the inclusion of a note detailing his collaborator's bert's reputation as an ecologist, is a contribution. Since the style throughout is Herbert at his Duniest, one may guess pretty glaring oversight. 16 V However: The space ship, which is now years back in time to view the Crucifixion in recognised as the supreme entity. Ship, is in order to learn a sharp, important lesson— orbit above Pandora. Of those aboard, some It has for some time been my view that that interference doesn't pay. God sent his Frank Herbert is one of the great, spectacu­ are clones, some are naturally born, and a only begotten Son into the world to save it very few are original Earth-crew who have lar empty vessels of science fiction; his con­ —and just you look what the world did been kept in suspended animation. Some— stant fiddling with the concept of God re­ about him, young Hali! the working classes, for want of a better veals only an inability to think beyond the phrase—have devised ways of worshipping This is the reason why Ship will not help most narrow of logics. Ship, who takes little notice of them. A his worshippers. He simply makes things In Children of Dune he displays this special chosen few are in constant mental hard for them and leaves them to fend for limitation where Paul Atreidas' male child themselves. Which seems to me a pretty communication with Ship. becomes—by way of a peculiarly contrived On Pandora's surface is the final coloni­ two-faced form of non-interference. And symbiosis—not God but 'the kind of God sation group. Their leaders do not believe why put Hali through this unpleasant event men need'. Now, there's some contempt for that Ship is God, a matter which does not when the matter could have been rational­ mankind! An imitation will do, says Her­ ised in three or four simple sentences which appear to upset Ship overmuch. They have bert, if it gets results; the mugs won't know decided to finally conquer Pandora by wip­ she would automatically have accepted as the difference. truthful and right? ing out all indigenous life—predators, kelp, This is no better than Lester del Rey's The reason was probably—and I admit to and floaters. For workers they produce engi­ silly story of a fugitive God hiding from the neered clones, producing monstrous forms fumbling among possibilities here—to allow Men who seek to capture and punish Him, supposedly tailored to colonial require­ the authors to display a few subtle para­ and far worse than Arthur Clarke’s naive doxes. Their choices were unfortunate. It ments; in fact the authors' descriptions anti-religious arguments in The Fountains of appears that Jesus was a projection origi­ show them as merely monstrous without Paradise. nated by Ship (but quite real in historical any logical application. They are regarded as I suppose so much snorting and heavy terms), so that it was Ship who caused the expendable and are exposed for slaughter by breathing demands that I declare my own Crucifixion and then realised it to be an the predators whenever expediency suggests, stance. Fair enough, but let me first spare a error. (Does God make errors?) which is fairly often because of a food few paragraphs for pointing out what belief But—Ship was not constructed until shortage caused by Ship. (Ship follows the in God can demand of you. some 2000 years or more after that event. old J W Campbell dictum: squeeze 'em hard Any religious belief demands an act of Are we to understand that man created God enough and they'll produce. An intellectual­ faith—an acceptance of the logically unprov- in his own intellectual image and that God, ly primitive God?) Only the colonists' fear able. The act of faith is demanded because once created, embraced all past and present of Ship's material power prevents their of the existence of unanswerable questions, within Himself and so created man before such as, "What was there before the Big attempting to destroy it. man created him? In general the lines are drawn with Ship­ Bang?' As soon as you begin to probe the intri­ worshippers as the decent people and non­ Why, nothing, of course. cate text of this novel the chicken-and-egg believers as the villains. You mean, just space? questions begin to pile up, obscuring the Detailing of the plot's snarled intricacies No, I mean Nothing. Not even space. reader's real question: is he or is he not would be pointless; it is of the same general But how—? meant to accept that Ship is God? type as Herbert's other stories wherein war­ Quite so. How? ring groups get nowhere against each other Ship claims to be God. So what is Ship's We tend to think of the primal event in because both are being manipulated from definition of God? visual terms: all the matter in the universe We are not told, but we do get a clue in behind the scenes. concentrated in an infintely tiny, black- The essential story goes something like the last line of the book, when Ship breaks holish sort of point which explodes to ex­ this: Ship has given its people a difficult orbit and heads out into deep space and His pand through all space and time. world to colonise; they can learn to live on worshippers hear his cry to the universe: This is not the vision of the astrophysi­ it only by learning how to worship their 'Surprise me, Holy Void!’ cist or the cosmologist. There is, for them, God, Ship. It turns out that what Ship It is not quite as silly a line as the finale no such concept as 'before the Big Bang'. means by 'worshipping Him’ (but doesn't of Destination Void but it has unfortunate Time itself did not exist until the Big Bang bother to tell his frustrated humans) is overtones of some interstellar heavyweight created it. really respect for and realisation of their announcing, 'I fixed dat lot; whaddya got Matter did not expand to fill all space own capacities. After all. He is their crea­ lined up?' because space did not exist either, until the tion, not they His. He won't give direct It has the more unfortunate effect of presence of matter made space necessary. help, but offers opportunities for them to raising further questions about Ship's theo­ And, until some unimaginable circumstance perceive and act on. logical status. If Ship recognises a greater made it necessary, neither did matter. Is Ship, then, less than God? Now read entity which to him is holy and capable of The impossible thing to understand is on. surprising him, how can he claim to be God? that, as far as our physics can postulate, Ship sends a couple of emissaries to Pan­ So what is he? there was nothing before the Big Bang, not dora, a doubting Thomas and a poet who He is a paranoic, interfering liar and the even a space or time for it to happen in. fills something like the role of John the Bap­ whole novel is just another space opera with So the scientist has reached the same tist crossed on the Angel of the Annuncia­ nothing to say about matters which pretend point as the theologist, asking, 'How did it tion, while a Colony girl, Waela, is destined to be its central preoccupation. The Her­ begin?' to be a new Virgin Mary. None of these bert-Ransom team is just another pair in the The theologist says, ’God did it,' and parallels are exact but they help keep the lengthening line of science fiction writers rests his case. involved action passably clear. who have trivialised the conception of God The scientist says, T/Ve've shown you These discover that the kelp, which calls because their own conception of deity is what happened,’ but can't explain what he itself Avata (ref. Hindu mythology) is the initially trivial. has shown you. ruling intelligence of the planet. It seems to In this case their non-interfering God Each of them demands an act of faith represent morally correct thinking, and sees interferes by indirection, and sometimes for acceptance of the fact of Creation. to it that Waela's forthcoming girl-child will directly, throughout the story; he forces The atheist points out, rightly, that this be a new messiah. events by threatening to expunge the doesn't prove that God is responsible. The Good Ship-worshippers triumph over the humans if they don’t solve their problems; philosopher snorts contempt and defies the evil Colony biologists, the messiah is born. he even plants a Satan among them—and re­ atheist to prove that in fact he exists. Ship withdraws two evil biologists (repre­ moves him for further trouble-making at the Cogito ergo sum is all right, up to a point; finish. senting Satan and, possibly, Judas or Mam­ then perceptions of paradox and uncertain­ mon) back into itself and takes off into the What are the authors trying to say? That ty creep in (for a fuller account, see the void—where it will no doubt spend a few only by allowing his better instincts full rein novels of Philip K Dick) and the possibility more centuries creating trouble for pro­ can man learn to conquer himself? That arises that the universe itself is an illusion. would be acceptable, but in this story all re­ spective worshippers, because it retains the (Ian Watson fumbled that idea badly in The two evil types with the statement that it will sults are stage-managed from behind the Jonah Kit and finished in more intellectual need them again later. scenes. trouble than enough, because his God also Bluntly, The Jesus Incident is just an­ seemed smaller than His creation.) IV other intolerably long and unnecessarily So it may require an act of faith to be­ complex piece of Herbert snow-blinding, lieve you exist. (Hell!) And where does Jesus come into it? pretending to profundity and philosophic What it all adds up to is that where be­ He is, quite literally, an 'incident' about questioning and tripping over its ankles at ginnings and endings and a few spots in be­ a third of the way through the book, where­ every turn of a phrase. tween are concerned, we have no means of in Ship sends a ship-girl, Hali, thousands of 17 knowing. you create barriers. If you like to call the unknown 'God', HUMANKERRO: But I can remember that's your affair. If you like to feel that He understanding things. PHILIP K DICK FORUM has a personal interest in you, shiver in fear AVATA: Memory only understands the of hellfire if you wish—that's also your presence or absence of electrical signals. affair, but postulates a petty small-minded HUMANKERRO: Then what's the com­ god, one like Herbert's version, one who bination, the program for learning? part one would deserve the contempt a narrow anger AVATA: Now you open the path. It is like del Rey's pours upon him. (No capitals the program which counts in the most for that tiny god.) literal sense. I refuse to waste my time on a concep­ HUMANKERRO: But what are the tion so vast that I cannot imagine it; the rules? effort would have to take precedence over AVATA: Are there rules underlying every other activity and would get me no­ every aspect of human life? Is that your where. The universe is young yet, and if the question? knowledge is available it will be dusted off HUMANKERRO: That appears to be the before the waermertod. For now, I have no question. data on God or the Big Bang and no predi­ AVATA: Then answer it. What are the lection for acts of faith (ie, making decisions rules for being human? in the dark), but will be interested in reli­ I submit that this super-subtle fencing is able information on all three. nearly meaningless. The entire passage, of (But—have you ever noticed how many forty lines 'quoted'from a 'reference'called top-class astronomers and physicists are 'The Avata: "The Q & A Game'", can be stout believers in a Creating God? You can't boiled down to 'Nothing can be understood class them among the stupid and easily im­ solely in terms of language, because langu­ posed upon, can you?) age is only a system of references'. This o’: •ojxmo <<• w So I am a fence-sitter, having an open linguistic truism is decorated with snide in­ mind but no data to fill it. As for the moral tellectual thrust and parry to waste two aspects of religious commandment, all the pages of text—and persuade a gullible reader major religions are pretty much in agree­ that he is gorging at the feast of reason. And ment about the basics (save in their atti­ it explains nothing that is not clear at al­ tudes to women, which are poor), which most any point in the story. only seems to indicate that you can live by a Here is the epigraph on page 12: good morality in any religious framework— St Augustine asked the right question: and just as well in none. 'Does freedom come from chance or Where does that leave me vis-a-vis Frank choice?’ And you must remember that Herbert? It leaves me fed to the teeth with quantum mechanics guarantees chance. works displaying a conception of deity This contains an untruth. Quantum which is only that one Oscar Wilde derided mechanics does not guarantee chance; it long ago: 'an Englishman twelve feet tali'. reveals chance as a factor in the description Science fiction would do well to leave of micro-systems but says nothing of it as a God alone. The conception is not amenable factor in the macro-universe. It has no appli­ to logic and can only be trivialised by forc­ cation to St Augustine's question. But at ing it into logical frames. That is not to say least you know that Herbert is on name­ that science fiction should ignore religion, dropping terms with classical literature. because that is very much amenable to It would be only too easy to pin down logical examination, as Blish proved in A the book's pretensions by painstakingly un­ Case of Conscience and Miller in A Canticle earthing one such snow job after another. for Leibowitz, two of the best novels yet The clear-eyed reader can perhaps have produced in the genre. Both these writers, some amusement doing it for himself. however, were men of too much intelligence Perhaps these pseudo-mystic and pseudo- to introduce God as a character, so their philosophic passages give the book a rarefied novels say something useful about religious version of the old 'sense of wonder' by values while Frank Herbert, Lester del Rey, keeping the unthinking reader forever on Damon Knight, Ian Watson, Arthur Clarke, the verge of some exotic revelation which and others have merely revealed the limita­ never materialises. For the rest, the move­ tions of their understanding. ment is slow, and when most of the charac­ ters speak, and usually think, in the same VI tone of allusive obliqueness, it becomes hard to regard any of them as being of particular I have spent so much wordage on this be­ significance. As usual with Herbert, only the cause the questions of belief and non-belief villains have any life in them; they, poor are central to the theme of The Jesus Inci­ dimwits, say exactly what they mean with­ dent. How it turns out, in terms of plot, is out raising clouds of veiled implication over that the 'good' who believe that a human- every exchange. built, conscious computer is God are re­ For such an experienced novelist, Her­ warded by being led into Eden while the bert makes hard work of his plotting. The 'bad', who have more sense than to believe short chapters, averaging about 2500 words, any such thing, are defeated. Worse, their hop from group to group of characters in a unfortunate clones, who have little reason fashion which, because there are too many or opportunity to make up their minds on groups, reduces the plot to a haze of general points of belief, are slaughtered like cattle directions. This method, which can be very throughout the action while 'God' fiddles effective when used with a proper sense of with his two-faced policy of non-inter­ dovetailing, results here in the Crucifixion ference. being split into three chapters separated by The morality of this blood-coloured sections so trivial by comparison of content parable is beyond me. as to be irritations. So one of the most emo­ So is much of the prose. Here is an ex­ tive scenes in human history falls flat for tract from the epigraph on pp 202-203. simple lack of concentrated treatment and is Since this epigraph stands alone, with no then explained away in reasons of breath­ accompanying chapter, one must imagine taking inconsequence. that it has thematic importance of its own. This book fails on every level of tech­ AVATA: If you understand, then you nique and content, except ingenuity. That is cannot learn. By saying you understand. not enough. 18 reality? Manfred, the autistic child in Mart­ Dick's characters use. ian Time-Slip, seems to be afflicted with the The most readily accessible method, for THE latter type of insanity, since he can see into most of us, is drugs. Taking drugs for Dick's REALLY REAL the future. However, his view of "reality" is characters (and his readers?) is a deliberate so horrible that the reader would like to be­ attempt to alter their perceptions of reality. lieve it is only a private universe. For example, in Now Wait For Last Year, by Lesleigh Luttrell However one defines it, insanity is, in JJ-180 removes from the characters' minds Dick’s novels, a way of breaking through, of and bodies "their private misconceptions "piercing the veil": "In my novels the pro­ about cause and effect". Can-D and Chew-Z tagonist's comfortable, private world is dis­ plunge their users into the equally frighten­ Lesleigh Luttrell, long-time contributor to integrating and an awful, mystical, puzzling ing shared realities of Perky Pat and Palmer these pages, and fandom in general, began to enormous world is expanding - from ele­ Eldritch. Dick states the usefulness of drugs gafiate around the time she wrote this ments already there - to fill the void" (Elec­ most clearly in Deus Irae, in the thoughts article. At present she is alive and well and tric Shepherd, page 32). This is an uncom­ of Peter Sands: "He believed that the so- combining the occupations of radio fortable state of affairs for Dick's charac­ called hallucinations caused by some of announcer and laboratory researcher in ters, who often go through hell in order to these drugs (with emphasis, he continually get to the other side of this veil, as has ap­ reminded himself, on the word 'some') were Madison, Wisconsin. parently happened to Dick himself at several not hallucinations at all, but perceptions of times in his life. other zones of reality" (page 22). Drugs Despite the pain and horror, it is import­ allow us to perceive other realities, provid­ ant to Dick, and to his readers, that this veil ing a way of piercing the veil, but that be lifted, that we get through to the other thought also contains a warning - not all side and achieve a new view of reality, or at drugs give true perceptions. Jason Taverner least see the weak spots in our old view. is plunged into a frightening state of non­ Why is this important? Why shouldn't we, existence in Flow My Tears, The Policeman characters and readers alike, stay safely in Said, because someone else has taken a time­ What I'm proposing is a radically new our private little worlds? binding drug, KR-3. "Anyone affected by it theory as to what is "real" and what is An obvious reason is that science fiction is forced to perceive unreal universes, not. writers like to play around with reality, and whether they want to or not" (page 208). It -Dick, in Electric Shepherd, page 33 their readers enjoy these games, the stories is this possibility, that drugs can cause the of alternate worlds and time-travel para­ perception of "unreal realities", that makes The basic test that distinguishes reality doxes. Certainly Dick uses some of these them dangerous. In Martian Time-Slip, from hallucination is...that one or several tricks and cliches which are so familiar to Arnie Kott dies, not realising that he has others see it too. stf readers in his books. However, there is been shot in the real world. This danger is - Rolling Stone, page 93 one important difference between Philip K presented most starkly in A Scanner Darkly, Dick and most other science fiction writers ■ as Substance D shatters both the personal Phil Dick has described his novels as he is not just "playing around" with reality, and shared realities of Bob Arctor, first books that "try to pierce the veil of but is genuinely searching for a new reality. splitting him in two and then reducing him what is only apparently real to find out Dick believes that there is evil in our to a barely functioning hulk. what is really real." world. Perhaps the most basic form is en­ A Scanner Darkly is Dick's most depres­ - Rolling Stone, page 45 tropy. Entropy, the decay of the meaningful sing book to date, because the characters in into the meaningless, is the real evil in this it seem to derive no new insights into reality world: "Much of what in my books are re­ from their experiences with drugs. Instead, "What is reality?" This is a sophomoric garded as hallucinations are actually aspects drugs lead to insanity and death for most of sort of question that few, with the excep­ of the entropy-laden koinos world breaking them. In earlier novels, insanity was a creat­ tion of idiots and geniuses, give much con­ through" [Electric Shepherd, page 33). If ive force. Many of Dick's characters exper­ sideration to once they have reached the age what is out there in the "real" world is this ience episodes of insanity (most often of 20 or so. (Perhaps this is why Philip K evil, entropy, why do we want to break schizophrenia). They are frightening epi­ Dick's books seem to hit those of us who through? Perhaps because it is a human sodes, to be sure, but they seem to help in come to them young with particular force.) characteristic to do so. Only humans can the struggle to find the really real. Joe The question that Dick asks in his books is break through, can perceive that there is Bohlen of Martian Time-Slip apparently not simply, "What is reality?", for he real­ more than one reality. sees into the future in his period of insanity ises that there is no single reality, but "How Simulacra cannot achieve this. These Other characters have similar experiences. can we interpret, how far can we trust our quasi-human machines are another of the Perhaps the true importance of insanity is perceptions of reality?" threads which unite Dick's books. They that it is an ultimately human experience. Dick's "radically new theory" of reality range from simple, one-track-mind mechan­ Although machines may go "insane", only is not entirely his own invention, but is der­ isms, like the coin-operated front door of humans can learn from the experience of in­ ived from the theories of European existen­ Joe Chip's apartment in Ubik, to more com­ sanity. However, it is not something we can tial psychologists. They suggest that each plex teaching machines of Martian Time- control (as we imagine we control our drug person has two separate world .views; one is Slip, to the not-quite-human Abraham Lin­ experiences) and thus is not likely to be a their own unique, private view, termed idios coln, simulacra in I4?e Can Build You. How­ method of altering perceptions of reality kosmos, and the other is the shared world­ ever, these are still machines and, to Dick, which Dick readers can use easily. view, the koinos kosmos (roughly equivalent one of the great potential evils in the world Another method to which most of us to the Weltanschauung of earlier linguistic- is the danger that humans will become less have little access (although, as with insanity, anthropological theory). It is only in achiev­ human, more inanimate, more machine-like. the possibility is always there, lurking at the ing a rapport with other people that we are The most frightening example of a mind­ edge of our consciousness) is telepathy. In able to distinguish our personal view of less, machine-like "human", to the modern many of Dick's worlds (most notably those reality from the shared view. world, is the Nazi. Dick uses this figure in of The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch Dick has said that in his novels it is not his most widely read book. The Man in the and Ubik}, telepathy and other psionic pow­ the shared reality, "the really real", which is High Castle. Like true simulacra, the Nazis ers, such as precognition, are taken for breaking down, but the personal worldview. cannot deal with the idea of alternate granted. Yet telepathy is the ability to in­ As it breaks down, Dick claims, the shared worlds, with the revelation that there may trude into someone else's reality, precogni­ universe (the world that his characters share be more than a single reality. Most human tion to view the shared realities of the fu­ with Palmer Eldritch and Glen Runciter) beings do have a great deal of trouble deal­ ture. In The Game-Players of Titan, drug- emerges more strongly. This is a frightening ing with different realities, but it is a basic induced extra-sensory powers allow Pete experience, for we each need our own pers­ expression of our humanness that we at Garden to see "things as they really are", to onal idios kosmos to maintain our sanity. least make the effort. see the Vugs masquerading as humans. How­ Sanity, and various forms of insanity, are Dick throws his characters into situa­ ever, there is danger in these powers as well. an important part of Dick's novels. However tions in which their perceptions of reality Pre-cogs can see only into possible futures, Dick, like most of us, is not sure how to de­ change, and even break down. If we, the not into the future (there is no single real­ fine insanity. Is schizophrenia a complete re­ readers, wish to emulate Dick's characters, ity). Characters such as Palmer Eldritch, and treat into one’s own personal world, or is it wish to break down the barriers of our own Ella Runciter in Ubik, who come to believe the result of losing that protective individual limited view of reality, how can we go about that their powers allow them to manipulate shield and being subjected to the "absolute" it? We may try some of the methods which reality, are in grave danger of disintegrating, 19 of losing their own idios kosmos. Knowledge from the outside, knowledge which intrudes into the personal worlds of PHILIP K DICK FORUM STAYING ALIVE Dick's characters, is another aid in their IN A search for what is really real. Strong person­ alities, such as Joe and Glen Runciter in FIFTEEN-CENT UNIVERSE Ubik, can impose their version of reality on part two others, at least for a while. Scanners may offer a way of seeing reality more clearly by Claudia Krenz (but Dick is not sure that these spying de­ vices do offer any real knowledge about re­ ality): "If the scanner sees only darkly, the way I myself do, then we are cursed again, The following is a very much shortened ver­ cursed again and like we have been continu­ sion of Claudia Krenz's PhD thesis on the ally, and we'll wind up dead this way, know­ works of Philip K Dick. Claudia wrote her ing very little and getting that little frag­ thesis in the mid-1970s, sent me this article ment wrong too" (page 146). (and a much longer version, which I have on Religion may shake up a private world­ view - religious beliefs are the ultimate form file), moved from Idaho to Colorado, and of shared reality - or serve to reinforce our disappeared from all fannish knowledge. A personal realities. The users of Can-D in The pity—-I enjoyed corresponding with her very Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch develop a much. religion which "explains" their altered per­ ceptions of reality. The religion of the men in Martian Time-Slip allows several characters to transcend their private realit­ ies. In A Maze of Death, God turns out to be a real entity, rather than merely a part of our shared reality, and is able to inflict hor­ rifying changes of reality on the humans who are unfortunate enough to come under its powers. Again, these means which Dick uses to alter his characters' perceptions of reality are not readily available to the readers. However, there is one other source of know­ ledge about what's on the other side of the veil. In Ubik, Joe Chip finds messages from Runciter in match folders and bathroom mirrors, words from the other side. Dick’s characters may find such messages in more ordinary places, particularly in books such as the I Ching. The word helps Dick's char­ acters to break through while we, the read­ ers, find new ways of looking at reality, and learn something about our own limited per­ ceptions of reality in the writings of Philip K Dick.

REFERENCES

1962: The Man in the High Castle, G P Putnam's Sons, New York. 1963: The Game Players of Titan, Ace Books, New York. 1964: Martian Time-Slip, Ballantine, New York. 1965: The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eld­ ritch, Doubleday & Co, New York. 1966: Now Wait For Last Year, Double­ Whatever it is that happens in a Philip K day, New York. Dick novel frequently takes place against a 1969: Ubik, Doubleday, New York. backdrop of mouldy Martian Grubworm tv 1971: A Maze of Death, Doubleday, New dinners, self-aware doorknobs (with built-in York. greed cycles) and carpets depicting Richard 1972: We Can Build You, DAW Books, New Milhous Nixon's final ascent into heaven. Joe Chip's 1992 world - where chromium York. has been replaced by ersatz-chromium, wool by synthetic wool, and mahogany by imita­ Philip K Dick and Roger Zelazny: tion mahogany - is a world of cheap limita­ 1976: Deus Irae, Doubleday, New York. tions, the epitome of the plastic and the un­ natural. Von Vogelsang's appearing in Bruce R Gillespie (editor): "tweed toga, loafers, crimson sash ancjl 1975: Philip K Dick: Electric Shepherd, purple propeller beanie" {Ubik, page 81) Norstrilia Press, Melbourne. alludes to the disjointed times portrayed in Ubik, as well as to the tawdriness of Dick's Paul Williams: future world. 1975: "The True Stories of Philip K The shabbiness of this future world, is, Dick...", Rolling Stone, Nov 6. however, a reflection of our own. Trees, mountains, grass, meadows, and streams 20 have been replaced by fire hydrants, bill­ that dogs bark at me as I halt by them.' ual and avoidable but collective and a priori. boards, astroturf, junk yards, and Tang. From Richard the Third." What is seen is not an accurate reflection of Bacchus makes soda-pop wine and ambrosia (Ubik, page 50) what is. Too removed from the characters, is artificially flavoured and steri-sealed in Matt/Bill have "selected" an ironically ap­ reality becomes a Rorscharch blot, all pro­ plastic. What hasn't become plasticised, an propriate quotation. An able and ambitious jection and no content. Since Dick views the inferior copy of itself? Yet people form actor, Shakespeare's Richard intends to con­ senses more as blunt instruments than as their mythologies out of the elements sur­ trol others through artifice and illusion. This precision tools, his characters are capable of rounding them. For the Greeks, trees could opening soliloquy - where, traditionally, the discerning reality only if it hits them over be more than trees; the tree could metamor­ truth is spoken - alludes to the disjointed the head long enough and hard enough. phose itself into a tree sprite. Now, as in times as well as to the Elizabethan notion The malady is universal, and there is no Kafka's story, people turn into cockroaches that the soul governs the body: just as the one to judge other than similarly blind mice. - or, stranger still (in Philip Roth's The body's physical characteristics are manifest­ Since psychology's cure is to hook the char­ Breast} into 150-pound breasts. The spirit ations of the soul, so Jory's no-two-features- acters back into the illusion that they're in is latent within the body, but the body, the match appearance embodies the disjointed touch with reality, psychologists receive less natural elements, have changed. times in Ubik. The impact of this quotation than complimentary attention in Dick's fic­ It is then in a sense more natural for the lies in its meaning and relevance to Ubik as tion. They are a motley lot - ranging from Absolute to be latent within the aerosol well as in its presentation. Even Shakespeare protable, mechanical Dr Smile (in The Three than within the mountain. A bent twig sig­ is corrupted by his surroundings. In being Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch}, to psychotic nalled to the older hunter, but stale cigar­ filtered through the present, the expressions Wade Frazier (in A Maze of Death}, to the ettes signal to us. These trash phenomena of the past are distorted. self-ignorant Mary Rittersdorf (in Clans of symbolise our age and its obsession with the Corresponding to the trashy environ­ the Alphane Moon}. Not only are individual external. For the Dick character, refrigerat­ ment are Dick's highly fallible characters, attributes - good/bad, happy/sad, cheap/ex- ors are refrigerators as long as they continue amongst the most ordinary ever encount­ travagant - questioned but, more important­ to look like refrigerators; classifications are ered in literature. Similar to contemporary ly, the foundations of existence itself are based on mere appearances. But this insist­ anti-heroes, the Dick character is muffled in shaken. The identity question alludes to the ence on superficialities also lends an ironic an aura of seeming ineffecutality: "Still in larger question of how we can know any­ sanity to Ubik - it is a daylight world, where gay pinstripe clown-style pajamas, Joe Chip thing, let alone who we are. spectres attack passersby at high noon. The lazily...twiddled the dial of his recently rent­ That we live in a world we don't under­ trash also symbolises spiritual aridity, indi­ ed 'pape machine...and then selected gossip" stand is a cornerstone of Dick's writing. cating, that life has no real meaning or tran­ (Ubik, page 23). These characters - whether Doubt assails his characters on all sides. In sendent value. Chuck Rittersdorf in Clans of the Alphane Ubik the collectively bound-together half­ The contemporary milieu, our plastic Moon trying to run away from his wife or lifers stand alone, capable only of vaguely eco-system, corrupts what occurs in it. A Joe Chip in Ubik trying to placate his door - delineating certain characteristics of the statement of Dick's philosophy appears as seem generally unable to cope. Incapable of forces that beset them. That the "contemp­ an interoffice memo ( in The Three Stig­ even getting drunk, they can only get orary" pay tv becomes the Philco radio (and mata of Palmer Eldritch}, and a major theol­ "fnarfed" and "pizzled". Like Leo Bulero, the Philco radio is, hence, the foetal tv) indi­ ogical statement as a book perversely en­ some have extraordinary powers, but it cates that things, objects, tend to devolve titled How / Rose From the Dead in My never does any good. Unlike the tragic hero along conceptual lines. Human kind, how­ Spare Time and So Can You (in A Maze of of the past, the Dick character lacks direc­ ever, does not suddenly convulse and look Death}-, the Paraclete (in Clans of the tion and purpose and self knowledge. Unlike out of once-more Neanderthal eyes. Instead, Alphane Moon} is embodied as a Ganymed- the existential hero, he cannot come to humans undergo an accelerated ageing pro­ ean businessthing, a slime mould, and Ubik, terms with his existence. cess, culminating in death. But such delinea­ the mysterious absolute, appears as an aero­ . Frequently depicted as being out of tions don't help, for the forces still remain sol can; Runciter's messages appear on touch with their own human reality, the inexplicable. Jory causes the hideous en- matchbook folders, urinal walls, in random­ characters not only do not know who they tropic process, yet he is inadequate when ly selected cigarette cartons in a randomly are, but frequently they don't even know compared with the process itself. He appears selected supermarket in the randomly se­ that they don't know. An example is Mary to lack the motivation, the intellect, and the lected city of Baltimore, and in other, Rittersdorf in Clans of the Alphane Moon. power necessary for the controller of such a similarly shoddy and improbable places. Smug in her role as a sane marriage counsel­ force. Pat, on the other hand, seems more Equally improbable are some of Dick's lor, she does not acknowledge, until forced, than equal to the task, yet she is unmasked thematic statements. "'Quantus tremor est her own insanity. Dick, however, is con­ as a victim of the process she was thought futurus,' the voices ((on piped-in cerned with more than individual identity; to control. Despite the fact that her sadistic music at the Beloved Brethren Moratorium)) he is also concerned with species identity, temperament adds up to a picture of a mal­ sang. 'Quando judex est venturus, cuncta with what it means to be human. An epic, ignant power, Pat is a mere paper or straw stricta discussurus'" (Ubik, page 91). not a slice-of-life writer, Dick melds man villainess, manufactured by hasty generalis­ Roughly translated as "How great a trembl­ and machine in a fusion which ranges from ations, delusions, and probability. Hers is ing there shall be, as soon as the judge shall Joe Chip's comparing himself to a low-class guilt by association. In Ubik, then, one have come and striked asunder those who windup toy, to the wise and kindly Lincoln bizarre event follows another, with nothing are collectively bound together," this Latin simulacrum (in We Can Build You}, to the ever adequately accounted for. passage implies that the collectively bound- android (in Do Androids Dream of Electric Dick also exposes what passes for reality together half-lifers are being tested, that half Sheep?}, whose human engramming is so as illusion. Joe Chip's continual battle to life is a purgatorial world. Who, besides complete that he no longer knows he's an keep coins makes money appear important Philip Dick, would disguise the impending android, to the Daniel Mageboom simula­ but, in the end, the money is revealed as Day of Judgment in Latin and then an­ crum in Clans of the Alphane Moon who trivial: the change changes and the coin­ nounce it on piped-in background music? smugly congratulates himself on his ability operated machines revert. As finding Walt In Dick's worlds the visions of the past to hold his liquor. The android, the result of Disney's head on a coin indicates, money are corrupted by their contemporary form - the man-machine fusion, is a vehicle wherein buys superficials: "'Don't take any wooden as is seen easily in Matt/Bill (Jory's buck­ Dick explores what it means to be human. nickels'" (Ubik, page 173),. Pat tells Joe; toothed alter egol's rather undramatic read­ The reality of who-l-am is contrasted with don't take something which appears to be ing of Richard's opening soliloquy from the illusion of who-l-think-l-am and who- something it's not. To compensate for Shakespeare's Richard[III: they-think-l-am, with who-l-think-they- Jory's dimming Ella, von Vogelsang offers Bill...shuffled his feet and grinned, think-l-am and who-they-think-l-think-they- to give Runciter his money back. Obviously, revealing great pale teeth, as blunt as think-l-am. this neither affects the reality of the situa­ shovels. '"I, that am curtailed of this Caught in a hall of mirrors, each reflect­ tion nor offers any real compensation. fair proportion, cheated of feature by ing his gaze, the Dick character is no Clearly, in Ubik the money is hopelessly dissembling nature - '... How does it go. stranger to identity crises. Not too surpris­ superficial, trite, and inadequate when com­ Matt?" ingly, the characters are frequently unable pared to the dissolutionary and devolution- '"- deformed, unfinished, sent before to separate the reality of their essence from ary forces which sweep across the ice-bound time into this breathing world, scarce the fictions of beliefs about that essence. plane of Joe Chip's half-life world. half made up,'" Matt the squirrel-like tel­ Their problems, however, are epistemologic­ Dick shows us half-blind characters who epath said, scratching meditatively at his al rather than psychological, as the seeming are incapable of comprehending even the pelt. aura of incompetence surrounding them re­ superficial aspects of their reality. Disdain­ "Oh yeah," Bill the precog nodded... lates to an innately human inability to com­ ing escapes into illusion, Dick does not sub­ 'And that so lamely and unfashionable prehend the world - a problem not individ­ stitute a more likable, a more believable 21 (and hence false) world for the contempor­ us by society, friendship...but which can seeing only superficial existence, we live, in ary one. Although he does not ignore this strike at us when alone.") While it is impos­ essence, only half lives. "Relentlessly, Leo world, he denies it because it is, in a larger sible to know reality, value is nevertheless went on, 'When I was a boy there was no sense, not real. Dick hints that existing be­ attached to it - or to the idea of stability mental illness like there is now. It's a sign of yond temporal reality is a "real" world - and form. While the essence of the Form the times'" (Martian Time-Slip, page 106). ■camouflaged though it is behind the Grub­ Destroyer is beyond comprehension, its The schizophrenia that Dick portrays so fre­ worm tv dinners - and that underlying the manifestations evoke horror. Manfred Stein­ quently depicts a humanity cut off from cheap exterior of the 15-cent universe is er's vision is beyond doubt one of the dark­ meaning and value. It is a sign of the times. what could be called metaphysical reality. est of contemporary fiction: Our view of the world is a fragmented Dick's worlds are also characterised by the Inside Mr Kott's skin were dead one, implying that we have lost some order­ existence of purposeful cosmic forces which bones, shiny and wet. Mr Kott was a ing principle. Yet to perceive accurately the do battle for good as well as evil. Lord Run­ sack of bones, dirty and yet shiny wet. surface of our world is to perceive fragments ning Clam, the embodiment of the Para­ His head was a skull that took in greens and disharmony. But to see, as Dick implies, clete, and Ubik, the mysterious aerosol and bit them; inside him the greens be­ only the surface world is to have a one-sided Absolute, are both forces for the good. Yet, came rotten things as something ate vision: while beneficial, their efficacy is limited, them to make them dead. Below lay the tomb world, the immut­ and they are frequently questioned. Joe He could see everything that went on able cause-and-effect world of the Chip's only hope is Ubik, something which inside Mr Kott, the teeming gubbish life. demonic. At median extended the layer is everywhere but which can't be found, Meanwhile, the outside said, " I love of the human, but at any instant a man something which is safe only when used as Mozart. I'll put this tape on..." could plunge - descend as if sinking - into directed but for which no directions can be A hideous racket of screeches and the hell-world beneath. Or: he could found, something which brings reality into shrieks issued from the speakers, like the ascend to the ethereal world above... Al­ focus but which regresses along with other convulsions of corpses. ways, in his middle level of the human, a objects. (Martian Time-Slip, page 126) man risked the sinking. And yet the pos­ What is Ubik? At one point we are told sibility of ascent lay before him; any that it is a "portable negative ionizer", at Not only is the perceiver too inadequate aspect or sequence of reality could be­ other points that it is a "reality support" and the world too complex, there is also a come either, at any instant. Hell and and that it "perks up pouting household force decimating whatever form and mean­ heaven, not after death but now! Depres­ surfaces", "makes coffee better", "cures up­ ing there is. In the juxtaposition of the sion, all mental illness, was the sinking. set stomachs", and "provides uninterrupted Form Destroyer and the Absolute, Dick re­ And the other...how was it achieved? sleep". But Ubik is also a theological state­ surrects the ancient battle between the Through empathy. ment: Apollonian and the Dionysian, between (The Three Stigmata of Palmer I am Ubik. Before the universe, I am. I order and chaos. Eldritch, page 83) made the suns. I made the worlds. I cre­ The gods - our traditional source of sal­ In Do Androids Dream of Electric ated the lives and places they inhabit; I vation - provide no help. Like the surface of Sheep?, characters proved their humanness move them here, I put them there. They the 1992 world, Dick's gods seem trite and by "passing" the "empathy test". In Clans go as I say, they do as I tell them. I am superficial, cheap and shoddy. They are of the Alphane Moon, Lord Running Clam the word and my name is never spoken, undercut by ambiguity and opposed by has empathy - as Paul said, a very important the name which no one knows. I am forces which at least seem far more potent virtue - which enables him to grasp the es­ called Ubik, but that is not my name. I than they. Is there then nothing to provide sence rather than the shell; similarly, Gabriel am. I shall always be. surcease from the absurd? In observing his Barnes' gradual transcendence of his illness (Ubik, page 207) reality crumble, Joe realises: parallelled by a rise in empathetic under­ I am Ubik, but who am I? Change But this old theory ((Plato's idea l standing. Empathy is caritas. In Ubik's "Ubik" to "God" and Ubik becomes the objects)) - didn't Plato think something darker world, Joe Chip is able to procure basic belief underlying Christianity; change survived the decline, something inner not Ubik by actualising the aerosol behind the it to "Brahman" and it becomes Hinduism; able to decay?...the soul - out of its nest surface of the Kidney Balm, by grasping it "Allah", Islam. This statement, theological the bird, flown elsewhere...in that case, not from its outside surface but from its both in content and in form, contradicts our we can meet again. In, as in Winnie-the- inner essence. Dick suggests that, like other definitions of Ubik. A power so de­ Pooh, another part of the forest...a cate­ Baines, we must remove ourselves from our scribed cannot be limited by being invented, gory he thought, imperishable... We will prisons, that we must transcend them. Intui­ nor can it be defined as a "portable negative all wind up with Pooh, in a clear, more tive understanding, what Kierkegaard called ionizer", This epigraph, moreover, signals durable new place. the leap, is the key which unlocks the the collapse of Runciter's world. Runciter (Ubik, pages 129-130) prison. finds Joe Chip money in his pocket, and in Dick sees "something inner" as being im­ While the Forest may not be just around two short pages, all of the characters' and pervious to the Form Destroyer. This some­ the bend, nevertheless it lies in this direc­ the readers' hypotheses are shattered. As thing can be objectified as the Forest which, tion. All other forms of knowledge give us Ubik itself changes from a commercial to a in turn, alludes to Ubik's introductory epi­ only descriptions of surface, superficial theological statement, concrete turns into graph. This "song" - low German in form, qualities. Dick's characters, practitioners of quicksand, transforming the absolute Ubik language, and subject matter - suggests the Jnana Yoga, the metaphysical discrimina­ into something sinister. Ubik is Abraxis, and folk and a closeness to nature unspoiled by tion between the Real and the apparent, are in it what we experience as both good and civilisation. Yet a return to the temporal precluded by their phenomenal existences evil are fused. Indeed, we sometimes find in past does no good; culture may be spoiled from a direct understanding of the Real, but Dick's gods the selfsame image of the force by civilisation but to escape into the illusion Caritas at least enables them to discriminate they oppose, that of evil. While Ubik seems of the past accomplishes nothing. Joe Chip between reality and illusion. Through their to work for the good, its essence, as the last had "'never heard the term "n-----" used’... ability to make such discriminations, they chapter implies, is unfathomable. Undercut and found himself appraising this era find, if not satori, enlightenment, then at by ambiguity, Dick's gods are of limited ((1939)) a little differently, all at once" least a momentary glimpse of a peace that efficacy. (Ubik, page 146). While obscured by the passes all understanding. They are further undermined by the Grubworm tv dinners and mysterious absol­ forces of evil, a current running through utes, the Forest is nevertheless important. ** * * * * * * much of Dick's fiction. In some novels we Certainly, the Forest is more real, more dur­ only glimpse it, as in Ignatz Ledebur's able than the 15-cent temporal world, where In contrast to the "normal" method of dream of a "shiny jello of rot" (Clans of the les fleurs du mal have devolved into black, observing and measuring outside, superficial Alphane Moon, page 59) , but in others it is plastic dimestore flowers. Unlike the absurd­ characteristics, Dick would have things more fully realised, as in Ubik's Jory and ists, Dick goes beyond disintegration. What grasped from their inner essence. But al­ Martian Time-Slip's Gubbler. All are mani­ was assumed to be reality - the absurd uni­ though this brings a temporary surcease festations - Jory a devolved one - of what verse - is split to reveal the seed of, the po­ from the absurd, it does not bring salvation. Dick has called the Form Destroyer. (In an tential for a new, more real life. Central in Dick's fiction is the idea that the interview with Philip Purser - "Even Sheep Dick tells the eternal tale of a humanity world has already dimmed, that it has al­ Can Upset Scientific Detachment", The cut off from its edens, left half blind to ready reverted, "sort of like Humpty Daily Telegraph Magazine, 19 July 1974, stumble home while the old landmarks dis­ Dumpty; the original state had been one of page 30 - Dick said, "I really do believe integrate. But midnight is the first minute perfection, and...had fallen...into rusty bits there is an evil form destroyer - eidos of the new day. The first step is to acknow­ and useless debris" (Martian Time-Slip, pp destroyer - normally kept at a distance from ledge the shattered images, to see that in 76-77). The world is less than it should be; 22 Concluded on Page 69 Uncommon Writers: 1

