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Cosmopolis#27

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Cosmopolis#27 COSMOPOLIS Number 27 June, 2002 Letters to the Editor . 25 Contents Chuck King, Karl T. Radtke, Bob Lacovara, Alain The Logan Square Book Club vs. Schremmer, John Rappel, Till Noever, Derek W. Benson Jack Vance. 1 Closing Words . 30 by Chuck King Presenting Vance to new readers VIE Contacts . 31 The Fine Print . 31 Work Tsar Status Report . 3 by Joel Riedesel Wave 1 texts soon finished d 38’s Crucible. 4 by Paul Rhoads Paul Allen and libraries, flexible covers, two Jacks, The Logan Square Book Di£ng procedure, and more Club vs. Jack Vance by Chuck King ‘Is is’ and Jack Vance’s Colons . 19 By George Rhoads Repair your sentence with the colon One of the stated goals of the VIE is to raise awareness of Jack Vance as a serious author, worthy of respect out- side the narrow genres in which his work has heretofore An Antidote to the Modern Educational been categorized. I have always felt that Vance is a styl- Malaise . 20 ist on a level with the greatest names in literature, and by William Tahil so when the opportunity came to do my part to further Turn o¥ MTV, read Vance instead our noble goal, I leapt at the chance. I am a member of a book club with a number of other The CLS . 21 people, none of whom are particular fans of science by Till Noever fiction or fantasy. They are regular folks, albeit all CLS 13 coming to a computer near you highly literate and avid readers. Members range in age from their 30s to their 60s, weighted a bit towards the You Have Done It!. 22 top of the scale, and come from a variety of educational by Hans van der Veeke and professional backgrounds, with a slight preponder- Volunteer work credits for completed texts: The ance of former teachers. If anyone would be open to try- Dark Ocean, Araminta Station, Big Planet, The Kokod ing a new author, and would, potentially, appreciate Wa r r i o rs , Emphyrio, Alfred’s Ark, The New Prime, The Vance’s skills, I figured it would be this group. I resolved Green Pearl, Coup de Grace, Sulwen’s Planet, The Mo o n therefore to introduce them to Vance. In April I hosted Moth, Green Magic the club, and as host I got to pick the book we read. I chose Nigh t La mp. Nigh t La mp Volume Work Credits. 24 is not my favorite Vance novel, but I like by Hans van der Veeke it a lot, and it had several other characteristics to rec- ommend it. It is self-contained. I didn’t think it would be Volunteer work credits for complete volumes fair to have them read one novel of a trilogy, so the Lyonesse and Cadwal series (which include my very ent geekishness of all things sci-fi (or that look like sci- favorites) were out. It shows (in my opinion) Vance at fi).Forabout fiftyyears nowforbetterorworse (prob- the top of his game stylistically. And, it was readily ably worse) spaceships and aliens (and, more recently, available used on half.com and eBay for a reasonable wizards and dragons) have been associated in the minds price. In order to ensure that everyone who wanted one of many with the socially inept and unfashionable, and could get a copy, I began lurking on those sites several during adolescence people who are not already in those months before, and ended up buying fourteen copies of categories learn to distance themselves from them and the book, which I then sold to the book club members at anything associated with them. As people grow into my cost. adulthood social strata often realign, but as long as there So, I distributed the books, and on the night of the is no distinct social benefit to be derived from science book club meeting to promote the Vancian theme I con- fiction fandom, the knee-jerk aversion which I believe is cocted batches of tipsic, Blue Ruin and Flurrish Zabam- coded into many people in youth persists, and I suspect ba for everyone’s refreshment; there were even drams of that it manifested itself in several of the book club “sour-mash rye whiskey, which Hilyer often described members. as ‘Nectar of the Gods’”. The membership arrived, and During the course of the discussion someone com- this group of book lovers commenced to discuss its first pared Vance to Jonathan Swift, commenting on the satir- encounter with Jack Vance. ical character of the book. Swift had the good fortune Imagine my shock and disappointment when the to write Gulliver’s Travels before fantasy was established response was almost uniformly negative. as a separate genre and set aside into its own little lit- I was prepared for a range of opinions, but I was erary ghetto. As a result his work was read with a more somewhat taken aback bythe consistencyofthe open mind when it came out, was appreciated, and is still response. One woman (who had actually been to the VIE studied today. Unfortunately, while Vance is a satirist of website and read up a little on Vance) did borrow my the highest calibre, the trappings of his stories have copy of The Hugo Winners Vol. II to read Vance’s prize- caused many readers to dismiss them out of hand. This winning stories, but other reactions ranged for the most is no great revelation to anyone reading Cosmopolis, but part from vague distaste to downright antipathy. But, I think I may have figured out why. while that book club meeting did not serve the purpose So, had the story in Nigh t La mp been set in, say, China, I had hoped, by turning a bunch of non-Vance readers it would have been accepted (I believe) more readily by into fans, it did at least provide some interesting insights the mainstream readers of the book club. But it would into some of the impediments to mainstream success and have lost much if not all of its satirical e¥ect, since if it acclaim for Vance. From the comments of the members had been set in China it would have been taken as com- I drew several conclusions. mentary on China and Chinese society. As it is, it holds First, I think that there is a sizeable category of read- up a mirror in which people in general, from wherever, er that will not like any story, no matter how well-writ- can see themselves and their society reflected, since for ten, that is set elsewhere than in the ‘real world’. From the most part Vance’s targets are universal. A dilemma their comments, it was apparent to me that some of the for the satirist, to be sure. people who didn’t like the book were searching for a Other readers objected to the book on what I can only pretext upon which to object. For instance, one reader call ‘fashionable’ grounds. It was not like other books objected to all the Vance-specific terminology, names, that the book club generally reads, and while I thought and invented concepts (including keeping track of the it might represent an interesting change of pace, it was relative comporture of the various Thanet social clubs). not generally appreciated as such. This same reader, however, waxed rhapsodic about A number of the books we read in the book club tend recent books we had read, set in China, involving lots of to fall into the category of tragic romances, with much obscure (to us, anyway) references to Chinese geogra- hand-wringing and lavish descriptions of the emotional phy and social institutions. Clearly, this reader had no turmoil through which the protagonist goes through as problem stretching his mind to encompass unfamiliar she (it’s often a she, but not always) becomes embroiled concepts and terms. His problem must have been with in her life-changing whirlwind doomed forbidden love stretching his mind to encompass those particular con- a¥air. One of the members complained to me once that cepts and terms. all the ‘good’ books she had read latelyseemed to I have a theory as to why this is, based on the inher- involve either incest or alcoholism—a far cry from a Cosmopolis 27 • 2 typical Vance story, certainly. I have occasionally the problems correctly? And, most importantly, does objected to these stories on the basis that there is noth- anyone see how they can be overcome? Despite this set- ing interesting in watching weak people fail; some of back, I am resolved to continue the endeavor! the book club readers objected to Nigh t La mp on the basis that it was, essentially, watching a strong person succeed. “How can you have a¥ection for a perfect char- d acter?” was the actual comment. I think that misses the point of the book, but it illustrates how readers’ expec- tations, and the novel’s failure to meet them, impacted its reception. Work Tsar Status Report Another objection to the book took this form: “If a writer puts a gun in the drawer in Act I, it had better be as of may 27, 2002 fired by the end of the play!” Several people took strong exception to the fact that Jaro was the actual instrument by Joel Riedesel of his mother’s death, but never paid a price for it. Maybe because I’ve read so much Vance, I recognize that Wa v e 1 a lack of justice on the cosmic level is one of his themes: Wave 1 is rapidly approaching completion.
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