Kaveny's Bookshelf: Part 1
MWBOOKREVW
Globalhead
Bruce Sterling
Bantam Books
339 pp. $5.99 ISBN 0-553-56281-9
I remember a couple of years ago hearing PJ O'Rourke (sometimes of
"Rolling Stone Magazine") answering talk-show host Larry King's question "What
will be the most interesting thing that Americans will face living in the 21st
Century?" O'Rourke replied, "They will find themselves living in the "Third
World."
After overcoming an initial gag reflex from reading "Our Neural Chernobyl"
(p. 1-10) and "Storming The Cosmos" (pp. 11-64) I decided to continue reading.
After finishing "The Compassionate, The Digital" (pp. 65-72) it occurred to me
that it was me not Sterling that was the problem. My problem was that
grittiness and granularity of the stories, essential to set them off from the
seamless hygienic run of the genre, had caught me off balance, and it took me a
bit to catch my equilibrium.
Sterling is doing something really big with this collection. What he is
doing is empowering science fiction to catch up and burst just a little ahead
of the world. He has done this by writing about Late Modernism, and
Post-modernism, and the post-industrial milieu, not as an abstractions, not as
concepts as expressed in literary texts, but rather as real world manifestation
of profound change that has reformatted our reality and lead to tectonic shifts
forcing us to reconsider all of the grounding assumptions upon which
generations have based their lives.
In doing this Globalhead is using science fiction to acknowledge the
shattering of half a century of torpid Cold War bipolarization. The world is
working it's way in as it drives his narrative in the thirteen stories in
Globalhead.
Sterling's work enunciates certain signs which characterize the postmodern
milieu. The most profound is the break-down of the idea of progress was an
integral part of the last 400 years of western history. Centrality and unity no
longer seem possible, and more and more of us find ourselves forced into
marginal positions, just as Sterling's protagonists; for whose lives it is
impossible to chart a trajectory that conjectures some kind of causal
relationship between efforts and results. It is no longer possible to speak of
a bipolar world as even our concepts of nationhood are fragmented. I was
delighted to find this reality expressed in Sterling's stories, some dating
from the late and mid-eighties.
I am not saying that Sterling is the only science fiction writer to
achieve this, but he is one of the few that has done so with a semblance of
humanity, and a strange kind of transcendental morality that is grounded in
nothing outside of his characters.
About half way through "Jim and Irene" (pp. 73-118) I realized that what
he was doing in the first few stories was like a sax player doing a few warm-up
sets before the club opens. It is not seamless, it is not pretty, but it is
essential to the pace of the rest of the performance. Somewhere towards the
middle of "Jim and Irene" we find we are reading a love story set in the
cruelest sector of Elliot's "The Waste Land," where April does not even bring
the promise of thunder, and where the train stopped forever for Philip K. Dick.
"The Sword of Damocles" (pp. 119-130), does a number on both fable and
criticism, as Sterling tells and re-tells the classic in a number of different
variations, leaving us with the question, just what the hell do we mean by
Post-modern. Sterling's irony evokes resonances of Joseph Heller's use of
history in his novel Picture This. "The Shores of Bohemia" (pp. 152-187) is to
me the second best story in the collection. What is it about? Pockets of order
in chaos in the distant future, form without content maybe, vivid to be sure,
and tragic in some high sense. "The Moral Bullet" (pp. 188-215) is set in a
world where life is nasty, mean, brutish and short, and the solution to
population problems is an average 20 year life span.
"The Unthinkable" (pp. 216-223) carries the idea of the arms race into a
dimension of cosmic dread that even Herman Kann and the Rand Corporation could
not write a scenario to encompass.
"We See Things Differently" (pp. 224-248) captures the media celebrity status
of performer who walks the line between perfection and demagoguery. Sterling
seals the tale with a Judas Kiss of betray.
"Hollywood Kremlin" (pp. 249-284) was written when there still was a
Soviet Union but only barely. What I liked about this story as I read it a few
years later is that it charted the fault lines in the Soviet monolith before
the final fracture. "Are You For 86?" (pp. 285-321) is about contested moral
space in the late 20th century. Conflict is no longer expressed on the
intellectual plane as the characters cruse the Pacific Northwest. It reads
almost like excerpts from CNN.