SING A SONG Bruce Gillespie discusses: On Wings of Song by Thomas M Disch OF DANIEL (St Martin’s Press; 1979; 359 pp; $US 12.95. Gollancz; 1979; 315 pp; 5 pounds 95/$ 15.95. Bantam 13667.4; 1980; by Bruce Gillespie 359 pp;$US 2.25)

23 When Daniel Weinreb is a child, in alive. Mrs Boismortier sends him a fed. Services to the dormant body Amesville, Iowa, sometime in the near copy of a book called The Product is must be paid for, or else life support future, his friend Mrs Boismortier puts God, by Jack Van Dyke. 'Daniel was systems are turned off and the body a Mozart string quartet on the phono­ enthralled by the book. After a long dies, and presumably the person re­ graph for him to hear for the first time. dusty day of detasselling corn he mains in flight. This step forward in Daniel expects some extraordinary would return to its paradoxes and the national entertainment industry revelation. Instead he hears only mental loop-the-loops with a feeling of has been developed in a world where 'wheezings and whinings, groanings immersing himself in seltzer water'. We the comfort systems available to and grindings that continued intermin­ notice an effect which becomes familiar people of the Western nations are ably without getting anywhere. Once throughout the rest of the book—that gradually breaking down. or twice out of the murk he could hear when Daniel has some revelation about On the one hand, On Wings of Song melodies begin to get started butthen hope and faith and the whole damned is 'about' flight and the effect it has on they'd sink back into the basic diddle- thing, the author withdraws into the people of America, especially diddle-diddle of the thing before you solitude and refuses to make a judg­ those people who cannot achieve flight. could enjoy them. On and on and on, ment about such naivety. The prose Many cannot, including Daniel Wein­ sometimes faster, sometimes slower, creates the sense of fizziness in Daniel's reb. To fly, you need to connect your­ but all of a dullness and drabness uni­ mind, yet devalues it with just those self to the machine, then sing, as form as housepaint.' Meanwhile, Mrs images of 'selzer water' and 'loop-the- musically or as passionately as you Boismortier listens enraptured, as if loops'. Disch satirises the 'message' can. Nobody quite knows why some subject to 'some incredible mystical which the Rev. Van Dyke conveys to people can rise from their bodies and revelation'. Daniel can feel only, as he Daniel: 'Lies about God, such as we some cannot. trudges home 'that couldn't be all find in Holy Scripture, help us keep On the other hand. On Wings of there was to it. It just could not. She our psychic economy running. If we Song is 'about' Daniel Weinreb and his was hiding something. There was a can believe, for instance,thattheworld lifetime's efforts to learn to fly. Or secret.' was all knocked together in six days rather, Daniel believes that he can only In only two paragraphs, Disch can rather than in however many billions learn to fly when he has learned to capture the rhythm of both the music of years, we've come a long way to­ sing well. Because of the confusion be­ and the mind which fails to compre­ ward self-mastery.' tween these two ideas, Daniel allows hend it. 'Wheezings and whinings' gives Is this any sort of message by which his life to take a number of turns a clear idea of how a Mozart quartet to guide one's life?—that the true which lead him first to prison, then sounds to a child hearing it for the nature of the world can be discovered into the arms of Boadicea Whiting first time; however, the explicit,funny, only by acceding to propositions (who becomes his wife, leaves her and memorable phrase is 'the basic which are known to be parodies and body, and flies for fifteen years), and diddle-diddle-diddle of the thing'—and distortions of the truth? Well, Disch finally through the theatrical, homo­ the music sounding as 'uniform as seems to be saying, that might be sexual underground life of a future housepaint'. exactly the way to live—or the idea New York until he achieves a kind of Obviously, Thomas M Disch,author, might equally well be laughed to scorn, musical success. does not now believe that Mozart and one should merely laugh at Daniel. During this process we realise that quartets have the aural consistency of But again that sympathy between the novel is doing something else as housepaint. Only the boy does. But author and character: the sympathy well: showing us the world that sur­ once sometime in his life, Disch must for the fact that Daniel wants An rounds Daniel but which does not have had just such an impression: he's Answer To It All. Again, the counter­ really concern him, just as mere sur­ in sympathy with Daniel's misery. But point, which does not exist without vival, and not the problem of flight, Daniel is also being judged: he still has the felicitous method of Disch's prose. is the main concern of those he meets. a lot to learn: musical taste springs Truth is what Daniel wants, which he On Wings of Song is also 'about' a from a wide education as well as apti­ seeks through trying to find the best quite believable world of the not-too- tude, and Daniel has been allowed to way of singing. Disch has a more dif­ distant future—so believable that one hear almost no music before this point ficult task: to take the whole of life, is tempted to say that Daniel's story in the story: and Daniel develops an of which Daniel is only a part, and might well have been told without early habit of looking for revelations, make everything sing. And the struggle referring to flying at all. and something will need to be done creates On Wings of Song. Which is to miss the point of the about that. Disch's song is composed almost book, of course. But what is the point A complex dialogue has begun be­ entirely of contradiction and counter­ of On Wings of Song? What is the nice, tween author and character, a dialogue point, powered by a rhythm which neat, cutesy-clear phrase which will which does much to give the book its connects two opposites: looking at life wrap it up for you and send you on contrapuntal vitality. in the eye, and looking closely at a your way with a smile of satisfaction? When Daniel and the law of the wholely fantastical proposition which I'm sorry; I cannot offer you such a state of Iowa inadvertently come into is not a part of life as we know it. phrase. Everything in this book is the conflict, Daniel (still in his early teens) Most readers of this article will have reverse image of everything else. The is consigned to the state penitentiary. heard already of the main fantasy book is an image of life itself, and It has few guards and no fences; if any gimmick of On Wings of Song—that a there are no convenient phrases which prisoner tries to escape, the capsule machine has been invented which sum up life itself. As I've said, 'flying' embedded in the lining of his or her enables people to 'fly', to escape their is Disch's most effective image for the stomach will explode. The internal bodies and engage in out-of-body life of the novel, yet it is a fantastic 'democracy' of the prisoners' society experiences. National Flightpaths sup­ premise. . .. hides endless injustice, and the young plies the machinery; the body remains Daniel finds it difficult to keep hope behind, barely living, intravenously 24 II rising above ordinary life—endless dates operas for the Metastasio; she fields of snow. Gus himself is not too loves Ernesto Rey, one of the leading Daniel is attracted to flying for the interested in transcendence. He has castrato singers at the theatre; in turn, first time when he realises that it is flown in the past, and it doesn't mean Rey falls in love with Daniel. Daniel's forbidden in Iowa, the Farm Belt state much to him. Daniel wantsto be taught life sinks to its ultimate messiness in which he lives. He realises that he singing, but baulks at paying Gus's when he is forced to don constant will need to learn to sing; indeed, learn price, sexual favours. Gus offers only phoney costume and an 'insanity belt' something about the rudiments of one last piece of advice on how to (chastity belt) as Rey's whore—just in music, since most forms of music are sing: 'Make a mess of your life. The order to earn enough money to keep still suppressed in Iowa. Hence Daniel's best singers always do.' Boa alive. Triumph is just around the first encounter with the 'diddle-diddle- Again here is one of those boisterous corner, of course, but the phoenix that diddle' of Mozart. More importantly, memorable statements which gives arises from the ashes of Daniel's life his reach outwards towards flying is shape to the novel, and which might is still sooty from the ashes of New part of his first adolescent outreach to­ be endorsed by the author and might York's disintegrative fires. wards all that part of life which not. It is simply not true that Boadicea lowans want to exterminate. He has a Whiting, the daughter of the local farm­ Ill vision that 'someday the whole world land baron, Grandison Whiting, has would know who he was and honour made a mess of her life—apart from By novel's end, we can begin to for­ him. How and why remained a marrying Daniel, of course. Yet when mulate an answer to the question: mystery.' she and Daniel stop over in New York what justifies the life and efforts of Daniel takes the first of his abrupt on their way to Europe for their Daniel Weinreb, also known as Ben slides into obscurity when his run-in honeymoon, she is the one who can Bosola? Is he merely a plaything of his with the repressive laws of Iowa leads fly straight away. In fact, she does not times, caught in the wind of each to his prison sentence. Life in prison return to her body for fifteen years. violent change that blows through the is mainly miserable, but Daniel meets Daniel keeps trying; he still cannot USA? Is he merely—worse—a plaything two people who have actually flown. fly. The plane on which he and Boa of Thomas M Disch to exemplify cer­ One is Barbara Steiner, a maverick, were due to leave for Europe is blown tain observations the author might who has those kinds of hard-boiled up in mid-air and everybody believes make about human destiny, and to gimcrack beliefs ('that everyone al­ them dead. Daniel decides to stay undergo certain experiences which ways got exactly what he or she de­ anonymous, changes his name to Ben might properly appear in the author's served') which echo around much Bosala, and takes it upon himself to autobiography? right-wing science fiction. She first raise the money, year after year, to Or does Daniel have a life of his flew at the age of seventeen: 'The song keep Boa's body supplied with own, and what is the nature of this is always going on somewhere. . . . nutrients. Daniel's life has become a life? It's like finding out you shook hands real mess—but he still cannot fly, and We have already seen how Daniel's with God.' She is the first of many his only comfort in life might be some youthful 'vision' is rather like that people in Daniel's life to offer pre­ realisation of how heroic is his struggle which occurs at some time or another scriptions for achieving flight (and to keep Boa 'alive'. to any robust and ambitious young hence, by implication, success in life): Daniel's descent into the low life of person—the certain knowledge that 'But what counts is not the song. It's New York is a section of the novel there must be a large portion of a the way you sing it. The commitment which rivals the quality and range of bright future which is awaiting a relent­ you can give.' the best American writing in the rich­ less claimant. Throughout the novel, The shadow of Barbara Steiner ness and complexity of its detail. Yet, that vision is modified by a set of stretches long over the book. She is just when we think that the book has experiences which make Daniel more only 'on stage' for a few pages, yet her become documentary, not fictional, 'cynical', at least in his own eyes. vibrant courage and her contradictory Daniel begins to edge his way back to (However, he is still susceptible to suicide (by walking out of the prison) his real ambition. For flying to him is 'self-improvement' books and other remain memorable. Does Daniel get singing, and he re-enters the ambit of assurances that one day he might guide what he deserves? I don't know. No music only indirectly. The most popu­ the direction of his own life.) Grandison honest reader of the book can give an lar music in New York has become bel Whiting's cynicism, however, takes his unequivocal answer. In the end, the canto opera, starring not Joan Suther­ breath away, and even ten years later life of the novel, life itself, cannot be land but the same type of castrati who in New York Daniel is still a fairly summed up in such a way. Perhaps dominated bel canto during its original complacent man who has switched off Barbara Steiner is the only example heyday. Daniel begins to work as an the critical section of his mind ('He which proves her own belief. usher at the Metastasio, the leading bel believed, even now, that the world was Equivocation also surrounds her canto theatre. In New York, a reverse his shepherd, with a natural instinct prescription for flying. Daniel takes image of Iowan society, a eunuch­ for providing green pastures and her to mean that he must develop his homosexual society guides life and attending to his wants.'). In fact, he technical ability to sing: he devotes his fashion. It has become, for instance, has discovered a new idealism: 'Other life to this skill. But he meets Gus, the quite the thing to become a 'phoney' men have families. Daniel had his prisoner who can sing magically: "The (black face, from faux noir). One thing wife's corpse (for such she was now single voice rose from the assembled leads to another: Miss Marspan, Boa's legally) to sustain him. But it served silence like a moon rising over endless aunt, offers to pay for the upkeep of the same purpose: it kept him from fields of snow.' The precision of Disch's Boa's body; Mrs Schiff, a friend of believing, despite every other evidence, image makes this one of the most vivid Miss Marspan, gives Daniel and Boa's that his defeat was final, whole, and moments in the novel. It also defines body a home when the money is about entire.' the transcendental experience—a moon to give out. Mrs Schiff writes and up­ Daniel's sacrifice teaches him more 25 York he dreams that he is flying. He achieve transcendence? This seems the keeps trying to define flight, find its real question of the novel. On Wings of true meaning. He has a moment of Song is a religious novel, just as Camp insight when he sees: Concentration and 334 are religious the fountain of art; of song; of sing­ novels. What is to live, and be human? ing; of a process that renews itself Can one ever be human without seek­ moment by moment; that is time­ ing to be more than human, without less and yet inhabits the rush and seeking to eat a portion of the moon tumble of time, just as the foun­ of heaven, of frail achievement, which tain's trumpeting waters are end­ can be glimpsed above the frozen lessly conquering the same slim plains of 'ordinary existence'? splendid space. It was what Mrs By the end of On Wings of Song, Schiff had said about music, that Daniel has achieved many moments of it must be a warbling and willing to transcendence. They gleam less brightly inhabit this instant, and then this for him because he seeks something instant, and always this instant, and more. But it is that seeking which leads not just willing, and not even him along his necessary, tortuous path. desirous, but delighted: an endless, Indeed, Daniel's salvation might have seamless inebriation of song. That been a tiny event, of which he knows was what bel canto was all about, nothing, during his last night alive in and that was the way to fly. Amesville, Iowa: So what is flight, then? It is, after So he sang his old favourites, and all, music itself, its performance be­ they looked at him, and listened, yond the touch of those who cannot and understood.. .. Far at the back enter fully into it and surrender to it. of the auditorium Eugene Mueller's Here we see the evidence of Disch's twelve-year-old son, who had come own struggle towards art over many here in defiance of his father's strict years; Daniel has the insight as well, orders, understood with a rapture but both sees it and misses it. His of understanding, not in gleams and personal obsession is pushing him flashes, but as an architect might away from life and art, even as he understand, in a vision of great rushes towards his life's success. And arching spaces carved by the music all the while prose reveals something from the raw black night; of stately, far beyond flying or singing: perhaps stated, mathematic intervals; of even an image for the novel itself, commodious firm delight. which continues to recreate the effer- Here, I think, is the 'point' of Disch's nescent, indefinable excitement of a novel, if we happen not to have under­ life of the mind which occupies 'this stood it so far: not some neat little instant' while we are reading the book, statement which imprisons the variety and evades petrifaction into formula. of life, but a focal point around which But Daniel's ambitions hurl him the rest of the book can revolve. To onwards. During the debut of Honey­ see the 'arches carved by the music', to bunny Time-. 'Suddenly a switch know the 'commodious firm delight' slipped inside him and a light came on, of art, which takes us beyond our­ about life than he would have learned one bright flash of everlasting glory, selves, to hearthe'diddle-diddle-didd le' in any more comfortable situation. and there was no way to explain it but resolved into moments of music, is Because of the sacrifice, the need to he knew that if he'd been wired into a perhaps the best that life can offer. earn money, becoming Rey's whore, flight apparatus at just that moment Yet (and here we can go forever circling being taught to sing by Rey, he (and the moment was gone already) he through the loops of Disch's meaning, achieves his one worldly success—he would have taken off.' The pathos of as in Grandison Whiting's fairy trap) becomes the inventor and main per­ that parenthesis! Does that moment this understanding has nothing self- former of a new type of bel canto pop, ever return? Daniel seems to approach evident in it. It might come easily to writes his own fabulously successful ever closer to his goal, particularly some people, as flying does to Boa and musical. Honeybunny Time, and has when Boa returns to her body and tells Gus. If it does, it exacts its own his face on the cover of Time magazine. him of the wonders of flying ('Here revenge. It might involve the payment Yet at the end of the novel he has one finds, at most, only a little pleas­ of all one's love and energy—the sacri­ little sense of having achieved anything ure; there, there is only pleasure'). He fice which Daniel makes, the energy —returning to Amesville, Iowa, for the seems poised for flight—but does he which Disch invests in the novel. It is last time, he looks out over his brother- ever achieve it? My own reading of the no proof against anti-art, 'the forces of in-law's backyard with envy: 'The pull­ final two pages does not settle the Caesar', as Daniel calls them. These toy on the sidewalk, the idle water­ matter either way: each reader is left forces fell Daniel eventually. The sprinkler, the modest flower-beds and to adjudicate Disch's meaning, or de­ search is everything, is never over, and their parallelograms of pansies, mari­ cide if Disch turns his head away from always ends in death. But somebody golds, petunias, and bachelor buttons.' meaning. might be out there listening, watching. Events, it seems, have swept him away from all this, but they have not IV yet delivered flight to him. In New But even if Daniel never flew, did he Bruce Gillespie, September 1980 26 Uncommon Writers: 2 A WINDOW ON CREATION

SOME THOUGHTS ON BRIAN W ALDISS' 'REPORT ON PROBABILITY A'

McPharlin

John McPharlin discusses: Report on Probability A by Brian W Aldiss (This novel has stayed in print during most of the years since it appeared first in 1968; most recent edition to hand is: Avon 52498;1980; 144 pp;$US 1.95.)

In the house are Mr and Mrs Mary. piece of mirror, S through his tele­ space continuum by Domoladoss and Outside are G, S, and C. G, the ex­ scope, and C with his home-made Midlakemla. These two are in turn gardener, lives in a wooden one-room periscope. watched and studied, through a rift in summerhouse in the Marys' garden. S, Across the road is a shop run by their own reality, by four Dis- the ex-secretary, lives in the old stable G F Watt, stationer, grocer, draper, tinguishers. In New York, but not the at the bottom of the garden. C, the ex­ cafe and snack-bar proprietor. Although New York of our world, technicians chauffeur, lives in a cramped loft he is involved only peripherally, have breached the continuum of the above the garage. Each of these three through his affair with the Marys' Distinguishers and study them by is aware of the presence of the other maid, he also watches Mrs Mary and means of an electronic surveillance two. All three were once, but not ap­ provides current reports on her move­ device housed in a robot fly. At a parently at the same time, employed ments to each of the three, who fre­ seance, the Wandering Virgin reports in their various capacities by Mr Mary. quent his establishment (at different to ten jurymen on the data being re­ Although each in turn has been sacked, times of the day) without paying for ceived by the technicians. A mani­ they have not left the property. Mr what they receive. Along the street festation of the technicians also Mary seems to be aware of their con­ and on the pavement, people drift by appears, in a warehouse, to two young tinued presence but does, or can do, bearing the wounded parts of injured men and a boy. Holman Hunt's painting nothing to end it. The three share a bicycles. of 'The Hireling Shepherd' appears to common obsession, namely Mrs Mary. These four watchers are the subject be common to all universes, while the G keeps watch on the house in his of a report being read in another time/ artist himself has a variety of parallel 27 identities. Possibly at the centre of be alternative possibilities—a series of that I have ever seen does the book everything, Mrs Mary sits and watches choices, each of which is exclusive of appear! It is only a minor point, how­ them all on her own screen. Nothing the others. In other words, the ever; Low Point X is more of a dry happens. . . . watchers (and, ultimately, the readers) literary joke here, rather than the sym­ For the purposes of the book, Aldiss see not one continuing reality but bol of psychic/emotional depression considers Holman Hunt's painting in separate fragments of a series of dif­ that it became in Barefoot in the Head. terms of failed or paralysed time. The ferent, unstable, but similar realities: Aldiss' interest in Holman Hunt did painting represents a frozen present Probabilities A-Z! The use of the word not end with the publication of this with a real before and after (if only we 'reality' here is at best tentative, since book, and the painter and his works had the means to see them). This idea it is not certain which, if any, parts of reappear from time to time in Aldiss' was also touched upon in Cryptozoic! the whole kaleidoscope are 'real' or own work, most noticeably in the in­ (An Age) ('The Great Victorian Palace') whether some are more or less 'real' credibly tongue-in-cheek 'The Secret and recently in 'The Aperture Mo­ than others. In short, Aldiss has created of Holman Hunt and the Crude Death ment', with the invention of a machine a complex puzzle where no single piece Rate' (New Worlds quarterly, No. 7). which can animate a painting to show is any more important than any other In the beginning, though, there was what happened after the moment it and, despite the convictions of the no 'Probability A'. Brian Aldiss wrote was 'caught'. For Report on Probabi­ watchers, Jeanette Mary is not the a story called 'Garden With Figures' lity A, this machine was not available, 'key'. Reality itself may be only an and apparently could not get it pub­ so the shepherd and the girl remain illusion and Midlakemla's reference to lished. This early version would pre­ static. As an extension of this, the his own world as 'Certainty X' is pre­ sumably have been concerned solely characters in the book (which is also sumptuous in the extreme. with the Marys, G, S, C, and G F Watt an attempt to capture and hold a point The only action which reaches any (George Frederic Watts, with an 's', in time) are just as trapped in the conclusion—that even commences, in was a painter and a contemporary of midst of the moments they inhabit. fact—is the business between the Hunt; another Aldiss jest, I suspect). For them, minutes can pass like hours, pigeon, X (ex-pigeon?), and the cat. As The parallel worlds were subsequently though at times the narrative jumps as Aldiss has hinted years later in 'The added when the story was finally if a film has been run forward (or back­ Aperture Moment', this action more printed in New Worlds 171, and there ward) before stopping to examine properly belongs in 'The Awakening is no knowing what, if anything, may another frame elsewhere. Conscience' rather than 'The Hireling have been excised from the narrative In spite of the merciless observation, Shepherd' and may explain why it is at the same time to keep it down to we learn very little about any of the not subject to the same general para­ the right length for its appearance characters in the book and nothing is lysis here. (The only copies of this there. The added segments, aside from studied at first hand since even G, S, painting that I have seen were very their infinite regression, provide a few and C, right on the Marys' own pro­ poorly reproduced and the area sur­ brief interpretations to the basic narra­ perty, resort to mirrors and lenses in rounding the cat is unclear, so I am tive. They also interfere with what was preference to simply walking up to the taking his word on this point.) One an almost perfect disappearing act by house and viewing it directly. How could also postulate that the destruc­ the author. these three watchers came to be where tion of the pigeon by the cat is sym­ From at least the mid-sixties on­ they are, why Mr Mary allows them to bolic of the effect of the report on life ward, Aldiss has not been content to stay, what their arrangement with G F in 'Certainty X', that it will break sit back and simply produce stories. Watt is, what Mrs Mary's place in all down under the realisation that reality Each book has been an experiment this is, and how all of the other realities is an illusion in the eye of the beholder and a challenge. Report on Probability came to be in contact with one another and that there is no universal certainty. A seems to have been his experiment are just a few of the more major ques- There again, this could be reading too in absence. If the overall concept of ions to which the report does not much into it. the book is one which can be easily address itself. The whole thing is quite Readers familiar with Barefoot in associated with the main body of oblique and it is not even clear who the Head, which was also being pre­ Aldiss' work, the execution of it is wrote the report, although Mr Mary— pared for publication (having appeared almost totally devoid of his usual style who spends much of his time writing— in New Worlds and Impulse as a series and presence. Except for one or two appears to be the most likely candi­ of short stories) at the same time as familiar touches, it is an absolutely im­ date. Report on Probability A was being re­ personal book. He gives more detail on Nor is it clear whether the book is vised for publication by Faber, will be some pages than many authors give in bound to any form of conventional instantly struck by the references to a whole book, yet this welter of detail 'sequence'. At times, each watcher the book Low Point X in Report on also serves to cover up the fact that he seems to repeat himself almost, but Probability A. Low Point X, of which is really telling us very few of the things not quite, exactly. If the chain of S has a paperback copy, is referred to we normally expect to be told in a watchers is cyclic, as is suggested by in several of the descriptions of the novel. We do not even learn the names the fact that Mrs Mary 'sat at her own Holman Hunt painting and a portion of the three main watchers, let alone screen and regarded the cycle of uni­ of 'The Hireling Shepherd' itself has their reasons for their actions or the verses as night closed in', and also by been reproduced on the covers of all outcome of those actions. The novel is the references to the painting of the of the Sphere paperback editions of sparsely seeded with a few insubstan­ two snakes swallowing each other's Report on Probability A. In those tial clues which are left for the reader tail, then it should not surprise that cover reproductions, the book Low to find and make use of as best he can. time is cyclic for each of the watchers. Point X is clearly visible in the paint­ Based on the form of the French However, the underlying nature of the ing, just as the descriptions in the nar­ 'anti-novel', and, in particular, the book is static rather than cyclic, and rative would lead one to expect, but in work of Michel Butor (Passing Time) these apparent repetitions could easily no other reproduction of that painting and Alain Robbe-Grillet (who, at least

28 UP FROM HIS MIDNIGHT BED

in his published film scripts, always re­ fers to his characters by a single letter: A, M, X in Last Year at Marienbad; L, M, N in The Immortal One}, the book emotionlessly catalogues events in the by Damien Broderick same way that it catalogues objects. In the unstable 'Probability A', everything is redescribed and redefined each time it comes into view as if it is something new being seen for the first time Damien Broderick discusses: (which, of course, could be true). For Anatomy of Horror: all we know, the underlying physical The Masters of Occult Fiction properties of the various universes might not be identical, either to our by Glen St John Barclay own or to each other. A milk bottle is (Weidenfeld and Nicolson; 1978; seen to be empty and is later seen to 144 pp; 5 pounds 50/$16.95.) be full. It is not reported that anyone saw it being refilled or replaced with a Literary intellectuals, with the excep­ crypto-lesbian vampires to William P full one, therefore there is not even a tion of the most refined Leavisites, Blatty's The Exorcist, with brief hint in the report that that is what nourish a secret, guilty, solitary vice. synopses, biographical snippets, and might have happened. Throughout, the Somewhere in childhood oradolescence bits of Freud, Plato, and Manicheism. onus is on the readers, as the author they've contracted an infatuation for His intention is set out at the end steadfastly refuses to make any cowboy stories, or wise-cracking of the first chapter, 'The Lure of the assumptions on our behalf. Perhaps thrillers, or space opera, or folk songs Occult', following a string of surprising even something as commonplace as a of the most pitiful banality. Sooner or citations from the Great Works of milkman is unknown in this closely later they break under the strain and Western Lit. observed world and, if so, where does come out of the closet. They celebrate The fact is that many and perhaps that leave us all except out in the their affliction in print—Portnoys of most of the major novelists con­ garden, watching and waiting with the low-life culture. cerned with presenting authentic other voyeurs? Like S, reading through But they feel rotten about it. You visions of the human experience episode three of The Secret of the can tell. Even as they flail about justi­ have felt required to include occult Grey Mill, we will never be told ex­ fying vampires in terms of the oral intrusions as elements of that ex­ plicitly what happens in the next grip­ tradition, a peevish note of censorious perience. ping episode, though we are freer to reproof drones in the background. So occult fiction enthusiasts aren't make our own assumptions and so Kingsley Amis, hardly a literary boot­ necessarily dills. Yet the argument is reach our own conclusions. licker, defended science fiction as a rather thin. So we come to the genre In Report on Probability A, Aldiss sociological sideshow. Fans of the proper: has succeeded in pulling the carpet out action novel tend to do the same. On the other hand, there have been from under his readers and has forced This is not a matter of bad faith. writers who have devoted most or them to fall back on their own imagina­ Taste matures, and even the most even all of their literary output ex­ tion and sense of wonder. It is not an faithful cultural pluralist, doling out clusively to the occult. Most of easy novel to come to grips with, espe­ measures of positive unconditional re­ them have been very bad and very cially for those who prefer to have their gard, has to admit the frailty of genre unimportant, and it is reasonable to fiction spoon-fed to them. The author's writing. To save his self-respect, the assume that their chief motivations absence means that the reader must fan of genre writing is prodded into have been lack of ability to work in make an extra effort if he is going to contortions of indictment and justifica­ any other area of fiction, or the gain anything from his reading. As tion. When these calisthenics are con­ simple desire to make money in the with J G Ballard's 'condensed novels' ducted at book-length, you're some­ easiest possible way, by cultivating and, more recently, Aldiss' own times left wondering if the author their readers' fears or prurience. 'enigmas', it is an attempt to communi­ rushed straight from penning .the final I told you he felt rotten about it. cate more fully by going around the page to incinerate his entire genre Not only are these mainstays of horror narrative rather than straight through library, overcome by disgust and very bad writers, often incapable of it and it can achieve results which are remorse. penning a fresh or even lucid sentence, both more personal and more satisfy­ Dr Barclay is Reader in History at but their efforts are pitched at the ing for the reader, if he or she is pre­ Queensland University, a droll writer beast in us. How, then, can a fan dare pared to meet the author on his own who clearly has a fondness for occult show his face in civilised company, ground. All you have to do is try. stories. This slim volume hurtles across after confessing to a taste for this the modest peaks of English-language prurient tat? But wait— John McPharlin, 1978 horror fiction, from Sheridan Le Fanu's There are still others who by their 29 treatment of occult themes have When he does, his book is sparkling, cheism, the theological view that the somehow managed to create or re­ particularly on the plentiful occasions world is the Devil's creation, or at least vivify legends, or have themselves for flaying bad writing and quirky his demesne; that the Devil is as power­ become legends in their own life­ tricks of the horror trade. Of the ful as God. Certainly there is tension times. They include some of the noxious Dennis Wheatley, he states: here with Wheatley's other conservative most popular and certainly most Wheatley can seriously claim to be values, and the popularity of his books assiduously emulated and plagiarized the greatest living master of the might just therefore 'have a message authors of the past hundred years. cliche. One can find on almost for us'. It is not the Joy of Sex which They are remarkable phenomena in every page whole passages that is doing the permissive society in, but their own right, and as such they might have been assembled by a its non-permissive residue, the Joy of are certainly worth close investiga­ computer, programmed to regurgi­ Cruelty. tion. They might even have a mes­ tate nothing but certified banalities I'm no expert on occult fiction, but sage for us. and he quotes one to make your sinuses I was startled by some omissions. The fan, shivering with wicked ring. Barclay says of The Exorcist that it pleasure in his midnight bed, has be­ [Wheatley] is also unexcelled as an 'would have to be the most obscene come a biographical sociologist, an observer of stocking tops. ... The and revolting book ever written'. (He explorer of the psychology of mass curious reader is referred in particu­ states this with some relish.) Presum­ desire, tinged with a strange hope of lar to Come Into My Parlour (stock­ ably he hasn't read PhilipJose Farmer's illumination from unlikely sources. Of ing tops, murder, Nazis and sadism); trilogy, An Exorcism, published before course every critic shifts into abstrac­ Star of Ill-Omen (stocking tops, Blatty's, which includes castration by tion by virtue of his critical decision, adultery. Communists and flying steel dentures, a phallic symbiont bear­ his detached angle of appraisal rather saucers); Curtain of Fear (stocking ing the shrunken, hungry head of Gilles than involvement. But this is usually tops. Communists and flagellation); de Rais which eats the entrails of hap­ done to get a better grasp on the text, and especially To the Devil—A less fornicators of its hostess, and a not on the ‘remarkable phenomena' of Daughter (stocking tops. Com­ psychiatric checklist of other repulsive the authors and their readers. Admit­ munists and the production of inventions. Barclay might have diffi­ tedly, Dr Barclay's subtitle is 'The homunculi). culty finding redemptive values there. Masters of Occult Fiction', but his main But what Barclay finds most notable title promises to anatomise the writing. about Wheatley is his espousal of Mani­ Damien Broderick, 1978

LANARK by Alisdair Gray (Harper Colophon ON 862; 1981; 561 pp;$US8.95) Lanark is the best science fiction of 1981, 8 point Universe or almost any year. (But is it science fic­ tion?—let others decide that.) Not that you would gain much idea of its originality from a summary of its plot—traveller arrives in This column works much the same as in the last issue: the books I like best are mysterious city; battles the Powers That at the top, and the books I like least are at the bottom. You will have to work Be, traverses long distances and amazing rituals for the sake of True Love to reach a out for yourself which ones you want to read. (Some readers will start their kind of salvation in death; meanwhile we buying at the bottom of my list.) Review in this column does not, as they say, discover his true origins. So much of what I preclude later, lengthier discussion. Indeed, contrary opinions are welcome. would call the diagrammatic content of the book sounds familiar that the reader is hard­ This list does not include reviews of original fiction anthologies; reviews of such ly surprised to find, towards the end of the anthologies will appear later in a separate column. book, a detailed list of all the elements which the author stole from other authors. (But none of them was stolen from science fiction authors.) No, Lanark's originality has little to do with content, but everything to do with attitude and style. As I romped through this book, tasting every delectable page, I kept thinking: 'Why can't sf authors write this well? Why are nearly all of them so much worse than this?' For a start, sf writers are usually trying to prove something. Gray isn't. The whole of life—even if it is the life of a puzzling and unmanageable world—interests Gray. The reader seems to live through the events of the book with the book's main character, Lanark, blow by blow, surprise by surprise. Gray is not trying to remake the world into something 'better', which often seems the aim of modern fan­ tasy writers. Instead, he holds up a distortion mirror to life, and shows that the only dis­ torting factors in the world, even this weird world, are people themselves. Plots and counterplots and endless cruelties and attempted reconciliations guide the erup­ tions in the city of Unthank. Most similar epics in science fiction place their imaginary worlds into a sort of rose- coloured jelly wherein bright little figures

