THE BEST OF FREDERIK POHL
Evelyn Leeper
Number 1561]
Our discussion chose THE BEST OF FREDERIK POHL (ISBN-13
978-0-345-24507-6, ISBN-10 0-345-24507-5) for the August meeting.
This book was published in 1975, but as someone observed, if a
"Best of Frederik Pohl" were published today, it would still have
most of the same stories.
I don't normally comment on every story in a collection, but doing
so will help me remember my impressions for the discussion, so here
goes.
"The Tunnel Under the World": Classic Pohl story that everyone
remembers--"Buy a Feckle Freezer!" It seems to have been the
precursor to several films and stories: DARK CITY, GROUNDHOG DAY,
perhaps even BLADERUNNER in part. (Someone at the meeting
mentioned THE TRUMAN SHOW, an even better parallel.) Pohl had
worked in the advertising field, so the basic premise probably came
from that. The structure is interesting--you follow the
protagonist through some very confusing events, wondering what is
going on. Then you find out the big secret. Then you find out
that is not the big secret, something else is. No, wait, there's
an even bigger secret. No, wait, .... through five revelations.
"Punch": This seems very similar to another story with a time
traveler who arrives right before an atomic war in which everyone
is going to die, or one in which it turns out that the time
traveler has destroyed the world when he jumps back in time
(because of the energy use)--and he's jumped back from five minutes
in the future. The traveler here isn't a time traveler, though.
"Three Portraits and a Prayer": This made no impression on me; I
have no idea why not.
"Day Million": At the time (forty years ago) it was daring. Now it
is topical. In another forty years it will be quaint, relegated to
the same museum as "South Pacific" and "Guess Who's Coming to
Dinner".
"Happy Birthday, Dear Jesus": If "Day Million" seems to have a lot
of its ideas fixed in the past, "Happy Birthday, Dear Jesus" seems
depressingly prescient, with the commercialization of Christmas
gone amuck. All those people who keep telling us that everyone
should have the Christmas spirit and *love* all the store
decorations et al should read this. I mentioned this a few years
ago in conjunction with China Mi�ville's "'Tis the Season". In the
latter, I wrote, "The worst fears of the Religious Right have come
to pass, and the celebration of Christmas is prohibited. No
parties, no holly, no mistletoe, no trees, .... But it is not
political correctness gone wild. And it has nothing to do with the
First Amendment and the separation of church and state (in part
because Mi�ville is British, writing for a British audience). No,
it's because all of these things have been trademarked and so you
can't have a Christmas tree, you must have a Christmas Tree(tm) and
pay a license fee for it. The same with Holly(tm), Mistletoe(tm),
and so on. 'It felt so forlorn, putting my newspaper-wrapped
presents next to the aspidistra, but ever since YuleCo bought the
right to coloured paper and under-tree storage, the inspectors had
clamped down on Subarboreal Giftery.' Frankly, Mi�ville's
'nightmare future' seems far more likely to me than the nightmare
future of Christmas being forbidden because of political
correctness. After all, one cannot now sing 'Happy Birthday to
You' in public without owing royalties on it! The Mi�ville and the
Pohl get added to 'Newton's Mass' by Timothy Esaias in my mental
list of stories that *I* would put in a Christmas anthology, were I
ever to undertake such an unlikely task.
"We Never Mention Aunt Nora": This reads like a typical "Twilight
Zone" story, though written a year before that show went on the
air.
"Father of the Stars": Is this 1964 story the first instance of the
idea that technology overtakes itself? In this case, the
interstellar colonists who went out in cold sleep and relativistic
speeds are met near the end of their voyage by earthmen in a
faster-than-light ship that had been invented after they left. We
actually live this now in a way--many people put off buying a new
electronic gadget because in six months there will be a better,
cheaper one.
"The Day the Martians Came": It may be true that supposed
antagonists will unite against a common threat, but whether that
would apply to aliens who are not threats is unclear. Then again,
as someone says in LONE STAR, "It's always heartwarming to see a
prejudice defeated by a deeper prejudice."
"The Midas Plague": It is a clever idea and all, but of course it
makes no sense. I cannot help but feel, though, that it at least
somewhat the inspiration for David Brin's THE PRACTICE EFFECT. And
both of them seem to have their roots in the notion that we must
have an ever-increasing gross product, that the only way to
maintain a healthy economy is to produce more and more, to build
more houses, to manufacture more cars. The "Planet Money" podcast
had a show about the problems of the car manufacturers, and one
problem is that there are about a third more cars being
manufactured worldwide than are actually needed. So either people
have to keep buying new cars when they do not need them, or the
automobile companies have to close a quarter of their factories.