About once or so in a generation a story like "Dori Bangs" (pp. 322-339)
is written. It is bitter sweet a story about lives written and rewritten. For a
short time Sterling makes two lost souls come alive in a retold tale. It is
alternative personal and cultural history that at least for a while blows
seemly dead coals of lost lives into a marriage set in heaven or hell,
depending on your taste. It is also a story about power and limitations of art,
and when I finished it I found myself calling old friends who I had not seen
for years hoping that they were alright.
All and all I highly recommend this collection as a showcase for a very
talented writer who deserves a great deal of serious critical attention, and
the broadest possible market. Genre fiction seems to be the last mass market
refuge for the short story, and this multi-faceted collection has something for
almost everyone. I read the collection in not much more than a single sitting,
and I an certain that the stories will stand up well to both a re-reading and
scrutiny on a much higher register. The short preview of Heavy Weather set 40
years into the future and embodying and extrapolating many contemporary trends
chillingly reminds us that many of us may still be alive to see the themes
played out. It is truly weird from the perspective of the late 20th Century, to
posture like Janus, looking both forward and back as we wonder if we have
already had our future.
The Road To Science Fiction: Volume 3: From Heinlein to Here
James Gunn, editor
White Wolf Publishing
780 Park North, Blvd., Suite 100, Clarkston, GA 30021
ISBN: 1-56504-821 1996 $14.95 527 pp.
The field of science fiction has changed at lot over the course of 56
years since Asimov's story "Reason" (included in the The Road To Science
Fiction Volume 3) first appeared in 1941. Just stop and think for a moment. In
1941 Asimov's was a twenty one year old graduate student, and the United
states had a population of around 125 million. Formats have changed, science
fiction conventions have grown in size from handfuls friends (often teenagers)
meeting and calling themselves delegates, to thousands meeting over long
weekends and throwing togethere there own small towns, and creating a
consensual illusions of a reality of science fiction. Markets have expanded,
media exploded, and magazines died.
Two, or three generations of writers, readers, fans, and critics have
evolved. Some might argue that a culture of science fiction has evolved from
the para- literary genre with a humble 2 cents a word origins.
Some things have not changed as much. Even 50 years after now University
of Kansas Professor James Gunn entered the field of science fiction as a writer
in 1947. Science fiction, is still, at least in some ways, a very close knit
and nurturing community. This sense of community is of course one of its
greatest strengths. The phase that "science fiction takes care of its own"
has the ring of truth to it. It has rung true in instances too numerous to
enumerate.
Any fan, writer, critic, or reader recognizes a sample of the authors
names taken from the table of contents of The Road To Science Fiction Volume 3
For example, Robert Heinlien, Ray Bradbury, Isac, Asimov, Kurt Vonnegut,
Ursula K. Leguin, Joanna, Russ, Theodore Sturgeon, Judith Merrill, Philip
Dick, Fred Pohl, Joe Halderman, and Harlan, Ellison, are almost household
words to all of us on the inside of science fiction.
However, this sense of community is also, a not so hidden weakness,
since it may make it appear unnecessary to those inside the field of science
fiction to state the reasons these authors are worth remembering, reading, and
teaching. To say it another way why bother stating the self evident. Yet, I
think it is essential that this be done from time, and not taken for granted.
This by itself is reason enough for White Wolf Publishing's re- issue of this
of this fine series.
For example, if ones moves outside the field of science fiction, and into
the University or college English departments, as I am prone do do since it is
only two floors up from my own department, the name recognition factor even
for the authors mentioned drops dramatically to just a few names. This makes it
somewhat difficult to talk (or write) about science fiction if you are not
preaching to the converted. It is my experience a that trapdoor opens, and if
you are not careful you may fall through, and find yourself giving a lecture
to a very small audience. If one is not careful one finds themselves of
filling the blanks and giving a kind of crash course in science fiction, along
with a supplemental crash course world history since 1945 to go along with
it, since science fiction is so intimately connected with events in the real
world.
James Gunn does this very well in Road To Science Fiction Volume:3, Gunns
selection Sturgeons " Thunder and Roses" I conjecture, might bring tears to
the eyes of almost any ex-hippie now senior English facility memeber, who
might have missed it when it came out. Since English departments are where
science fiction is often taught on the secondary and college level this can
create a bit of a problem if anthologies like James Gunns_The Road To Science
Fiction Volume 3 are allowed to fall out of print. For that reason alone White
Wolf Publishing is to be congratulated for bringing The Road To Science
Fiction Volume 3 back into print in as a trade paperback format which will
stand up to classroom use.