30 swim and perform peculiarly placid fac­ and the success with which he realised that similes of life. Lanark and its world has the commitment. Barefoot in the Head is pre­ cisely the kind of book that could never be opposite effect. About a half the novel tells A Moveable Feast: written in an LSD-bombed world; it is a the story of 'Lanark' before he died in our book seemingly dedicated to the civilised, Recommendations List world—a racy and wonderful account of witty, literate reader. I hope there are enough growing up close to the ground in Glasgow. 1979-1981 (so far) of them around to keep this book in print The main character tended to dip out of for many more years. life, finally committing suicide and finding Same setup as last issue, except that himself on the train arriving in Unthank. (The great discussion of Barefoot in the on this list I have dropped any books The new life has strange horrors which make Head remains John McPharlin's in the Twelfth Anniversary Edition of John Bang- published for the first time in 1978. Lanark respond with ferociousness and an I have added an item only if it was energetic attempt to roll back the disasters sund's Australian Science Fiction Review faced by all this world's inhabitants. The [1978]. ) published for the first time during magic world grinds away at him and kills 1979, 1980, or 1981 (so far). him, remarkably quickly, from old age. But that is only at the end of the book, when a 1 LANARK whole lifetime's events have cascaded Alisdair Gray (Harper Colophon CN around Lanark and the reader. 862; 1981; 561 pp;$US8.95) Gray's style is marvellous—clear, vivid, energetic, funny, angry. The author is not 2 A WOMAN OF THE FUTURE out to prove anything, or even 'make a David Ireland (Allen Lane; 1979; 351 world', but simply to strip off all the layers pp; $A9.95) of illusion and comfort which allow us to 3 ON WINGS OF SONG 'enjoy' life in our own world. Inventions Thomas M Disch (Gollancz; 1979; pour out from every page, so that the reader 315 pp, SA15.95) tumbles along in a current of surprises and 4 BIRTHSTONE enlightenments. D M Thomas (Gollancz; 1980; 160 Read this book, even if you have given up reading all other science fiction books. pp; 6 pounds 50) 5 THE ISLAND OF DOCTOR DEATH BAREFOOT ll\l THE HEAD AND OTHER STORIES AND by Brian W Aldiss (Avon 53561; January OTHER STORIES 1981—original publication 1969; 222 pp; Gene Wolfe (Pocket 82824.X; 1980; SUS2.25) 410 pp; SUS2.95) Well, yes, I think Lanark is a better book 6 OUT THERE WHERE THE BIG than Barefoot in the Head, because Gray SHIPS GO achieves a more complex effect with clear, Richard Cowper (Pocket 83501.7; down-to-earth language than Aldiss does with clotted, pun-filled, wilfully 'difficult' 1980; 191 pp;$US2.50) language. 7 FUNDAMENTAL DISCH But, having said that, I would have to Thomas M Disch (Gollancz; 1980; say that Barefoot in the Head remains asto­ 373 pp; 7 pounds 95) nishingly good, and we can only be grateful 8 RETURN FROM THE STARS to Avon for bringing it back into print. Its Stanislaw Lem (Harcourt Brace ambition and sense of joy lift if far above Jovanovich; 1980; 247 pp;$US8.95) the massed ranks of the science fiction hordes. Indeed, when I read it again a 9 THE FLUTE-PLAYER couple of years ago, I found that it had D M Thomas (Gollancz; 1979; 192 acquired resonances which it did not have in pp; 4 pounds 95) 1969 (or 1967/68, when I read it first as THE ISLAND OF DOCTOR 10 JUNIPER TIME novellas in New Worlds'!. Simon Charteris, Kate Wilhelm (Harper & Row; 1979; seen at first as a psychedelic messiah roam­ DEATH AND OTHER STORIES 280 pp;$US9.95) ing through a Europe wondrously disinte­ AND OTHER STORIES II LADIES FROM HELL grated under the influence of LSD bombs, by Gene Wolfe (Pocket 82824.X;June 1980; Keith Roberts (Gollancz; 1979; 198 turns out to have been a thorough little git 410 pp;$US2.95) pp, SA14.90) all along. He kills at least four people with­ While I was reading this collection, I kept out much of a thought for the morality or saying to myself: 'So that was what that 12 THE YEAR'S FINEST FANTASY, consequences of his actions; sleeps with one story was really all about.' No wonder I Vol. 2 girl, Marta, while his girlfriend, Angeline, have been a halfhearted fan of Gene Wolfe's ed. Terry Carr (Berkley; 1979; 311 the real hero of the book, keeps him alive short fiction through all the years: I had pp, $US1.95) and on the road; and generally learns little completely missed the point of most of 13 NEBULA WINNERS 13 from his adventures. Barefoot in the Head these stories the first time I had read them. ed. Samuel R Delany (Harper & Row; turns out to have been a strong condemna­ These stories must be read a second time to 1980; 239 pp;$US10.95) tion of the psychedelic movement, although squeeze any juice out of them at all. 'Track­ I don't think I have seen this fact men­ 14 EDGES ing Song' seems an aimless survival-in-primi- ed. Ursula K Le Guin and Virginia tioned anywhere. tive-environment story unless one takes When Barefoot in the Head appeared account of the Great Sleigh travelling in its Kidd (Pocket 83532.7; 1980; 239 pp; first, the usual reviews gave the impression path around the world. For some reason, I SUS2.50) that Aldiss was trying to create in words a missed any significance in the image during 15 THE LIVING END world where everyone was high. I’ve al­ first reading. 'The Toy Theatre' is another Stanley Elkin (Dutton; 1979; 148 pp; ways had my suspicions about this theory, story whose ending is clear now, but just SA9.55) especially as people I've known who were made me scratch my head when I first read 16 TIMESCAPE quite often high in 1969 hated the book it. when it first came out. The attraction of Gregory Benford (Gollancz; 1980; Even so, only a liar or a fool (or a genius 412 pp; 7 pounds 95) getting high seemed to be that it simplified or Gene Wolfe) would say that she or he the world; Barefoot in the Head complicates knew what these stories were all about. 17 THE FOUNTAINS OF PARADISE the world (as any good book should) 'Alien Stones' made some sort of pattern in Arthur C Clarke (Gollancz; 1979; and that provided too much hard work for my mind this time around, but even subse­ 255 pp; 4 pounds 95) many readers. Reading the book now, I quent readings have failed to make a pattern 18 INTERFACES• find that Barefoot in the Head really is not which fits in all the clues that are there. The ed. Ursula K Le Guin and Virginia too much hard work to read, provided one captain of the spaceship is called Daw, and Kidd (Ace 37092.6; 1980; 310 pp; is forgiving of puns or can catch them all. he has a sidekick named Wad, who turns out SUS5.95) What stands out, indeed, is the joy of Aldiss' not to exist anyway; the alien spaceship commitment to the possibilities of language. found turns out to be inhabited, although 31 no alien inhabitants are seen; is it possible OUT THERE WHERE THE BIG house ('The Attleborough Poltergeist') and, that the earth ship works much the same more convincingly, a haunted person ('The way, and nobody on it really exists, includ­ SHIPS GO Hertford Manuscript'). 'Drink Me, Fran­ ing .the captain from whose viewpoint the by Richard Cowper (Pocket 83501.7; Octo­ cesca' is very enjoyable, and plays with some story is told? I don't know. The story is told ber 1980; 191 pp;$US2.50) of the notions of 'Big Ships'. 'Paradise in a series of ever more puzzling 'clues', each THE WEB OF THE MAGI AND Beach' is the only real clinker in the bunch. of which adds up to an ending which solves OTHER STORIES FUNDAMENTAL DISCH nothing. I can understand any reader who by Richard Cowper (Gollancz; 1980; 160 pp; feels annoyed by this process; I find such a by Thomas M Disch (Gollancz; 1980; 373 5 pounds 50) pp; 7 pounds 95) story interesting and worth rereading because I had paid little attention to the work of of the clarity and quiet panache of Gene Although I will congratulate Gollancz on Richard Cowper before reading the stories issuing this major collection from the best Wolfe's style. He has one of those fine­ in these volumes. If I didn't know how drawn styles which does not call attention current sf writer, I can't help warning read­ second rate he can be in some of his novels ers to seek out the much cheaper American to itself unless he makes a slip. This happens (especially The Road to Corlay), I would paperback version. (This Gollancz hardcover seldom. now list him as one of my favourite writers. Read The Island of Doctor Death and will be about $24 in Australian currency!) * The two collections do not contain quite I read somewhere that Samuel Delany had Other Stories and Other Stories (which the same stories, but there is enough overlap could have been called The Very Best of actually made this selection; there’s no hint for me to list them together. Out There of this in the Gollancz edition. If it is.true, Gene Wolfe) to re-read such fine pieces as Where the Big Ships Go has the title story, 'The Doctor of Death Island', 'Seven Ameri­ then I would disagree with Delany that 'The Custodians' and 'Paradise Beach' (in some of these stories form part of the can Nights', 'The Eyeflash Miracles', and the English Gollancz The Custodians coWec- 'Hour of Trust' (although I am not sure 'fundamental' Disch. Too many of them are tion, reviewed in SFC 52), and 'The Hert­ from his early period, which ran the gamut where that one was published originally). ford Manuscript' and 'The Web of the Magi’. from sick-joke to slick-horror. These are stories where the patterns fall The Web of the Magi has the title story and A much better collection than this is satisfyingly into some sort of shape, and can 'Big Ships', leaves out the others in the Getting into Death, now eight years old, then be re-read often. Pocket Books collection, and includes and probably unobtainable. If Gollancz h.ad ‘Drink Me, Francesca'and 'The Attleborough merely reprinted that volume, it would have STARSHIP Poltergeist'. presented a much better idea of true Disch. by Brian Aldiss (Avon 55152; Seventh print­ So both collections contain what must A few of the later stories are here in Funda­ ing of the 1969 edition; 224 pp; SUS2.25) be among the very best stories of, respec­ mental Disch, though—enough to make this Aldiss' first novel (under its real name, Non- tively, 1979 ('Out There Where the Big an unmissable collection if you cannot find Stop) still reads very well today. If you Ships Go') and 1980 ('The Web of the the stories elsewhere. I will say nothing want to know what I think about it, read Magi'). 'Out There Where the Big Ships Go' about the great pieces here—'Casablanca', my piece on Aldiss in The Stellar Gauge. is the sort of story which, surely, no author 'Angouleme', 'Bodies', 'The Squirrel Cage', It's enough to say that the real uncertainties would undertake unless he or she felt at the 'The Asian Shore', and 'Getting into Death' of style and tone in this book matter little top of his or her powers. An astronaut —since I have said such things much better when compared with the grandeur of the returns to earth from the stars with the literary construction of the starship and elsewhere (either in the Magill Survey of Secret of the Universe. It is a game called Science Fiction, volume 5, or in SFC41 /42). the impelling quality of the adventures of kalire. Everybody plays it. Under its influ­ Complain and his companions. Starship has Disch is a great American writer who hap­ ence, the people of the world begin to repair pens to write bits which we call science fic­ perhaps the most vivid final image in science the debilitating damage they have inflicted tion; it is a pity that this book is only a re­ fiction. upon themselves during the twentieth and presentative cross-section of his work, in­ twenty-first centuries. A twelve-year-old stead of a Best of the Best. THE LATHE OF HEAVEN boy, Roger Herzheim, meets the astronaut by Ursula K Le Guin (Avon 43547; 1971 — who brought back the game, Peter Hender­ eighth printing; 175 pp;$US1.95) RETURN FROM THE STARS son. He has become the Master of the Game, by Stanislaw Lem (Harcourt Brace Jovano- I re-read The Lathe of Heaven recently be­ and has never been beaten. Henderson vich; 1980; original publication 1961 as cause I was able to see The Television Lab­ conveys a few cryptic words to Roger, his Powrot z gwiazd in Polish; translation by oratory's film production. I won't discuss young fan, including a description of what it Barbara Marszal and Frank Simpson; 247 pp; that film here, except to say that I enjoyed was like to meet the alien race which gave $US8.95) it very much. However, some aspects of the Earth the game of kalire. Roger ponders the It is very hard to gain much idea of the de­ story were left unclear in the film, and I Master's notions of reality, and. . . . Well, I velopment of Stanislaw Lem's work, since wanted to see if Ursula Le Guin had got won't tell you the delicious ending. It is his books have appeared in English very them wrong in the first place. She hadn't. I only after finishing the story that you much out of order. Return from the Stars, think she runs a bit close to the wind in realise just how many elements have been for instance, comes from the period of having not only Orr, but also Haber and juggled in it, and brought back to a satisfy­ Solaris, which is a much more interesting Lelache, realising that Orr's dreams are ing finale. book. But if you forget about the hovering effective. I know it's essential to the story Not that Cowper's main concern is with shadow of Solaris, Return from the Stars is that Haber realises what is happening, but a bunch of tricks. He is concerned with the a very fine book. Its underlying story be­ the explanation (that these people are closest question: how best can humanity live? how gins much like that of George^ Turner's to the centre of the worldchange, and could we be persuaded out of the current Beloved Son. The traveller from the stars therefore perceive the change) is shaky. push towards mass suicide? One doesn't finds a world changed almost unrecognis­ Well, okay, you notice things like that really believe the 'solutions' in 'Out There ably since his departure. Nobody welcomes the second time through. Much more impor­ Where the Big Ships Go', if only because it him home or is much interested in his exis- ,e tantly, you realise just how complex and looks as if no astronaut ever will reach the tence when he arrives back on Earth. To wonderful is the whole conception of The alien stars. What are we left with? The give a sense of disorientation, Lem depends Lathe of Heaven. In some of the world conclusion of 'The Custodians', I'm afraid. very much on a skilful description of the changes, great reality leaps take place. These That's a bleak story, but very well done, and strange architecture of the city in which the were rendered particularly well in the film. worth reading again. astronaut finds himself. Only gradually does But towards the end of the story—where the There's quite an element of mysticism in Hal Bregg realise how different are the social film gives up following the twists of Le 'Out There Where the Big Ships Go'. This Guin's thought—subtle and delightful assumptions of this world from the one he mysticism is extended into a satisfyingly left. Thus the tone of Lem's book is rather changes are shown indirectly. Le Guin really full-blooded adventure in 'The Web of the does unravel reality, at least according to different from that in Turner's. The Magi'. A traveller in Lost Horizon country returned astronauts in Beloved Son are out­ her Taoist conception of it. The film in the nineteenth century meets his own messes up the ending of the book—all Orr raged by the political setup on the world destiny in the form of the pattern in the had to do was press that little button, they return to; Lem's astronaut realises that loom. Lots of exciting and mysterious mind- instead of dance around in a lightshow. he can never understand the setup at all. boggling here, and I can't think of anything These people seem completely complacent- from the past couple of years that doesn't inhabitants of a utopia and knowing it. seem anaemic compared with it. Bregg finds in this eerie, impersonal world Most of the other stories in these collec­ merely a reflection of the emptiness he tions let Cowper have fun with his yen for knew among the uninhabited stars he the English antiquarian. There's a haunted visited.

32 Return from the Stars is a sombre book, out to be funded by the military and to have luded fools in the past would stave off lacking the brio which, say, a Thomas Disch sinister purposes. Situation turns nightmar­ world disaster? How would you really do it? might have brought to the same subject ish, and the protagonist is faced with terri­ Benford has obviously thought out the matter. But it's worth a ponder, and a fying facts about a social setup whidh seems whole problem for some years, and then second perusal. charmingly civilised on the surface. constructed a way to tell the story of this In 'Somerset Dreams', Kate Wilhelm's experiment. He succeeds, but I think the LADIES FROM HELL best piece of short fiction, the main charac­ book could have been still better. Benford by Keith Roberts (Gollancz; 1979; 198 pp; ter becomes, without quite realising it, part tells two stories. In 1962 we meet Gordon 5 pounds 95;$A14.90) of some dangerous dream research. The Bernstein, whose experiments are blitzed by I suspect that I keep insulting Keith Roberts trouble is that she is visiting her old home unaccountable interference patterns. For by forgetting about him altogether when I town during this time, and the unsettling reasons which Benford makes plausible, make mental lists of my favourite sf writers effects of the research become mixed up Bernstein works out that these patterns are and stories. Roberts' stories during the 1970s with bizarre discomfort she feels at revisit­ messages from the future of earth, sent by have been almost uniformly interesting, and ing the small town she should have stayed tachyons across time-space. In 1998, be­ five of his best recent pieces appear in this away from. The ingredients combine into leaguered scientists are trying to send the collection. My favourite story here is 'The a marvellous recipe of ghostly horror which messages, realising that they will never know Shack at Great Cross Halt’ (from New Writ­ creeps up on the reader. (My long review of if they succeeded. If they succeed, the ings 30), which gives a marvellously claustro­ this story was in SF Commentary 21 in world will be different from theirs, and with phobic impression of what it could be 1971. It's interesting that in a vast general any luck it will be less disaster-ridden. like when things really do fall apart in Bri­ anthology of some years ago, Science Fic­ Benford tries to put a lot of effort into tain. The story tells of people living in com­ tion Argosy, edited by Damon Knight, Characterisation, but Science wins every plete poverty and social isolation, hoping 'Somerset Dreams' was the best story among time. The only character who interested me that occasional goodies drop from the sides a group which included many pieces of much was the unscrupulous yet amiable of vast, never-stopping trucks. This is partly short fiction and two famous sf novels.) rake, Ian Peterson. All the other characters an adventure story, and partly the tale of a 'The Encounter' is another story which I are ultra-nice, and are given soggy dialogue single attempt to form some human com­ remember with some pleasure from its ori­ by Benford. Probably the most authentic munication in circumstances which make ginal appearance in Orbit. On one level it is sections are, as other reviewers have noted, such an attempt seem foolhardy. a psychological horror story; on a more im­ those which show scientists in action. This is 'The Ministry of Children' is a gritty mediate level it is a standard horror story of Benford's world, and he gives us a fascinat­ account of bullying and violence in Keith being trapped, in the rqiddle of a fierce ing tour of it. Roberts' version of The Terrible Things snowstorm, in a bus station office where the That Are Happening In Our Schools. The thermostat is not working properly. Wil­ THE FOUNTAINS OF story is mainly memorable for its hero. helm does this sort of thing much better PARADISE 'The Big Fans' is a nice blend of the than the writers who usually contribute to by Arthur C Clarke (Gollancz; 1979; 255 English pastoral story (as permanently Whispers and Shadows. pp; 4 pounds 95) shaped by the late John Wyndham), Alan 'Mrs Bagley Goes to Mars' is a wonderful This is a book which I enjoyed thoroughly, Garnerish earth magic, and possibilities fantasy about Mrs Bagley, who escapes from although I thought I would hate it. I dis­ for alternate technology. Roberts' prose is this world by going off to Mars every now liked Imperial Earth intensely, and thought fine, clear, and robust, and so he writes this and again. Truly. Clarke must have lost his grip altogether kind of adventure story much better than Other stories are 'Planet Story', 'Sym­ when he wrote that. Well, Clarke has not most of American writers. Roberts does biosis', 'Ladies and Gentlemen, This Is Your lost his grip. If Clarke really intends to end not, for instance, load the story with piles Crisis' (not recommended—Wilhelm is not his writing career with this book, it's a fine of ponderous explanatory bullshit—weird good on overt Message Stories), 'The finale. (And it won him a Hugo.) things just happen, and that’s the way I like Hounds', and 'State of Grace'. Somerset Not that there isn't a lot in any Clarke it. Dreams and Other Fictions is not quite a novel to make one choke with disbelief. It's Come to think of it, Roberts is probably 'best of' collection, but comes close. not so much his optimism about the future a better writer than, say, Richard Cowper. of the world that is ridiculous, but the fairy­ It's just that I happen to like Cowper's most tale scenario by which he justifies this opti­ recent short fiction very much indeed. mism. Oh well, I kept telling myself, it's Roberts is a guaranteed Good Read. (The Clarke's prerogative to wave a magic wand­ other two stories are 'Our Lady of Despera­ now let him produce the real magic tricks. tion’ and 'Missa Privata'.) And he does, of course, without really SOMERSET DREAMS AND | disguising the fact that he is dealing with magic. I don't really believe in the 'Space OTHER FICTIONS | Elevator' stretching from the surface of the by Kate Wilhelm (Harper & Row; 1978; 174 earth to freefall space. Even after Clarke de­ pp;$US8.95) | scribes its construction, I cannot believe in I've been meaning to give this a full-length o it—but I can see it being built. The Foun­ review for some years now. I've never found a- tains of Paradise takes over the reader and the time to do the work that such a review o takes him through the struggles of the would involve. (I have done most of the o mastermind of the project, Vannevar Mor­ work for a full-length review of Wilhelm's £ gan, as slow successes raise the tower. The novel. Juniper Time, but I’ve never quite fact that Morgan is willing to sacrifice him­ had the time to finish that, either.) GREGORY BENFORD self for his project gives a strength to the So: a short review. ending of the book which it might not have There are two Kate Wilhelms. One is TIMESCAPE had. the writer of dreary domestic-spats-with- by Gregory Benford (Gollancz; 1980; 412 But in Clarke's world people and their science-fiction-added-extras. Dialogue from pp; 7 pounds 95) problems do not really matter, as many these stories usually sounds like that in Timescape seems to be held in awe by many commentators have shown. What matters television situation comedies. These do not members of the sf community, and even is the image: firstly of Taprobane (a slight­ form the major part of Wilhelm's work, but Tom Disch is quite struck by it (see else­ ly fictionalised Sri Lanka) and its moun­ they are pretty ghastly when they turn up. where in this issue). Well, I was caught up tainous 'fountains of paradise', and then of The other Kate Wilhelm is the creator of in it as well, but I couldn't help feeling that the space elevator itself. (Barry Bayley has stories which can most crudely be described it was a little . . . dare I say it? . . . dull. It an excellent review of The Fountains of as domestic ghost stories or, perhaps, was about 150 pages too long, I suspect. Paradise in Arena 11, November 1980.) domestic horror stories. I call them 'domes­ Benford's story is basically taut and terrific, tic' not because they remind one of the but the author takes much too long to tell AN INFINITE SUMMER kitchen sink, but because the unsettling cir­ it. by Christopher Priest (Faber & Faber; 1979; cumstances in them are always so uncom­ You probably know the thrust of the 208 pp; 5 pounds 25/$A17.95) fortably those of the 'ordinary' American. story already. Basing your research on cur­ This is not a review of An Infinite Summer, Often these tales involve the occupation of rent ideas about time and energy, how a collection of novellas by Christopher the protagonist, usually a rather prosaic would you send a message from the future Priest. If I were to review this book, I would job in the sciences. Scientific research turns to the past, in the hope that the poor de­ take a week or two to read the stories again

33 thoroughly, take notes, and write an essay Their victory is ambiguous—or is it too mental or awkward than one expects from of not less than 2000 words. I don't have hopeful and neat for some readers? Maybe. Leiber; maybe that's why the voters liked time to do what I should do, so I will do the I finished the book feeling that I had under­ them better than his really great pieces. next best thing, and recommend this book. gone an ordeal with the characters, an Apart from The Big Time, take your choice I'm not sure whether I recommend this ordeal whose effect was not easily assimi­ from among ‘Ship of Shadows', 'Catch That book completely, since I’m not sure that lated or classified. Zeppelin!', 'Gonna Roll the Bones', 'III Met Chris Priest hasn't become too hooked on I doubt whether Ursula Le Guin has in Lankhmar', and 'Belsen Express'. ('Ill Met puzzlement and ambiguity even for my made any great stride forward in The Begin­ in Lankhmar' is by far the least interesting taste. But his images are memorable (ie, I ning Place, but its publication certainly of the Fafhrd and Gray Mouser stories; why remember them, even though it is some announces that she has resumed her literary it won a Hugo I can never guess.) years since I have read most of these stories). Long March. And Chris's prose is a great pleasure to read: no raising of the voice, no tedious VALIS explanations; and a refreshing confidence in by Philip K Dick (Bantam 14156.2; February the reader's ability to take rigorous mental 1981; 227 pp; SUS2.25) journeys. The ghostly London of 'An Infi­ What can I say about Valis? That poor ole nite Summer' is still vivid to me, as is the Phil Dick has finally gone loony altogether? THE quiet terror of 'Whores', the doomed near That Phil Dick has finally produced a piece meetings of 'Palely Loitering', the fierce of the autobiography begun in the pages of frontier of 'The Negation', and the suffocat­ this and other fanzines nearly a decade ago? SHADOW ing obsessions of the main character of 'The That Philip K Dick has produced a synthesis Watched'. One day I'll review these proper­ of mystical literature that everybody of a OF THE ly, for my own enjoyment at least. mystical bent should read? That Phil Dick has written a spotty novel, seemingly TORTURER autobiographical for half its length, wildly UK54W K.LEW1 fictional for the other half of its length, and BYGENE WOLFE just a bit tedious all the way through (ex­ cept when it is funny)? All these things could be said, and pro­ bably have been. I'm not sure, since nobody seems to be doing interesting book reviews for the fanzines anymore. These are some of the shades of opinion I've picked up from talking to Phil Dick fans (and detractors) around Melbourne. My own guess is that Dick set out to write a wholly autobiographical novel, which includes extracts from the many ancient writers he was studying during the early 1970s. Halfway through, his more reliable instincts took over, and Valis takes on some of the pain and zaniness of Dick's best fiction. Valis does not work wholly as a novel, or as autobiography, but it's very funny in places, and tells you more about life in California than you would really want to know. (I just hope Phil Dick's friends THE BEGINNING PLACE don't start a party trick of shining a pink by Ursula K Le Guin (Harper & Row; 1980; light in his eyes.) 183 pp;$US8.95) THE SHADOW OF THE THRESHOLD HELL'S PAVEMENT TORTURER by Ursula K Le Guin (Gollancz; 1980; 183 by Damon Knight (Avon 52381; September (Subtitle: Volume One of The Book of the pp; 5 pounds 50) 1980—original publication 1955; 191 pp; New Sun) I've put off reviewing this book, I must con­ SUS1.95) by Gene Wolfe (Simon and Schuster, 1980; fess. When I read it, I thought it was a To be honest, I cannot remember quite how 303 pp;$US11.95) 'return to form' for an author who seemed good this book is. It's at least fifteen years If you've read my note on The Island of to me to have lost her way after the great since I read it. What I remember is an atmo­ Doctor Death and Other Stories and Other success of The Dispossessed. (Not quite; I sphere which is as paranoid and intense as Stories, you will realise that I've become thought Very Far Away From Anywhere most of middle-rank Phil Dick, and a plot so very wary of making any judgments about Else was very enjoyable, but it seems to crazy and involuted that you cannot even the work of Gene Wolfe, especially after have faded from sight.) ask if it makes sense by the end of the book. reading a story or novel only once. I've read But a bewildering number of other Knight, at his best, has a whip-crack style The Shadow of the Torturer only once. readers—those I get to speak to—disagree which lifts this book above any of the pro­ Good sense tells me to wait until the four with my opinion and vigorously dislike The ductions of Van Vogt (with whom compari­ books of the series, The Book of the New Beginning Place (Threshold in England). I sons might be made). I know I should have Sun, are released before reading it again. think I can see why. There is an uneasy shift read it again, but I didn't have time; but Even better sense tells me not to say a word between the realistic first section, when Hell's Pavement does stay in the memory as about the first volume until I've read it a we meet both the main characters, and the having been a satisfying book to read. Not second time. fantasy world of the main part of the book. many others do. Be blowed to good sense. I have to re­ This seemed intentional to me. Le Guin port that, so far at least. I'm pretty dis­ makes herself fairly clear in the essays of SHIP OF SHADOWS appointed with The Book of the New Sun, The Language of the Night: we need some by Fritz Leiber (Gollancz; 1979; 253 pp; if The Shadow of the Torturer is any guide way to grasp at our fantasy life. These two 6 pounds 95) to the whole. Acquaintances of mine who characters search for the key to their own This collection is less interesting than it were looking forward eagerly to this book lives until they pass out of our 'realistic' might have been. From the blurb: 'This were also feeling let down. So far, I can see world into one which has more meaning to special new collection brings together all why no reason for thinking that Gene Wolfe them. Le Guin's assertion, both in essays [Fritz Leiber’s] award-winning stories, with has anything to add to the rather gimcrack through the years, and metaphorically in the exception of the long novel The Wan­ genre of heroic fantasy. I just cannot see this novel, is that our fantasy lives are not derer-three stories, two novellas and one why he wrote the book. Admittedly, this is easier places to inhabit than so-called realis­ complete novel (The Big Time}.' It's a good more difficult to read than most books in tic worlds. The two main characters of The marketing idea, but hardly presents the best the genre, but a high level of difficulty does Beginning Place are faced with a task which of Leiber's work. In fact, of the pieces in not guarantee equal quality. But the basis seems impossible because of the magic here. The Big Time is the only one I really of the plot is just another heroic quest forces which are crushing the fantasy world. like. Most of the others are more senti­ across dangerous territory. The Shadow of 34 the Torturer is a bit hard to take, because proved them wrong often enough), I may no and the complex naivety of the space pilot. the main character has only just left the city longer be in Aldiss' audience. They become separated by inevitable fate; of his origin when the first book ends! Slow the scene in which this becomes apparent is stuff, and I could not get really interested in THE DREAMING DRAGONS one of the most memorable in science fic­ all the bits and pieces which slowdown the by Damien Broderick tion (but did not cure me of bathing in book. (Pocket 83150.X; November 1980; 224 pp; swimming pools). But I'm willing to admit I'm wrong if, SUS2.25) 'Wings’ and 'Of Mist, and Grass, and after the fourth book in the series appears, (Penguin Australia 14 005823; July 1981; Sand' are the other stories which I like very some vast, intricate, and wonderful plan is 245 pp, $A4.50) much. I would have placed this volume revealed. Gene Wolfe has done this sort of A short note just to mention that the two higher on the list if only I did not have a thing before. Maybe he'll do it again. I will paperback editions of The Dreaming strong memory that Vonda's early stories just have to wait and see. Dragons, reviewed elsewhere in this issue, were very much beginner's pieces, and have appeared. should have been left by the wayside. What LIFE IN THE WEST The Pocket Books edition, because of the hell—the best three stories in the book by Brian W Aldiss (Weidenfeld and Nicol- negotiations too complex to describe, is justify buying it; read the rest of the stories son; 1980; 310 pp;$A19.95) actually the original edition, and Norstrilia's to find out where Vonda McIntyre came Reviewing this book poses great difficulties the British Commonwealth hardback reprint. from, not where she's going. for me. What happens when one has re­ In turn, the Penguin edition is the Austra­ (A splendid review of this book appeared tained links of friendship with an author, lian paperback. The Pocket Books edition in F&SF, June 1980. The review was by and by and large one has liked his writing— has an okay cover, and the Penguin edition Thomas M Disch. I suspect it would be and along comes a book with which the has a dreadfully literal cover (ie, of a worth a lifetime of devotion to writing author is very pleased, and about which the dragony creature) by the usually okay Mari­ science fiction if one thought that some­ reviewer has nothing but doubts? Some­ lyn Pride. I think Penguin should have used where along the way there was a possibility times the reviewer chickens out altogether, Grant Gittus' marvellous cover from the of having one's work reviewed by Tom and never discusses the book. (That is what Norstrilia edition. Disch.) I was going to do.) My doubts about the book would echo But, damn it, I do have reasonable those of Rowena Cory in her review. For A ROBERT SILVERBERG doubts about Life in the West, and I suspect instance, I just did not understand the Big that, in writing the following sentences, I OMNIBUS Explanation at the end of the book. I will be expressing doubts held by other ad­ (includes: The Man in the Maze, Nightwings, thought I would find out the secret from mirers of Aldiss' earlier work. Downward to the Earth) the author; this happened, but I maintained Life in the West is not precisely a science by Robert Silverberg (Harper & Row; March that the vital clues are not there in print. fiction novel. I suppose you could call it a 1981, 544 pp;$US14.95) speculative fiction novel which happens to Still, as Eric Lindsay says in the latest issue I haven't read these books for a long time, be set during the late 1970s. its main of Gegenschein: 'I can picture Damien sit­ but my recollection is that The Man in the character is Thomas C Squire, whose finan­ ting plotting to write a superscience novel, Maze is the most easily enjoyed of all Silver- in the grand tradition, no so much for the cial circumstances are comfortable, and berg's novels, and that Downward to the sake of the story, or even the sale . . ., but whose penchant is for globe-trotting. The Earth, as both a tribute to Heart of Dark­ just to prove he could write it, as a fun book tells us much of the thoughts of ness and a piece of Silverbergian mysticism, thing, and get away with it being taken Thomas C Squire, who proves to be an intel­ works fairly well. Both books lack the hys­ seriously.' Well, it is fun—a sizzling, spirited terical over-writing which came to dominate lectual lightweight (creator of the TV docu­ book, and nobody has shown much sign yet mentary series, Frankenstein Among the all the books which Silverberg later regarded of taking it too seriously. Arts), snob, boring upper-middle-class right­ as his 'important works'. winger, and blamer of everybody but him­ Nightwings is ponderous and portentous, and completely lacks the humour and verbal self for his marital difficulties. In short, he DISPLACED PERSON dexterity of, say. Jack Vance (whose similar is as unpleasant a character as you will find by Lee Harding (Penguin 14 00.5822; 1981 book. The Last Castle, was also very dull). in any English novel of the last forty or —original publication 1979; 138 pp;$A3.50) I find it hard to believe that you cannot fifty years. The trouble with Life in the Here is the Australian Penguin edition of find cheaper editions of these books some­ West is that it is not clear whether or not Displaced Person, and it should do well for where, if only on a secondhand book bin. Aldiss is satirising Squire or not. Satire, even Lee, despite the cover. My own doubts But if you cannot, this is pretty good value, downright contempt, seems the only proper about the book remain, mainly about the at an average $5 per book. (Come to think response. But Aldiss reports Squire's rant- first section before the main character dips of it, new British paperback editions of ings and opinions fairly straight. Sometimes out of the 'real' world. The section set in a shadowy St Kilda is rather different, and is these books will probably cost more than Squire gets over-excited about something or $5 each.) other, and causes no end of trouble. In these sufficiently spooky and imaginative for one passages it is clear that Aldiss is distancing to get a bit annoyed at the story-teller's con­ Perhaps I should mention the following himself from Squire. In other chapters, we tinued insistence on the Horror Of It All. sent to me as review copies recently: see Squire undergoing a genuine dilemma— As I said in a recent SFC, the reader gets to THE MAN IN THE MAZE whether to take a former companion from know St Kilda quite well—but a St Kilda (Avon 38539; February 1969—third print­ World War II days at face value or face the quite unlike that in any other book. ing; 192 pp;$US1.50) possibility that his Yugoslavian warrior I suppose I should mention (again) that Displaced Person won the Australian Child­ DOWNWARD TO THE EARTH friend is planning his 'accidental' murder (Gollancz; 1977; 190 pp; 3 pounds 95) during an inernational conference. Because ren's Book Award 1980. Penguin fails to mention this on the cover. (Popular Library 425.03952; 1979; 181 pp; of his deftness in understanding the situa­ $US1.95) tion, Squire comes out of it well. He does not come out of his marriage (or unmarriag- FIREFLOOD AND OTHER THE GREAT ing) situation at all well. Here in particular STORIES the reader feels uncomfortable with this by Vonda N McIntyre SCIENCE FICTION SERIES smooth man-monster. A similar character, (Gollancz; 1980; 281 pp; 5 pounds 95) edited by Frederik Pohl, Martin Harry Boden land in Frankenstein Unbound, was (Timescape 83631.5; March 1981—original Greenberg, Joseph Olander (Harper & Row; shown as ,a monster; in Life in the West, Houghton Mifflin edition 1979; 237 pp; December 1980; 419 pp; $US16.95) Aldiss seems'to endorse Squire's most ob­ SUS2.75) Harper and Row seems to have gone for this jectionable attitudes and characteristics. I'm not reviewing this book in detail because sort of book quite a bit recently. The Great As George Turner has pointed out, the there are still some stories I have not read, Science Fiction Series is not designed for sf style and the architecture of the novel show or some stories from near the beginning of readers at all. If you are any sort of an sf many aspects of the Aldiss the novelist at Vonda McIntyre's career which I cannot re­ reader, you know all these series backwards his best. But doubts about the main charac­ member too well. When she is good she is anyway. It seems designed for one of the ter, about everything that is central to the very very good. I cite 'Aztecs', which I have many science fiction courses which have novel, make me wonder whether or not read several times. It works very much in grown up in USA and Canada. (Every now Aldiss has fallen into the trap (a /a Amis or the way I like stories to work: as a series of and again I hear rumours of such courses Burgess) of delivering the Big Performance, intense personal encounters. The lady who here as well.) In turn, it is hardly suitable and not a really interesting novel. A Big Per­ can go out into space, and her lover who for the kind of course where your teacher is formance, of course, has a target audience. forever cannot come alive very convincingly: an sf enthusiast from way back, and any­ If my suspicions are correct (and Aldiss has the opportunistic sly optimism of the lover way, the kids have read more than the 35 teacher. No, it's a book for the kind of now (although not the book reputed to be Aldiss stretched his scope beyond that of people, both teachers and students, who the best, His Master's Voice). Of all the the model novel in Frankenstein Unbound. 'would rather like to try' science fiction, works to appear during the last decade. In Moreau's Other Island, he produces a and don't yet have a map. Tales of Pirx the Pilot is the book least narrative which is noticeably less subtle and That all sounds carping, especially since worth translating. In fact, the stories read complex than the original. Aldiss’ tribute to this is a good map for the uninitiated, and so much like beginner's pieces that I'm won­ Wells remains 'The Saliva Tree'; Moreau's has some nice new things for the sf reader. dering why Lem allowed them to be col­ Other Island would be an insult if I did not For instance, here is one of the stories that lected in the first place. know that it was meant otherwise. One eventually became Hothouse /The Long Not that the basic notion for the stories waits while reading the book for Aldiss to Afternoon of the Earth), as well as Brian isn't a good one. Pirx is the ordinary guy do something with the long-familiar island Aldiss' account of how he came to write who happens to be a space pilot. He muddles and its inhabitants—and he doesn't. He that best of all his works. (He did tell a along, and somehow solves problems. He's places the events in the near future, and has much better version of the story at Unicon no superhero, but he has none of the shine one nice twist on the whole plot. But IV here in Melbourne, but probably that of divine madness of Trurl and Klapaucius nothing else. Um ... I suppose even Aldiss version was libellous.) Ballard on the Ver­ (The Cyberiad). He is only as interesting as must crash sometimes. milion Sands series is worth having as well; the stories he appears in, and most of them as is Arthur Clarke on the White Hart series. are dull, one-line jokes stretched out beyond THE ROAD TO CORLAY All the great series are represented: that's the reader's interest. 'The Conditioned Re­ by Richard Cowper the strength of the book. If it has a major flex' is the best story. Pirx must find out (Gollancz; 1978; 158 pp; 3 pounds 95/ weakness, it is that sometimes the story why an accident happened in an observer SA10.70) picked to represent a series is not the best station on the dark side of the Moon. When (Pocket 82917.3; September 1979; 239 pp; available. If I had been Messrs Pohl, Green­ he arrives at the abandoned station, the SUS1.95) berg, and Olander, I would have picked same things start happening to him as (so As you might guess from the pagination, the 'The Cage of Sand' instead of 'The Cloud- the records say) finished off his predecessors. Gollancz edition of this contains only the Sculptors of Coral D' to give the best idea The answer to the puzzle is a nice gimmick— novel, The Road to Corlay. Instead of buy­ of the atmosphere of Vermilion Sands. I can but Lem uses it again in 'On Patrol'! 'Termi­ ing that, you would do better to search out think of better People stories than 'Ararat', nus' has at least one haunting image (the the American Pocket Books edition (in­ better Berserker stories than 'Sign of the doomed robot in the bowels of the elderly cludes 'Piper at the Gates of Dawn'). This is Wolf', and (perhaps) better Instrumentality spaceship), but Lem's telling of the story a novella set in a future England which has stories than 'The Game of Rat and Dragon'. has little of the assurance of such novels as retreated back to feudalism (ho hum). A But, to spoil my argument, here's 'No Solaris and Return from the Stars. child prophet arises, and of course he is Great Magic', not only the best of the Collect this book if you are, like me, a doomed. As such, that story was pedestrian, Change War stories, but one of my Top 10 Lem completist. Because I am such a per­ but Cowper was able to bring alive the boy SF Stories of All Time, and worth having son, I am annoyed that I have never been and his whole world, and make his situation the book for if you can't find the story any­ able to obtain Mortal Engines, the last Lem real. This tale about miracles is itself some­ where else. book which Seabury published. No copy thing of a miracle, striking a light from Still, the interest for the sf reader will seems ever to have escaped the publisher's soggy wood. not be stories, usually obtainable elsewhere, offices, let alone landed in Australia. (I'll The Road to Corlayl I must admit I can but the anecdotes which the authors tell to even pay real money for a copy, if some­ remember almost nothing about it, and that introduce their series. body wants to sell.) first reading was only a few months ago. There was a lot of chasing around between THE GARDENS OF DELIGHT NEANDERTHAL PLANET islands, if I remember correctly, but not by Ian Watson (Gollancz Fantasy;1980; 176 by Brian Aldiss (Avon 54197; 1981—origi­ much else. Certainly nothing I would associ­ pp; 6 pounds 95) nal edition 1969; 192 pp;$US2.25) ate with the Richard Cowper who wrote 'Out Once I was an ardent fan of Ian Watson's In 1969 I reviewed a collection of Brian There Where the Big Ships Go' and 'The writing. The Embedding inspired in me so Aldiss' short stories for SEC. The collection Web of the Magi'. many rapturous and fine thoughts that I was called Intangibles Inc, and I gave a very The cover of the Pocket Books edition is put off reviewing the book for years because favourable notice to some of those stories. very pleasant to look at. I thought I could never do justice to it. Who When the collection appeared in USA, most knows? Perhaps I couldn't have; I never of the good stories were left out, one MIRACLE VISITORS quite got around to the review. My admira­ dreary piece, 'Danger, Religion!' included, by Ian Watson (Gollancz, 1978; 239 pp; 4 tion held through Watson's next two books, and the result was called Neanderthal Planet. pounds 95) with some qualifications. But I was really All the stories here are primitive Aldiss, Cy Chauvin has already done justice (execu­ looking forward to his recent batch of except for 'Since the Assassination' which, tion as most fitting justice) to Miracle Visi­ books. After reading The Gardens of Delight although it did not appear in Moorcock's tors elsewhere in this issue of SFC. If any­ and Miracle Visitors (see below). I'm not New Worlds, was one of the best Aldiss thing he has been too kind to the book. sure whether I want to read any more of his stories from the New Wave period. Not that Miracle Visitors makes it so clear that Ian novels. its style is particularly difficult, but it is Watson has come to mistake the form of the In The Gardens of Delight, Ian Watson filled with a gloomy Gothic air centred novel for the shape of a soapbox. People tell has his astronauts land on a planet whose around people who have become out of each other the most preposterous theories geography mirrors the images in Bosch's time with the world around them. (It's for page after page, without any sense that painting, 'The Garden of Heavenly Delights'. much the same gimmick as in 'Man in His these theories mean anything to the people The astronauts travel around this world, Time'; Aldiss simply shows you how to get a delivering the lectures or the people in­ which includes quite a few hellish delights lot more out of almost any idea.) I cannot volved in the adventures. Only a few of the as well. The novel is set out like a dia­ recommend Neanderthal Planet unless you events have any striking images. The ride to gram . . . and that's all there is to it. Watson cannot obtain 'Since the Assassination'. I the moon in a gravityless car has some amus­ does not even leave you the fun of working suspect, however, that a recent re-release of ing moments, but by the end of the book out what all the pieces of this world repre­ Intangibles Inc is available in a British we are not even sure that that happened. sent. He tells you—in long and tediousdetail. edition. That is worth buying. Perhaps the real trouble is that nobody—not Apart from a few striking images, there is even Ian Watson or Steven Spielberg—will almost nothing which I would call novelistic MOREAU'S OTHER ISLAND ever interest me in UFOs. at all. There are no real characters, and al­ by Brian Aldiss (Jonathan Cape; 1980; 174 most no surprises. Watson's explanations pp; 4 pounds 95/$A13.40) THE LUCK OF BRIN'S FIVE take up most of the space of the book. Not Moreau's Other Island is not a disappoint­ by Cherry Wilder (Pocket 41637.5; 1981 — that the explanations have any originality, ment like Life in the West—it is simply a originally published 1977; 219 pp,$US2.50) they all seem to be pop versions of anything bomb, such a total failure that some people No, I am not reviewing this book yet again. from Freud to alchemy. who usually do not like Aldiss' books might But I will mention that this is a new printing get a charge out of it. I don’t find it easy to of the Pocket Books edition, that the pages TALES OF PIRX THE PILOT say why it is a failure, though, since it seems missing from the earlier Pocket Books edi­ by Stanislaw Lem (Harcourt, Brace, Jovano- to have been written at about the same time tion have been restored, and that the new vich; 1979—original Polish publication, as as Frankenstein Unbound, and then held printing has a marvellous (uncredited) cover. Opowiesci o pilocie Pirxie, 1968; translated over for some years. But the style which The sequel is supposed to have been pub­ by Louis lribarne;206 pp;$US7.95) worked so well in Frankenstein Unbound lished, but I have not seen a copy. Most of Lem's books have been translated fails entirely in Moreau's Other Island. Also, 36 LORD VALENTINE'S CASTLE of Aldiss' works. Earthworks is a book bet­ When Penguin recently published a vast by Robert Silverberg (Gollancz, 1980; 444 ter forgotten particularly because, like quantity of sf titles in one batch, I suppose pp, 6 pounds 95) Enemies of the System, it is not really a I was expected to exclaim admiringly and Again, I'm mentioning this only to record a novel, but has that strange long-novella congratulate the firm on its foresight and new edition. Also, I must record some shape which Aldiss does not really do very enterprise. This I could not do. Only one astonishment at the sheer ghastliness of the well. One of Aldiss' virtues as a short story title, of those I had read, interested me. cover of the Gollancz edition. Not even this writer is his compression of the complex That was Roadside Picnic, which I reviewed book, dull as it is, deserves such treatment into few words. In Earthworks, Aldiss gives in SEC 60/61. Most of the titles in the batch (particularly as Gollancz bought the book, the impression that he has tried to compress were old rubbish like The Starchild Trilogy. I presume, in the hope of selling lots of a large number of events into few words, When I was fourteen or fifteen, I really en­ copies of 'the new Silverberg'). It's interest­ but at the same time has stretched out the joyed The Reefs of Space. Read it at that ing that the best cover I've seen for Lord few ideas in the book. The result is very age, or even younger. I was a few years older Valentine's Castle was a fine design in tur­ odd. The book is helter-skelter to read; when I tried Starchild, and found it unread­ quoise and gold, just lettering and lines, come to the end, and it is plain that little able. The age of willing suspension of dis­ which adorned the proof copy which Harper has happened. Like Enemies of the System, belief had passed. These books, as I remem­ • and Row sent me before the American hard­ Earthworks was an irritating misconception, ber them, had a curiously rushed, peremp­ back had appeared. The cover which Harper and it should have been left quietly by the tory quality to them. Later encounters with and Row used eventually for its edition was wayside. Jack Williamson's output have convinced me cutesy and tacky, but still a lot better than that Williamson actually wrote most of the , the Gollancz cover. What will the British MOCKINGBIRD words in these books. I can't guess what paperback cover be like? by Walter Tevis (Doubleday; 1980;$US10, Frederik Pohl contributed, or why he con­ 247 pp) sented to put his name to them. But if you ENEMIES OF THE SYSTEM Lapses from Brian Aldiss, say, are usually are fourteen or fifteen or younger, you (Subtitle; A Tale of Homo Uniformis) excused, even forgotten about, when com­ might really enjoy The Starchild Trilogy. by Brian Aldiss pared with the range and quality of his best (Harper and Row; 1978; 119 pp;$7.95) books. But the remarkably bad Mockingbird 100 GREAT SCIENCE FICTION (Avon 53793; February 1981; 110 pp, is only Tevis' second science fiction novel. SHORT SHORT STORIES SUS1.95) Give up the game now, Mr Tevis! edited by Isaac Asimov, Martin Greenberg, When Brian Aldiss was in Melbourne in Not that I'm over-irritated by Walter and Joseph D Olander 1978, he sounded quite proud of having Tevis, who probably thought he was doing (Robson; 1978; 271 pp; 3 pounds 95/ written Enemies of the System. I scratched his best. Instead, I'm horrified at the $A10.70) my head when I read the book, and re­ amount of praise received by Mockingbird (Avon 50773; August 1980; 294 pp, frained from comment. I can't help thinking among sf people during the last few months. $US2.50) that Enemies of the System was a horrible What are we all coming to, that we take any I'm not objecting to 700 Great Science Fic­ blunder; perhaps Aldiss should read it again. notice of such a book at all? tion Short Short Stories because it is badly Enemies of the System suffers from so I wish I had the polemic powers of a edited. It may well be superbly edited. I many conceptual errors that it's difficult to Franz Rottensteiner or a John Foyster to do object strongly, however, to 'short short' find room to list them all. It is supposed to give the entire details of the badness of science fiction stories, also called vignettes. be a satire of utopia, of a future homo­ Mockingbird. Perhaps then I could convey I can't say I’ve ever read one that worked as genised Homo Uniformis. But the book what it is like to read a book about a future a story. A vignette doesn't even offer the actually reads like a fairly feeble satire of society where most people cannot read and same satisfaction as a good joke. Typically Eastern European Communism, which is only watch television, and to realise that one of these stories wanders along for four surely not taken as utopia by anybody, least the book itself seems designed for people pages, then finishes with one line which is of all by its inhabitants. If the book is sup­ who cannot read and only watch television. expected to make you jump up and down posed to be about the far future, it is a All the people in Mockingbird, except per­ with excitement. I would prefer stories, failure: we get little feeling that these haps the robot, have simple brains, and such as the great folk tales, where every people are much different from us, except simple thoughts. They do simple things, line is interesting. that they are very bland. Okay, that's part which sometimes turn out bad and some­ But if you like vignettes, buy this book. of Aldiss' point, that utopia is bland. But times out good. But they learn to Read—this For copyright reasons, this does not contain when the real gutsy humans on the alien is the big event of the book. But it has no the most famous pieces by Fredric Brown; planet make their appearance, the experi­ effect on them—they still sound like charac­ that's a cavil mentioned by other reviewers. ence is still fairly bland. All that's happened ters in a particularly gormless TV situation is that Aldiss, on a soapbox, has made a real comedy. You know—sanitised, deodorised, point. But the point is worthless, because and frightfully good for you. Mockingbird Also noted: what he's really preaching about is the wasn't good for me, though; it set me back Horror of Communism Triumphant. Now $10 or so. the idea of Communism triumphant through­ PROFUNDIS out the galaxy is an interesting idea. A pro­ THE STARCHILD TRILOGY by Richard Cowper (Pocket 83502.5; Feb­ per treatment of it would involve a com­ (contains: The Reefs of Space, Starchild, ruary 1981—originally published 1979; 207 pp;$US2.25) plete analysis of the state of Communism Rogue Star) I haven't read this, but Elaine thought it was B now and where it is going. If any author did by Frederik Pohl and Jack Williamson; quite amusing when she reviewed it a few that, the result would be a book very dif­ 1980—component books first published issues ago. I'm not sure whether or not there ferent from Enemies of the System. It 1963, 1965, 1969; 508 pp;$A5.95) has been a British paperback as well. could be, on a dystopian level, very like Nineteen Eighty-Four, or rather more like the satires of the Strugatsky Brothers. In fact, Aldiss conceives this story at such a BOOKS ABOUT SCIENCE FICTION superficial level that one can simply dismiss it by comparing it with the Strugatskys' swipes at their own society. DREAM MAKERS typewriters, and never allowed to speak near Why take so much space over Enemies (Subtitled: The Uncommon People Who a tape recorder. Is Charles Platt wittier, of the System? Because Aldiss can do so Write Science Fiction) wiser, a finer conversationalist than the much better, even with the wrongly con­ Interviews by Charles Platt (Berkley 425. other interviewers? Probably. But he also ceived notions as they are here. But I would 04668.0; November 1980; 284 pp,$US2.75) sees interviews as literate articles, and not like to see somebody get the notions right. Dream Makers is a book of innumerable mere transcriptions. Platt introduces 'each delights—anecdotal and analytic, literary interview with a short essay which shows EARTHWORKS and cultural. On one level it seems merely a the circumstances of meeting, the general series of edited interviews with twenty-eight impression given by the author to the inter­ by Brian Aldiss (Avon 52159; October 1980 viewer and, most importantly, the reasons —first published 1963; 142 pp;$US1.95) science fiction writers (including an inter­ view with C M Kornbluth, thirty years after why Platt was interested in conducting the Earthworks is a reminder that Aldiss has had interview. Platt gives no sense of the breath­ inexplicable lapses of quality throughout his his death). There have been several such books in recent years: most of the others less acolyte, an impression which arises only career. some of the It is not at all clear why were convincing evidence that science too clearly from most of the other author­ worst of these lapses have been used to fiction writers should be chained to their interviews I have seen in recent years. launch Avon's reprinting of a uniform edition 37 fast (or whenever you consult your sf reference books). The Encyclopedia is cer­ tainly hot on trivia as well as the all- important: both 'S F Commentary' and 'Bruce Gillespie' get mentions. However, I will write a letter to Peter Nicholls to repri­ mand him for leaving out somewhat more in­ teresting items, such as 'Damien Broderick' and 'Robert Thurston'. The price was horrific when the book appeared, but already standard hardback prices are surpassing it. A copy bought now will seem cheap within the next two years. SINGAPORE SCIENCE FICTION edited by R S Blathal, Dudley de Souza, and Kirpal Singh (Rotary Club of Jurong Town, Singapore; 116 pp) WONDER AND AWE by Kirpal Singh (Chopmen; 1980; 58 pp) Both of these books were sent to me from The total resu ank N Magill. Its Singapore by Kirpal Singh (yes, the Stellar Dream Makers who have been interviewed real editor was a helpful man named Keith Gauge Kirpal Singh). I was pleased to see many times before deliver quite new sides Nielson. Under the guidance of Keith Neil­ them, but do not know what I can say in of their characters to Platt and his readers. son and an international committee, essays detail about them. Aldiss is, of course, witty and wide-ranging lof 2000 words each were commissioned Singapore Science Fiction is really an (and, I'm pleased to see, echoing some com-, from sf critics all over the world. Each essay ments of mine about The English Novel® original fiction anthology. However, the dealt with a separate book. (Evidently this column I want to complete about recent which I made, quite separately, in my® fits in with the format of a continuing series original fiction anthologies seems as far Stellar Gauge essay). But less expected is the® of Magill Surveys of various forms of litera­ in the future as ever, and I think this book poignant interview with Ted Tubb, whose® ture.) The great strength of this survey is deserves a mention. Singapore Science Fic­ struggles to keep writing, according to his® that covers nearly everything—not just tion is a book whose intention is very much own understanding of his craft, make a® American or English books, but science fic­ like that of The Altered I. A short story funny, yet heroic story. To find Disch at® tion from all over the world, and just competition yielded these best entries; the home to Platt is so delightful, yet somehow® enough of the not-quite-science-fiction aim is to show what could be developing in what one would expect of Disch. But Platt® books, such as Durrell's Tunc andNunquam. a whole new geographical area of sf writing. also enters the home of Algis Budrys, whose8m If there was any hint of providing a refer­ Therefore the main interest of the collection thought processes seem so alien to those of® ence book of 'crib sheets', this has been is not the quality of the writing. Most of the anybody I know that I wonder we both live® dispelled by the seriousness with which sf story are single-idea, single-punchline pieces, on the same planet and speak the same critics take their task. The best of these with fairly laboured explanations of things. language. The interview with Phil Dick is a essays are the best on their topics, standard Only a piece called 'The Incredible Shrink- good introduction to the stranger aspects of discussions with which all later material will ing-Gun', by Gertrude Thomson, stands by Valis, but nothing in Van Vogt's novelscan have to be compared. I cannot pretend to itself as something good. prepare us for the Real Truth about A E have read every essay, but I have enjoyed No, the real interest of this book is the Van Vogt, as revealed by Platt. what I have read. For instance, Peter picture it gives of Singapore itself: teeming Dream Makers is particularly valuable for Nicholls' discussion of The Fifth Head of yet lonely, overruled yet open-ended, excit­ the idea it gives of Platt's pilgrimage across Cerberus is the best essay on that book I ing yet stultifying. In a way, this aspect lifts America, then back home to England. have seen. Here is Franz Rottensteiner dis­ Singapore Science Fiction above the level of Budrys and Farmer in the mid-West take on cussing Lem's Glos pana, the one major The Altered I or any of the other Australian a life of their own which owes much to Lem book we have not had in English yet. anthologies, our young writers are not, by Platt's interest in exploring alien territory. On the other hand, Tom Shippey's discus­ and large, looking their own society in the Dick and Van Vogt are essentially Californ­ sion of Amis' The Alteration is a bit too eye and taking its measure. I hope some­ ian. Disch and Sheckley are so much of New convincing: read the essay and you think it thing solidifies out of the atmosphere of York, while Moorcock laughs and grumbles must be a masterwork of English literature; excitement which surrounds the entries in away in London. Dream Makers is not just read the book and you find it superficial this book. about a collection of science fiction writers, and dull. But that hardly makes Shippey's Wonder and Awe is made up of some but comes closer than any other book to essay any less interesting. lectures Kirpal Singh gave to people who, I showing the world of science fiction. You can order the Magill Survey of (The book has two glaring omissions: presume, knew nothing about science fic­ Science Fiction Literature from Salem Press, tion. I didn't like the book much, mainly Gene Wolfe, who might be in a second vol­ Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey 07632, USA. because its notions are too vague. Kirpal ume which Platt is preparing now, and The price you will be charged will have does not get down to details; surely those women writers in general. Maybe the second added about $20 for postage, packing, and Dream Makers will feature the many women who have never before encountered science insurance, so perhaps inquire first about the fiction become hooked by the ideas first? writers who were left out of the first.) exact price. But there are only overwhelming claims for SURVEY OF the literary quality of science fiction. Since THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF I don't believe this quality exists, except SCIENCE FICTION SCIENCE FICTION in the writing of a few authors, I was not LITERATURE edited by Peter Nicholls (Granada; 1979; sympathetic to the arguments, and not edited by Frank N Magill (Salem Press; 1979; 672 pp, $A44.80) swayed by Kirpal's method of argument. 2542 pp, SUS200) I will just mention this so that Peter Still, maybe I am merely the wrong audi­ I have a copy of this five-volume reference Nicholls will realise I am not neglecting him. ence; I would have been far more inter­ work only because I wrote seven of the After all, there is no need to review The ested to read an account of the question- essays in it. Not that I haven't found it very Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. Everybody and-answer period after each of these lec­ valuable since I have had it; it’s just that I else has done so already, and no book in tures was delivered. could never have raised the money to buy it science fiction has received such universal No prices or addresses of publishers are without having contributor's discount. This praise. I don’t really have a sufficiently en­ given, I presume you could obtain these set is for libraries and rich folks. If you fall cyclopedic memory to know how accurate books from Dr Kirpal Singh, Department of into either of those categories, and like good the book is, those who know say it's fairly English, University of Singapore, Bukit meaty discussion about science fiction, you good. I particularly enjoy the English tone Timah Rd, Singapore. will not be wasting your money. of the text: with Nicholls and Clute in A few interesting facts: This survey was charge, one is not likely to be expected to believe six impossible things before break­ Bruce Gillespie, May 1981 38 I MUST BE TALKING TO MY FRIENDS Susan never rusted