(According to the notes by Pohl at the end, this idea was suggested
by Horace Gold, it is Pohl's most reprinted piece of short fiction,
and it has even shown up in economics courses.)
"The Snowmen": I suppose that this is interesting in the context of
global climate change, but it spends too much time on characters
that seem very outdated and not enough time on the idea. There's
something about these stock characters of the era--the gold-digging
night-club-singer type, the small-time con-artist, and so on--that
make so many stories or movies from the 1950s and earlier seem very
dated. (Consider the Phil Foster character and his girlfriend in
THE CONQUEST OF SPACE.)
"How to Count on Your Fingers": This is an article, not a story,
and included primarily because Lester Del Rey (the editor of the
book) wanted to give an example of Pohl's science writing.
"Grandy Devil": Okay, it did not quite go where I thought it was
going, but it ending was one of those surprise endings that seems
utterly predictable after you hear it.
"Speed Trap": "I honestly think we can do four times as much work as
we do. And I honestly think that this means we can land on Mars in
five years instead of twenty, cure leukemia in twelve years instead
of fifty, and so on." Yeah, and have a baby in a little over two
months instead of nine.
"The Richest Man in Levittown": This is one of those humorous
science fiction stories that were popular in the 1950s. The
characters have the same sort of mannerisms that make them seem
dated as the ones in "The Snowmen". It is not that it couldn't be
written with a more current feel, but it does seem as though humor
often relies on stereotypes for the jokes, and stereotypes are more
prone to becoming outdated.
Okay, I lied. I ran out of steam and either did not read, or had
nothing to say about "The Day the Icicle Works Closed", "The Hated"
(close-quarters space travel), "The Martian in the Attic", "The
Census Takers", or "The Children of Night".
--
Evelyn C. Leeper
I don't need a friend who changes when I change and who nods
when I nod; my shadow does that much better. -Plutarch
Mike Schilling
>
> "Father of the Stars": Is this 1964 story the first instance of the
> idea that technology overtakes itself? In this case, the
> interstellar colonists who went out in cold sleep and relativistic
> speeds are met near the end of their voyage by earthmen in a
> faster-than-light ship that had been invented after they left. We
> actually live this now in a way--many people put off buying a new
> electronic gadget because in six months there will be a better,
> cheaper one.
Hardly the first. Van Vogt's Far Centaurus (1944) and Heinlein's Time
for the Stars (1956) have similar endings.
mikea
And one in which a spaceship powered by mental effort is met, after months
of pushing in the right direction, by a little man in a severely cut
business suit, high-buttoned shoes, spats, and a derby hat, Mr. Ferzial
Thwiskumb, of Gliterslie, Quimbat, and Swench, Exporters: Ted Cogswell's
very memorable "Limiting Factor"
--
"I've got a 486 downstairs with over five years of uptime. It's going to break
my heart to reboot it." "What the everlasting shit do you use a 486 for?"
"Nothing. But who shuts down a machine with five years uptime? That's like
euthanizing your grandmother." -- Doctorow, "When Sysadmins Ruled the World"
David DeLaney
>After all, one cannot now sing 'Happy Birthday to
>You' in public without owing royalties on it!
Just a note here - that's been copyright since it was written ... hm. No, I
inadvertently tell a lie; even minor research changes that to "since 1935".
(The owing-royalties part is a bit later, once the relevant agencies and laws
got their act together... and the owing-royalties-to-Warner part is fairly
recent, only as of 1990, when they bought the company that previously owned
the copyright.) But I'm assuming that royalties were owed, if not necessarily
aggressively collected, before 1990 as well.
Dave
--
\/David DeLaney posting from d...@vic.com "It's not the pot that grows the flower
It's not the clock that slows the hour The definition's plain for anyone to see
Love is all it takes to make a family" - R&P. VISUALIZE HAPPYNET VRbeable<BLINK>
http://www.vic.com/~dbd/ - net.legends FAQ & Magic / I WUV you in all CAPS! --K.
Mike Schilling
> Evelyn Leeper <ele...@optonline.net> wrote:
>> After all, one cannot now sing 'Happy Birthday to
>> You' in public without owing royalties on it!
>
> Just a note here - that's been copyright since it was written ...
> hm.