Gunn's introductions most of them revised from earlier editions were
particularly useful in gaining a historical topography of the field of science
fiction, which is both useful to contextualize the stories, and serves a
feedback function as it, historicise the contexts of their creation. For
example, the message of Judith Merril's " Only a Mother" written in 1947
resonates easily with concerns of those of us born during or shortly after the
Second World War. We who lived forty years of our lives in quiet nuclear
desperation. However, to this years high school our college freshman the story
might be a ( mind) time travel device, for them to gain insights into their
parents or grand parents, cultural anxieties, or nuclear nighmares.
It is also worth noting that professor Gunn is not only the master of the
langauge of science fiction, but a master of language and convetions of
English departments. For example, his comparison of John Brunner to the pre
World War II American Writer John Dos Passos is a credit to Gunns
perspicacity, and gives us insights into both authors. In the the best world (
from an educational perspective) Gunn's comparrison of the two authors might
act as entry points to the unfamilar reader, leading them to further reading.
But, I cannot help but ask, will the Gertrude Stein of science fiction please
standup, I dare you.
That is not to say that the choices Gunn made do not stand on their own
merits as works of literature worthy of study in their own right. Here I must
confess that I feel book is worth the price just to see Arthur C. Clark's
"The Sentinel" back in print. The fundamental elegance of its permiss and the
economical use of language to achive its cosmic effect, lead me to stuble
into the coventions of art or music to articulate what makes it a great story.
Better you read the story and tell me.
For those who have not noticed this a bad time for science fiction
publishing. I just got if off the wire that a major sf publisher has downsized
25%. I got the info from a friend who just got his pink downsizing slip from
them before Christmass. This is a bad time because almost everywhere
publishers are shortening backlist, and cutting new release, as they look for
the big money, and the big score, the blockbuster bestseller, that they can
ship a million copies to chain stores.
From a pracitcal standpoint it is convient not to have scrounge every
used bookstore in your city, or the planet on the Internet, looking for
earlier out print editions of this book. Not that I want to discourage the
bookstore scrounging, but it is not much fun when one is trying to put a
course syllabus together, or when it turns out everyone is looking for the
same books.
One last aspect of this volume favorably impressed me. Since Gunn's
introductions to the his selection are both historical and thematic in
structure they function by themselves as an insightfull bibliographic essay
leading, reader, student teacher, or researcher to other works of potential
interest. Surely the stories stand by themselves as representatives of the
major currents during the thirty seven year period covered, but as a partisan
of the genre I am happy to think of this collection as a path to other works
in the field of potential interest. I look forward to White Wolf's
presentation of the rest of the series, and my only reccomendation for
improvement is a library hard cover binding.
Deals with the Devil
Resnick, Mike; Martin H. Greenberg and Loren D. Estleman, eds.
DAW Books
1994. 362 pp. $5.99 ISBN 0-88677-623-6.
The editors did an outstanding job of putting together 32 original stories
for this collection focusing on the immortal theme of traffic in souls. The
stories are original to the collection. Some by pros like Jack C Haldeman's II,
"A Later Date", (p. 15-29), are funny, ironic and classic in their execution.
Anyone who has haunted the academic halls too long will make a hollow laugh,
and a grave yard whistle at this one.
Michelle Sagara's "Winter" (p. 30-43), is a very different story, dark and
compellingly written for the 90's, and at the same resonating back a hundred
years, written almost in the tradition of, and perhaps a tribute to, Oscar
Wilde's theme of love that dare not speak it's name, and would rather serve
itself in hell.
Jack Dann's "Discounts" (p. 65-76) is about nothing less than what holds
the world together and what happens if it stops. David Gerrold's "The Seminar
From Hell" (p. 77-92) just won't break stride as it moved towards it's ironic
one line conclusion. Laura Resnick's "Confessional" (p. 93-108) has a rich
patina of Catholic guilt and repression, overlain upon a deprived woman's
rapacious lust for a young American soldier serving in the American army of
Italian occupation during the Second World War.
Mike Resnick's "Stanley the Eighteen-Percenter" (p. 190-195), makes any
of us who had literary aspirations wishing that Mike had included Stanley's
business card in the story. Brian M Thomsen's "Nobody Wins in a Deal with the
Devil" (p. 222-226) is a little nugget about a long neglected father and son
relationship.