Susan Wood died in Vancouver, Canada, on 11 November 1980. She was 32 years old. The news is still unbelievable to me. How can the most alive person I have ever met disappear from view? How can one imagine life without her cheery letters and cards and fanzines and articles and books pouring through the mail? It’s as if half the American continent slid abruptly into the sea. There was nobody else like Susan. I can’t believe it. Many articles have appeared about Susan during the last few months. Each article takes hund­ reds of words to list her achieve­ ments. Each article lists a dif­ ferent set of achievements. But Susan’s single greatest talent was friendship. She offered total and unqualified support and under­ standing to each person she called friend, and she had hundreds of friends. She took an interest in each friend, often with a fervour which could never be adequately returned by the person be­ friended. I’ve seen this in my own life many times. When I was travelling in USA, she put vast amounts of effort into trying to find a way for me to stay on the American continent. During many of the scrapes of my later life, she has sent endless letters of support, encouragement, and exhortation. She was the last per­ son left (apart from immediate 39 family and friends) who remembered my birthday 1975. In the intervening two years, my self-confi­ every year, and every year she sent me some dence in fannish crowds had edged up from “poor” remarkable card. I never felt that any of this effort to “below average”. As there were only some sixty could be discounted as going through the motions North American fans flying down together and of friendship. I knew that Susan meant all of it, travelling together, it ■ might be thought that it and that she was doing the same for many other people she knew. That’s awe-inspiring, and ir­ would be difficult for the shyest of fen not to replaceable. rapidly get to know them all. Nonetheless, I managed: Susan Wood was the co-Fan Guest of I tried to be a friend in my own way. Often I Honour; a Hugo winner, a genuine PhD in literature would write to Susan and say: ‘Slow down, please! with a genuine university appointment who still Slow down!’ But she never did. Basically, Susan managed to produce high-quality fannish prose for wore herself out. To read an account of her daily large circulation fanzines. I was a graduate school activities was to invite instant exhaustion. She did dropout with a civil service job who produced one all those things, and she was exhausted for the last apazine on ditto each month except the ones I two or three years of her life, but she would not didn’t feel up to it. I tend to take myself too stop. She would teach at the University of British seriously, but retain some sense of propriety and Columbia at Vancouver all the academic year, and one rule of fannish etiquette: don’t bother the write papers and fanzines, and edit books—and Important People. And I thought Susan was an then traipse all over America (or all over the world) Important Person. Well, she was and, dead or not, during the summer vacation. She had had some vile is to me and to others. But unlike me, she was disease which she called ‘strep throat’ for more never self-important, and when the con was almost than two years. It was only when Carey reported over and I was adding depression to my other hang­ back from America in September 1980 that I ups, sought me out, talked to me, made me feel realised many more problems had been added to comfortable talking to her. . . . the considerable list. I don’t know why she became Tn 1976 I published my Aussiecon report in so depressed, or used alcohol to get through her Rune. Susan wrote me about it, and sent me her life during 1980. I don’t suppose I will ever know. fanzine, Amor; I added her to my minute non-apa The strain was too much, and Susan’s heart gave mailing list for my zines. She said, among other out. Susan never rusted; she burnt out. things, ‘You are a Funny Person.’ It’s nice to be something. Susan was also a Funny Person, and That world-wide group of friends called ‘fans’ has several other types of Person, as the need arose. been shocked beyond measure by the news of Sometimes several types at once. Serious construc­ Susan’s death. Tributes have appeared everywhere, tive frivolity: very nice. . . . but a few seem to have special poignancy: ‘Between 1976 and 1980 I saw her just six times: twice at worldcons (Kansas City and Phoenix), Denny Lien (in Murgatroyd 15, ANZAPA twice at Vancouver, twice in Madison-with-a-stop- December 1980): ‘I first saw Susan at TorCon in in-Minneapolis. We exchanged fanzines and occa­ 1973. [*brg* So did I.] My first worldcon;I knew sional letters, and spoke on the phone at rare occa­ almost nobody except the Minneapolis fans I’d sions. In Vancouver I visited her house, petted her come with. (I’d been in fandom for over a decade, cat and her Hugo, lounged with other fen on her but always as a hermit.) I didn’t even know enough sinfully thick shag rug, drank wine, and talked. In not to go to the programming, and so went to the Minneapolis I got to fix her a gigantic breakfast to Hugo Awards, and so saw Susan dash up shrieking combat her jet lag, and was told she had just had to receive her shared Hugo for Energumen. ... For dental surgery done. At KC Con we started a Silly a rather shy and rather overwhelmed semi-unknown Tradition of seeing each other across a floor jump­ fan, it was nice to see a Big Name Fan excited ing up and down a bit and running arms out­ enough to behave like a kid at Christmas. I’d like stretched toward each other, only to swerve at the to be able to react with child-like or adult-like re­ last moment and hug the people we were each with sponses as situations warrant, and try to do so. But instead. As traditions go, it was even sillier than Susan was always better at it. I was surprised, years most. later, to find she was a couple of years younger ‘1980: Early Saturday afternoon I headed for than me, but there was no reason to be surprised: the auditorium for another stint of guard duty, and she always seemed both older and younger than me was overtaken by Susan calling out to me and run­ or almost anyone else, at the same time. A chrono­ ning toward me. She seemed tired and unhappy chameleon. . . . and hyper, and when I said that I was happy to see ‘After 1973, I next saw Susan at Aussiecon in her responded that I was probably the only person