> No, I inadvertently tell a lie; even minor research changes that to
> "since 1935". (The owing-royalties part is a bit later, once the
> relevant agencies and laws got their act together... and the
> owing-royalties-to-Warner part is fairly recent, only as of 1990,
> when they bought the company that previously owned the copyright.)
> But I'm assuming that royalties were owed, if not necessarily
> aggressively collected, before 1990 as well.
It was a plot point in Sports Night, which would be 1999 or so.
Jack Bohn
>[Originally published in the MT VOID, 09/04/09 -- Vol. 28, No. 10, Whole
>Number 1561]
>
>Our discussion chose THE BEST OF FREDERIK POHL (ISBN-13
>978-0-345-24507-6, ISBN-10 0-345-24507-5) for the August meeting.
>This book was published in 1975, but as someone observed, if a
>"Best of Frederik Pohl" were published today, it would still have
>most of the same stories.
>
>I don't normally comment on every story in a collection, but doing
>so will help me remember my impressions for the discussion, so here
>goes.
. . .
>"Day Million": At the time (forty years ago) it was daring. Now it
>is topical. In another forty years it will be quaint, relegated to
>the same museum as "South Pacific" and "Guess Who's Coming to
>Dinner".
I'd have to reread it, but when I did a few years back, the only
parts that seemed dated were those relating it to "modern" man.
>"How to Count on Your Fingers": This is an article, not a story,
>and included primarily because Lester Del Rey (the editor of the
>book) wanted to give an example of Pohl's science writing.
Wasn't there some Pohl pleading, as well?
(I do count on my fingers; one hand can hold all the days in any
month. But I use my thumbs for the faster cycling digits, not,
IIRC, Pohl's setup.)
>Okay, I lied. I ran out of steam and either did not read, or had
>nothing to say about "The Day the Icicle Works Closed", "The Hated"
>(close-quarters space travel), "The Martian in the Attic", "The
>Census Takers", or "The Children of Night".
"The Census Takers" is another one of the ones on which Pohl's
reputation will rest. By use of the setting of sf, this story is
about something different from what it is ostensibly about.
--
-Jack
William December Starr
Evelyn Leeper <ele...@optonline.net> said:
> "The Day the Martians Came": It may be true that supposed
> antagonists will unite against a common threat, but whether that
> would apply to aliens who are not threats is unclear. Then again,
> as someone says in LONE STAR, "It's always heartwarming to see a
> prejudice defeated by a deeper prejudice."
What's this LONE STAR?
> "The Midas Plague": It is a clever idea and all, but of course it
> makes no sense.
Looks like you've written a pretty concise rejection letter for it
there. (Except that, as you say, the idea was suggested by the
editor who was going to buy the story.)
-- wds
Mike Schilling
"C'mon Bob, a magic death ray that only kills the enemy? Who came up
with that bit of stupidity?"
"You did; John."
"Oh, right."
Evelyn Leeper
> In article <4ad5e524$0$22523$607e...@cv.net>,
> Evelyn Leeper <ele...@optonline.net> said:
>
>> "The Day the Martians Came": It may be true that supposed
>> antagonists will unite against a common threat, but whether that
>> would apply to aliens who are not threats is unclear. Then again,
>> as someone says in LONE STAR, "It's always heartwarming to see a
>> prejudice defeated by a deeper prejudice."
>
> What's this LONE STAR?
A John Sayles film with Chris Cooper and Elizabeth Pena.
>> "The Midas Plague": It is a clever idea and all, but of course it
>> makes no sense.
>
> Looks like you've written a pretty concise rejection letter for it
> there. (Except that, as you say, the idea was suggested by the
> editor who was going to buy the story.)
Well, just because it makes no sense doesn't mean it's not a good story.
ALICE IN WONDERLAND makes no sense either in a literal way. Nor does
THE PRACTICE EFFECT, which I also liked. Nor, for that matter, does a
lot of Borges's work, and I love that.
William December Starr
Evelyn Leeper <ele...@optonline.net> said:
>>> Then again, as someone says in LONE STAR, "It's always
>>> heartwarming to see a prejudice defeated by a deeper prejudice."
>>
>> What's this LONE STAR?
>
> A John Sayles film with Chris Cooper and Elizabeth Pena.
Thanks. I'd thought you were referring to a book, since movie titles
are usually written in regular text and enclosed by quote marks.
-- wds
Evelyn Leeper
Not by me. I use full caps for full-length novels and feature-length
films, regular text in quotation marks for short fiction (and series
titles, such as "The Wheel of Time") and short films.