40 at the con who was. She wanted food and an ear to Memorial Quietrevolutionary Susanzine. (I re­ talk to but asked only for the former. I escorted member the kiss after each page of Amor we her to a snack bar, told her I was late for the job I finished running off. . . . Fastest slipsheeter in the had promised to do, and would call her when I got West, she was, and she could collate like the wind.) off work three hours later. From anyone else, ‘She won the Hugo for Best Fan Writer in 1974, almost, I would have been concerned, but this was and again in 1977. The Language of the Night, a Susan, who was all things to all fans and who could collection of Ursula Le Guin essays which Susan take care of herself and thus could not possibly be edited, was a Hugo nominee for Best Non-Fiction asking for help. Only slightly concerned, I left to Book of 1979. (In fact, she would have been nomi­ guard for three hours a door that one one tried to nated in four different Hugo categories, but we steal. I never saw her again.’ never got together enough votes to put her sf class on the ballot for ‘Best Dramatic Presentation’.) Joyce Scrivener (from Cycles 2, ANZAPA, ‘In September 1973, she moved to Saskatchewan December 1980): Susan ‘was all the things I have (and we started corresponding; on December 29, wanted to be: lovely, productive, active, capable, 1973, she came to New York for a visit and I fell in a woman who got to the top in several fields with­ love with her); she spent two years teaching at the out losing the sight of her femininity and sex, University of Regina. (I’ve still got the Chinese vocal, human, talented in writing. She was more, cookbook she gave me when I arrived, inscribed too. She was an ideal, someone who had over­ “To Eli—because you think Saskatchewan is a type come the things I see in myself and accomplished of Chinese cooking”.) visible productions. She was my friend, she liked ‘She received her doctorate in Canadian Litera­ me and I loved her. She mattered. . . . ture from the University of Toronto in 1975 (Ire- ‘I remember Susan as I first met her at Iggycon. member the night she tried to throw her thesis off She was so happy that Denny and I had gotten our third-floor balcony), the same year she moved together and she told me so. I remember her jump­ to Vancouver to become an assistant professor of ing naked into the Adams’ swimming pool to English at UBC. (She taped “Another Storm”, by “liberate” it the last night of the convention. I Humphrey and the Dumptrucks, before she left. In remember picking her up at the Minneapolis air­ snowless Vancouver it was hard to remember the port at 6 am and taking her and David Emerson weekend it hit 50 below and we had an eight-inch home to the immense breakfast that Denny fixed icycle growing into our living room. But then there and she couldn’t eat due to her teeth being was the night we stood in the snow at the Millers’ infected. I remember her being among the group farm, watching the aurora. . . .) at Noreascon who wanted to go out to the Dinner ‘Her hobbies included rock ano folk music (there Party, a large feminist art work. And I remember were so many concerts we went to—Cris William­ saying goodbye to her because she had to be back son, Warren Zevon, the Dumptrucks, Yes . . .), for dinner herself and I did not see her again, but gardening (she used to talk to her plants: “Grow, I was expecting I would. . . . baby, grow” she’d tell them, and they would), and ‘. . . fans are my family, they are closer than my photography. She also carried on extensive corres­ relatives, in many ways they are, to me, better than pondence with many people (not to mention put­ other people and Susan was one of the best of ting up thousands of visiting fen at the Wood people, one of the best of fans. If we cannot save Hotel). our best, what can we save?’ ‘Her academic interests included Canadian Liter­ ature, science fiction, and children’s literature, in Lastly, the complete text of a contribution from all of which she taught courses and published Eli Cohen to an American apa of which he is a papers. UBC granted her tenure in the spring of member: 1980. ‘Susan Joan Wood was pronounced dead of ‘Her next-door neighbour heard a thud and, cardiac arrest at approximately 11.20 am, Novem­ finding her unconscious, called the police. She had ber 12, 1980, in Vancouver. She was 32 years old. apparently been on her way out of the house, paus­ ‘(I can’t believe she’s really dead. I lived with ing to write a note which she was in the middle of her, off and on, from May 1974 until January when she collapsed. She was pronounced dead on 1980, she’s been the most important person in my arrival at the hospital. life for the last seven years.) ‘(There were a lot of bad times and a lot of good ‘She co-edited, with Mike Glicksohn, the Hugo- times. I won’t ever see her again. I miss her.)’ winning fanzine Energumen, she also published —Eli Cohen, 2 December 1980 Aspidistra and the Amor de Cosmos People’s 41 Alfred Hitchcock and John Lennon, household is, as usual, SFC. One of among others. I think I can take the the few highlights of 1980 was the THIS ISSUE ISN'T news that there will be no more John removal of Damien Broderick and REALLY LATE . . . Lennon records with some equanimity, Diane Hawthorne from Sydney to but he deserved a quiet, contented Melbourne; Damien enjoys thinking . . . it only seems that way. If you are Ted middle age, if only for the fact that up Great Ideas during his spare time; White or Mike Shoemaker, or one or two others, you might wonder what happened that's what he wanted. He was one of one of his Great Ideas is to find some to your letter of comment. All in good the few rock stars who survived the way of financing SFC. So far, these time. Most of the issue was finished at the last twenty years without attempting ideas have come to nothing, since beginning of March. The '8 Point Universe' some kind of suicide. Keith Moon, they involve gaining access to, for column was written in late May. Otherwise John Bonham .. . irreplaceable, but instance, academic money (of which . . I've been busy, and broke. See page 62. their deaths were not entirely sur­ there is little to spare). Anybody with prises. Bon Scott? I don't know—these further ideas, or with cash donations, people live lifetimes in ten years. May­ or willing to advertise in SFC, should be that's what Susan did too. get in touch. I had hoped to finance 1980 I'm sorry. I start writing about regular editions of SFC with the was somewhat morbid overall. We lost someone else altogether, and everything 'profits' from the sale of SFC Reprint our cat, Julius, and the injury to my comes back to Susan, and what she Edition: First Year 1969. It's still not wrist set us back a bit, but generally meant. More than any rock star (eg, out, though, although I have set about Elaine and I went unscathed. But for Lennon), Susan symbolised the sixties half the copy. I don't think there will a while Leanne Frahm, one of our to me, even though all her career hap­ be any profits, either: it will be larger favourite people, was in some danger pened during the seventies. She once (about 150 pp) and more expensive to but now seems to be recovering well. said that Joni Mitchell represented produce than I had thought. Thanks Damien had something horrible happen what she would like to be when she very much to the people who have al­ to his eye, but that has healed. A viru­ grew up. Like those of us who still ready sent $40 payment for the re­ lent thief kept breaking into the house have the stardust of the sixties in our print: work is still proceeding. newly occupied by Jenny Bryce and eyes, Susan never saw herself as having I mentioned Norstrilia Press last John Foyster. Right at the end of the 'grown up'. There was so much youth­ issue, and it gets a guernsey in various year, I heard from Dave Piper in Eng­ ful excitement still to come, but the pages of this issue. Even though I land about the terrible events of the rest of the world was growing more de­ make no money from NP's sales (ex­ last part of 1980. It was That Sort of termined to be unexciting. Hence the cept as payment for type-setting, lay­ Year. death of John Lennon symbolises the out, etc), I can ask you to buy our Nearer to home, Elaine's uncle died. double death of the sixties, the de­ estimable products, especially Stellar He was a gruff sort of fellow, and I struction of everything humane and Gauge, which seems to be the only can't say I ever found it easy to hold a adventurous in life. Now USA (and the book produced in Australia during the conversation with him. But he was an rest of the world) must put up with a last five years to receive no grants or old-fashioned hobbyist, with wide in­ President seemingly elected in order to other support. terests, and he had always given great pick a fight that will begin World War help to Elaine. He was one of those Three. Laying flat the whole world As Eric Clapton would say. I've got few people whose death leaves those would really symbolise the end of the ramblin' on my mind. I really should around him in real difficulties. His seventies. focus my mind on higher things, such final illness had lasted for seven years, As I've said, I've been seeing these as my: during which time he had taken care things whirling around Elaine and of his mother (Elaine's grandmother). me, rather than affecting us directly. After all that time, his ending was sud­ Touch wood, but the firm of Cochrane Best of Everything 1980 den, and Elaine's family has faced real and Gillespie had probably the best problems in maintaining two house­ year we will ever have. We wined and Favourite Novels 1980 holds. I wouldn't be saying anything dined and spent vast amounts of about Elaine's Uncle Doug, if I didn't money on trivialities (and on books 1 The Debacle think that his life and death showed and records, which are necessities). At by Emile Zola (first published something I hadn't realised about the the end of the year, I discovered that 1892; edition read: Penguin Clas­ life and death of Susan Wood. Both our bathroom scales are remarkably sics L280; 509 pages) were basically very modest people, I inaccurate, and that I was actually 2 Let Us Now Praise Famous Men suspect, who valued themselves much more than 10 kg heavier than I sus­ James Agee and Walker Evans; less highly than others valued them. pected! A heavy diet for us has meant 1941; Ballantine 01512;428 pp) I keep wondering: of the people I not going out to restaurants, 3 Limbo know, whose lives are really important which has saved us money, but some­ Bernard Wolfe (1952; Random to themselves and to other people? times tried our patience during this, House; 438 pp) Usually the most modest people I the hottest summer for umpteen years. 4 George know are those who would be most I made a resolution during January to Emlyn Williams (1961; Penguin missed. Did I tell Susan in her lifetime write fiction for at least an hour a 14 004079; 432 pp) how valuable she was? I think so; I day. The resolution has not lasted long. 5 The Franchiser hope so. Did anyone tell Elaine's uncle It's hard work writing fiction! And the Stanley Elkin (1976; Farrar Straus in his lifetime how valuable he was? story is still stuck at 4000 words. What Giroux; 342 pp) I'm not sure; quiet families rarely say better reason for turning back to writ­ 6 A Young Man of Talent these things among themselves. ing material for SFC? George Turner (1959; Condor Missing at the end of 1980 were The financial disaster area of this . 1181; 256 pp) 42 7 Birthstone beaten horribly only because of the around to reading good books. D M Thomas (1980; Gollancz; accumulated mistakes of the French I read in Charles Platt's Dream 160 pp) army bureaucracy. Zola is known as Makers that Limbo (in its English edi­ 8 The Manticore a 'naturalist' or a 'realist', but often tion, Limbo 90) had an influence on Robertson Davies (1973; Macmil­ this is used as a pejorative term; it the writing of J G Ballard. I suspect lan; 310 pp) ignores the pictorial, stage-set quality that it had a strong influence on the 9 The Mutual Friend in his writing, and the poetic sensuous­ work of Brian Aldiss as well. If so, Frederick Busch (1978; Harvester ness of much of his description. Zola then Aldiss and Ballard would be the Press; 222 pp) catches us up in the spectacle of the only worthy successors to Wolfe. This 10 A Stranger and Afraid battle, but does this not with general­ does seem to be the science fiction/ George Turner (1961; Cassell; 280 ised thud-and-blunder, but with an prophecy book which many authors PP) emphasis on the tiny details of experi­ have tried to emulate for the past 30 11 The Flute-Player ence as they strike the participants. years. Most of the others have failed D M Thomas (1979; Gollancz; One remarkable example: as the forces because they have not seen what Wolfe 192 pp) gather, Zola points out several times a is really doing, which is making a state­ 12 Jailbird farmer on a hillside who continues to ment about all human activity and Kurt Vonnegut Jr (1979; Dela- bring in the harvest, despite the blood­ aspirations, not just that of the inhabi­ corte;241 pp) shed taking place all around him. For tants of this unfortunate future civilisa­ 13 It more than a hundred pages there is no tion. Wolfe's theme is the very strong William Mayne (1977; Hamish mention of the tiny figure in the dis­ force of masochism and attempted sui­ Hamilton; 189 pp) tance. Then casually Zola picks out a cide in human activity, perhaps best 14 The Franchise Affair burning farmhouse some distance from expressed in the current systems of Josephine Tey (1948; Penguin the worst of the battle. It seems that nuclear weapons facing each other 841; 255 pp) the war has struck down the farmer across the world. Wolfe's marvellously 15 The Man in the Queue after all. The Debacle is a book of funny, eloquent, energetic, yet quaint­ Josephine Tey (1927;Peter Davies; total involvement of the reader, has ly sad main character is a refugee from 247 pp) much suffering and much humour, and an atomic war. From his South Pacific has just been re-released by Penguin. island hideout he returns to a warped A much better year than 1979. I think Let Us Now Praise Famous Men has civilisation, finding his own ideas on it's because I stopped reading the much the same quality, although it is how to improve humanity worked out science fiction magazines, and so not likely to carry the reader along in dreadful, even ridiculous detail. Of gained time for books I really enjoy. with the force of its plot. In the early course, this sounds like so many other Also I started a plan to read the best 1930s, James Agee, writer, and Walker novels—but most of them are by of what we have already on the Evans, photographer, were sent from people who cannot write. Wolfe's shelves, instead of reading merely what New York to the Deep South to dig prose flows on in great sweeps of arrives in the house. Also, and most out a story about absolutely the theory, observation, action, grandeur, importantly, I spent most of the year poorest white farmers they could find. pathos, and always a lot of below-the- type-setting seven days a week—there They did so, and lived with them for belt humour. I found a first edition of isn't much you can do after a day of some weeks, but Life magazine would the American edition in a second-hand setting except read at night or go out not run the story, and it was some bookshop in Chicago in 1973, but to dinner. Since sumptuous dinners years before it appeared in book form. others might not be so lucky. Reprint, have detrimental effects on the waist­ My inclination is to ascribe the book Penguin, reprint! line, I suppose I'll be reading more entirely to Agee, but he insists that George, by Emlyn Williams, poses a than ever during 1981. Evans' photographs are just as impor­ problem which strikes every so often The Debacle is the best novel I've tant as his text. The text is remarkable. when compiling these lists: 'Novel' or read for some years, and reminds me Agee and Evans found that they could 'Non-fiction'. Of course, George is non­ that I should stick more closely to the not approach the three share-cropper fiction, because it is the first part of best of the nineteenth century. The families with anything like traditional Williams' autobiography. But it is also Debacle is also the best war novel ever reporters' objectivity. They came to a work of literature, in a way that written, all the more so because it understand how the farmers managed most autobiographies never are. It is describes several events in that odd, to live, despite extreme poverty. The more like a novel than anything in-between war, the Franco-Prussian of more they understood, the more they else. It goes in this list. For instance, 1870. Most of the book follows the felt themselves intruders. Agee's gives George is not just about Emlyn Wil­ fortunes of a group of soldiers who are a diary-like account of what it is like liams; it tells more about his father supposed to be defending France from to be an intruder among people whom and mother than anyone else. It tells the invasion of the Germans. However, he came to find genuinely dignified, more about life in Wales during this the French can't find the Germans, even beautiful. His meditations are century than any other book I've read. who have been proceeding quickly by interspersed with factual pieces on the It is a book full of the sights, sounds, a different direction. The book is a way of life of the three families. Every and smells of that country, and also chronicle of suffering, most of it page is written in sensuous, exciting shows to what extent Wales is really a caused by the inefficiency of the prose, dripping insights, pathos, and colonised country. Emlyn Williams' French army itself and its generals. even a sense of wonder (the kind that story is there, too, and he has a pleas­ Soldiers are reduced to starvation all those gosh-wow sf writers could ant, indirect way of telling it. He gives because the food wagons go up a quite never understand). I must thank a much better idea of the motives and different road; French towns, not Gerald Murnane for recommending actions of the people who impelled German, are looted for their last this to me nearly ten years ago. Some­ him forward from Welsh village life to available scraps. The soldiers are times I just take too long to get Oxford than he does of his own caught in the area of Sedan and 43 motives and feelings in the matter. Business, The Manticore, World of Only at the end does he delve into Wonders). I found them a shade dis­ himself, when he must show why he appointing; I couldn't quite see what abandoned the Oxford career and took the fuss was about. Davies has a plain to the stage. This is the only book I've style which slides off sometimes into read which shows me what actors like complacency and pop-novel attitudes. about acting. Davies specialises in elaborate novel­ Year after year I list new books by length conjuring tricks, the kind which Stanley Elkin as Best for the Year, but work much better in the cinema or on it is still almost impossible to buy his stage than in a novel. Davies knows work in Australia. And if this is the much of human aspirations and possi­ best American novelist, and we can't bilities, yet he tends to set up his novels buy his books here, then what else are as clever spectacles in which the people * we missing out on? It was only by acci­ become lost. The spectacle which dent that I discovered The Franchiser works best is that presented in The had been published. Thanks to Read­ Manticore. The main character seeks ings Books, Carlton, for finding a to know the secrets of his past and his copy in America. Needless to say, The own soul. He finds help from a Jungian Franchiser is a great novel. All of psychologist in Switzerland. Davies Elkin's books are, because they all fea­ GEORGE TURNER sets up the story as a combination of ture the same main character. He I've borrowed that, but would be wil­ the confessional novel and the trial has a different name in each book— ling to buy a copy if anybody ever novel. The book is un-put-downable. Dick Gibson, Boswell, and now, Ben offers one for sale. The word I would I discovered much that was interesting Flesh—but he is the same mighty offer to describe George's prose is about Jungian psychology, and was figure: egocentric, hungry for experi­ 'muscular', since the characters in his treated to some delectable entertain­ ence and insight, yet wonderfully para­ novels are usually in violent conflict, ment. (But Davies certainly isn't noid, seeing dangerous patterns in the and they are usually muscular charac­ Canada's answer to Patrick White.) world where others have seen only ters, even when they are female. (This I have George Turner to thank for whorls in the carpet. Elkin's characters comment goes for A Stranger and discovering The Mutual Friend. He re­ convert their worlds in words, then eat Afraid as well.) The books would not viewed it for The Age, and sent me on them in great gulps. But the words work unless the conflicts were made his copy. In turn, it set me off on a change, if the character does not; real. George does this extremely well Dickens discovery tour which lasted Elkin sees his America as a gigantic in A Young Man of Talent. In the some months. The Mutual Friend is Library of Babel, filled with an infinite New Guinea highlands during World the story of Charles Dickens' last year number of concepts, values, colours, War II, a dangerous, almost criminal or so, as told from the viewpoint of and constructions. It is there to be soldier and a meticulous commanding a character who appears briefly in the traversed forever. Yet the point of officer arrive at the camp at the same Johnson biography (see below). The America is Americans, and the ridi­ time. The viewpoint character, who is servant, Dolby, feels himself humili­ culous, enormous burden they take used to easy-going ways, gets caught ated and badly used by Dickens, who on themselves by remaining Ameri­ between the two. He thinks he can set off on long reading tours of Eng­ cans. Says Flesh: 'And a heart-attack tame both of them, but instead be­ land and USA just as his health was victim, too, don't forget, when I was comes involved in progressively more giving out. Much is made of the con­ thirty-eight. But not a victim. I didn't dangerous situations. This is high- tradictions in Dickens' character, die, didn't see that action either. Just energy stuff, with more than a dash of many of which showed themselves let off the hook with what the doctor melodrama, but it's drama as well, clearly only during Dickens' last few called a "warning". He meant I should since every aspect of the novel arises years. Much of the novel seems merely change my life. But how can I change from contradictions withinandbetween like an uncomplimentary look at the what I don't understand?' Elkin might the main characters. A word of warn­ Great Man; The Mutual Friend really have been speaking for himself. For ing: if you ever get to read A Young comes to life after Dickens has died some years, he has been a sufferer Man of Talent, you might feel, as I do, and Dolby is left to fend for himself in from multiple sclerosis. In The that George unpacks much of himself the most squalid circumstances of Vic­ Franchiser, Ben Flesh also develops into each of the characters, and tells torian London. This is really fine writ­ the disease. This gives the book a us too much altogether about the real ing. I've seen copies of this book poignancy which none of the others George Turner. recently in Melbourne book shops. had. God knows how you would find I reviewed Birthstone and The A Stranger and Afraid would get a copy of this book, but find it if you Flute-Player in the 'Eight Point much the same kind of review as I can. Universe' column, SFC 60/61. Just as gave Young Man of Talent. This is the George Turner keeps insisting that well, since I'm running out of room in first of the Treelake novels (based on A Young Man of Talent is apprentice­ 62/63. George Turner's years in Wangaratta), ship work, a first novel he would Robertson Davies has become some­ but I hope none of the local dignitaries rather forget about. I keep telling him what of an idolised writer among Mel­ ever recognised themselves in George's to read it again. I would be proud to bourne fans, perhaps because his books. Jimmy Carlyon takes up a posi­ have it as my only novel, let alone first books are so hard to get in Australia. tion in the local employment office, novel. Not that I would ever have had It was only by begging, borrowing, and and gradually we (and various towns­ a chance to read it if Damien Broderick not-quite-stealing (much help from people) discover that Jimmy has ar­ hadn't found a beaten-up secondhand Micheline Cyna-Tang) that I could put rived in town to find his mother, who copy of the ancient English paperback. together the famous trilogy (Fifth is probably living under an unfamiliar 44 name. The search for a lost parent is World of Wonders his argument surpasses that in any of a major theme for George Turner. Robertson Davies (1975; Viking; 358 pp) Fifth Business the other books of his I've read. Not- I think it worked more successfully in Robertson Davies (1970; Macmillan;308pp) completely-worthy subject matter can Transit of Cassidy. Still, Jimmy's en­ The Living End bring out the best in the writer: the counters and adventures on the way to Stanley Elkin (1979; Dutton; 148 pp) most interesting article in The Wound his mother make gripping reading, and Ascendancies and the Bow is about Kipling, just as D G Compton (1980; Gollancz; 208 pp) his mother, once discovered, is a A Rude Awakening the two most interesting articles in memorable character. (A doubt always Brian W Aldiss (1978; Weidenfeld and Nicol- Auden's essay collection are about comes to me after reading one of son; 205 pp) Verne and the art of the detective George's novels: how do his characters Breathing Space Only story. Wynne N Whiteford (1980; Void; 150 pp) stay alive when they live under such Reading The Mutual Friend (see ferocious tension?) George gave me his above, Favourite Novels), thanks to Favourite Non-Fiction 1980 own copy of Stranger-, thanks. George Turner, set me looking for (In order of reading): other material about Dickens. Busch Under normal circumstances, I do not Four Arguments for the Elimination admits that his interpretation of stretch my list to a Top 15. In fact, of Television Dickens is derived from Edgar John­ this was the first year since 1973 when Jerry Mander (1978; Morrow; 371 pp) son's biography, which has just been I could have gone to a Top 30. But I Enemies of Promise re-released by Penguin. Johnson's do not have enough room to talk about Cyril Connolly (1938; Penguin Modern approach is a bit dull, but very com­ them all. Luckily, I have discussed The Classics 14001573; 279 pp) plete, and does not gloss over Dickens' Flute-Player and Jailbird already (in The Dyer's Hand and Other Essays many personal faults. Johnson is 'Eight Point Universe', SFC 60/61}. W H Auden (1963; Faber; 527 pp) irritating only in the usual habit of It is peculiar, but enchanting. (Be­ The Pleasure Dome: Collected Film Dickens scholars: praising the 'great gins as a horror story featuring a local Criticism 1935-40 art' of his more ponderous books, not English-village ghostie, and changes Graham Greene (1980; Oxford Univer­ even admitting that gigantic books like into a very funny romp; nobody else sity Press 19281286; 277 pp) Bleak House are often creaky, senti­ but William Mayne could get away In Joy Still Felt mental, ill-constructed, and downright with it.) Isaac Asimov (1980; Doubleday; 798 undramatic. And Josephine Tey was my dis­ PP) William Morris: Romantic to Revo­ covery for the year. Well, not quite. Charles Dickens: His Tragedy and lutionary is irritating in quite a dif­ The ABC had a radio serial of The Triumph ferent way: it has that unreadable Singing Sands back in 1969 when I Edgar Johnson (1952, 1977; Penguin completeness of a good PhD essay. I was eating my chops and veg in my 14004895;583 pp) just did not want to know everything lonely flat in Ararat. The modesty The Twenties Morris wrote in his diaries and letters and quiet humour of the writing Edmund Wilson (1975; Macmillan; about every stage of his life. Also, came through to me, but I never fol­ 359 pp) much of the 'revolutionary' stage of lowed up Tey's writing. Reading her The Wound and the Bow Morris' life was concerned with groups first mystery. The Man in the Queue, Edmund Wilson (1941; Methuen Uni­ which had fewer members and less led me to buy some more of her books. versity Paperbacks UP36; 264 pp) influence than the tiny fan groups Josephine Tey specialises in mysteries William Morris: Romantic to Revolu­ chronicled in, say, Harry Warner Jr's which obey none of the rules of the tionary All Our Yesterdays (but Harry has genre. There is, for instance, no way of E P Thompson (1955/77; Merlin Press; style and wit; if he had them, good guessing the murderer in The Man in 816 pp) old E P Thompson left them behind the Queue. Only an accidental meeting The Black Death when he wrote this book). But many leads to a solution. This sounds more Philip Ziegler (1969; Pelican 14021189 are interested in Morris, and will like convincing to me than Hercule Poirot's 288 pp) this book. little grey cells, fan though I am of the The Stellar Gauge What else?: Well, Four Arguments best of Agatha Christie. Likewise The ed. Michael Tolley and Kirpal Singh for the Elimination of Television has Franchise Affair-, it has no neatness, (1980; Norstr ilia Press; 280 pp) a lot of silly stuff in it, but it makes as in an Agatha Christie book. The some nice points which tv addicts and If I start talking about all these, I will situation is genuinely difficult for the national administrators could take to be here all year. The Wound and the people involved, and the real theme of heart. All advertising is in bad taste, Bow (which I had to borrow from the book is the nastiness that lies be­ and especially tv advertising. That's John Foyster, since I cannot find a low the surface of a nice English vil­ one maxim from the book. There's no copy anywhere) and The Pleasure lage. Quite the opposite of Christie, such thing as using network tv for Dome are the two best books on the where the essential upper-middle-class 'good' or 'socially useful' purposes: list. The Dyer's Hand has some mag­ niceness of everything is always nificent stuff as well. Greene is even the medium only makes, say, conser­ vation ads, programs of classical music, affirmed by the end of her books. better talking about films than he is and interviews with ordinary people Runners-up: about books. All of his prose is impec­ Hard Times cable, and some of his observations look 'dull'. Mander's details are con­ Charles Dickens (1854; Signet Classics were thirty years ahead of their time vincing. Even public television fits all CQ514; 292 pp) of Mander's arguments against network Timescape (since he insisted on the importance of the art of the director, long before television. :: Enemies of Promise has Gregory Benford (1980; Gollancz; 412 pp) been discussed in recent issues of SFC. The Fountains of Paradise others had started to talk about the art Arthur C Clarke (1979; Gollancz; 255 pp) of the cinema). The Wound and the :: in Joy Still Felt is not as good as Dead as Doornails the first volume of Asimov's autobio­ James Cronin (1976; Dolmen Press/Calder Bow contains some of Wilson's best graphy, mainly because he is so coy and Boyers; 201 pp) prose. The complexity and depth of about details which usually are impor­ 45 tant to people when writing about 14 'Sleep Well of Nights’ (Avram hearing that on the radio in 1976, their lives, eg, it is almost impossible Davidson) Year's Finest Fantasy I've always remembered it as 'Divorce to work out just why, and by what Vol. 2 often follows dramatic home improve­ stages, Asimov and Gertrude separated. 15 'Children of the Kingdom' (TED ments'.) :: The Black Death is history written Klein) Dark Forces 'The Gun Shop' has the same quiet the way history is written very rarely: grace, where relationships between In any other year, John Updike's a clear style, much personal anecdote, generations of men in one family are 'Separating' would have been by far a sense of the patterned landscape of suggested by the details of visiting the the best story read for the year. Maybe events as they must be told in an his­ basement of a friend, who makes I should have included it some years torical narrative. :: The Stellar Gauge and sells guns for his neighbours. is discussed elsewhere in this issue. ago when I heard it read on the ABC's Sunday Night Radio 2 during a John The sf stories on this list seem a bit Favourite Short Stories Updike special program. A pity that clanking and obvious compared with Read During 1980 Mr Updike had to contest honours Mansfield and Updike. Even the best with Katherine Mansfield: that's too sf stories seem top-heavy, with the I've changed the heading for this sec­ much competition altogether. As you apparatus visible near the surface tion because somebody said to me might have worked out, The Complete of the story, instead of buried deeply. about an item on the 1979 list: 'But Stories of Katherine Mansfield is the In Thurston's 'Kingmakers', the ap­ that wasn't published in 1979 . . .' best book of any sort I have read for paratus of time travel pretty much is Um. Amazing what you must do to some years. A recent re-reading was the story, except that it finally ends make yourself quite clear when writing exciting as well. I'm not sure what up as a tale of character and destiny. this column. Perhaps there was con­ Katherine Mansfield does that makes Most sf writers seem to contrive their fusion because of my 'Best SF of the even John Updike look a bit dull, flat stories clumsily because they cannot Year' list which I kept up to date for a on the ground, not quite a literary do anything else; Thurston, on the while. That list seems to have disap­ flyer. Perhaps that's the right word for other hand, chooses a tricky, difficult peared, because I cannot bring myself Mansfield's stories: they fly. In al­ way of telling a story, knows the to finish the sf magazines for 1975. most every story, there is a broth of limitations of his ambition, and makes 'Best of the Anthologies' lists will conversation, some bright sentences of the contrivance work. Memorable appear when I get around to reviewing description, a feeling of being whisked story. :: So is 'Old Folks at Home', the original fiction anthologies. Mean­ up and away into Mansfield-land. In but for quite different reasons. Bishop while (and, incidentally, giving some the middle of the story there is always builds a future world (that of Cata­ idea of the best of recent sf): a blank spot where you think she has comb Years and A Little Knowledge) and sets real people in it. It's the real 1 'Bliss' (Katherine Mansfield) from done nothing but whirl around some The Complete Stories of Katherine impressions of her characters. Then, people who are interesting. In his Mansfield as you approach the end of the story, novellas in particular. Bishop shows 2 'Separating' (John Updike) Prob­ the wonderful (but more often tragic skills which are unique in science fic­ lems and Other Stories than comic) pattern of the impressions tion; perhaps only Leiber at his best 3 'The Stranger' (Katherine Mans­ shows itself, and you realise that every would write a story anything like this. field) The Complete Stories of sentence was in the right place all But I did not mean to talk about Katherine Mansfield along. I've listed 'Bliss' as the supreme these stories here. I still promise to 4 'The Daughters of the Late Colo­ example of Mansfield's art, but the write 'The Original Fiction Antholo­ nel' (Katherine Mansfield) The others on the list compete strongly for gies 1976-79', and reviews of these Complete Stories of Katherine this honour. So could a dozen more stories will turn up eventually. Mansfield from the same collection. I bought the 5 'Miss Brill' (Katherine Mansfield) 830-page Complete Stories in the early Favourite Films 1980 The Complete Stories of Katherine 1970s, but I've seen a re-issue recently 1 The Line-Up Mansfield in Melbourne bookshops. Worth buy­ directed by Don Siegel 6 'Pictures' (Katherine Mansfield) ing—or else you should be able to find 2 Keeper of the Flame The Complete Stories of Katherine the two Penguin collections, Bliss and George Cukor Mansfield The Garden-Party. 3 Five Fingers 7 'The Little Governess' (Katherine As I've indicated, John Updike's Joseph Mankiewitz Mansfield) The Complete Stories art is more careful, more earthbound 4 The Effect of Gamma Rays on of Katherine Mansfield than Katherine Mansfield's, but still Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds 8 'Something Childish But Very fine reading. 'Separating' gains a Paul Newman Natural' (Katherine Mansfield) special power from its slow develop­ 5 The Gunfighter The Complete Stories of Katherine ment, as a couple announce their sepa­ Henry King Mansfield ration, slowly, agonisingly, over a full 6 Tunes of Glory 9 'The Gun Shop' (John Updike) day to their children. It turns out that Ronald Neame Problems and Other Stories the separation is the story-teller's idea, 7 42nd Street 10 'The Garden-Party' (Katherine and even at the end of the day he's not Lloyd Bacon and Busby Berkeley Mansfield) The Complete Stories sure why he's going through with it. 8 Manhattan of Katherine Mansfield (The whole thing is obviously auto­ Woody Allen 11 'Kingmakers' (Robert Thurston) biographical, but few writers manage 9 F for Fake New Voices 1 to derive such concentrated art from Orson Welles 12 'Old Folks at Home' (Michael the bits of their disintegrating lives.) 10 Tree of Wooden Clogs Bishop) Universe 8 'Separating' has one of my favourite Ermanno Olmi 13 'The Doctor of Death Island'(Gene lines: 'How often divorce followed a 11 The Loved One Wolfe) Immortal dramatic home improvement'. (After Tony Richardson 46 12 The Europeans British embassy in a neutral country make sure that somebody keeps James Ivory during World War 2. The blend of casting her in films! Manhattan is comedy and suspense is particularly one of the best of the late 1970s Behold how television hath corrupted effective here, including the marvel­ movies—which means it only scores the ways of a true cinema fan! Out of lous double-sting-in-the-tail ending. No 8 on this list. The trouble with the whole list, only three did I see at Ditto for The Gunfighter, which Manhattan is that nothing in it is the cinema. In fact, if I had had to rely takes the mickey out of some Western necessary. There's this big, cute, and on films seen at the cinema, I don't legends, but within the framework of a cuddly intelligence called Woody Allen think I would have bothered with a list carefully wrought classic Western. presiding over it. There is not a great for 1980. Gregory Pgck is particularly effective and magical intelligence directing it. The great advantage of watching as the gunfighter who comes back to That's not a very precise way of put­ films on television (apart from being town for peaceful purposes of his own, ting it. I will try to think of something able to get a cup of coffee every hour but knows that somebody sometime more exact to say for next issue. • or so during a commercial break) is will try to gun him down, no matter I could say the same kinds of things that most of the good ones are old. how he acts. about the rest of the films on the list. If you are really lucky, you will get The Effect of Gamma Rays on They are all marvellous in different 1930s and 1940s films shown in Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds does not ways, especially Olmi's affection for almost new prints, with their lustrous really belong in this section of the list. his people in Tree of Wooden Clogs. blacks, whites, and greys shining out at It relies not on good direction (al­ But each is somehow unfinished, un­ you. None of these horribly grainy, though Paul Newman's direction is transformed. F for Fake has some of washed-out apologies for colour that good), amazing photography, or crisp Orson Welles' best photography and you get in almost every newly released scripting, but roils along entirely on direction, yet seems doomed by its cinema film these days. B&W is beauti­ theatrical values. Paul Zindel's original semi-documentary flavour to be a ful. . . . play is magnificent, and the film is second-rater among Welles films. Where was I? To explain: late in great because Joanne Woodward and The Loved One has much fine acting 1979, Elaine's sister and brother-in-law everybody else in the cast are worthy (although Robert Morse is quite wrong gave us a television set. It was the first of the play. as the bemused Britisher in California). time I had ever lived in the same house I suspect that Tunes of Glory also It has some fine photography, great as a tv set. For awhile I found almost started out as a play. It would all be effects, funny scenes. Yet it is also a nothing on the box. I still find almost too longwinded to make good cinema bit of a mess. It has little of the crisp nothing on the box—except for the old —if it were not for the acting of John sharpness of Evelyn Waugh's original movies. Almost everything about good Mills and Alec Guinness. Guinness is so novel. And (huff, puff, as we get to 1940s and early 1950s films is better good that you can forget he is Guinness end of the list) The Europeans has than even the best of new films. The and concentrate on the intricacies of magnificent colour photography of photography is much better than now; his role as the deposed regimental New England in autumn, and some the acting is better; the scripts are commander. Tunes of Glory has many great acting, and a faithful rendition of better. That seems an odd thing to say, points of similarity with another saga Henry James' novella—yet the whole since most script-writers during the about the armed forces—George Tur­ thing never quite comes to life for me. 1960s and early 1970s reacted against ner's novel, Young Man of Talent Maybe a second viewing would change the limitations imposed on Hollywood (qv, as they say in the best magazines). my mind. scripts during the 1940s and 1950s. 42nd Street. A film so famous that The best film I saw all year (on tv, Quite so. But really great writers and any comment of mine makes little dif­ of course—a midday movie during the directors work particularly well within ference. However, I think that some­ fortnight when my hand was in very tight limitations. The result, in body at the tv channel has snaffled plaster) was one I had seen three times fact, has been a line of tight thrillers some Busby Berkeley footage from the before, This Sporting Life. Somehow and westerns which don't turn up very film. The final section seemed very it struck me as even more heart­ often, even at the Valhalla, and which short to me. The enjoyment of this wrenching than ever before. Richard occasionally appear late at night on tv. film, however, does not spring Harris captures the ferocity and self- The Line-Up is a classic Don Siegel essentially from the Berkeley stagings, destructiveness of that footballer so ♦ thriller. I don't need to say anything but from the snappy dialogue. The well that it is impossible to believe that more about it. It's not quite as good as Hays Code stopped that sort of thing he wasn't acting out a part of his own Charley Varrick, but it is in the same shortly after the film was made; the life. And Rachel Roberts glimmers and class. return of cuss words in films has not glows on the screen so powerfully that I saw Keeper of the Flame when I returned comedy scripts to the stan­ it is impossible to look at anything else was very young, and did not remember dard set by 42nd Street- in the frame when she appears. If any much of it. Full of great, classic, Manhattan is a film which proves film better portrays the power of beautifully lit, beautifully staged set what I have been saying about the human love, then I do not know of it. pieces starring Katherine Hepburn and old movies. Manhattan is beautiful: The photography is splendid; so is Spencer Tracy. The breathless suspense the black and white photography Lindsay Anderson's direction (of of the script and the glamour of the at the start of thafilm, in wide screen, course). But more than any act of atmosphere only hide its strong anti­ is some of the best I have seen. Man­ craftsmanship emerges Anderson's Nazi line (in a film made before USA hattan has pathos and affection: at devotion to a vision which is given entered World War 2). Like The Line- any rate, the sight of Mariel Heming­ body by his actors. The visionary is Up, this has a perfection of form way struck me with a whole range of still scarce in films, even though visions and intensity of conviction which one emotions which certainly included are supposed to be the cinema's busi­ cannot find at the cinema any more. affection. I don't care whether Mariel ness. Ditto for Five Fingers, the story of Hemingway was acting or not; just a British spy (James Mason) in a 47 Favourite Music 1980 thought out, then performed with The smaller of the two is The Mas­ Not another list! you say. No, I don't some passion. ter of Go, by Yasunari Kawabata. I’ve keep lists of records heard or bought. Tell the truth, much of my listening read two other novels by Kawabata, I should. I buy far too many records, and buying during 1980 was affected and I look forward to the rest at lei­ and far too many have been heard by two new influences: regular watch­ sure, but this one is superb. It’s a novel only once. ing of Countdown on television, and in the wider Japanese sense which, ac­ To start at the top: Only a few new listening to one of the two first com­ cording to the introduction, can include Ips of 'classical' music spring to mind. mercial FM stations in Melbourne, autobiography and memoirs with fic­ Verdi's Requiem is not a piece which 3EON. Countdown convinces me that tional colouring; Kawabata called this I've usually liked (except for the Dies most pop groups are worse than one ‘a faithful chronicle-novel’. It chron­ Irae, of course). I suppose it's because could ever imagine, but that the Eng­ icles a 1938 Go match in which the I don't like Verdi's operatic style very lish groups make superb film clips. old master loses his final match, and in much. However, Riccardo Mutti's Clip of the Year was the Vapors' so doing it represents the passing old recent rendering (EMI SLS 5185) 'Talking Japanese', with Pink Floyd's order (which in fact was gone when changed my mind. The soloists are 'Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2' a the book was written, in the post-war much better than I've heard on any close second. More recently, the clip decade). It is a chronicle, but not other version, and the clarity of the for Ian Dury's 'I Wanna Be Straight' chronologically written; you know the recording is probably the best on any must be the funniest piece of film I've outline at the beginning, but the novel record I have. seen for years. I don't know who is the follows its own internal development Music which I like much more is director who does all the British film through shifting scenes from different that of Berlioz. World Record Club clips—she, he, it, or them should receive points in the months-long match. I dp recently re-issued the Colin Davis ver­ Oscars regularly. :: 3EON must have a not play Go, but I understood well sion of L'Enfance du Christ. Very musicologist as its program director enough what was going on, between pleasurable listening. On the other (by contrast with pop AM stations, the explanations of the moves in the hand, WRC has not picked up from which have robots as program direc­ text (and meditation on their meaning) Philips the Colin Davis Les Troyens, tors). Every time I hear a particularly and the charts of the board at different and local Philips has let it go out of interesting album track, I go into my stages of the game. The game of Go print. Anybody who could sell me an favourite record shop (Pop In in interacts with the characters in very unspotted copy of Les Troyens would Flinders Street) to ask for it, only to complex ways. The writing is very earn my sincere gratitude. find that it has been out of print for lucid; Edward G Seidensticker is a eight years. Even so, a lot of good old magnificent translator, and I’ve become As everyone knows, the great days of records are still around, and they have so addicted to his renderings that I’ve rock music ended in 1968. Since then, made up most of my purchases. been reluctant to read the Kawabata my interest in the field has remained novels translated by someone else. that of interested surveyor. But I still A new interest for me is buying the The second book is over 1000 pages occasional jazz record. Again, I have buy vast numbers of pop, rock, or and makes no pretence of being a new patterns of listening to thank for rock and roll records! The addiction of novel, although in its complexity and this: specifically, Jim Macleod's 'Jazz­ it all. As I mentioned in SFC 60/61, insight into character and meaning it track' on ABC-FM. Most of the music the best record for 1980 was Emmy- rivals the really good novels. It’s Black was indistinguishable when I began lou Harris' Roses in the Snow. But Lamb and Grey Falcon, by Rebecca listening to the program. Gradually I Bruce Springsteen's The River is a West. In the course of a book about found that certain artists were very mighty effort. When Dave Bromberg her trip through Yugoslavia in 1937, much better than others. I've bought was out here, he mentioned that his West writes a magnum opus on the his­ a few records by a few of the people type of music, which, to the untrained tory of Europe, the clash between I've picked out as very good. Best new ear, includes everything, could be de­ Turkish Islam and Eastern Christianity, discoveries are Pat Metheny, LA4, scribed as 'American folk music'. the land and people of Yugoslavia and John McLaughlin, and a few oldies al­ Springsteen's recent stuff is very good its component regions, the nature of ways known to jazz fans but not to American folk music. Songs like 'The human evil, and the causes and mean­ me, like Oscar Peterson. I'll let you River', 'Drive All Night', and 'Hungry ing of the doom approaching Europe know how this interest in jazz deve­ Heart' have great lyrics. Springsteen's at the time she wrote (it was completed lops. carefully roughened rock and roll style in 1941). Although I don’t share West’s is envigorating. By contrast, I would essential dualism in viewing human 'Have you finished now, Gillespie?' describe AC/DC's style as flattening, nature, I an enormously impressed by Yes. 'Good. Get on with the letters.' rather than envigorating. I can listen to the achievement of this book. It gives But some of the letter writers have one side of Back in Black at a time, be­ me a sense of the strength of the listed their favourite things as well. fore retiring from exhaustion. The new European tradition at its best, not just 'Oh, no.' Oh yes. Here's lead singer seems a lot better than Bon at its most attenuated, as we usually Scott, and production on Back in see it in modern America. West has JOHN D BERRY Black is perfect. certainly shamed me into studying in 302 Malden Ave East, Apt 3, The record I played most during depth the history of any country I Seattle, Washington 98112, 1980 actually caught up with people plan to visit in the future, since, for USA only twelve months after its initial all my powers of observation, my un­ release in mid-1979. That was Pat derstanding of the countries I’ve I’m not into making lists, but there Benatar's In the Heat of the Night. travelled through is so shallow com­ were two books that I read in 1979 The record is never more than good pared to the layers and layers of that stand out and deserve comment. pop, with some rock and roll thrown history, art, and meaning that she Neither is recent. Neither is quite a in, but every song has been carefully brings to her travels in Yugoslavia. novel, although both resemble one. 48 Just for the sake of listing, here are the other titles that stand out from my JOHN D BERRY on Kawabata reading of the past year (not in order): Through the Flower, by Judy Chicago; A Room of One’s Own, by Virginia and Rebecca West. Woolf; Watchtower and The Dancers of Arun by Elizabeth Lynn; Latin for People /Latina pro Populo, by Alex­ THOMAS DISCH’s favourites for ander Humez and Nicholas Humez; Snow Country, by Yasunari Kawabata; The Language of the Night, by Ursula 1980: Jennings’ Aztecs in first Le Guin, edited by Susan Wood; When the Tree Sings, by Stratis Haviaras; place .. . Tyler, Macauley, Jacobs . .. ♦ Fault Lines, by Kate Wilhelm; The Last Time I Saw Paris, by Elliot Paul; also Benford and Sladek. Blue Moose, by Manus Pinkwater; The Love Poems of Marichiko, translated 4 The Juror by Harvey Jacobs were alive and well and living in Balti­ by Kenneth Rexroth; A Sportsman’s (Franklin Watts, $8.95) more.’ Notebook, by Ivan Turgenev; and 5 The Specialty of the House and . . . and for The Juror: ‘Leon Drew’s Pieces of the Frame, by John McPhee. other stories, by Stanley Ellin [the hero] ever-overactive imagina­ Actually, that last is probably from (The Mysterious Press, $15) tion . . . leads him, on his downtown this year. Lists can get out of hand too 6 Timescape, by Gregory Benford lunch hours during his week of jury easily, but it’s interesting to me just to (Simon and Schuster, $12.95) duty, to commit a series of dumb­ see these titles all together like this. 7 Ro derick, by J ohn Sladek founding (and, I confess, delightful) I’m not much of a movie-goer, but (Granada, 6 pounds 95) gratuitous crimes. If Bob Newhart of two films also stand out from last year: 8 The Way We Live Now, by sitcom fame were to start behaving Outrageous! and Picnic at Flanging Anthony Trollope (published in like Raskalnikov, the effect could not Rock. 1875) be more disquieting, and when some (12 May 1980) 9 The Sailor’s Return, by David pages go by and the author offers no John also includes some personal de­ Garnett (published in 1925) explanation for Leon Drew’s aberrant tails which, I suspect, are not for pub­ 10 Rembrandt, by Gladys Schmidt behaviour, disquiet deepens to un­ lication. My respect for the talents and (published in 1961 by Random canny—as though Bob Newhart had personality of John D Berry is pretty House). been metamorphosed into Kafka’s high, but it rose even higher during Aztec and Rembrandt, as their titles beetle.’ 1980 after reading his splendid article suggest, are historical novels, and very Timescape? No need to say more. about the original 'Skid Row', Seattle, well-wrought in the straightforward By now, surely, you’ve all voted for it. which appeared in Te/os 1. Great new middlebrow way of almost all historical Roderick is so far only available in fanzine; great article. novels. SFC readers won’t need a mini­ England. A magic carpet of ballroom Kawabata's books are sitting on the essay on the similar appeal of sf and dimensions with a secret trapdoor shelf awaiting perusal. So are most of historical novels. Let me add a retro­ under each new twist of plot. What’s the other books on the shelf. I'm look­ spective endorsement for Wouk’s two more, this is only the half of it. ing forward to them. I don't think I've World War II novels, than which no The Way We Live Now lived up to ever seen a copy of Black Lamb and account has ever made a neater geo­ its title. I’ve never cottoned to Trollope Grey Falcon. political bundle of all those old movies before, but no other Victorian novel knocking about in my memory. has less bullshit. After living the pre­ THOMAS M DISCH Whenever I can get a good used vious four years in the nineteenth cen­ New York, USA copy of anything by either Rose tury, this was a splendid good-bye to Macaulay or David Garnett, I snap it all that. Herewith, in no particular order, my up. The Towers of Trebizond is her The Specialty of the House. Ellin is top ten for 1980. The first six came last novel and generally accounted her my candidate for First Prize in the my way as a reviewer for The Wash­ best. As a novel I have a few misgivings Traditional Craftsmanship category ington Post or for F&SF, but I like (it rambles), but there hasn’t been a (Short Story division). It’s always the them no less for having been paid to better travel book for years. Garnett mixture as before, and he almost never say so. Anyhow, not everyone gets the wrote a classic fantasy, Lady into Fox, fails to bring it off. They’re mysteries, Post every Sunday. Only two, Ben­ which got me started reading him. for the most part, but there’s a large ford’s and Sladek’s, are sf, but two The Sailor’s Return is pure caviar, on a fantasy component too. Popcorn never others are by writers familiar in the par with A High Wind in Jamaica, the tasted so good. field (Jennings and Jacobs): one book on the list I can’t imagine All in all, a rather unambitious year 1 Aztec by Gary Jennings (Athen- anyone not liking. intellectually. No highbrow hijinks, no eum, §15.95) I’ll quote my review for Morgan’s emotional maelstroms, not a single 2 Morgan’s Passing, by Anne Tyler Passing: ‘Alternately lyrical and ram- labour of Hercules. But much pleasure (Knopf, $9.95) bunctiously comic—as though Chek­ and food for thought. 3 The Towers of Trebizond by Rose hov were to rewrite one of Kaufmann (30 December 1980) Macaulay (first published 1956; and Hart’s comedies... as though Who could ask for anything more? 5th printing 1980; Farrar Straus Flannery O’Connor were to forget all (Well, I don't. Not often.) Thanks, Giroux, $5.95 paper) about religion and write a whole novel Tom. Now all I have to do is find some as droll as her tales; as though Dickens way of obtaining these books. No Aus- 49 ORCHARD HOUSE BEGBROKE OXFORD 0X1 5RT

5 Jan 81.

Dear Mr Gillespie, I know that my husband, the writer, would want me to write to you now that he has gone from us. He left on his desk both SF COMMENT­ ARY 60/61 and THE STELLAR GAUGE, with your essay on him; both coincident- ally arrived here on the same day, and I feel that he was planning some sort of a response to them.

Brian was a modest man, although the fools of this world often provoked from him outbursts some mistook for conceit. He accepted many of your criticisms of him and laughed at the praise, which he never could persuade himself he deserved. You may not realise that he greatly relished his place in the writing hierarchy, and enjoyed the particular skills you brought to SF COMMENTARY over the years: which is to say, that he liked your criticism of sf but enjoyed it all the more for the way in which you tempered it with your personal life; he had a similar quality of frankness, and was not afraid of making a fool of himself, knowing that only fools would mind. Perhaps in this context I should make mention of the remarks the eponymous Dr Rotten- steiner commits to paper; but Brian understood that anyone who knew him would see how the remarks grew from a dark nature, and fell a .bit wide of their target.

He had one particular enthusiastic comment on your essay on him, which he marked in the margins of his copy of THE STELLAR GAUGE. You speak'of the Aldissian tone of voice, which you characterise as, "a mixture of vibrant ebullience, English jollity, pungent irony, and acute melancholia". He quoted this with glee. His sense of comedy tended to the macabre.

Although his thought was of a philosophical cast, he concealed this side of his nature through diffidence. I think myself that he agreed that his position within the sf field was uncomfortable. His vitality was not appreciated, nor his black humour understood, by many within the sf field which he so loved and hated. He would have fared better in the opinion of many of his English friends had he forsaken science fiction for the wider world in which he had also made a mark; but he maintained to the end that his temperament and im­ agination were fitted to the field of sf, and vice versa. He had just finished a long novel, HELLICONIA - designed as the first of three - which I hope you will find vindicates your good opinion of him.

May I conclude this brief note by saying how often Brian talked of his visit to Australia, and of the friends he met there, particularly Lee Harding, John Bangsund and Sally, George Turner, and many others. Now he has gone, and the house is strangely silent. You can imagine my thoughts when I regard his desk, littered with notes, drawings, rhymes, unfinished plans.

Fortunately, he will only be away for a week, deciding he needed a little sea air at Bournemouth, but I thought I would reply to you before he returned.

50 tralian bookshop has any of them. in that volume, incidentally. There is time I sit in front of Norstrilia Press's also an interview with Barry Longyear IBM composer (the same machine ANDREW WEINER —perhaps the quintessential Isaac which brings you SFC these days) and 124 Winchester Street, Asimov’s SF Mag writer—about how typeset other people's material. We Toronto, Ontario M4X IB4, he earned $50,000 in his first eighteen did well from last year's mini-sf boom Canada months of writing sf, before suffering in Australia. The boom has bumphed a heart attack. Fascinating.) this year, so I'm relying for work on Perhaps you should change the title of I like Clark’s No Other, too, but I the Technical Teachers' Union of Vic­ your magazine to The Journal of Dis­ find it perhaps a little too slick, and toria, whose office is next door. (That's illusioned and Former SF Readers. remain convinced that Roadmaster is the lead-in for a complicated story, Tom Disch has a good description of superior. I picked up City on your which I won't tell.) Currently, that our current crop of Leading S F Writers recommendation and particularly en­ work is paying for hire of the machine, in the February F&SF: he calls them joyed McGuinn’s ‘Skate Date’. The but not enough to keep Elaine and me ‘entertainment engineers’. man is shameless. On the subject of prosperous or our cats fed. But to­ There’s a great quote from Raymond rock, I’m not sure Malcolm Edwards is morrow there could be a phone call, Chandler: ‘If you have enough talent, right in saying that ‘things were better and I could spend the rest of the year you can get by after a fashion without ten years ago’. Of course I feel the cursing the lack of time I have to do guts; and if you have enough guts, you same thing, but I suspect that, as far SFC\ That's what 1980 was like, and I can also get by, after a fashion again, as rock is concerned (and maybe a few did not enjoy it. We'll see what hap­ without talent. But you certainly can’t other things, too) things were always pens with SFC Reprint: First Year get by without either.’ So much for better ten years ago. ... I think we get 1969. I hope you get back to fiction SF 1980 (and 1979, and 1978 . . .). I imprinted, like Konrad Lorenz’s ducks, sometime, Andrew. could count on the fingers of one hand at a certain point in adolescence and the number of sf pieces that impressed never really recover. This is one reason IAN CARMICHAEL me last year, and even then I would be why I decided I had to stop being a 278 Napier Street, dragging in marginalia like Vonnegut’s rock critic six or seven years ago (an­ Fitzroy, Victoria 3065 Jailbird (I agree with you, a real return other reason being that there was no to form, and I especially liked the money in it). I do appreciate Elvis I’ve almost given up reading science ‘Trout’ story about Einstein and Costello, though. I don’t know how it fiction: it’s not in decline, but it seems heaven), and Dick’s The Cosmic Pup­ went in Australia, but the commodi­ to me to be static. Perhaps, like Le pets from 1957, which I finally man­ fication of John Lennon broke new Guin, I OD’d on it too early. I’m in aged to locate (borrowed it from your ground in bad taste over here. full retreat, to the children’s- shelves: trusty reviewer, Terry Green, who I Interesting that Edwards is free­ to Alan Garner, Lloyd Alexander, finally met at a get-together organised lancing. Is he writing fiction? I always Ursula Le Guin, Susan Cooper—escap­ by John Robert Columbo, doyen of enjoyed his articles. For that matter, ism, perhaps, but escapism from what Canadian sf, such as it is, in support of are you still freelancing? I’ve been do­ was an escapist genre itself. Judith Merril’s Spaced Out Library) ing general interest freelancing for the There are practitioners who are though Dick’s short story, ‘Frozen past three years (pop psych, business, constantly before me, like Aldiss, Years’, in a recent Playboy, is nearly a science, management, etc, etc) and I’m Disch, and Anthony (for various rea­ return to form. Oh, and Tevis’ Mock­ entering the burn-out zone . . . churn­ sons, I’m still reading them). For that ingbird, unless that was 1979. ing out one article after another gets matter, I’m still reading Delany, al­ I was gratified to hear that you’ve to be like long-distance running, and though at present I wonder why. I abandoned your SF Magazine Mara­ I’m finding it harder and harder to put enjoyed his early material, and grim­ thon, if also a little guilt-stricken if I one foot in front of the other. Also, I faced I have struggled through Dhalgren was in any way responsible for it. My never have any time for fiction (al­ and Triton in much the same way I feeling about the magazines (apart though it may be that I deliberately fought through the marshes of The from F&SF) is that, unless I’m going structured things this way) and wrote Silmarillion. on a train or plane, or absolutely des­ precisely one new story last year. I’m My ten best for the year? There perate for something to read, I can thinking of becoming a stock market probably weren’t that many. Plain leave it to Terry Carr to pick out any­ speculator—it seems like a more suit­ Tales from the Raj, Freedom at Mid­ thing readable for his annual collection. able occupation for these days of Late night, the Taran Wanderer series, I also think you should take a tip from Capitalism—once I pay off last year’s Godel Escher Bach. To go further, one your friend Rottensteiner’s letter. You taxes, of course. has to go into professional reading, don’t have to read beyond the first (2 January 1981) such as Highet’s Classical Tradition, few pages. In fact, often you don’t Westcott’s commentary on Hebrews, The last I heard, Malcolm was trying have to read beyond the first few Howard’s Introduction to A Grammar to freelance for a rapidly collapsing sentences to know you’re going to of New Testament Greek. British publishing industry. You'll hate something. For example (and it (10 January 1981) may be unfair to take this example, have to ask him directly how he's sur­ but it’s the first that comes to hand), viving the first half of 1981. I'm free­ the first sentences in the first story in lancing, yes, but Tve sold no writing Another disillusioned former reader of The Berkley Showcase, Vol. 2 (original for years. The thought of writing fact sf! Who's still out there munching anthology) read: ‘His name was Tain, articles for a living does squishy things through it? Well, I am, since I seem to and he was a man to beware. The to the inside of my stomach. It's much have a lot of books lined up for the lacquered armor of the Dread Empire of what I was doing when I was work­ 'Eight Point Universe' column. I dis­ rode in the packs on his mule.’ Amen ing for the Education Department's covered the better children's writers and goodbye, Dread and Empire. Publications Branch up til mid-1973, some years ago, and haven't followed (There is much better stuff elsewhere and I'm glad I escaped it. Most of the up that interest as avidly as I meant to. 51 first place! I've never heard any of that PETER COOMBER: ‘Has sf fallen sort of rock on the radio. I suppose 3RRR plays some of it now, but that hardly explains the real interest in down a well? Will Literature bother to electronic music which grew up in the early 1970s. I heard early Pink Floyd throw in a rope to aid? Does sf want only by accident, for instance. I still can't see why anybody likes the likes to get out? (It’s so popular down of Kraftwerk, Hawkwind, etc. As Nik Cohn said in what is still the best book on the subject, AWopBopaLooBop there!)’ ALopBamBoom, good popular music should 'carry its implications lightly'. • I still try to read several William Mayne Brian Eno has done some excellent Electronic music groups seem to be books a year. solo albums. The German Kraftwerkish claiming seriousness; there's certainly stuff is bearable in small doses. The no fun in what they are doing! If I PETER COOMBER best of today’s bands are ‘electronic/ want serious music, I listen to Bach, 229 Berserker Street, new wave’ stuff—Ultravox, Orchestral Shostakovich, and Haydn. If I want Rockhampton, Old 4700 Manoeuvres in the Ddrk, XTC, Talking fun music, then I listen to people who Heads. The synthesiser is an unsur­ sound as if they are having fun (Neil I think I’m bound to comment on passed instrument when used with in­ Young, even when his lyrics are morbid SFC 60/61: I wasn’t prepared for such telligence. Unfortunately, and to my or maudlin) or as if they passionately a blast at sf. Since then I’ve been try­ horror, it is being plundered and used care about what they are doing (Bob ing to salve hurt feelings by hopping robotically in idiotic disco songs. (It’s Dylan, in all his odd phases). But into a few unread sf novels. I haven’t all so much simpler with an electronic electronic music? It doesn't give me enjoyed any of them really, and my beat and percussion.) It’s this kind of any sense of passion or fun, just a stomach churns when I re-read some music that makes today’s music seem sense of the Inexpressible Boredom Of of the letters in 60/61. The truth hurts, so bad. Along with the Neil Youngs It All. I suppose. and ‘Kiss’es of the world! Keep writing, Peter. Anybody who Glad I’m not the only one not I found your favourites listing inter­ gets me so worked up about anything bothering with sf magazines anymore. esting. Can’t say I thought much of must be doing something right. It’s been a combination of not being Randal Flynn’s story, though. You asked in a PS: 'And when is able to afford/not wanting to buy for (20 January 1981) my subscription renewal due?' Like fear of getting the same-old-shit anyone else, you can tell by looking at Here I have been typesetting this letter, (which it inevitably is). I think all this the S- number on the envelope in and spitting and moaning at the heresy was precipitated for me by the demise which you receive your latest copy. of it, in a way that would never happen of Ted White’s Amazing and Fantastic, That number is the last issue you will if somebody made rude remarks about and the onslaught of Asimov’s night­ receive on the current subscription. my favourite sf writers. Maybe I just marish rag. I was getting sick of Ana­ Other designations are T = Traded care more about music than about log’s mediocre stories being presented magazine; P = Permanent recipient science fiction. . . . and illustrated so badly (in most cases) (but there are not many of those and, But rude remarks about Neil Young! as to make them impossible to read. despite the label, you are always liable And—unkindest cut of all—comparing F&SF still publishes good stuff. to be struck off the P list if you don't him to Kiss! To judge Neil Young by Occasionally. Sf is standing still. Has keep in touch), and L = Letter-writer listening to one song is like dismissing sf fallen down a well? Will Literature (and anybody who is 'paying' for the Beatles after hearing only one song bother to throw in a rope to aid? Does copies in return for marvellous letters ('Octopus's Garden'?). Among the sf want to get out? (It’s so popular will really need to keep in touch). many reasons why I like Young's stuff down there!) is that he has changed style with every Some of the comments in 60/61 STEPHEN HITCHINGS • record, ranging from unapologetically concerning music almost made me ill! 62 Coronation Parade, pop {Harvest and Comes a Time) to I can’t believe anyone can enjoy crap Enfield, NSW 2136 the dirge-like and near-incomprehens­ like Neil Young! Anyone who can ible (side 2 of On the Beach) to the As I have not read much sf for a couple stoop to ‘singing’ ‘Hey hey, my my,/ lyrical ('Will to Love' from American of years, I am amazed to find that I Rock and roll will never die’ out of Stars and Bars) to the contemptuously appear to be in fashion—or at least in tune and continuously for ten minutes defiant ('Cortez the Killer', originally good company. I had been wondering doesn’t deserve to have good vinyl on Zuma but with a much better ver­ what had happened to Ms Le Guin, wasted on him! Pink Floyd’s The Wall sion on Live Rust). Neil Young has and I find the truth rather sad. Her seems to be a sellout to me, and how done everything in rock music, and letter also re-awakened my Great in hell can Robert Day call it ‘punk’? he's one of the few left willing and Disappointment—my failure, through It took me a long time to stop laugh­ able to try what he has not done. Best insurmountable circumstances, to ing. Bowie? I don’t think much of for me is that recently he has made attend the famous Le Guin workshop him. His current album is a regression, a number of magnificent rock and roll (followed by the horror of finding that if you ask me. I don’t agree with your tracks—keeping the Real Faith alive. ‘electronic swish’, though. I’m twenty circumstances were probably not as The groups you mention as liking? insurmountable as I had thought). As years old, grew up on electronic music. Recently, I've found a few other people for Lem, I usually enjoy him less than I’ve always enjoyed bands like Hawk­ who like that sort of stuff. I'm inter­ wind, King Crimson, early Floyd; some of the writers he condemns. Per- ested to know how you heard it in the 52 haps I just don’t like Polish writers—I his more recent works. He's a wonder­ wilderness. T6 the south and east haven’t read enough to be sure; I great­ ful novelist. across the water can be seen mountain ly enjoy the works of Karol Wojtyla, In a postscript, Stephen, you asked ranges in the state of Washington, with but for very different reasons. And as about some reviews you wrote some Mt Baker clearly visible on any good for Rottensteiner—his sneering cynicism time ago. There's nothing wrong with day. blinded me to anything valuable he them! They're fine stuff. The trouble Victoria has the reputation of being might have had to say. is that I have about 500 pages of fine a very ‘English’ city, and as such it is I disagreed with most of the reviews, stuff stiil sitting in the files. A lot of it an attraction for hordes of American as usual (though I am fascinated that concerns books which have gone out tourists during the summer. What they some reviewers nearly always find of print, or it's material which is in see, however, is mostly a kind of Dis­ something nice to say, while others are some other way out-dated, at least neyland facade: they are overcharged all nastiness; wonder if you really give for the purposes of the new, slimline for tea in the Empress Hotel, take bus some people all the good books). One SFC. My real problem is to find a way tours in double-deckers imported from exception: noted with pleasure your to publish much of that brilliant stuff. London. But behind this facade there approval of ‘Under the Garden’, which I have not yet found a solution. I have is a certain Britishness, in places. Some I encountered in 1980 in Greene’s col­ 50 reams of duplicating paper awaiting of the streets and shops away from lection, A Sense of Reality, from which conversion into fanzines. My good old downtown do remind me of Britain I would also recommend ‘A Discovery trusty Adler Gabriele has been cleaned (ordinary, everyday Britain, not tourist in the Woods’ as a superior post-holo­ and repaired. Everything is ready for Britain), and in the small local shopping caust story. In fact, I’ll recommend another Supersonic Snail. Instead I centre near us there’s even what could the whole book, short (112 pages) produce another SFC. Instead I keep pass for an authentic British pub (a though it is. I have become a very working on the Reprint issue (80,000 rare thing indeed in North America). great Greene fan: recently I agonised words typeset so far). Need I go on? Victoria is the capital of British over The Heart of the Matter, the Columbia, and has a university, which most agonising book I have ever read, ANGUS TAYLOR means it has more going for it cultur­ and hated Greene for torturing his 3746 Waring Place, ally than most cities of its size. For character like that. Since then I have Victoria, British Columbia V8P 5G1 example, there’s a film series at the read that he says he loved Scobie; if Canada university: a different movie every that is love, may I never glimpse evening six nights a week, and they’re hatred. Thanks for SFC 60/61. Please note the all good movies, which means mostly I thought ‘Holland of the Mind’ a new address. Nienke and I are renting European, Japanese, and the like. disappointing postscript to ‘The Heat a house with another couple and their They even showed a number of Aus­ Death of the Universe’. But if you had 1 Vi-year-old daughter. The place is tralian films a month ago. Coming up not read it before, that means (gasp!) within about a hundred metres of the is a number of German films: Fass­ that you had not read The New SF beach, and the University of Victoria, binder, Wenders, etc. And these are all (ed. Langdon Jones), the book than where Nienke is studying (violin per­ at about half the price of commercial which Michael Moorcock had never formance) is just a ten-minute walk up cinema tickets. ‘read a better collection of original fic­ the hill. Our yard has apple trees, pear I’m afraid I no longer read science tion before’. (Though my disagreement trees—even a peach tree and a (!) grape fiction, so I can’t contribute much in approaches 100 per cent; oh well, tastes vine. This may not sound unusual to that line. I found myself agreeing with differ). I was unaware that D M you, but in Canada, Victoria has the Brian Aldiss about the present state of Thomas wrote novels. I’m afraid I find mildest climate of any city. It seldom sf, which is partly why I no longer little of interest in his poetry. snows in winter, and the summers are read the stuff. Like Ursula Le Guin, I Apart from that, I’m simply amazed sunny but mild. This makes it a haven find the ‘larger world’ (the ‘real’ world) that anyone can compare Rocannon’s for retired people, but also pretty nice endlessly new, and so much more in­ World favourably with The Dis­ for anyone in general—and at the teresting than the little world of sf. I possessed. Rocannon’s World is the moment land and housing prices are think that in a real sense I’ve outgrown one Le Guin novel that bored me. shooting up astronomically as demand science fiction: now, when I want to (6 January 1981) far exceeds supply. While back in think about ‘ideas’ I go straight to the Perhaps Graham Greene loved Scobie Toronto, for instance, they’re suffering hard stuff—non-fiction philosophy, for the suffering he could not escape. minus 30°C temperatures (usually it’s political science, etc. If you get into From reading interviews with authors, not that bad in Toronto, though it is classical music, then eventually you I get the impression that often charac­ elsewhere), here it’s plus 10°C (50°F) stop listening to the Boston Pops and ters bring dooms down upon them­ and joggers are to be seen in shorts and start listening to Bernstein. Or if you’re selves. T-shirts. There are even stunted palm into rock, then you come to prefer I've had The New SF sitting on the trees to be seen here and there—though Jethro Tull to the Carpenters. On the shelf for a very long time, and I still these are more a curiosity than any­ other hand, my appreciation of good ‘mainstream’ fiction is growing, though haven't read it. I don't know why. By thing else, rather like they are in the time I tracked down a copy, it was Brighton, England—no doubt planted at the moment I read comparatively too late to include stories from it in just to show it can be done. Victoria is little fiction of any kind. Perhaps mainstream fiction, with its focus on my 'Best Of' whatever-year-it-was. about the size of Brighton, though a Maybe that's it. Maybe I just want to pleasanter city, and with a more spec­ the interpersonal, cannot be ‘trans­ save up some jewel from the late 1960s tacular natural setting. It’s at the cended’ in the way that sf can be. Sf is to tide me over the early 1980s. southern tip of a huge island—Van­ ultimately science fiction, and if you’re I liked D M Thomas' poetry quite couver Island, several hundred miles seriously interested in the science well when it appeared in New Worlds long, with its own snow-capped moun­ (natural or social), then you quit the in 1967/68, but I've not seen any of tain ranges, and largely an uninhabited fiction. But mainstream fiction deals 53 one I share. I hadn’t heard that joyless fact about Asimov before: that he tried CHRIS PRIEST: ‘Someone like to suppress the work of New Wave writers. Brian is to be applauded for Spider Robinson could only rise to putting it on record. I’d like to see wider publicity given to such activities: eminence in a genre where literary such as Asimov’s recent attempts to canvass the SFWA Grandmaster Award for himself. The very fact that this sort standards, and critical standards, have of award is seen as desirable is some indication of how far standards have become derelict? fallen. Brian’s other example of mediocrity, Spider Robinson, is one with emotions and interpersonal rela­ should be so limiting. The limitations that particularly bothers me. It’s not • tions in a way that cannot be replaced of the children's fantasy medium don't just that he writes in a sub-literate style by scientific inquiry. You don’t gradu­ stop the best children's writers from (which is in itself enough reason to ate from Nabokov to a psychology being great writers. The best mystery stand against him), but what he says in textbook; Lolita is art, not a poor writers are much better writers than all that low-forehead style is a disgrace. person’s psychology textbook; it is not but a very few sf people. I don't see What it amounts to is a total abdication watered-down science, or even imagi­ why we have to put up with all the of critical impartiality. Yet this doesn’t natively presented science. No doubt rotten apples in the genre fiction matter: Robinson is a success, the like I’m presenting this argument in too barrel. Enough. of which has never been seen. He is bald a form. It needs qualification, but Thanks for all the personal news. popular. (So popular, indeed, that he I think there’s something to what I say. You would probably like living in Mel­ is frequently asked to be Guest at sf Which brings me to a book I’d like bourne, although this heartbreak old conventions . . . and so often is he asked to recommend to you and everyone town hardly specialises in spectacular that he now uses printed rejection else: Burger’s Daughter, by Nadine scenery. (It does specialise in idiotic slips!) But the point is that someone Gordimer. This is an exceptionally fine politicians, but that's a story which like Robinson could only rise to emi­ novel; I haven’t read anything that’s will have to wait.) There are quite a nence in a genre where literary impressed me so much in a long, long few repertory cinemas in Melbourne standards, and critical standards, have time. It’s about South Africa, and it now (all, it seems, with recurrent Fass­ become derelict. was banned there when it first ap­ binder and Herzog seasons). Chris Priest Because the writing of sf represents peared. Could anything this powerful thought that parts of Melbourne's a literary movement, however unpopu­ and profound be written in the medium northern suburbs were very English, lar the word has become, I have my of science fiction? but I think any Englishness in the own beliefs as to why sf has become (28 December 1980) place is more in its temper and pace. decadent (some of which I wrote about Parts of Melbourne's outer suburbs are in my SFWA article), but my own Well, of course, something profound just like the outer suburbs of any views on this are irrelevant. It would could be written within the bounds of American city, completewith Kentucky be instructive to compare the sf literary science fiction. The Malacia Tapestry Fried Chicken and Macdonald's stands. movement with other literary move­ has real artistic profundity (as opposed Boring big skyscrapers litter the inner ments . . . you’d find the same pattern, to philosophical profundity, which is a city. St Kilda and Carlton are still the I’m sure. The zeal of the minority, the quality which one sniffs at suspiciously sections of greater Melbourne with steady acquisition of confidence, sud­ in any novel). So has On Wings of some character, but recent developers' den popular success and (hence) sup­ Song. I'm not sure that many people plans in Carlton will probably change posed justification, etc. But because in sf are too interested in the qualities all that. I like living here because I the science fiction world has always you mention. The impression I get could not imagine living anywhere else looked inwards, it has never developed from the authors interviewed by —but I'd like to visit Victoria, Canada, a sense of perspective, so that it has Charles Platt in Dream Makers is that some day. never known how well it was doing. sf authors in general don't like people The comparisons have always been very much (that is, people outside the CHRISTOPHER PRIEST with commercial genres. (‘Sf books sf fraternity), which may be the 1 Ortygia House, sell better than Westerns’, etc.) At the simplest possible explanation of why 6 Lower Road, same time, and contradictorily, there # they write as they do. Harrow, Middlesex HA2 ODA, is the traditional cry of uniqueness, I don't think science fiction has England that an sf book is somehow ‘higher’ much to do with science. It has some­ than another from general fiction, or thing to do with the future: but, if I hope Brian Aldiss doesn’t bother to to one side of it. So we have reached we have any possibility of controlling rise to Rottensteiner’s unwarranted the paradoxical position that exists our own futures, then science fiction attack. His long letter, civilised and today, where someone like Spider is about our dreams and aspirations— intellectual (in the best sense), is itself Robinson can be treated seriously as what we want the future to be like. an answer to the sort of cerebral a critic, someone like Asimov can be It's the tawdriness of the dreams and thuggery that Rottensteiner goes in for. treated seriously as a classic writer, aspirations of most sf writers which is Whatever the truth of Aldiss’s alleged someone like Moskowitz can be so depressing. But I still like the fact ‘lack of integrity’, it is as nothing thought of as an historian, someone that they are dreaming and aspiring, when set beside Rottensteiner’s like Darrell Schweitzer can be consi­ even in a naive manner. I just don't see apparent lack of everything else. dered to be a penetrating interviewer, why the limitations of the sf medium Aldiss’s concern for standards is Barry Longyear a promising writer,

54 Franz Rottensteiner an intellectual, and so on. I don’t know if we ever had CHRIS PRIEST: ‘Stanislaw Lem’s them, but if we did we lost our stan­ dards a long time ago. It’s a difficult position to support, major crime against SFWA was not but I’m coming round to the idea that it is no longer possible to write science that he was rude, but that he wrote fiction seriously. Or, to put it another way, science fiction is no longer a place where serious writers are wel­ stories no one could understand! Give come. If you doubt this assertion, all you need to do is look around you. the fans a new Simak or Williamson.. How many serious writers would you say there were in the sf world at the Little I can say to that, except things expense. Poor Chip? Nonsense. Novel­ moment? I don’t mean writers serious I've said already to Angus Taylor and ists become rapidly accustomed to about their writing; you know what I others. I do think it's odd to link the having their children trampled to mean. Yet, for all the claims you hear name of Franz Rottensteiner with death in public and usually have enough from the middlebrow sf commentator, those other names on your list, espe­ friends (Jerry Kaufman, for instance) you’d think that sf was the last hope cially as his expressed opinions during on the ‘yea’ side to hold them from for literature. And when a good writer the last fifteen years add up to much despair. There are a few sf writers who appears, no one really knows what to the same as your own. Franz's satiric scramble into hysterical print at a do with him. Take Tom Disch. There’s sally at would-be superstar sf writers breath of criticism, but it is more often old George Turner saying of Disch that in 60/61 was both horribly true, and fans who become outraged when a he has never had the recognition he not necessarily true. My own disagree­ god’s toes are stamped on, feeling that deserves (right; so why doesn’t Turner ment with Franz Rottensteiner is his their literary appreciation is being give it to him?), and in the same issue constant assumption that there is now impugned. of SFC you yourself make frequent only one worthwhile sf writer, and However, Jerry’s point about the references to Disch’s unparallelled that is Stanislaw Lem. I've enjoyed ‘bitchy lies’ may well be correct. Wild brilliance, without coming to grips Lem's translated-into-English material horses will not drag me through that with it. The awful truth is that serious better than most people have, but book a third time just to check the writers only embarrass the sf world. there are aspects of science fiction point. For the rest, Jerry should re­ Stanislaw Lem’s major crime against which Lem does not cover, eg, social read the essay and make certain what I SFWA was not that he was rude, but comedy of the future, which some wrote; he misrepresents me as seriously that he wrote stories no one could un­ English-language sf writers do quite as he claims I misrepresented Delany. derstand! Give the fans a new Simak well. On the fifty-odd sexes matter, I think or Williamson, and the old value­ However, Franz can still produce my parody was as valid as the Delany judgments will serve yet again. But the odd brilliant item, such as his original, and for the purpose of the give them someone with genuine ori­ review of The Language of the Night exercise you can read sex/gender inter­ ginality, and they’re literally lost for in a recent Science Fiction Studies. changeably without altering the sense words. By the way, while you’re count­ I'm just annoyed that he didn't send of what I wrote—save to become more ing the serious writers, you might as the article to SFC instead. ('Because confusing. And if flim-flam being well check out how many of them are he knows it won't get published for a ‘clever’ makes it acceptable, there’s no working on non-sf projects at the year or two, stupid.' Oops. Yes. Quite quarrelling with the other bloke’s taste; moment, and ask yourself why. probably.) I prefer to call it supercilious, silly, The fact is that Spider Robinson As you can see, Chris, I've had a and possibly dishonest. As regards the and Isaac Asimov’s SF Magazine and crack at On Wings of Song after all. ‘parting shot’ about Delany’s supposed Franz Rottensteiner and Jerry Pour­ I put it off because I didn't think I lack of support: Dhalgren was in fact nene and Jacqueline Lichtenberg and could do justice to the book. Probably one of the surprise big sellers of its Heinlein’s beer-money philosophy and I haven't. I've found that many local day and gave rise to republication of dozens of other independent factors reviewers are hesitant about reviewing all his previous titles. Support was there have together created an ambience the better sf books for much the same in strength and, in cash terms, still is. which is anti-literary, and hence reason. It's easy to shaft John Varley, Come off it, Jerry! Check your facts inimical to serious writing. The thing but it takes me weeks to put together and references. is, a philistine atmosphere drives away a review of, say, On Wings of Song. It Back to Brian. I don’t know if his good writers . . . but an atmosphere might make a difference if I had some left-hemisphere/right-hemisphere idea which encourages good writers is also money to pay the good reviewers. will hold psychological water but it one in which lesser talents stand a sounds reasonable at first reading. In chance of improving themselves. At GEORGE TURNER fact, it sounds so science-fictionally the moment, new writers have to be Flat 3,123 Westbury Street, reasonable that I expect its appearance only just-so to win the Campbell Balaclava in a story sooner or later. (Busy for Award, and with nothing to kick Victoria 3183 the next two years—no time to pinch against they can go on seemingly for­ it for myself.) On the need for walking ever thereafter, giving a new breadth Brian Aldiss and I have rarely shared a mile in the other bloke’s moccasins— of meaning to the phrase ‘barely more than qualified agreement on mat­ Concise Oxford spelling; black mark to adequate’. ters science-fictional, so SFC 60/61 whomsoever [*brg: Probably me.*] But thanks for a stimulating issue marks some kind of a pleasant first, —I must agree, but felt that I had to read through the barren desert of even if it must be at Samuel Delany’s trudged a marathon through eight Christmas. (29 December 1980) Delany novels, a volume of short stories 55 nical moves will succeed until some­ body tells you they didn’t. GEORGE TURNER: There is Critical reception varied so violently from delight to damnation that I feel room on one planet for Jerry Kaufman, inclined to take refuge in Oscar Wilde’s dictum that ‘when the critics fall out, Brian Aldiss, Samuel Delany, and the artist is at peace with himself’. (Don’t take ‘artist’ too seriously.) That’s enough of that. If Cy Chauvin George Turner—even if we all feel a would care to write personally, I’ll answer what questions he may have. touch of claustrophobia at times.’ I prefer that to public essay-writing, which inevitably smacks of excuse- • making. and half The Jewel-Hinged Jaw before back to a reader is that of finding his Ursula’s opting out of sf reading is mental cramp suggested I had kept work factually misrepresented in cri­ no surprise. Her fiction of the last few company long enough. I tried for years ticism, and I think Andrew’s comment years has suggested it. I must admit to locate a viable talent there. Nor do I falls just within that limit, though it is that I haven’t been quite so exultantly now call him pretentious or a trickster; plainly a matter of misunderstanding enthusiastic about her output since I am sure that he genuinely believes in rather than misrepresentation. The Dispossessed, but I still grab them the worth of what he is doing, and He writes of Albert Raft as a ‘Van as they appear. That puts her with that there the sadness lies. Vogtian superman’. Well, he was a Disch, Wolfe, Aldiss, and the Strugatski Before Jerry plants a hobnailed character for whom I had some sym­ brothers; no others need apply—one boot on my limited number of typing pathy because he was anything but the accepts the occasional disappointment, fingers (four on a good day), be it superman needed to cope with his situ­ knowing that the basic value is there. admitted that I also believe in the worth ation; he got the dirty end of every Lem, too? Well, he never could find of what I am doing and also may be stick in sight and finally died because anything to interest him in sf, could utterly wrong, and that maybe there a he was in everybody’s way. (Including, he? Why did he read it? I am reminded sadness lies. . . . However, once belief at that point, the author’s—but his of Gustav and Alma Mahler ashamed sets in, you mustn’t shut up for simple removal was structurally and psycho­ to be seen attending The Merry Widow, fear of being wrong. Which means logically inevitable; he never had a afraid someone would discover that there is room on one planet for Jerry chance.) He was not a superman, Van they loved Lehar’s bouncy, second- Kaufman, Brian Aldiss, Samuel Delany, Vogtian or otherwise—very much the rate, middle-class tunes. (So do I. And and George Turner—even if we all feel reverse. Almost all of the long first Mahler as well.) a touch of claustrophobia at times. chapter is devoted to building him up To add to all these mountains of There’s room for Chris Priest, too, as a repressed, neurotic, paranoid per­ disillusionment, I also read little sf be­ though he isn’t reading so well these sonality ready to blow at the wrong yond what is given to me for review, days. I dug out and re-read the Shikasta touch. I did everything but use those and find most of that close to unbear­ review he complained of and found it exact phrases to drive it home, and able. Older and wiser? Well—older, a plain, descriptive effort, tailored to here’s the crunch: nearly all the main­ anyway. the needs of the magazine it appeared stream reviewers caught this point, But I do read SFC. When there is in, with a very soft pedal on every­ colouring their view of all that fol­ one. thing in the way of value judgments. lowed; practically none of the sf PS: Bruce, you are the first person So where’s the complaint? What state­ reviewers did. I leave the implications who ever claimed that I unblocked his ments needed supporting? In a dif­ for others to elaborate on. sinuses. I shall treasure that for my ferent publication for a different read­ Further to Andrew, I did realise the autobiography. And Franz Rotten- ership I gave it fuller treatment, with danger of wiping Raft out of the story, steiner also paid a compliment—at least all the argumentative stops out and all but making the points which had been I think so, but you can’t ever be sure the references in. Chris seems to be building throughout the novel would with Franz. * getting his jollies lately by lashing his have been almost impossible with him (6 January 1981) tail and growling, and that’s just how I ranting and bellowing through the started in the fanzines, back in the old final chapter. He was an unfortunate, And I shall treasure the paragraph in roneoed-sheet days. Keep it up, Chris! but hardly a sympathetic character. which an author actually admitted You too can become a monster of Also, it was time for the reader to see that readers who were puzzled by one obloquy to your enemies and a burden rather more of the Ethical Culture in of his books might have actually been to your friends. From one who knows! its own terms; therefore the viewpoint right, and the author might actually I propose to break a rule now and shifted to the eyes of Campion, Parker, have done something wrong! This discuss one of my own novels, Beloved and the clones (with Lindley as last must be a first in an sf fanzine. Son, not because Cy Chauvin is curious whipping boy), all of whom had been about my attitude towards it but be­ featured strongly enough to allow DONALDG KELLER cause of what seems to me an extra­ them to take over and demonstrate the 943 North 80th Street, ordinary comment by Andrew Weiner. truth about their unpleasant culture. Seattle, Washington 98103, But first, this: A writer tacitly for­ I had counted on readers making the USA swears argument when he charges the change smoothly, but many didn’t. public money to read his work; he has The fault has to be mine—it’s no good Taking your statement in the most to put up with whatever criticism he blaming the reader for not using the recent SF Commentary (that no one gets after having, so to speak, asked perspectives you demand of him—but had been able to explain, in coherent for it. The one excuse for his talking you can never know how these tech­ critical terms, just what they liked 56 about Delany’s last few books) as a challenge, I present the following: One of the major problems facing DON KELLER: ‘Any writer of non-American readers of Delany (and Americans who only read sf) is that books such as Report on Probability Delany has recently been using a fic­ tional mode that seems to be current A and Barefoot in the Head has a lot only among American mainstream writers (Thomas Pynchon, Robert Coover, and Gilbert Sorrentino, to of gall referring to another writer as name three offhand examples). This mode is ultimately derived from Joyce: obscure and difficult/ not the typographical-trickery Joyce who is so easy to imitate (as the late dous large-scale grasp of systems of by a knowledgeable reader that he is sixties ‘new wave’ school of sf proved), various kinds. It is a style that is exactly writing nonsense. but the Joyce who was interested in a parallel to legal lnguage: it has to be As for specific works: I can’t say a very precise and naturalistic presenta­ difficult as it is in order to say with whole lot about Dhalgren for the simple tion of the way that human beings precision what it needs to say. reason that—for purely external reasons think and perceive. This attention to Apparently what is happening is —I have never gotten around to finish­ detail is carried over into other areas, that people who read both mainstream ing it. I enjoyed it page by page, but as for example, the impression of a great and sf have two entirely different of yet I am not completely convinced deal of knowledge about some scientific modes of reading. For mainstream (say of its success. or academic discipline which Delany Proust or Joyce or name your favour­ Triton is another matter. I regard it refers to as ‘expertise’, or such tech­ ite) they are willing to take their time, as possibly the most complex sf novel niques as the catalogue or list. The re­ read slowly, pay close attention to yet written. In it the post-Besterian sulting text (in Joyce, the American subtle nuances: in short, do a lot of Delany of Babel-17 and Nova meets mainstream, and in Delany) is not the work to get to the writer’s meaning. the post-Joycean Delany of Dhalgren, But for sf, they relax their attention, and the mixture is explosive. It does Discussed: and get impatient if there is any de­ have its flaws (what doesn’t?), but the TRITON mand on them greater than linearity of incredibly dense texture of both the event and straightforward accessibility prose and the society he invents puts it by Samuel R Delany of style. It is very hard to believe that very high on my list of best sf novels. (Bantam Y2567. 1976. this is the case, but there seems to be The second chapter, with its counter­ 369 pp. $US 1.95.) no other possible explanation. (And point of at least three or four different any writer who has written books such discourses (as Delany would call them) TALES OF NEVERYON as Report on Probability A and Bare­ is absolutely dazzling, and this is only by Samuel R Delany foot in the Head has a lot of gall refer­ one of a number of excellences. The (Bantam 12333.5. 1979. ring to another writer as obscure and ideas he is playing with (the modular 264 pp; $US 2.25.) difficult.) calculus chief among them) are of a Another problem is that Delany has depth of thought few sf writers can broken-up series of set-pieces most been studying some extremely obscure match. Parts of it are hard to follow, people think of as ‘Joycean’, but a philosophies and critical theories, par­ but even the most difficult section seamless barrage of tiny bits of data, ticularly structuralism; and while a lot (the final appendix) becomes, with some of it ‘irrelevant’, except as it of what he is trying to say would pro­ careful rereading, quite compre­ contributes to the full gestalt of a bably be clearer to someone who has hensible, considering the complexity character’s perception, and some of it been studying in the same area, I feel of the thought. And Delany’s portrait part of a pattern of references that are that Delany explains his context clear­ of a truly free (in most senses) society, not organised in any linear way, but ly enough that even an uninitiated where barriers of sex, race, age, rather in what might be called ‘mosaic’ reader, if attentive, can follow him. orientation, fashion, etc, do not exist, fashion; the writer leaves it to the This problem is more in evidence in is very convincing. Although I haven’t reader (and re-reader) to make the Delany’s criticism, but it also affects had an opportunity to reread it, every connections between all the Bits, and his recent fiction: each section of both time I casually peruse it I am astonished this web of references is an important Triton and Tales of Neveryon is pre­ all over again by the power of its tech­ part of the overall meaning of the text. faced by a moderately abstruse quote nique. I am not going to try to defend The appearance of these texts, to which is a specific elaboration of it. it against George Turner (whose opinion the superficial eye, is chaotic, turgid, The purpose the quotes serve is to I had until now respected), though I obscure, dense, difficult, wordy, dull, direct the interested reader to the will say that many of his objections without forward momentum, and ex­ source of Delany’s ideas, which can seem to be either trifling or the result tremely self-indulgent. But to those only expand the reader’s education. of misunderstandings, and the para­ who are willing to give the writer the The problem of how much a writer graph he quotes seemed perfectly lucid benefit of the doubt, and read slower should demand his reader know before to me. and work a little harder, the result is reading his work has been long debated The two books of criticism, The extremely rewarding: a heightened with reference to Eliot, Pound, and Jewel-Hinged Jaw and The American perception, a considerable lucidity in Joyce, among others; the answer in Shore, are some of the best critical conveying extremely complex percep­ their case (virtually no limit) should be writings on sf I have seen. Delany has tions and ideas that would be impos­ extended, out of courtesy, if nothing an unusual approach and attitude to­ sible in a simpler style, and a tremen­ else, to Delany until it can be proved ward the writing of fiction and of 57 science fiction in particular, and I find critical statement which justifies the essential ingredient of any great work. his arguments compelling. He shows adulation often given to the works of A writer who is better than Proust or by atomising and dissecting fiction to Samuel R Delany. For a start, Don, Joyce is Robert Musil. His The Man its ultimate components just how it you do not examine any particular Without Qualities (now available again has its effect on us, and how science book of Delany's in sufficient detail after being unobtainable for more than fiction differs utterly from mainstream to give me much idea of what he is on a decade) could hardly have been writ­ fiction. Again, the complexity of the about. But maybe that's not what I ten without the author's complex prose is completely justified in view of want. Maybe I want from someone, knowledge of European history and the complexity of the thought. somewhere, a single-sentence summary aesthetics during the last thousand Tales of Neveryon seemed at first of what Delany has to say. I know years. However, little information is to be a somewhat lighter series of such a summary would sound banal, offered pedantically. Instead, the sword-and-sorcery stories (and have but the fact that it could be made author rises above his sources and been roundly criticised as though that might convince me that there is some­ spins out a long web of wisdom which . was all they were), but a careful reading thing in Delany's work worth search­ is much more than any bits of infor­ proves the book to be of a level of ing for. mation. Even then, the essential quality complexity hardly less than Triton's, I looked up the reference to Dhal- shown by Musil is his love of human though much less intense and forbid­ gren in the Magill Survey of Science beings—all people and all their en- J) ding. Here Delany manages to discuss Fiction Literature, and the essay on deavours. Musil and Joyce and Proust some of his more difficult ideas in a Dhalgren hardly made me want to —and Flannery O'Connor and Stanley primitive situation where a certain de­ get it from the shelf and start reading Elkin in USA—are great writers because gree of simplification via concrete it. On the other hand, I looked up the they know people, and they can make demonstration is both necessary and reference to Delany in Peter Nicholls' beautiful patterns out of that know­ appropriate, and the ideas are just as Science Fiction Encyclopedia and ledge. Does Delany match these strongly conveyed. The protagonist of found that Peter himself had written criteria? the book is the culture itself, and it is the entry on Delany. This was im­ presented in a piecemeal and totally pressive, but not as much as the fact ERIC LINDSAY non-linear way (the mosaic technique that he had actually tried to make 6 Hillcrest Avenue, again), so that the reader’s understand­ some summary statements about Faulconbridge, NSW 2776 ing of the ecology of the culture (espe­ Delany's writing. For instance: 'All cially on the economic level) is built SRD's mature work begs the reader to It remains a matter of some wonder­ up gradually. It also gently suggests reconsider his social conditioning; to ment to me that I find most of the some reasons why the modern world strive to see how even through pain or authors you most recommend in SFC is in its present fix, without being lust or cruelty some kind of fruitfulness 60161 totally unreadable. And most of blatant about it. As fiction in the can be achieved, and conversely, how the ones you dislike to be just the spot ordinary sense—ie, linear plot and even the lords of creation, the arrogant for filling in an hour’s journey on a characterisation—it is almost obstinate­ successes, suffer their own griefs.' crowded, uncomfortable train. So, ly lax, but as metafiction—fiction about Maybe that's not much, but it's better are the judges of the Nebulas and the experience of fiction—it is a re­ than saying, as Don Keller appears to, Hugos, who will assuredly all be af­ markable success. that 'I like Delany's work because I fected by lobbying, reading with great In conclusion, I simply cannot un­ cannot understand it.' care and consideration, or are they sit­ derstand why Delany’s reputation has I could go on for pages, answering ting on the train? I say they are sitting sunk so low among fans, since to my Don's letter sentence by sentence, but on the train; what is more, that is mind he is writing better than ever. I I don't think it'd get us far. The pic­ where they should be. After all, of had thought that the readership had ture which Don presents of Delany is what possible merit is literature? As gained in sophistication and literary that of a pedant who depends upon his far as I can see, it is a pointless and taste over the last decade, but appar­ readers' incomprehension of his futile attempt to make over the world ently I was wrong. It is a shame that a sources. I must admit that that is my into something other than what it is. writer of his achievement is so con­ picture of Joyce's Finnegans Wake as It therefore seems much more reason­ stantly maligned by people who, with well, so maybe the comparison with able not to bother with literary merit a little patience, could find the qualities Joyce is not mis-placed. But Don takes (which, provided I continue to read in his fiction readily enough. in vain the name of a writer like Proust, books at 1000-2000 words a minute, (2 February 1981) whose first allegiance was to theartistic I wouldn’t in any case notice—I’m not god of Beauty. Does Don find Delany's Don Keller published some good fan­ at all sure I would notice, even if I works beautiful? If he doesn't, why zines with Jeff Smith some years ago, read with care), but only to concern does he bother with Delany's books? but I had lost track of him recently. myself with whether the story-line is If he does, what are the elements in exciting. So he was not even an official reader Delany's books which combine to give of SFC when he sent this letter! Turns that impression of beauty? (Hardly as Well, there have always been a host of out he moved to Oregon, like every­ vague a question as it sounds: aesthetics body else in American fandom. Quite people who have taken my lists of seems to have been developed well as favourites, reversed the order, and a compliment to me to get this letter a discipline over the years.) from out of the blue. It's a pity that I come out with their own favourites. On another tack: proof is given that Just shows that SFC can be of service must cast doubts on its contents (but Delany is knowledgeable (although I not without assigning George Turner to any sf reader. For myself, the best have heard aspersions cast at Delany's works of literature I ever read were to answer it in detail). expertise in particular subjects). But is I appreciate the effort that has gone consumed on the tram from East Pres­ there wisdom in Delany's work? This ton to Melbourne and back—and that's into this letter, but it still does not an­ is another quality which is difficult to swer my request for some coherent noisier and more uncomfortable than pin down, and yet it seems another the Katoomba-Sydney train. I recom- 58 SNEJA GUNEW Deakin University ERIC LINDSAY: ‘Mostofthe Victoria 3217

authors you recommend are totally I noticed that Elaine mentioned Frankenstein in her list of favourites unreadable. Most of the ones you for last year, and one of the things I was doing as part of the myth course I was writing up for third-year students dislike are just the spot for filling an at Deakin University was to ‘discover’ Mary Shelley. This occurred within the hour’s journey on a crowded, context of a more systematic explora­ tion of women writers and this last has also absorbed my energies for the last uncomfortable train.’ two years. The result is that I’m researching a mend what I enjoy reading; I can do inferior equipment. Things may be book on female utopists, ie, the way no more. As Elaine said to me recently, different in the business field, of women writers have projected utopian good writing (literary type) is just course. societies. I could start with the Duchess easier to read than bad writing (Larry Basically, I’ve wasted the best part of Newcastle and finish up with people Niven type). Obviously we will never of eight months trying to make com­ like Russ, Le Guin, and the later agree on this matter. mercial equipment do the things it was Lessing, but that will sort itself out. supposedly designed to do. I’ve given The net result is that in a roundabout way I have travelled back to sf via I want to comment on the alleged up now. I’ll be selling the commercial feminism and am highly optimistic merits of micro-computers, as de­ junk, and building the entire thing my­ about it in this respect. scribed by Robert Day. I once believed self, to work the way I want it to Let me just say that I was most in­ that they would do everything but work. But I resent the time wasted, terested in Elaine’s comments on butter your bread for you, until I tried and the effort involved. A Woman of the Future and wish she to make use of them for one simple (3 January 1981) task, namely, word-processing. As you would write a longer piece based on her very sound demurrals. found out in relation to typesetting, I don't want to start in SFC the never- (6 January 1981) commercial equipment was too expen­ ending discussion of computer equip­ sive to be cost effective. So I tried ment which has made parts of ANZAPA Ireland's A Woman of the Future using ‘home computer’ equipment to incomprehensible over the last year or keeps coming up in conversation. The do the same sort of thing, knowing so—but Eric's is an interesting point of basis of my liking of the book is its that several people, like Peter Darling view. My own interest is in photo­ unpsychological approach—in other and David Grigg, had succeeded in so typesetters, and I keep hearing intrigu­ words, I've never thought that Ireland doing. ing snippets of information about the meant for you to think that he was Do you know, in the past twelve photosetting industry—for instance, really proposing that the book is the months of effort, not one commercial that Australia always gets the tag ends diary of an adolescent woman. And, as piece of equipment has been able to of the new technology; that really the Elaine keeps saying, if that was so, he work as specified? Not one intercon­ machines currently available in Aus­ probably guessed wrong. Damien necting device has worked at all. And tralia are downright old-fashioned. Broderick put up the better notion in the only two cases where I have had 'New' laser-setting equipment is just that perhaps A Woman of the Future things repaired, the ‘repaired’ devices about to be demonstrated for the first have still not worked when returned. time in Melbourne by one organisation is Ireland's way of showing what one Australian man thinks of other Aus­ So far, the only things that have worked we know of. have been things that I have built or To your main point: we are not tralian men. In either case, the book might not have much interest to femi­ altered myself . . . and I never wanted sure whether the equipment we have nists. In fact, the book has aroused to get involved with the mechanics of been looking at is defective or not. some interest among feminist re­ micros. It would be all the same to me That's a problem for the local techni­ viewers—but it's hard to tell, since if they worked by manipulating a ouija cians. If you buy photosetting equip­ most newspapers and magazines gave board. What the user wants is a means ment (or word-processing equipment, to an end; what you buy, with micros, etc) in Australia, you pay for the con­ their copies to male reviewers. Welcome back to these pages, any­ is a continuing set of problems, with tinued services of the organisation way, Sneja. I had begun to think that no indication that you will ever be able which keeps the machine running. to get enough help to solve them. As This seems somewhat different from I had lost contact altogether. Any far as I am concerned, the micro-com­ the approach of the micro-electronics news of developments in your female puter ‘revolution’ is just another rip- supermarkets, which merely want to utopists course would be welcome. off, with the people making most of the get rid of bits from their shelves. Good money being the distributors and luck with your own efforts, Eric— NEVILLE J ANGOVE dealers. I don’t believe that, in the maybe you should add organising PO Box 770, hobby computer field, the people fannish micro-electronics conventions Canberra City, ACT 2601 making the money are the overseas to the list of your other triumphs, manufacturers—it is our home-grown such as the by-now-famous Med­ With SFC 60/61 came the personal rip-off merchants who are charging 50 vention. attack on me by Lee Harding. Well, per cent more than overseas prices, for not personal. Rather, an impersonal

59 Fair, it is because libraries have been cut in their discretionary funding, and ANGOVE battles HARDING will no longer automatically purchase their titles. (As an aside: in Canberra, the library is purchasing more paper­ backs instead.) Print runs are down (and prices are up) because the guaran­ teed library sales are no longer guaran­ A farewell to SFC. teed. I may have done Lee an injustice, because some of his remarks to my ori­ GILLESPIE gets frightfully upset. ginal letter may be accurate when applied to sf publishing alone, but the general tone seems to apply to pub­ attack. If it wasn’t for the fact that antee of a profit for the publisher lishing as a whole. you seemed to have understood my (and a guarantee of a welcome mat for (5 January 1981) point, I would have spent agonising the author’s next manuscript). hours soul-searching, to see what I had Librarians are normally given a I've forgotten what the dispute was all written that would have inspired Lee yearly budget, with part of this budget about, so I hope it ends here. Speaking to such an attack. [*brg: Yes, I'm still earmarked for new or replacement as a publisher (one third of Norstrilia puzzled about what Lee was really books. Some titles must be purchased Press), I would say that, if the libraries upset about.*] (like some journals, the best-sellers, lose too much of their current funds, Contrary to Lee’s assertions, I am Australian-Bookweek-promoted titles, then we, and most other Australian neither a neo-publisher, nor am I mis­ and such). But the librarian is then left non-textbook publishers, might as well informed. Australian publishers on with some discretionary funds, to be give up now. At the moment, library average print and. sell in excess of 5000 applied as he/she sees fit. If no other sales on any reasonably widely reviewed copies of most paperback titles (al­ guidelines are available, the librarian book will cover the most basic costs; though a sale of 1500 copies of amain- will normally purchase, from a library an Australian hardback 'best-seller' is stream hardcover is considered usual in bookseller (like Bennet’s in Sydney), almost any book which sells more than order to break even). A good paperback a broad range of books which, from his this. title sells in excess of 10,000 copies, or her experience, would be acceptable and an Australian bestseller will sell in to the library’s users. Some titles that PHILIP STEPHENSEN-PAYNE excess of 25,000 copies (that is quite he or she feels will be well-received will c/o 'Longmead', rare, and is considered newsworthy). be purchased in sufficient quantity 15 Wilmerhatch Lane, But if a mainstream paperback title that each branch of the library will Epsom, Surrey KT18 7EQ, does not sell at least 3000 copies (out have a copy (children’s books and best­ England of the industry standard of a 5000-6000 sellers, generally). Other titles will be copy print run), then it is considered a purchased singly. But what the librarian Many thanks for S F Commentary 58 failure. New titles by Australian needs is some direction—and any and 59. I had intended leaving this loc authors do not sell well. New titles by reasonable request by a library user until 60 (which, I believe, sees the end US authors in the US do not sell well, will normally be met. Some requests of my subscription) and then writing either. Both Lit Board grants and the will be satisfied through an inter-library one final loc on the lot. But six months book bounty help pay for such titles, loan, but if the title seems to be in de­ have passed since SFC 59 arrived, with but they still must sell enough or else mand (for example, if two readers no sign of SFC 60 at all, so, as we are the author does not get his next title separately ask for the same title), then heading on for pastures new in two published. it will be purchased. My point is: how weeks’ time and I probably won’t have Lee appears to be one of those does Lee think librarians decide what much time for loccing, I thought I’d many Australian authors who believe titles to buy? How discerning does he best write now instead of waiting. Has that library sales will affect book sales, think they are? I have a standing order SFC folded, or what? If not, maybe it to his detriment. There is very little in my files for any hardcover detective is time it did. I expressed concern in commonality between library users and fiction by popular authors, two copies my last issue (as you quoted in SFC 59) book-buyers, excepting that a reader each, please, for one library, just be­ about the declining standard of SFC, may buy a good book if he or she cause the librarian knows that several and these two issues just bear out my either wishes to have it for repeated readers will borrow those titles as soon fears. readings, or if it will not be available as they become available (but none of In 32 pages (itself a pretty poor in a library soon enough. The truth is them will ever buy the same titles for offering for $US3), we have 5 pages of that it is only in a library that a parti­ themselves, because $17.95 is a little articles, 7 pages of letters, 1 (poor) cular title is available on display after too rich for the average reader). cover, 3 pages of you, and 16 pages of it has been withdrawn from sale in a Lee may care to verify my remarks reviews. Let’s look at them one by one. bookshop. The truth is that library by speaking to any librarian from a The only article in both issues was sales have kept US publishers solvent large town/city/municipal library; he Chris Priest’s SFWA resignation piece. for more than a decade. The truth is may find some exceptions (I know It was quite interesting, but hardly of that it is possible for Australian lib­ one town where the total new book sufficient import to warrant front-cover raries to absorb up to 700 copies of a budget was $25). exposure and a third of the issue. In particular title, if that title is in de­ Next point: I know that most UK recent months, Chris Priest seems to mand. Such a guaranteed sales figure, publishers are printing less than 1000 have taken more and more to appearing even before the general release of a copies of some titles. Why? According in fanzines, usually attacking some particular title, would also be a guar­ to reports from the 1980 UK Book other established author or body—one 60 rity, I shall retain your description of Asimov—particularly valid now that Asimov-bashing has become so fash­ ionable (mainly by Chris Priest)—as ‘a nice man, naive and wise, who has some good stories to tell’. cannot help but wonder why. Too Well, that’s it. I’ve insulted your much of it sounds like sour grapes— friends, your wife, and your fanzine— and whether it is or not, it has much so I guess it’s time we parted com­ the same effect (to me at least) as if it pany. I would not have renewed my was. subscription after 60, so I guess there’s The letters were, for once, pretty no point in your even sending me that mundane. ‘I Must Be Talking to My if it appears. I’m sorry, but that’s the Friends’ used to be one of the most in­ way it is. teresting sections of SFC, but the com­ Once upon a time there was a superb ments in SFC 58 were rather dry and Australian fanzine called SF Commen­ get a much better job from an instant uninteresting. tary, edited by a wise and friendly offset place (Print Mint, Bank Place, The one cover was horribly amateur. man. Somewhere in the last couple of Melbourne). Then readers like PSP There always seems a danger when a years it vanished. A pity—but it hap­ complain because the magazine looks faned gets married that future issues pens to all fanzines eventually. I won’t small. Think again: SFC 60/61, all will suddenly be inundated by mediocre forget the enjoyment and pleasure it 32 pages of it, is huge. It's the equiva­ work by his/her spouse, and you seem gave me while it lasted. lent of all but the very largest of the to be succumbing to the ills. (29 November 1980) duplicated issues. And yet you will The same sort of thing happens in probably sneer at that! the reviews. Of the fourteen reviews in Oh, shaddap ya face! My message remains the same, the two issues, seven of them are by But seriously, folks: I've printed Phil: if you want large duplicated Elaine who, to be honest, is not really this letter just in case there are any issues, send money—lots and lots of it. a very good reviewer—rather too prone poor deluded soon-to-be-ex-readers Without some sort of grant or gift, I to the ‘long plot summary, followed who believe the same thing. (Also, I will have to stay in budget. The real by brief exiting chat’ formula. Next rather like foully waspish letters, even cost of a 16-page issue is $A4 ($US6) comes the perennial George Turner, when the sting is directed at me.) per issue, but of course you whinge with three reviews (covering, however, This is a very clever letter, really, about paying $US1.50! 8 pages). If I had to pick out one item since it gives no idea of what (in PSP's Most of your other points are crap, that characterised the decline of SFC, eyes) was The Great SFC. In other but I might as well answer them any­ it would be your increasing worship of words, I deny that I've changed much. way. As I say, the 32 pages of which and obsession with George Turner. He I deny that SFC has changed much, you complain contain at least 60,000 is not a particularly good critic (and except to get smaller. (The really words, perhaps more. certainly in these three pieces he great issues were in 1969-72, long Your comments on letters are in­ shows himself capable only of waffling) before Philip ever saw a copy, so I comprehensible. What do you think nor, despite your continued protesta­ really don't know what he's talking SFC is? It is basically a journal which tions, is he a good novelist. (Since I about.) concerns itself with criticism of last wrote, I have read Beloved Son Ah well: maybe size is the heart of science fiction. It is also my personal and find myself in agreement with al­ the problem. Phil is the victim of an journal, but this function has always most all the reviews I have seen—it is optical illusion. The contents of, say, been secondary. (Except when I've an average book by an average writer.) SFC 59, when printed by stencil-and- really gone off my head with misery By comparison, the other reviews are duplicator, come out at about 40 pages or weltschmertz or whatever. This is superb—though perhaps only by com­ of material. That looks nice and chunky another suspicion of mine—that all parison. David Grigg is interesting on and safe to curl up in bed with. So it you want is for me to be blindingly, The Language of the Night, though was likable. Why did I change from gaspingly, utterly horribly miserable, perhaps a little subjective. Gerald Mur- putting x amount of material in 40 just so you can have your fanzine to nane merely illustrates that a poor re­ duplicated pages into 16 offset pages? fluzzle over! Okay, have your way: view of a book (his) can be better than Because I no longer have the time to I am miserable, because I never have a Turner review of the same book. As stand in front of a duplicator turning enough money to publish the current for Mark Mumper, I give up. You the little handle and collating for SFC, let alone the 100-pagers I could think Where Late the Sweet Birds weeks at a time. Why don't I have time publish every other month with the Sang is a poor book. I think it is a to run off duplicated fanzines? Because material sitting in the files. Elaine is poor book. On reflection, Mark thinks I am a freelance, and not salaried. One miserable because she hasn't enough it is a poor book. Then why on Earth of the problems with being a freelance money to buy a vast house with a waste three pages (20 per cent of the is that one must do every job that is vaster garden. We have a lovely time issue) on it? offered. This leaves little time over. If being miserable together!) Which leaves the one bit I did enjoy there is time over, I know what it costs: Chris Priest was, I thought, trying to —your three pages in SFC 58—a. sample $10 an hour, say. If I were salaried, the give an explanation of one of the of what SFC used to be. I particularly problem would not arise: each hour of factors leading to the general ghastli­ enjoyed your summation of what is my free time would be worth the same ness of most current American science good about In Memory Yet Green amount—nothing. Instead of spending fiction. It was a pretty fair explanation. (and In Joy Still Felt}. Long after the all that money/time standing in front / designed the cover of SFC 58. I rest of the issue has faded into obscu­ of a duplicator, I spend the money to have never claimed to be a cover de­

61 signer, but I don't have a handy person this year!) If SFC has a constant 9 V S Naipaul: A House for Mr who will come in and design brilliant theme at all, it's our concern to dis­ Biswas covers for me. Elaine did a brilliant abuse people of their current favourite 10 Gilbert Sorrentino: Mulligan Stew tracing of a leopard from a photograph, notions about science fiction. I guess the order towards the end but my label wrongly implied that she And why don't I write more for isn’t too certain. I was surprised to designed the whole thing. Sorry. SFC? For a start, almost anybody can find that this came out half fiction and Again, I can't answer your com­ write better than I can. I write only half non-fiction. I would have expected ments on reviewers because I don't when I see that something must be a higher proportion of non-fiction. know which ones you are saying should reviewed or commented upon, and A few comments. Re-reading The be in SFC. Who's better than George nobody has done so. I have a very Europeans was a result of seeing James Turner? I can think of a few names, clear idea of the field of SFC's in­ Ivory’s film and thinking to myself: but either they have never been in terest, and I get annoyed when time/ ‘But James’s novel was much better touch with SFC, or they are too busy financial restrictions prevent me from than that’; and it was. to write reviews. I send a book to doing the job. ‘Discovering’ Doris Lessing was one George Turner and he reviews it. That So what happened to the 'wise and of the most pleasant experiences of doesn't sound too great an achieve­ friendly man' from SFC? He never the year. I did not so much like her ment, does it? And yet I can name any existed, if you think he is any differ­ African stories. one of about a dozen very good re­ ent from the frustrated and not-very- Living the Revolution is actually a viewers in Australia who, having re­ energetic character who is typing this three-part study (Four Men, Four ceived a book to review, will then now. I'm still puzzled. What is the Women, Neighbours) planned by Oscar squirrel away the book for six months, difference? Maybe you are the one Lewis but largely written by Ruth M forget about it for another six months, who has changed, not me. Lewis and Susan M Rigdon, and is and eventually hand back the book based upon field work in Cuba in (or often, not hand back the book) A downer note on which to finish this 1969-70. The volumes are presented and say that he or she didn't like it all column, but it started solemnly as primarily as a series of first-person nar­ that much, and why don't I send well. Let your letters decide the shape ratives, and are very hard to put down. something better next time? George of next issue's outpourings. Seeyuz. Montaillou is a study of that village has some sense of duty. Last galley typeset: 9 March 1981. in the early 1300s. George has been loyal to SFC ever I suppose that you would have the since it started. If anything, his num­ same high opinion of Upstate, so ber of contributions has dropped THE LATE MAIL there’s no need for me to say much during recent years. There's just no­ (about it. body like him. I suppose it's partly As I noted earlier in the issue, this I could make similar comments personal loyalty which makes me par­ issue is not really late—it's just taken a about the second half of the list, but ticularly angry about the ploy of con­ long time to be published. This has they wouldn’t tell you much. Let me demning a critic because one does not had one desirable effect: I've actually just say that I recommend them all to like his fiction. What's the connection? managed to put into the issue most of you. A critic writes as the Ideal Reader, not what was planned for it. But. . . since (17 April 1981) as a competing novelist. (And even the letters section was finished, a then, the remark about Beloved Son deluge of interesting responses has ap­ I had always thought that John and I is ridiculous. When did I ever praise it peared in GPO Box 5195AA. They had very different tastes in books, but here? I don't even like it particularly. will have to wait until next issue. I was surprised to find on this list To my mind, George's reputation is Not a great deal has happened in quite a few titles I recognised or had forever guaranteed by his earlier, non the last three months that I would read. I don't put together my fiction science fiction books—the ones I have want to write about, but the following and non-fiction lists, however. read are Transit of Cassidy, Young letter must be published. It's been a I had the same reaction to Ivory's Man of Talent, and A Stranger and long time since SFC has received a film of The Europeans (see 'Best Afraid.) letter of comment from: Films' section), but have not yet been Elaine appears here because I like back to the book. her reviews, and again—because she JOHN FOYSTER I 'discovered' some of Lessing's actually does the reviews of the books 21 Shakespeare Grove, work a few years ago, but have not yet she takes to work on. She does not St Kilda, Vic. 3182 followed up. Real soon now. push anything at me, mainly because Yes, Upstate was very interesting she has never been able to see the Here’s my list of the best ten books I reading. I've had recommendations point of publishing fanzines. read in 1980. from others about A House for Mr I'm not quite sure how one would 1 Henry James: The Europeans Biswas and all of Oscar Lewis' work. get better reviews, from two such 2 Doris Lessing: Stories And The Making of the English Work­ different viewpoints, of Transmuta­ 3 Oscar Lewis: Living the Revolu­ ing Class is sitting there, waiting to be tions. Explain, please! tion read Very Soon Now. Yes, I didn't like Where Late the 4 Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie: I will look for the others. Sweet Birds Sang, and you didn't like Montaillou it, Phil, and eventually Mark didn't 5 Edmund Wilson: Upstate The Reprint has 200,000 words set. like it. But vast numbers of science 6 Jacques Donzelot: The Policing of Reagan hasn't declared war yet (I did fiction fans did like it. (So do other Families not send him a get-well card). people; somebody told me that it had 7 E P Thompson: The Making of Last last stencil typed 20 June '81. been set as a novel to be read by the English Working Class Oops—old habits—last galley set. . . senior high school students in Victoria 8 John Franklin Bardin: Omnibus

62 Elaine Cochrane: SINS OF MY OLD AGE (3)

Haven't done as much reading lately as this—provided there is a story around I used to. One reason is that I no it. You can have space warps and time longer have to travel to and from work travel and inertialess drives and esp till by public transport, and so do not the cows come home, as long as they have those nice long uninterrupted serve a purpose. What I cannot stand is stretches in tram and bus. The only pseudo-science without a story be­ exceptions this year have been going cause, once I jack up at some almighty Discussed: into the city twice a week for Latin gaffe, there is nothing left. 'Retrieval', and German classes, but that time has by Malcolm English, is just such an THE VIEW FROM THE EDGE tended to be occupied with doing effort and, to judge from George's Edited by George Turner homework and learning vocab. set the editorial comment, it is included for (Norstrilia Press; 1977; 124 week before. I do tend to do things at this reason. pp; $A3.95) the last minute. There are, however, more than Recently I got a three-week part- enough stories readable in their own THE INFINITY BOX time proof-reading job, and had an right. Pip Maddern's contributions, By Kate Wilhelm hour of tram travel twice a day to use. especially 'Ignorant of Magic', the (Harper & Row; 1975; 318 pp; That would have been fine, but after various Alien stories, Bruce Barnes's SUS 8.95) proof-reading legalese I found myself 'The Two Body Problem' (George, you virtually word-blind. I would look at might have made him rewrite it a the individual letters, or individual thousand times, but the end product is .words, but in no way could I read an worth it), and Graeme Aaron and Sam entire sentence. I tried crochet but, Sejavka's delightful 'The Rise and Fall while the trams to work were usually of Earth' (see: you can have your empty enough, the trams home again science utterly outrageous if you do it had tried to enliven his people. tended to be too crowded. I can read, right) stand out. The stories in The View from the Edge but not crochet, standing. In despera­ I could go on. Suffice it to say that, are pared to the bone, and reading tion I resorted to the solution I used in published simply as a collection of Wilhelm straight after was like plough­ my bus conductor days—light, trashy short-shorts, this would be a most ing through treacle. She is a far more science fiction. satisfying buy. accomplished writer than many in The The trouble is, I don't appreciate View from the Edge and disguises the trash like I used to. A compromise Next I read the Kate Wilhelm collec­ essential puzzle nature of her stories that worked rather well was to dig out tion, The Infinity Box (Harper & Row, fairly effectively, but most of the various short story collections, and I 1975), and I could not help thinking stories in this collection are puzzle made discoveries that surprised me. that George (and Vonda and Chris) stories, depending on the hero discover­ A Sheckley collection was as de­ would not have let the workshoppers ing some frightening fact about, or lightful as only Sheckley can be. I get away with padding like that. realising the terrible nature of, his expected that. George's comments on 'The Two Body world, or in some other way depending Next was The View from the Edge, Problem' particularly apply: on some revelation for a resolution. the Norstrilia Press book from the the short concentrated The detailed character delineations 1977 Writers' Workshop, run by Kitty thriller.... The difficulty is that and the exquisite landscapes and city­ Vigo, and with Vonda McIntyre, Chris such stories, depending for their scapes are beautifully written but they Priest, and George Turner as writers-in- effect on a single revelatory scene, are so totally unnecessary. I couldn't residence. The book is edited by have to be stripped to the bone. . . . help wishing George had got his knife George, and includes his usual Backgrounds in such tales are either to work on them before they had astringent comments. This is not so familiar as to need no attention been published. aimed to be a collection of polished, or, if unfamiliar, must be spliced But one doesn't workshop the professional stories, as George is at into the action in such a fashion as established writer. Or does one? Both pains to point out. Rather, it is meant to be painlessly absorbed by the Chris and Vonda echo George in say­ to show some of the problems reader without shifting his concen­ ing that they, too, gained from the and solutions found during the Work­ tration from the flow of the workshop experience. shop, and the short-short stories are story.... The same applies to ex­ Not that the Wilhelm collection is selected on that basis. planations. However complex, they totally bad. 'The Funeral' is a delicate There are a few clinkers, as is to must be spliced in, not delivered in portrait of slavery and repression in be expected from this approach. Their an ungainly lump.. . . Where Bruce utopia. Many of the others have inter­ inclusion is deliberate. Most notable possibly thought I was mildly out esting plots but, with this one excep­ clinker is a pseudo-science effort. I of my mind was in my ruthless in­ tion, they are simply too long. have no objections to pseudo-science, sistence on removal of many bits of even when the holes are as gaping as 'characterisation' with which he About the time I was voicing my dis­ 63 gust at the Wilhelm collection, and be­ ing ordered by Bruce to write down what I'd been saying, I finished the job, and was once more able to read 'real' books. One such is Le Ventre de Paris, by Emile Zola. (Still not finished.) I am delighted to report that CRITICdHTO Zola was a Cat Person. How else would he be able to describe a fat ginger cat purring its head off on the kitchen table in the charcuterie, and then ex­ pressing its disapproval of a plate of newly cooked sausages by attempting to bury them? And then rolling over DELANY’S DETAILS spring after the red ships from the south bring their cargo of rubber balls to the city: and going to sleep with its feet in the I went out to Barbara's Pit air (still on the table)? by John D Berry At the crescent moon's first dawning. But the Thanes of Garth had covered it. And no one found a place to sit Recipe Time: John D Berry discusses: And Belham's key no longer fit. Stuffed Green Capsicum (Biber Tales of Neveryon And all the soldiers fought a bit. Dolmasi) And neither general cared a whit by Samuel R Delany If any man of his was hit . . . This recipe is taken from Turkish (Bantam 12333-5; 1979; . . . And the eagle sighed and the serpent Cooking by Irfan Orga (Andre Deutsch, 264 pp;$US2.25) cried first published 1958, my copy printed Heavenly Breakfast For all my lady's warning! 1975). I've removed the price tag, so I When it's introduced in the first few by Samuel R Delany don't know what it cost. Everything pages of the book, both the rhyme and the (Bantam 12796.9; 1979; annual voyage of the red ships from the I've tried from it so far has been 127 pp; $US 1.95) south seem like trivial details, merely in­ delicious, so regard this as a book cluded to make the setting more three- review (favourable). The two latest books by Samuel R Delany dimensional. Delany is a master of inventing blur the line between fiction and essay. One details for his worlds that imply a vast array 6 large green capsicums, of even size, is a book of interwoven fantasy tales, the of other details beyond the edges of the preferably squat so they can stand other a short memoir of the author's life in scenes he illuminates; in that way he creates upright. a commune on the Lower East Side of New worlds that feel real, larger than the parts of York City in the autumn and winter of them contained in his books, as though 1 cup of cold water. 1967-68. They have more in common than Stuffing: you might think. 1 cup rice (I use brown rice) Delany has been writing science fiction % cup water for more than fifteen years, and his novels have transformed the genre. His forte has al­ 5 large onions, chopped finely ways been his exotic characters, flamboyant 1 tablespoon pine kernels in their eccentricities, who are seriously con­ 1 tspn mixed herbs cerned with the nature of themselves, their 1 cup olive oil society, and the way they communicate. y/z cup cider Tales of Neveryon gives the illusion of being 1 large tomato, skinned a sword-and-sorcery fantasy of the mighty- 1 tbspn currants thewed barbarian school. It has its full share mint. of action and fantasy, but the way it's pre­ sented tends to undermine our expectations Carefully cut out the stem of the capsi­ of it, and the characters all pause for long cums and clean out the seeds, without digressions on the nature of mirrors, or the money economy, or slavery. In a sense, this puncturing the flesh. The stem is the is the old science fiction cliche, where the SAMUEL R DELANY lid. Cover the rice with hot water and story stops long enough for one of the char­ there's more to them that he. just hasn't leave until cold; drain and wash. Fry acters to explain to another the nature of chosen to focus on. onions in oil for 10 minutes, add rice the gadgets they're using, or the society But Delany has also said that he writes they're in, or whatever. (Delany was the one and pine kernels, cover pan, and cook his novels as elaborations on the explora­ who coined the term that’s used to describe tions of their very first sentences. The open­ for 20 minutes, stirring to prevent this indigestible mass of information: the ing sentence of Tales of Neveryon is too sticking. Add chopped tomato, mint, expository lump.) specific to evoke the whole book, but the herbs, water, and cider; stir and cook But that's not what Delany is doing. His opening pages do: that rhyme, in many characters' discussions aren't digressions variations, recurs throughout the five tales, another 15 minutes. Fill capsicums. from the action, because his novel is not each time shedding more light on the ori­ Stand them in their cup of water and really an adventure story. The philosophical ginal opening image; and the aspects of the cook gently for 50-55 minutes, keep­ passages reflect on the action, and the action red ships, the rubber balls, and their annual ing covered. Leave to cool before try­ reflects on the ideas. Delany is a conscious journey are explored through all the charac­ writer: he not only writes a story, he writes ters and their interwoven stories. ing to move them, and serve very cold. about the act of writing about. His stories Through a children's rhyme and a ship­ In my usual style, I haven't repro­ are dense; if you look beneath their surface ment of rubber balls, Delany writes about duced the recipe exactly, because I you discover that everything connects to the origins of money and its effect on the never follow a recipe exactly. Bruce everything else. He's like Thomas Pynchon way people deal with each other, the begin­ without the paranoia: with Pynchon, the nings of written language, the nature of be­ thinks he'd prefer the capsicums served fact that everything is tied together is fright­ ing a slave or being a slavemaster, and hot, but he's never tried them that ening; to Delany, it's a delight and a game. whether a reflection is the same as the thing way. As it is, this dish is delicious, but The central image of Tales of Neveryon reflected. His world is one of prehistory, a is a simple children's rhyme chanted to the society just inventing the things that we very filling. Not nearly as good the bouncing of a black rubber ball. The children take for granted—one in which living people next day. of the city of Kolhari chant this rhyme each can remember when money was first in­ 64 vented, and where a potter, for instance, can think for the first time of making four­ legged instead of three-legged pots. Delany ‘Look beneath the surfaces of Delany’s obviously assumes that, no matter how gradually an idea may have been prepared for, it had to be invented all at once, and at books and you discover that some time must have been brand new. Just to throw further reflections on the tales and their telling, Delany addsa fictional everything connects to everything else.’ appendix to the book, tracing the history of the 'Culhar' text’, supposed to be what the story is based on, and using it as the focus and forces you to terms with the part rageous, but not as colourful. Where Bester of a discussion of the nature of language and that's neurotic escape—if you want to mythologises, Watson theorises. early civilisation that ties in the Dead Sea keep playing. Not everyone, though, Each of Watson's novels has been a syn­ Scrolls, the decipherment of Linear B, and who would like such a life can actually thesis, but they are amazing ones (except in live it. Naming, Listing, and Counting theory. By Alien Embassy, which is dreary). I cannot For another instance: the time you get to the appendix, Delany tell which ideas are his own and which are . . . living as constantly close as one does has got you so caught up in his story and his borrowed, but their combination in science in a communal situation, almost all ex­ fiction is original. speculations on the meaning of it all that changes are between 'I' and 'you'. you're liable to go right back to the begin­ Watson seems to prefer to match the But there aren't many memorable scenes. ning and read the book again just to see structure of his novels to his ideas, dividing The dialogues are too scattered, too much the viewpoint of a novel between three how many connections you missed the first happening at once with no focus,and Delany characters. Gradually, or climactically, their time around. indulges his penchant for sticking paren­ viewpoints come together, producing a reve­ Unlike a mystery novel, say, where it thetical remarks—sometimes whole conver­ all comes out in the end, Delany's are the lation in the character and (hopefully) sations—into the middle of sentences. reader. real mysteries of how we talk to each other, There's a clue to the bewildering tangle how we know anything, what we assume to After five novels, this method seems to of characters and simultaneous conversa­ have many limitations—vide James Blish's be true. They aren't resolved; they can only tions: a small remark buried in a scene in comment about Frank Herbert: 'as he tells shed more light on each other as we see which Delany is visiting a co-operative house more aspects of them. Since the reflections an already complicated story, he complicates near Columbia University: 'Everybody said are not confined to the created world of the it further by jumping from one point of hello and told us their names in a ring, and novel, but spill out into our lives and our view to another.' But it is more than that. we laughed about not being able to remem­ real world, the reflections-of-reflections con­ Watson has great difficulty making the reader ber them, only, I did.' If Delany really isone tinue to bounce into our eyes after we've care about his characters; in Miracle Visitors, of those rare people who remember names put the book down, wherever we look this problem is worse than usual.The charac­ the first time they hear them, perhaps he Tales of Neveryon may be one of the ters lack real individuality and distinction: doesn't mean to confuse us by introducing most fascinating books of philosophy you'll making one a university professor, one an a series of characters all at once, weaving ever read. Egyptian, another an ordinary bloke with them and their conversations together using girlfriend problems, only makes it seem like only names to identify them. Perhaps he ex­ Heavenly Breakfast purports to be a memoir, they are each wearing funny hats. It does not a novel, although Delany claims that the pects us to be able to follow them. Even in a not matter what happens to them. Splitting characters do not correspond exactly to real book, where you can re-read the printed the viewpoint between three characters people. The book is subtitled 'An Essay on page, it’s confusing. when he has difficulty getting the reader to the Winter of Love', and it's an examination Writing anything as ambitious as 'An empathise with one compounds the problem. of the experience of living in a late-sixties Essay on the Winter of Love' is opening Perhaps Watson finds it difficult to express commune. 'I'd . . . tried to analyse the com­ yourself up to the smallest scrutiny. Every­ (plausibly) enough ideas through one view­ munal process formally,' says Delany of an body has their own version of the sixties, point-most of the ideas are presented earlier draft, yet in this book of non-fiction their own theory on what it meant and how through exposition. Watson has yet to there are hardly any passages of philosophy it went. Lots of people are looking for the achieve the feat of Doris Lessing and a few definitive essay on The Communal Experi­ or reflection, far fewer than in Tales of other writers in rare moments who can put ence. Delany hasn't written it. What he has Neveryon, a work of fiction. Heavenly their readers through the changes of con­ written isn't quite a successful work of fic­ Breakfast functions best as a loosely told sciousness he only describes. The mystical tion, nor does it have the intellectual grace story. It's almost all dialogue and action, a moments in these books are mystical mo­ of his essays. It's a kind of memoir, interest­ ments for the reader, too, because they have series of scenes out of the life of the com­ ing mostly for its insight into Delany him­ mune. an emotional charge, not just an intellectual self and his experience, occasionally enter­ rationalisation; they have a touch of the The Heavenly Breakfast is both the name taining, all too often frustrating. of the commune and the name of the rock commonplace, or put feelings that we have band that four of its members comprise. In often felt but never realised into words: both its forms, the Heavenly Breakfast THE WATSON THEORIES 'That imminence of a revelation' (Borges). existed for a few months in late 1967 and However, Watson has strengths in other the beginning of 1968, and Delany was a by Cy Chauvin areas that these writers lack. He is able to part of both. He takes his experience as make the outrageous plausible. He mentions the Tibetan tupias ('living creatures created somehow archetypal of the communal ex­ Cy Chauvin reviews: perience, and he tries to get at the essentials by a prolonged act of thought . . . they're of it by describing incidents and by portray­ Miracle Visitors supposed to be actual tangible things ... able ing the ways in which people interact. But to function independently in the real world' what works in fiction doesn't seem to work by Ian Watson (p 53, Ace edition), and links them with in non-fiction; rather than letting his charac­ (Gollancz; 1978; UFOs, and hypothesises that UFOs are pro­ ters speak for themselves through their 239 pp; 4 pounds 95. jections of the human race in a similar way, actions, he writes self-consciously, analysing Ace; 1978; $US 1.95) just as angel and devil figures might have as he describes, worrying at each incident been from earlier ages, but are real, too. and each exchange of dialogue, trying to (Watson does not write timid books; he does . . . That imminence of a revelation that not pull his punches and have characters' find its meaning. Although in Tales of is not yet produced is, perhaps, the aes­ Neveryon he achieved a synthesis of philo­ experiences turn into dreams or the ravings thetic reality. of madmen.) Just as our bodies are made up sophy and action in a fictional world, in Jorge Luis Borges, Other Inquisitions Heavenly Breakfast the two fall apart and, of cells which in turn support our 'conscious' rather than shedding light on each other, Miracle Visitors is perhaps Ian Watson's and subconscious minds, so too the earth­ they remain unreflecting, incomplete. most outrageous novel. Yet Watson always mind, the consciousness of earth, is made up There are intriguing insights, though. For tries to make his outrageous ideas appear in­ of all the living creatures on earth; and the instance: tellectually plausible; what is so frustrating UFO events are projections of this earth If you've never indulged the fantasy of about his 'synthesis-fiction' is that there are mind. being invisible, you'd probably like com­ so few aesthetic considerations. Miracle Visi­ Watson has complained that sf is now munal life. It allows you to enjoy the tors seems an intellectual rationalisation of taking refuge in literature; it is not willing to part of the fantasy that's healthy play. an Alfred Bester novel: Watson is as out­ ask the outrageous, to explore: 65 CHERRYH’S you learn their meaning the same way you learn your own language: by context; and ‘Where Bester COMPLEX CULTURES you become quite proficient with terms that you had never encountered before you began by John D Berry reading. In one of her earlier novels. Hunter mythologises, of Worlds, she accomplishes in 250 pages John D Berry reviews: what James Clavell achieved in Shogun only after nearly a thousand; she feeds you new Watson theorises.’ Well of Shiuan' ideas and the words to go with them so by C J Cherryh slowly and so cunningly, always in context (DAW; 1978; and always building upon earlier under­ The point is that the human condition standing, that by the end of the novel you isn't enduring; nor is art; nor is Man. . . . 253 pp;$US1.95) can read entire conversations in an unfami­ Literature is part of the evolutionary liar language and make perfect sense of process. It only has meaning within this The Faded Sun: Kesrith them. biological and social context. And what by C J Cherryh This concern with language is part of is unique about sf is that it consciously (DAW; 1978; Cherryh's fascination with the different pat­ takes as its subject matter this sense of 252 pp; SUS 1.95) terns of thought that grow in different cul­ Man changing within and by contact tures, and with how those patterns clash or with the physical universe at large. . . . C J Cherryh is being spoken of as a notable interact. Her understanding of alternate, Most great literature assumes that the new talent in science fiction, a description mutually contradictory ways of seeing the human condition is unchanging down well earned by her first books but, with her same problem is so fine that I suspect she the ages.' fourth and fifth paperback novels in two would make a superlative diplomat. Her Ian Watson, 'Whither Science Fiction?', years, she doesn't seem to be using that books could at least teach would-be diplo­ Vector 78, p. 8 talent and stretching it. mats much about the skills they will need to Watson, I believe, wishes to write sf that Cherryh writes within the framework of cultivate. has importance outside of literature. Litera­ the adventure story, bursting with action Her best novel to date is certainly Bro­ ture (at present) has limitations set on what and with characters who are always on the thers of Earth, published in 1976. It pos­ it is meant or at least generally expected to move. But her strength lies in the worlds she sesses an emotional depth that is touched in achieve. (Although many of these limitations creates, the complex cultures that she invents the others but never so deeply plumbed nor may only be ones thought to exist by sf with apparent ease in each book. Although so richly displayed. She has not achieved fans and writers.) Literature, however, is sometimes her alien civilisations seem to that level since, and I can't help feeling that often considered an end in itself. Watson re­ borrow from foreign cultures of our own the early praise she got from reviewers jects this idea for (his?) sf. world, and in that sense to be not quite starved for intelligent prose, and her rapid But if he writes fiction, he should use 'alien', the least of them are inventive and pace of writing, have combined to discourage the devices and apparatus of fiction in more convincing, and the best are wholly original. her from stretching her abilities, from taking than a rote fashion; characters should be She is expert at portraying the individuals her time over a novel and concentrating on more than viewpoints for ideas. Further­ formed by those cultures; she reveals them its depth rather than its surface. She is more, it is obvious that Watson realises this, by creating a world and then showing it in a capable of more, but she is settling for less. even if he has not acted upon it in this novel. state of collapse, a condition of flux that What is not so clear is whether he realises forces its people to come to terms with their The Well of Shiuan, one of her latest, has that more aesthetic care would give the cultural heritage. In each book, she invents considerable depth and complexity, but it is ideas in his novel more power. The manner at least two utterly different cultures, each wedded to an inherently weak form. It is a in which they are presented in Miracle Visi­ with its own bias, its own traditions, its own sequel to Gate of Ivrel (1976), her clumsiest tors is almost unfailingly awkward. ways of thought; and she delights in rubbing and least original novel, and the two seem to He manages some good scenes. When those different cultures together to see what be set up for a potentially unlimited series Michael meets the turtle-alien 'Gebraudi', the friction produces. of sequels. I detest series books, finding that the alien's conversation and manner is an One of Cherryh's greatest strong points they usually get weaker the more of them odd mixture of the fairy tale, affected is her treatment of languages. This shows up an author writes. By their nature, series Chinese-English, and Alice in Wonderland. especially in contrast to the common mis­ books are incomplete, and their fascination It is convincing and oblique. When John treatment of linguistic differences in sf; lies in the continuing charactersand endless Deacon meets a stranger who carries a map, although there are other writers who pay twists of plot, rather than in the creation of offering a way to another state of conscious­ serious attention to the problems of a whole work of art. ness, Watson describes it this way: language, it has been common to see authors In Cherryh's case, the second book of The map stretched vastly now, becoming ignore the whole question, or sweep it under her series far transcends the first; it shows in reality what it had hitherto been the the rug with a 'voice coder' or a 'universal the development of her talents in the emblem of. As it became fully real to translator'. The implied assumption behind interim, yet the series form confines her. him, he stepped inside it with the such a cavalier attitude is that all people (in­ The Well of Shiuan's theme is not to be stranger. . .. cluding invented alien beings) think alike, found in the details of plot, in the call of The map of a city becomes the city: this and that language is merely a code to be high adventure; it is rather in the peculiar makes aesthetic sense. At other times, the deciphered. Cherryh prefers to pay attention relationship between the two principal char­ awkwardness of the novel is horrifying. to the nuances of alternate ways of thought, acters, and the way that relationship grows Salim is an engineering student in Egypt, and to express them in wholly different and changes shape. Cherryh applies great and the family life descriptions sound like a vocabularies with different cultural implica­ subtlety to unfolding this development. But naive English schoolboy's description of tions. the framework within which she weaves her what life might be like in modern Egypt. Cherryh introduces her words and tale—the quest, the unending adventure of It carries no aura of conviction; no real phrases, usually descriptions of social rank the series book—is an encumbrance, a stric­ detail. When Deacon becomes Khidr, the or cultural institutions that reflect the way ture she has locked herself into that does green man, 'with grass hair, bunched sprout her people think and act, so gradually that nothing but limit her. cheeks, translucent grape eyes, tapering tuberous chin', his experiences are valid but the vegetable man is not: he is a salad, not a viable symbol. Watson seems blind not only to the resonances of words, but to images in ‘In each book, C J Cherrhyh invents at fiction. Miracle Visitors contains some frightening ideas, but it has no grace; it cannot be re­ least two utterly different cultures ... read. Some would accuse Watson of rewriting the same novel over and over, but this is un­ true—Watson is merely a man obsessed by rubs them together to see what the his ideas. Miracle Visitors is the structural framework for what could be one of the most important sf novels; unfortunately, it friction produces.’ was published before Watson finished writ­ ing it. 66 Morgaine, the central figure of The Well pages), is the human. Her 'human' culture is of Shiuan, is a neat turnabout of the mythic merely contemporary Western civilisation White Lady. Cherryh, in fact, is playing with tossed out into space. In a conversation be­ ‘It’s disturbing to archetypes, and seems to be deliberately tween the two human characters on Kesrith mixing them: Morgaine, the dangerous, cold about the peculiarities of the other cultures' queen, mistress of the deadly sword Change­ responses to the planet: see Cherryh tie ling, wears white and is identified by her 'If you have a lot of labor you can keep silver hair. rebuilding, I suppose.' She is presented as emotionless, or near­ 'Humans can't run a colony that way.' herself to such an ly so, ruled by her quest so that everything Later, from the viewpoint of one of the else must be sacrificed to it. Her companion, Mri: Vanye, is clearly held to her not only by his The world was lit in constant flares of unchallenging sense of honour—he has given his word and white and red, swirled in mists and steam owes service to his liyo, his liege—but by and smoke and clouds of dust, like the love. Yet the anticipated end of loving part­ Hell that humans swore by—that of mri form.’ nership never comes about; even though, at was an unending Dark. the end of the first book, when he abandons This is an odd failure of imagination in a his own world to follow her through the writer whose forte is the invention of new Gate on her endless road, she greets him and cultures that are not merely reflections of hugs him with tears in her eyes ('It was the our own. second time he had ever seen her cry'), the C J Cherryh's imagination is in no danger Baroque novel is nothing if not action), next book shows them still in the liege-and- of failing, nor is her writing liable to stagnate same richly filigreed plot-line of pursuit, and faithful-servant mode in which they began— if she will continue to push the limits of the a hero with hidden powers. albeit with a new degree of mutuality and form she has chosen to write in. The danger Wolfhead takes place on Earth in the dis­ trust. For all the emotional tangle in be­ is that she will receive too much facile praise tant future, long after the 'Desolation'. Man tween, at the end of that second book Mor- for her talents without sufficient criticism had adapted to his environment; plants and gaine's reaction is much the same, only less of her skills and their faults, and that she animals have mutated. Beneath the earth's demonstrative, when Vanye succeeds in fol­ will keep turning out books that work on surface, however, another civilisation, the lowing her through yet another Gate: the surface, that sell and find a readership, remnants of the US Government in Wash­ She would not speak yet. There was a without rising above the level she has al­ ington, DC, has survived. It is the cataclysmic time for speaking. He saw the weariness ready achieved. The Well of Shiuan is a coming together of these two cultures that in her, her unwillingness to reckon with hopeful sign, because it is so superior to the makes up Harness' eschatalogicaf plot, and it this land. She had run a long course, book it follows; yet it's disturbing to see is his narrator, Jeremy Wolfhead, who must forcing those she could not lead. Cherryh tie herself to such an unchallenging either resolve the conflict or see one of the 'I needed an army,' she said at last, a form. The Faded Sun: Kesrith is merely a two cultures destroyed. But Jeremy's first voice faint and thin. 'There was only one disappointment. I would like to see what concern is rescuing his wife, Beatra, who has that I could manage, that could breach Cherryh could do if she moved away from been kidnapped by the president of the his camp. And it was very good to see action-packed adventure and put her energy undergrounders. With the dire wolf Virgil thee, Vanye.' into the emotional complexities that she (the allusions to Dante are more playful 'Aye,' he said, and thought it enough. displayed early on in Brothers of Earth. than intrusive), he descends to rescue Beatra. There was time for other things. Their adventures underground are, in the Cherryh's characters live always on the narrator's words, 'breathtaking'. verge of collapse. In any single story, it's ANOTHER RARE BOOK Sound like standard sf material? It is, easy to accept: the protagonist is dropped FROM HARNESS but the treatment isn't. Harness writes well. into a strange, harrowing reality, buffeted Here, a descriptive passage chosen almost at by alien winds, and must somehow survive. by Tom Whalen random: But that pattern reappears in every book. It We were halfway to the valley when I looked down in the dim dawn light and gets wearing for the reader; you begin to Tom Whalen reviews: wish that the characters would quit pushing saw the earth moving. Giant ripples were to the limits of their strength, would stop Wolfhead advancing across the surface of the land. for once and take a rest. It was like watching the sea. They were by Charles L Harness leisurely waves, perhaps a hundred yards The Faded Sun: Kesrith is incomplete. It is (Berkley 424-03658; 1978; from crest to crest, and eight to ten feet the first half of a two-book story and, al­ 217 pp; SUS 1.75) high. As they came on, I could see what though it is intended to stand alone, it they were doing to the trees. At first, the doesn't. Cherryh creates another series of In 1949, the sf magazine Startling Stories tree tops would seem to move majestically marvellously complex cultures, and sets published a novel entitled Flight Into Yes­ with the advancing wave-front, leaning at them to the task of understanding each terday, by Charles L Harness, pseudonym of first to the front, then to the rear, and other. But the dying culture that she intro­ the Texas-born author, Leonard Lockhard. then, within a few seconds, a great many duces in the first pages, the warrior Mri, is The Paradox Men, as the novel was later of the individual trees seemed simply to simply obliterated in the end;all the meaning called, is science fiction raised to its highest pop out of the ground. There they lay, invested in their struggle to survive is wiped power, comparable in manner and quality to stricken and broken. out with a gratuitous disaster in the final Bester's The Stars My Destination. Brian W But what really distinguishes Harness pages. The intricacies that Cherryh has woven Aldiss, in his study of science fiction, Billion from many sf writers is a quality I can only „ through her slowest novel come to nothing Year Spree, aptly refers to The Paradox Men refer to as poetic depth. I don't think I can at all: neither a tragic conclusion nor a satis­ as 'Wide Screen Baroque', that is, a type of define *t, at least not in this review, but per­ fying one. They may find their meaning re­ science fiction that utilises as its setting haps with Harness it has to do with the fact flected in the second book of the pair, but almost all time and space within the frame­ that the experiences his characters have are the final metaphor of The Faded Sun: Kes­ work of an ornate eschatological plot. In felt experiences. And perhaps, too, it's that rith, that of the game of shon'ai, is too weak Harness' early novel you find a phantasma­ a theme radiates from both Wolfhead and to carry the rest. The Faded Sun: Kesrith goric display of sf devices—there is the tele­ The Paradox Men: Hang on as long as you reads like a less flashy replay of Cherryh's pathic talent, the giant brain, even a sur­ can, life is precious. It's a simple theme, but earlier novels—slower, less rushed, but with­ realistic plunge into the sun—in short, every­ no less true for being so. out the spark of inspiration. thing a reader could ask for in an sf enter­ The Paradox Men has been recently avail­ The Faded Sun: Kesrith also displays her tainment. able in the Aldiss/Harrison SF Masters only failing in the creation of cultures. Now, almost thirty years later, Harness is Series published by NEL in England. The When she invents wholly alien societies, she back with a new novel. Wolfhead, and, it Ring of Ritornel, another Harness novel, is does so flawlessly; if they sometimes take pleases me to say, he's back in good form. out of print in both USA and England. The one trait of human beings and centre on On the surface the two novels are dif­ Rose, a short novel which was published that, they do so with such complexity and ferent. Wolfhead is told in the first person, only in England, is also out of print. The thoroughness that we cannot object. The The Paradox Men in the third person. And only book by Charles L Harness available in one culture that is not convincing, both in in Wolfhead Harness has limited his setting the United States is Wolfhead. Science fic­ The Faded Sun: Kesrith and in Brothers of to a single planet. But both novels contain tion novels, as we know, disappear fast; best Earth (where it only appears in the first few the same fast action (the Wide Screen get Wolfhead while you still can. 67 SCHLONGS WRAPPED INGENUITY AND HUMOUR AROUND THE WAIST by Rowena Cory by Rowena Cory Rowena Cory reviews: Rowena Cory reviews: A Spell for Chameleon Asterix and Fiondrix by Piers Anthony by Seamus Cullen (Del Rey/Ballantine 25855; 1977; (Pocket Books 82256; 258 pp; 344 pp; SUS 1.95) first published 1976/this edition 1979; SUS 1.95) Bink: the hero's name tells you what to ex­ pect from A Spell for Chameleon. This is social system! (And Bink is supposed to be Low Fantasy of the kind that provides end­ Asterix and Fiondrix, subtitled 'An Erotic intelligent and introspective.) less scope for amusing writing—a relief from Fairytale', is a bit more than that. The Elves, But principles and motivations are not it seems, are aliens from another star system, the pretentious and machismo styles which really the main concerns of the author. dominate the field. and the Evil Threat is trapped back in the Rather, he takes the chance to play with The conflict is simple: Bink does not last day of earth, doomed to relive forever magical concepts, which he does admirably have a magical gift, and all citizens of Xanth the atomic holocaust as it is replayed every and entertainingly. afternoon. Even atomic missiles and cloning must be able to demonstrate such a gift by are thrown in to suit the author. their twenty-fifth birthday. To fail is banish­ But the story still fits the description of ment. As Bink reasons: what use is the abi­ STOUT WEAPONS AND 'erotic fairytale'. Perhaps for this reason, the lity to make a pink spot appear on the wall? THICK ACCENTS author does not concentrate on plotting (no And why should someone with this ability more than adequate) or characterisation be given citizenship over him? by Rowena Cory (non-existent, except for some of the minor In desperation he goes to the Good players, particularly the Evil Threat's cohort, Magician Humfrey's castle to discover if he Brumbee, who is drawn in amusingly re­ has some untapped power. Magician Hum­ Rowena Cory reviews: frey's gift is divining that all magic follows volting detail). Castaways in Time Of eroticism there is much detail, and patterns and laws. It can even be said to some humorous moments. For humour and evolve. In Xanth, plants are magic. Like by Robert Adams ingenuity, the Dwarves take the prize. Their their counterparts in Mundainia, they (Donning Starblaze 5809; 1979; schlongs, as they are called, are several feet evolved defence systems to protect them­ 221 pp;$US4.95) long and shaped like cork screws when erect. selves and even entrap unwary passers-by, When not in use they are wrapped around but their defences are magical. It is obvious that Adams knows his era As the reader suspects, Bink does have the waist and held in place by a pin. These (fifteenth/sixteenth-century Scotland) — schlongs can be very useful in everyday life, magician-strength power, but it can't be dis­ covered, so he fails his trial and is banished the book bristles with authenticity, from eg, thrown one end over high branches and the thick accents to the rough customs and used for climbing. Some dwarves are left­ by the senile old king. This comes as a sur­ prise, as we expect Bink, true to the form of the battle slang. And the author takes much handers and some have a right-handed trouble to get right the details of weapons thread; the same goes for lady Dwarves. this sort of book, to find his power in time to save himself from exile. used. Ten years ago this would have been They must be wound down on the mem­ described as a man’s book, and it still fits ber, and the males produce the eggs. During After passing the Shield Stone and the Barrier, he enters Mundainia, only to be cap­ this category, with pageafterpageof realistic the mating ritual, the Dwarves use a swing battle description. with elastic ropes, and the effect is better tured by the Evil Magician who wants to exact location of the Shield Stone so he can When the characters are introduced, they than a ride on the Octopus at Luna Park. are brash, abrasive Americans, and those Masturbation is an art. In fact, all this book nullify it and enter Xanth with his army. with the strongest personalities either dis­ offers, if anything, is erotic variety. Bink and his new-found companion refuse, risking a fate worse than death: Transforma­ appear or are shunted to the background. tion. In the girl’s case, her exile was volun­ Many spare people are left in limbo, and the tary, because of a magical curse you would number of names and titles of the various have to go a long way to beat. During a lords leaves you a little lost. Adams has no struggle in the sea with Evil Magician Trent, interest in his characters once they are in they are swept under the Barrier. Finding the alternate past, except as building blocks REPEAT THAT FORMULA! themselves stranded in the wildlands where in his story. dangerous magic abounds, they form an Even the lack of plot is hardly a disad­ by Rowena Cory uneasy alliance. Their subsequent adventures vantage if you are a weapons buff, and con­ lead them to discover that Trent is not as centrate on the abundance of knowledge Rowena Cory reviews: bad as they thought. offered. To give authenticity to the book, Trent argues that the race of true men in Adams has many of the characters speak The White Hart Xanth is degenerating slowly as more half­ with thick accents—some sort of reminder by Nancy Springer human creatures are born, and that the cur­ that this isn't the equivalent of an American (Pocket Books 83148; 1979; rent policy of isolation will only increase John Wayne movie. There is always the dan­ the rate of absorption until there are no ger that the reader will tire of trying to in­ 222 pp;$US2.25) true men left. Once upon the throne, he in­ terpret the written accent, but if one accent tends to encourage trade and expansion. is used consistently, most readers will pick it This book can be classified as High Fantasy: Bink naturally (?) objects to this, and up. Unfortunately, there are at least three it deals with the battle between good and foolishly challenges him to a duel, during distinct speech patterns and varieties of evil, and the main characters are terribly- which the full extent of his power is dis­ those, ranging from Scottish-English, Old- beautiful and beyond the ken of ordinary covered, although not in any predictable English, and German-English, to the strong mortals. There is a threat, and the young way. This incident shows best the author's American accents of the main character's warlock must defeat it. There is a beautiful ingenious use of magical laws. contemporaries. I skimmed these passages, girl, loved by him. Treachery is plotted by Trent is about to stab Bink when he de­ because for the most part they tell of im­ someone near and trusted. The final battle is clares suddenly: 'I can't do it . . . my honour provements to weapons, and my knowledge fought with the aid of mythical weapons. ... it will not let me kill a man who has saved of weaponry is nil and hardly improved by As formula writing, it works: the charac­ my life, and who is so loyal to his unworthy incomprehensible dialogue. ters are usually sketchily drawn; the warlock monarch that he sacrifices his life in defence The climax is something that I suspect is quietly self-controlled, his motives incom­ of one who has exiled him.' So the Evil he had thought through at the beginning prehensible; the writing is fluid, does not Magician is reformed at last, and he becomes and was saving to round off the novel when interfere with the reader's enjoyment, and everything the people of Xanth could want he ran out of ideas. enhances the tale; the ending is inevitable in a king. And all because of Bink's inability Kelly Freas' artwork is not memorable, and the anticlimax typically heavy with to step beyond his childhood conditioning and the packaging reminds me of that for foreboding. in order to question the basis of his country's a children's novel. 68 From Page 22 Eden, behind us. Joe Chip is not a Jason or hoped - to be more real than those objects think and feel within. As our ability to de­ a Heracles. Heroes cannot rescue us because whose existence can be verified empircally. fine ourselves diminishes, we become increa­ there are none, but the times nevertheless Dick implies that there is another dimension singly lost, bewildered. Unable to relate and call for heroes. of truth, one that is largely ignored today. reach out to others, we become the an­ In Dick's novels, one senses that this age There exists beyond the absurd world - droids, a menace to ourselves and to human­ is beginning to wind down. The illusion that which can be verified empirically - a real kind. being collectively bound together in society world. Were we to believe the Celtic Druids, Dick returns continually to certain produces shimmers increasingly out of we could say that beyond the pile of rocks themes—the trashy surface world, its popu­ focus. Civilisation provides the illusion of we call '"Stonehenge" lies the real Stone­ lation of ineffectual characters who cannot shelter, but there is no shelter, only one henge. That which is real is that which has comprehend reality and the splintered hints absurdity piled on top of another. Inhabit­ meaning. It is we who impose value and of a non-temporal reality. All contribute to ing a world which is, a priori, impossible to order on the world. the absurd tenor of the novels. Dick's por­ understand, Dick's characters experience Rather than from a western either/or ap­ trayal of the absurd is equal to that of main­ natural law as a jabberwockian formulation proach, Dick regards the world taoistically; stream literature: Is Joe Chip’s half-life where it is indeed "brillig (in) the slithy implicit in chaos is order, and with an in­ world any less a symbol of the modern age toves". The Music of the Spheres is replaced crease in order comes an increased potential than "waiting for Godot"? As Ubik's never- by noise as the tench turns out cruder and for chaos. Dick's novels continually search ending ending implies, in Dick's world, all cruder copies. for reality, and it is precisely in their falling realities are undermined. What is real? For The world is not orderable or measur­ short of it that they reveal it to us. Realising too many, reality has become limited to able, because chaos mingles with stability, that shadows linger in the Cave is far more "hard" facts, eight-to-five jobs, taking out ephemerising the solid, obviating it. We realistic than pretending we're in direct sun­ the garbage, and mere possessions. While operate under the illusion of stability but light. An a priori inability to know is for such dreams of reality may be false, being there are no solid, rigid, fixed, permanent Dick not only something to be believed, but purged of them is painful. Half-blind charac­ anythings. All is flux, change. One thing's also his authorial stance. His writing is cub­ ters cannot tell if they are being purged of muddying and blurring another precludes istic, substituting all angles for a single, co­ false dreams in order to be filled with true purity; there are no hard edges. Thus does a hering point of view. There is no coherence, ones, or merely to be refilled with more self-aware doorknob's demand for change only Al's inadequate understanding con­ false ones. While the characters experience momentarily interrupt a life-and-death trasted with Runciter's, contrasted with our the effects of the Form Destroyer with aver­ struggle. The search for truth does not take own. For the reader, the inability to know is sion and horror, formlessness can be place in a vacuum but modifies and is modi­ less something to be deduced from the equated with potentiality and lack of rigid­ fied by its milieu. In the end, Dick sees the novels and more something that is experi­ ity. Form itself implies an already produced, real and the illusionary worlds mingling, and enced. The experience is unaccustomed for finished something, a non-growing, death­ side by side, forming the perceived world. A beings who act as though truth were easily like stasis. While not ignoring the superficial typical paradigm occurs in Clans of the Al- accessible. realities of the "pseudochromium” world, phane Moon, where the insanity of the We do not interact with each other. Our Dick is, in the end, concerned with a higher "sane" acts as a screen across which flickers self-illusions collide with what we conceive order of reality. As he has said himself, the sanity of the "insane". The figure must others to be; what they perceive us to be "What I feel is a longing, a nagging need for be perceived in relationship to the ground, interacts with their illusions of themselves. something other than what is, and also a because we are beings-in-the-world. We do not interact with reality but are buf­ sense that what is somehow merely fills in Philosophical pessimism pervades many fered from it by our pre-conceived ideas of to obscure the truth that this is wrong, all of Dick's novels. His is a slippery world the world. We see the universe as "sensible" this. We don't belong here. The music on where naive realism - "'If it's 1939 it's and "logical", but there is no logic so things, the radio is the wrong music. The walls are 1939'" (Ubik, page 149) - is a hopelessly to be perceived correctly, cannot be per­ the wrong colours, painted by someone else simplistic view of reality. It is also, of ceived as being logical. It is we who "form" ... We must wake up to the meaning of our course, a stance which we assume without reality, moulding it with our ideas of it. But alienation...be brought back into harmony questioning. If it's 1977, it's 1977. We gain the ideas we live by—truth is accessible; time with our actual natures and the nature of knowledge of the world both through direct moves forward; the rose is red—are false. If true reality. When we once again agree, the experience, empirically, and through an we're buffered from reality by false ideas, split will be healed... As in Ubik, we are ordering of this sensory data, as through we're reunited with it by the Form De­ actually dead now, and lie in graves, these logic. (Dick, of course, also speculates about stroyer. plastic apartments we live in. It is not life; the existence of the sensory data.) Dick We live in a world that preaches stability life lies ahead when we recover our senses questions these constructs, the modes of and false value. Language itself expresses and wake up. We sleep in our graves, like analysis on which we base what we call our neither what we know nor what we don't inert matter, like lumps... But beyond all knowledge of the world. Calling into ques­ know. The content of communication has this glimmers a real world, with real beauty tion our modes of analysis - like Kant, he moved far beyond the grunt-point, me-you and love. A lot of that, the latter" (Philip seems to view time as an ordering something stage. Certainly, saying that something "is" K Dick, letter to Claudia Krenz, 8 January which we impose upon experience - Dick implies a non-existent stability. We continu­ 1975). also questions our knowledge of the world ally forget that what we say a thing is is Neither denying the utilitarian value of itself. If the methods of apprehending real­ what it is not. Our language leads us to be­ empiricism and its dreams of reason nor ity are faulty, then the resulting knowledge lieve in a world that is not. Since reality is advocating a fuzzy-headed return to the of reality will be faulty. perceived through linguistic concepts, lang­ past, Dick rejects clean, well-lit explana­ Not just steps 1 and 2, but entire uage is a reality support and Joe Chip's rigid tions. He does not provide a secure—guaran­ methodologies, are examined and rejected. insistence upon using it correctly—according teed and well-marked—alternative to tradi­ Limited to empirical verifiability and logical to prescriptive rules—is thus an attempt to tional western ways of thinking; instead he coherence, our criteria for determining what maintain stable reality, a feeble attempt at marshalls all the evidence, ruthlessly pre­ is real have become too narrow, too blinder­ sympathetic magic. senting all the reasons why life is absurd. like. It is essence - not statistics about it or The gap between what we (think we) The scene is rendered true—but Dick could its observed behaviours - that is important, know and possible knowledge has become a be called a post-existential writer. Since and essence is not described by those gaping abyss. Although a mere 2000 years everything is tentative, attempts are all we aspects of it which can be quantified. Meas­ ago Aristotle knew everything there was to have. Just as the Ubik epigraphs express an urable attributes do not reflect essence. know, we're drowning in information, un­ unfulfilled need, so Dick's characters only Certainly, behaviour can be observed empir­ able to put sense into "too much" sensa­ know that something is wrong. Something is ically, but, while such observations are tion. Omniscience is a thing of the past. As missing, and traditional problem-solving pragmatically useful, they tell us nothing of beings-in-the-world we must act—unable to methods do not help. More than anything, self-essence. Behaviour is only a self-mani­ absorb, and distorting, existing information Dick's characters need to be delivered from festation and the behavioural sciences, only —corrupted by decisions based on damning meaninglessness. Following the ancient studies of manifestations. Dick sees som- alternatives. principle of the Yang and the Yin, the thing inner, some human essence beyond But the radical increase in available in­ empty and the full, Dick would purge us of the reach of behaviour modification and formation, in the store of human know­ our false dreams, our trite and mundane genetic engineering. Thus, empiricism may ledge, parallels a decline in self-knowledge. views of reality, and fill us with true dreams, yield utilitarian truths but is rejected as a With more and more of our experiences those with meaning and significance. means of gaining Truth. In Ubik, that which vicarious, we lose—assuming self is defined is incapable of being verified empirically, existentially—not only our capacity for ex­ Claudia Krenz the Platonic idea, is shown - or, at any rate. periences but also ourselves, our ability to November 1976 69 S F COMMENTARY CHECKLIST Mentioned in this issue are:

Graeme Aaron and Sam Sejavka: 'The Rise Alfred Bester: Tiger! Tiger! (The Stars My Richard Cowper: 'The Piper at the Gates of and Fall of Earth' (63) Destination) (9, 12, 67) Dawn' (36) AC/DC: Back in Black (48) Michael Bishop (14) Richard Cowper: Profundis (37) Robert Adams: Castaways in Time (68) Michael Bishop: 'Death and Designation Richard Cowper: The Road to Corlay (32, James Agee and Walker Evans: Let Us Now Among the Asadi' (14-15) 36) Praise Famous Men (43) Michael Bishop: 'Old Folks at Home' (46) Richard Cowper: 'The Web of the Magi' (32) Brian W Aldiss (8, 10, 29, 37-38, 43, 50, 53- Michael Bishop: Transfigurations (14-15) Richard Cowper: The Web of the Magi and 55, 57) 57) K S Blathal, Dudley de Souza, and Kirpal other Stories (32) Brian Aldiss: 'The Aperture Moment' (28) Singh (eds): Singapore Science Fiction (38) George Cukor (dir): Keeper of the Flame Brian Aldiss: Barefoot in the Head (28, 31) William P Blatty: The Exorcist (30) (46-47) Brian Aldiss: Billion Year Spree (67) James Blish (10) Seamus Cullen: Asterix and Flondrix (68) Brian Aldiss: 'Blish and the Mathematics of James Blish: A Case of Conscience (18) Avram Davidson: 'Sleep Well of Nights' (46) Knowledge' (The Stellar Gauge) (10) John Bonham (42) Robertson Davies: Fifth Business (44-45) Brian Aldiss: Cryptozoic! (An Age) (28) David Bowie (52) Robertson Davies: The Manticore (44) Brian Aldiss: Earthworks (37) Anne Brewster (2) Robertson Davies: World of Wonders (44-45) Brian Aldiss: Enemies of the System (37) Damien Broderick (2, 42, 44, 59) Robert Day (59) Brian Aldiss: Frankenstein Unbound (35- Damien Broderick: The Dreaming Dragons Samuel R Delany (12,32,55-58) 36) (2-4,35) Samuel Delany: The American Shore (57) Brian Aldiss: HeHiconia (50) Damien Broderick: A Man Returned (2) Samuel Delany: Dhalgren (55, 57-58) Brian Aldiss: Hothouse (The Long After­ Damien Broderick (ed): The Zeitgeist Samuel Delany: The Heavenly Breakfast (65) noon of the Earth) (36) Machine (2) Samuel Delany: The Jewel-Hinged Jaw (56- Brian Aldiss: Intangibles Inc and Other David Bromberg (48) 58) Stories (36) Fredric Brown (37) Samuel Delany (ed): Nebula Winners 13 (31) Brian Aldiss: Life in the West (35-36) Jennifer Bryce (42) Samuel Delany: Tales of Neveryon (57-58, Brian Aldiss: The Malacia Tapestry (54) Algis Budrys (38) 64-65) Brian Aldiss: Moreau's Other Island (36) Anthony Burgess (35) Samuel Delany: Triton (55, 57) Brian Aldiss: Neanderthal Planet (36) Frederick Busch: The Mutual Friend (44-45) Lester Del Rey: 'Evensong' (17-18) Brian Aldiss: Report on Probability A (27- Michel Butor (28) Philip K Dick (9-10, 17-22, 34, 38, 69) 29) Larry Buttrose: Review of Looking for Philip Dick: Clans of the Alphane Moon (21 - Brian Aldiss: A Rude Awakening (45) Blucher (Australian Book Review) (6) 22, 69) Brian Aldiss: 'The Saliva Tree' (36) John W Campbell (17) Philip Dick: The Cosmic Puppets (51) Brian Aldiss: 'The Secret of Holman Hunt Stephen Campbell (2) Philip Dick: Do Androids Dream of Electric and the Crude Death Rate' (28) Terry Carr (ed): The Year's Finest Fantasy, Sheep (21-22) Brian Aldiss: 'Since the Assassination' (36) Vol. 2 (31) Philip Dick: Flow My Tears, The Policeman Brian Aldiss: Starship (Non-Stop) (32) Raymond Chandler (51) Said (19) Woody Allen (dir): Manhattan (46) Cy Chauvin (36, 56) Philip Dick: 'Frozen Years' (51) Kingsley Amis (29, 35) C J Cherryh: Brothers of Earth (66-67) Philip Dick: The Game Players of Titan (19) Kingsley Amis: The Alteration (38) C J Cherryh: The Faded Sun: Kesrith (67) Philip Dick: Interview: Daily Telegraph Lindsay Anderson (dir): This Sporting Life C J Cherryh: The Gate of Ivrel (66) Magazine (22) (47) C J Cherryh: Hunter of Worlds (66) Philip Dick: The Man in the High Castle (19) Piers Anthony: A Spell for Chameleon (68) C J Cherryh: The Well of Shiuan (66-67) Philip Dick: Martian Time Slip (19-20, 22) ANZAPA (59) Gene Clark: No Other (51) Philip Dick: A Maze of Death (20-21) Isaac Asimov (54) Gene Clark: Roadmaster (51) Philip Dick: Now Wait for Last Year (19) Isaac Asimov: In Memory Still Green (61) Arthur C Clarke (10-11,36) Philip Dick: A Scanner Darkly (19) Isaac Asimov: In Joy Still Felt (45-46) Arthur Clarke: The Fountains of Paradise Philip Dick: The Three Stigmata of Palmer Isaac Asimov, Martin Greenberg, and Joseph (8, 10, 17,31,33,45) Eldritch (9, 19-22) Olander: 700 Great Science Fiction Short Arthur Clarke: Imperial Earth (33) Philip Dick: Ubik (19-22, 69) Short Stories (37) John Clute (co-ed): The Encyclopedia of Philip Dick: Valis (34,38) W H Auden: The Dyer's Hand and Other Science Fiction (38) Philip Dick: We Can Build You (19, 21) Essays (45) Elaine Cochrane (2, 10, 42, 59, 61-62) Philip Dick and Roger Zelazny: Deus Irae Aussiecon 75 (40) Elaine Cochrane: Review of Profundis (SFC (19) Lloyd Bacon and Busby Berkeley (dirs): 59) (37) Charles Dickens (44-45) 42nd Street (46) Elaine Cochrane: Review of A Woman of Charles Dickens: Bleak House (45) JG Ballard (10, 29,36,43) the Future (SFC 58) (59) Charles Dickens: Hard Times (45) J G Ballard: 'The Cloud Sculptors of Coral Eli Cohen (2, 41) Thomas M Disch (24-25, 33,38, 51,55) D' (36) Nik Cohn: AWopBopaLooBop ALopBam- Thomas Disch: Camp Concentration (8, 26) Glen St John Barclay (29) Boom (52) Thomas Disch: Echo Round His Bones (9) Glen St John Barclay: Anatomy of Horror Paul Collins (4-6) Thomas Disch: Fundamental Disch (31-32) (9, 29-30) D G Compton: Ascendancies (45) Thomas Disch: Getting Into Death And John Franklin Bardin: Omnibus (62) Cyril Connolly: Enemies of Promise (45) Other Stories (32) Bruce Barnes: 'The Two Body Problem' (63) William Congreve: The OldBachelour (13) Thomas Disch: On Wings of Song (8,23-26, Barrington J Bayley: Review of The Foun­ Joseph Conrad: Heart of Darkness (35) 31,54-55) tains of Paradise (Arena 11) (33) Rowena Cory (2, 4-6) Thomas Disch: Review of Fireflood and Pat Benatar: In the Heat of the Night (48) Cory and Collins (Void Publications) (4-6) Other Stories (F&SF) (35) Gregory Benford: Timescape (31,33,45,49) Elvis Costello (51) Thomas Disch: 'The Squirrel Cage' (8) Albert I Berger: Review of Dhalgren (Survey James Cronin: Dead as Doornails (45) Thomas Disch: 334 ( 8, 26) of Science Fiction Literature) (58) Countdown (13,48) Jacques Donzelot: The Poiicing of Families Hector Berlioz: L'Enfance du Christ (48) Richard Cowper (33) (62) Hector Berlioz: Les Troyens (48) Richard Cowper: 'The Attleborough Polter­ Malcolm Edwards (51) John D Berry (49) geist' (32) Stanley Elkin: The Franchiser (44) Alfred Bester (11-14,65) Richard Cowper: 'The Custodians' (32) Stanley Elkin: The Living End (31,45) Alfred Bester: The Computer Connection Richard Cowper: 'Drink Me Francesca' (32) Stanley Ellin: The Specialty of the House (Indian Giver) (Extro) (11-12, 14) Richard Cowper: 'The Hertford Manuscript' and Other Stories (49) Alfred Bester: The Demolished Man (9,12) (32) Encyclopedia Brittanica (13) Alfred Bester: 'The Four-Hour Fugue' (12, Richard Cowper: 'Out There Where the Big Dick Eney (2) 141 Ships Go' (32) Malcolm English: 'Retrieval' (63) Alfred Bester: Golem^d (11-14) Richard Cowper: Out There Where the Big Brian Eno (52) Alfred Bester: 'My Affair with Science Fic­ Ships Go (31-32) Philip Jose Farmer: An Exorcism (30) tion' (Hell's Cartographers) (13) Richard Cowper: 'Paradise Beach' (32) John Foyster (37, 42) Alfred Bester: Starlight (13) Leanne Frahm (42) 70 David Garnett: Lady Into Fox (49) Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie: Montaillou (62) Keith Moon (42) David Garnett: The Sailor's Return (49) David J Lake: The Fourth Hemisphere (6) Michael Moorcock (ed): New Worlds (28, Jack Gaughan (2, 12) David Lake: 'White Sphinx and Albino Grif­ 31,36, 53) Rob Gerrand (ed): Transmutations (61-62) fin: Images of Death in the Scientific Robert Morse (47) Bruce Gillespie (ed): Philip K Dick: Electric Romances of HG Wells' (The Stellar Gauge) Sam Moskowitz (54) Shepherd (9, 19) (10) Mark Mumper: 'Stones Thrown at Clones' Bruce Gillespie: Review of Intangibles Inc Ursula K Le Guin (10, 51-53, 56) (SFC 59) (61) and Other Stories (SFC 6) (36) Ursula Le Guin: The Beginning Place Gerald Murnane (43) Bruce Gillespie: Review of 'Somerset (Threshold) (34) Gerald Murnane: Review of Transmutations Dreams’ (SFC 21) (33) Ursula Le Guin: The Dispossessed (34, 53) (SFC 59) (61-62) Bruce Gillespie (ed): SFC Reprint Edition: Ursula Le Guin (ed. Susan Wood): The Robert Musil: The Man Without Qualities First Year 1969 (42, 51,53) Language of the Night (34, 41,55, 61) (58) Bruce Gillespie: 'The Short Fiction of Ursula LeGuin: The Lathe of Heaven (32) Riccardo Muti (48) Thomas M Disch' (Survey of Science Fic­ Ursula Le Guin: Rocannon's World (53) Vladimir Nabokov: Lolita (54) tion Literature) (32) Ursula Le Guin: Very Far Away From Any­ V S Naipaul: A House for Mr Biswas (62) Bruce Gillespie (ed): Supersonic Snail (53) where Else (34) Ronald Neame (dir): Tunes of Glory (46-47) Grant Gittus (2, 35) Ursula Le Guin and Virginia Kidd (eds): Paul Newman (dir): The Effect of Gamma Mike Glicksohn and Susan Wood (eds): Edges (31) Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (46) Energumen (41) Ursula Le Guin and Virginia Kidd (eds): Peter Nicholls (ed): The Encyclopedia of Victor Gollancz Ltd (37) Interfaces (31) Science Fiction (38) Nadine Gordimer: Burger's Daughter (54) Fritz Leiber: The Big Time (34) Peter Nicholls: 'Samuel R Delany' (The En­ Alisdair Gray: Lanark (30-31) Fritz Leiber: 'III Met in Lankhmar' (34) cyclopedia of Science Fiction) (58) Terry Green (51) Fritz Leiber: 'No Great Magic' (36) Peter Nicholls: Review of The Fifth Head of Graham Greene: 'A Discovery in the Woods' Fritz Leiber: Ship of Shadows (34) Cerberus (Survey of Science Fiction Liter­ (53) Denny Lien (40-41) ature) (38) Graham Greene: The Heart of the Matter Stanislaw Lem (55-56) Keith Nielson (38) (53) Stanislaw Lem: The Cyberiad (36) Norstrilia Press (2, 8, 42, 51,60) Graham Greene: The Pleasure Dome (45) Stanislaw Lem: Glos pana (His Master's Ermanno Olmi (dir): The Tree of Wooden Graham Greene: 'Under the Garden' (53) Voice) (38) Clogs (46) David Grigg: Truth Deeper Than Logic' Stanislaw Lem: Mortal Engines (36) George Orwell: 1984 (10,37) (SFC 59) (61) Stanislaw Lem: Return from the Stars (31- Gregory Peck (47) Alec Guinness (47) 32, 36) Penguin Books (35, 37) Carey Handfield (10,40) Stanislaw Lem: Solaris (32, 36) Pink Floyd: The Wall (52) Lee Harding (60) Stanislaw Lem: 'SF: A Hopeless Case—With Dave Piper (42) Lee Harding (ed): The Altered I (38) Exceptions' (Philip K Dick: Electric Shep­ Charles Platt (38) Lee Harding: Displaced Person (35) herd) (9) Charles Platt: Dream Makers (10,37,43,54) Charles Harness: The Paradox Men (67) Stanislaw Lem: Tales of Pirx the Pilot (36) Pocket Books/Timescape (35) Charles Harness: The Ring of Ritornel (67) John Lennon (42, 51) Frederik Pohl: The Age of the Pussyfoot (9) Charles Harness: The Rose (67) Doris Lessing (62, 65) Frederik Pohl: Gateway (9) Charles Harness: Wolfhead (67) Doris Lessing: Stories (62) Frederik Pohl: 'The Midas Plague' (9) Emmy-lou Harris: Roses in the Snow (48) Oscar Lewis: Living the Revolution (62) Frederik Pohl, Martin Harry Greenberg, and Richard Harris (47) Eric Lindsay: Review of The Dreaming Joseph Olander (eds): The Great Science Diane Hawthorne (42) Dragons (Gegenschein) (35) Fiction Series (35-36) Mariel Hemingway (47) Barry Longyear (51,54) Frederik Pohl and Jack Williamson: The Zenna Henderson: 'Ararat' (36) David R Loxton and Fred Baryk (dirs): The Reefs of Space (37) Frank Herbert (16-18, 65) Lathe of Heaven (32) Frederik Pohl and Jack Williamson: Rogue Frank Herbert: Children of Dune (16-17) Lesleigh Luttrell (19) Star (37) Frank Herbert: Destination Void (16-17) Rose Macauley: The Towers of Trebizond Frederik Pohl and Jack Williamson: Star­ Frank Herbert: The Dosadi Experiment (16) (49) child (37) Frank Herbert and Bill Ransom: The Jesus McGuinn, Hillman, Clark: City (51) Frederik Pohl and Jack Williamson: The Incident (16-18) Vonda N McIntyre (63) Starchild Trilogy (37) Jane Hipolito and Willis E McNelly: 'The Vonda McIntyre: 'Aztecs' (35) Marilyn Pride (35) Statement is the Self: Alfred Bester's Vonda McIntyre: Fireflood and Other Christopher Priest (54, 56, 63) Science Fiction' (TheStellar Gauge) (9,12) Stories (35) Christopher Priest: 'An Infinite Summer' Alfred Hitchcock (42) Vonda McIntyre: 'Of Mist, and Grass, and (34) Richard Hughes: A High Wind in Jamaica Sand' (35) Christopher Priest: An Infinite Summer (33- (49) Vonda McIntyre: "Wings' (35) 34) Holman Hunt: 'The Awakening Conscience' Jim McLeod (48) Christopher Priest: ‘Landscape Artist: The (28) John McPharlin: Review of Barefoot in the Fiction of J G Ballard' (The Stellar Gauge) Holman Hunt: 'The Hireling Shepherd' (27) Head (ASFR 21) (31) (10) Iggycon (41) Pip Maddern: 'Ignorant of Magic' (63) Christopher Priest: 'The Negation' (34) David Ireland: A Woman of the Future (31, Frank N Magill (ed): Survey of Science Fic­ Christopher Priest: 'Outside the Whale’ 59) tion Literature (32, 38) (SFC 59) (60-61) James Ivory (dir): The Europeans (47, 62) Gustav and Anna Mahler (56) Christopher Priest: 'Palely Loitering' (34) Harvey Jacobs: The Juror (49) Jerry Mander: Four Arguments for the Eli­ Christopher Priest: 'The Watched' (34) Henry James: The Europeans (47, 62) mination of Television (45) Christopher Priest: 'Whores' (34) Gary Jennings: Aztec (49) Joseph Mankiewitz (dir): Five Fingers (46) Marcel Proust (58) Edgar Johnson: Charles Dickens: His Tragedy Katherine Mansfield: 'Bliss' (46) Ronald Reagan (42) and Triumph (45) Katherine Mansfield: The Complete Stories Tony Richardson (dir): The Loved One (46- Langdon Jones (ed): The New SF (53) of Katherine Mansfield (46) 47) James Joyce (57-58) Katherine Mansfield: 'The Daughters of the Alain Robbe-Grillet (28-29) Jerry Kaufman (55-56) Late Colonel' (46) Keith Roberts: 'The Big Fans' (33) Yasunari Kawabata: The Master of Go (48) Katherine Mansfield: 'The Garden-Party' Keith Roberts: Ladies from Hell (31,33) Don Keller (58) (46) Keith Roberts: 'The Ministry of Children' David Ketterer: 'Fathoming 20,000 Leagues Katherine Mansfield: 'The Little Governess' (33) Under the Sea' (The Stellar Gauge) (10) (46) Keith Roberts: 'The Shack at Great Cross Henry King (dir): The Gunfighter (46-47) Katherine Mansfield: 'Miss Brill’ (46) Halt' (33) King Crimson (52) Katherine Mansfield: 'Pictures' (46) Rachel Roberts (47) Kiss (52) Katherine Mansfield: 'Something Childish ■Spider Robinson (54) TED Klein: 'Children of the Kingdom' (46) But Very Natural' (46) Philip Roth: The Breast (21) Damon Knight: Hell's Pavement (34) Katherine Mansfield: 'The Stranger' (46) Franz Rottensteiner (37, 51,53-56) Damon Knight (ed): A Science Fiction James Mason (47) Franz Rottensteiner: Review of Glos pana Argosy (33) William Mayne: If (45) (Survey of Science Fiction Literature) (38) C M Kornbluth (37) Walter Miller Jr: A Canticle for Leibowitz Franz Rottensteiner: Review of The Langu­ Claudia Krenz (20) (18) age of the Night (SFS) (55) 71 Fred Saberhagen: 'Sign of the Wolf' (36) Anne Tyler: Morgan's Passing (49) St Augustine (18) John Updike: 'The Gun Shop' (46) Gladys Schmidt: Rembrandt (49) John Updike: Problems and Other Stories SFC 62/63/64/65/66 Victoria Schochet and John Silbersack (eds): (46) CONTRIBUTORS The Berkley Showcase, Vol. 2 (51) John Updike: 'Separating' (46) Darrell Schweitzer (54) Jack Vance (16) Bon Scott (42) Jack Vance: The Last Castle (35) BRIAN W ALDISS Joyce Scrivener (41) A E Van Vogt (34, 38) Robert Sheckley (63) John Varley (55) NEVILLE J ANGOVE Mary Shelley: Frankenstein (59) Verdi: Requiem (48) JOHN D BERRY Tom Shippey: Review of The Alteration Jules Verne (10) (Survey of Science Fiction Literature) (38) Kitty Vigo (63) ANNE BREWSTER Don Siegel (dir): Charley Varrick (47) Void Publications (Cory and Collins) (4-6) DAMIEN BRODERICK Don Siegel (dir): The Line Up (46-47) Kurt Vonnegut: Jailbird (45, 51) Robert Silverberg (10) Harry Warner Jr: All Our Yesterdays (45) STEPHEN CAMPBELL Robert Silverberg: Downward to the Earth Ian Watson: Alien Embassy (65) IAN CARMICHAEL (35) Ian Watson: The Embedding (36) Robert Silverberg: Lord Valentine's Castle Ian Watson: The Gardens of Delight (36) CY CHAUVIN (37) Ian Watson: The Jonah Kit (17) ELAINE COCHRANE Robert Silverberg: The Man in the Maze (35) Ian Watson: Miracle Visitors (36, 65-66) Robert Silverberg: Nightwings (35) Orson Welles (dir): F for Fake (46-47) ELI COHEN Robert Silverberg: A Robert Silverberg H G Wells (36) Omnibus (35) H G Wells: The Invisible Man (10) PETER COOMBER Kirpal Singh (8) Rebecca West: Black Lamb and Grey Falcon ROWENA CORY Kirpal Singh: 'Technology in George Orwell's (48) 1984' {The Stellar Gauge) (10) Dennis Wheatley (30) THOMAS M DISCH Kirpal Singh: Wonder and Awe (38) Rosemary White (8, 10) JOHN FOYSTER John T Sladek: 'Four Reasons for Reading Ted White (ed): Amazing, Fantastic (52) Thomas M Disch’ {The Stellar Gauge) (8-9) Wynne N Whiteford (5) HENRY GASKO John Sladek: Roderick (49) Wynne Whiteford: Breathing Space Only BRUCE GILLESPIE David Sless: 'Arthur C Clarke’ {The Stellar (5-6, 45) Gauge) (8,10) Andrew Wiener (56) SNEJAGUNEW Cordwainer Smith: 'The Game of Rat and Oscar Wilde (18, 56) STEPHEN HITCHINGS Dragon' (36) Cherry Wilder: The Luck of Brin's Five Gilbert Sorrentino: Mulligan Stew (62) (36) DONALD G KELLER Nancy Springer: The White Hart (68) Kate Wilhelm: The Encounter' (33) CLAUDIA KRENZ Bruce Springsteen: The River (48) Kate Wilhelm: 'The Funeral' (63) Strugatsky Brothers (37) Kate Wilhelm: The Infinity Box (63) DENNY LIEN Strugatsky Brothers: Roadside Picnic (37) Kate Wilhelm: Juniper Time (31,33) ERIC LINDSAY Walter Tevis: Mockingbird (37, 51) Kate Wilhelm: 'Ladies and Gentlemen, This Josephine Tey: The Franchise Affair (45) is Your Crisis' (33) LESLEIGH LUTTRELL Josephine Tey: The Man in the Queue (45) Kate Wilhelm: 'Mrs Bagley Goes to Mars' JOHN McPHARLIN Josephine Tey: The Singing Sands (45) (33) D M Thomas (53) Kate Wilhelm: 'Somerset Dreams' (33) CHRISTOPHER PRIEST D M Thomas: Birthstone (31,44) Kate Wilhelm: Somerset Dreams and Other JOYCE SCRIVENER D M Thomas: The Flute-Player (31,44) Fictions (33) E P Thompson: The Making of the English Kate Wilhelm: Where Late the Sweet Birds PHILIP STEPHENSEN-PAYNE Working Class (62) Sang (61-62) ANGUS TAYLOR E P Thompson: William Morris: Romantic Emlyn Williams: George (43-44) to Revolutionary (45) Douglas Wilson (42) GEORGE TURNER Gertrude Thomson: 'The Incredible Shrink- Edmund Wilson: The Twenties (45) TOM WHALEN ing-Gun' (38) Edmund Wilson: Upstate (62) 3EON-FM (48) Edmund Wilson: The Wound and the Bow WYNNE N WHITEFORD Robert Thurston: 'King-makers' (46) (45) ANDREW WIENER Michael J Tolley (8, 10) Jack Wodhams: Looking for Blucher (5-6) Michael Tolley: 'Beyond the Enigma: Dick's Bernard Wolfe: Limbo (43) Questors' {The Stellar Gauge) (9) Gene Wolfe: 'Alien Stones’ (31-32) Michael Tolley and Kirpal Singh (eds): The Gene Wolfe: 'The Doctor of Death Island' Stellar Gauge (7-10, 42, 45^16, 50) (46) Torcon II (40) Gene Wolfe: The Fifth Head of Cerberus Anthony Trollope: The Way We Live Now (38) (49) Gene Wolfe: The Island of Doctor Death E C Tubb (38) and Other Stories and Other Stories (31- Wilson Tucker (5) 32) George Turner (44-45, 55, 57, 61-63) Gene Wolfe: The Shadow of the Torturer George Turner: Beloved Son (32, 56, 61) (34-35) George Turner: 'Delany: Victim of Great Gene Wolfe: 'The Toy Theatre' (31) Applause' {SFC 58) (55, 57) Gene Wolfe: 'Tracking Song’ (31) George Turner: 'Frederik Pohl as a Creator Susan Wood (39-42) of Future Societies' {The Stellar Gauge) Susan Wood (ed): Amor (40-41) (9) Susan Wood (ed): Aspidistra (41) George Turner: Review of Life in the West Susan Wood (ed): Ursula K Le Guin: The (The Age) (35) Language of the Night (34, 41,55, 61) George Turner: Review of The Mutural Herman Wouk (49) Friend (The Age) (44) Neil Young (52) George Turner: Review of Shikasta (ASFN) Frederick Yuan: 'Immortality and Robert (56) Silverberg’ {The Stellar Gauge) (10) George Turner: A Stranger and Afraid {44- Philip Ziegler: The Black Death (45-46) 45) Paul Zindel: The Effect of Gamma Rays on George Turner: Transit of Cassidy (45) Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (47) George Turner (ed): A View from the Edge Emile Zola: Le Debacle (43) (63) Emile Zola: Le Ventre de Paris (64) George Turner: A Young Man of Talent (44, Pamela Zoline: The Holland of the Mind' 47) (53) 72