Judith Tarr's "Mending Souls" (p. 227-239), is singular in it's simple
beauty and characterization. It is has a set out of time cast of enhancement
which makes it both beautiful in its own right, and a sort of relief from the
harshness of some of the other stories.
Janni Lee Simner's "Free Will, Baby" (p. 305-318) adds an interesting
twist to a compact which appears to offer no escape clause. Thomas, Sullivan's
"To Walk the Earth" (p. 356-362), is one of the coldest, blackest, most twisted
stories I have ever read; somehow he makes me think of Charles De lint in the
way he portrays the forsaken desolation of damnation.
The stories I chose to highlight are not necessarily the best in the
collection, but they are representative of the overall quality of its contents.
I think this anthology is quite useful in that it can be thought of as an
access point to the works of several unfamiliar or new writers. I hope that it
appears in a hardbound library edition, because I feel that its contents will
stand up well.
The Hoard of the Wizard Beast and One Other
Robert H. Barlow and H.P Lovecraft. -- S.T. Joshi, editor
Necronomicon Press
West Warrick, R.I.
1994. 29 pp. $3.95 ISBN: 0-940884-67-4.
This facsimile reproduction of the previously unpublished original
manuscripts for the "Hoard of the Wizard Beat" and "The Slaying of the Monster"
is an interesting little item for the Lovecraft completist. The facsimile
reproduction format allows the reader to take part in the evolution of a H.P.
Lovecraft's input into the two short Robert H. Barlow stories. At the time
they were written, Barlow was a seventeen-year-old fan in whom Lovecraft took
suffient interest to share in collaborations.
On its own, the work is not of great interest. But at the same time the
process of interaction and creative unfolding by which Lovecraft adds his
creative touch is indeed is indeed an interesting process. Lovecraft, by his
additions, modifications and diction, shows us how critical word choice can be.
One only has to think of Mark Twain's sentence, "There is only one word
difference between lightening and lightening bug." It is clear to me that,
although many have aspired to be Lovecraft over the last two generations, there
was in fact only one H.P.L. This pamphlet, which allows you to easily compare
his craft to that of another, budding, writer, emphasizes this distinction.
H.P. Lovecraft Letters To Samuel Loveman & Vincent Starrett
S.T.Joshi & David Schultz, editors
Necronomicon Press
West Warrick, R.I.
1994. 62 pp. $5.95 ISBN: 0-940884-68-2.
The editors of this collection of Lovecraft's Letters make the strongly
worded statement "... until the reader has seen these letters in their
entirety, a final judgement on Lovecraft the man cannot be made. This is pretty
strong stuff to say about a 62 page soft cover edition that barely fulfills
Library of Congress page-count criteria to be cataloged as a book.
Nevertheless, taken at it's face value, I feel the statement is correct in
that this collection of letters does enhance our view of Lovecraft the man
because it allows us to contextualize him in terms of much of what was going on
in the post WWI literary world. This collection of letters presents us with a
Lovecraft who feels the existential despair of Kafka as he awaits, almost with
welcome anticipation, his own annihilation and release from the prison of the
tedium of his own existence.
One beholds not the architect of a horrorific universe of ancient gods
whose cold draconic eyes contemplate human frailty, but rather Lovecraft as his
own worst nightmare of himself. He presents himself in this letter collection
more than any other of his writing, as none other than the protagonist of (the
poet who loved to thumded his nose at) T.S Eliot's "Love Song of J Alfred
Profrock." In this collection, we see a Lovecraft whose life was in fact
measured out in coffee spoons, a man who will not go out to visit his fellows
because he cannot afford a thirty dollar suit to replace the one which was
stolen. More and more as I read though these recent Necronomicon Press
releases, I feel that at least some of the horror in Lovecraft's work resides
in the day-to-day life of his protagonists rather than evil. In a very real
sense, I am glad to review these two items together, because the first brings
me back to Lovecraft the man as much as the second, and leads me to reflect on
the generosity of this man who had so little. I look forward to making a more
considered final view of Lovecraft the Man perhaps by pulling all of the
Necronomicon Press material together in a manner something like what follows
below.
Perhaps Lovecraft searched for the same humanity as Kafka. The same
humanity Kafka told one of his biographers he sought to first depict in words,
with the hope that in the process of depiction the feeling would follow. It is
apparent that the pain of Lovecraft's marginality shows through in his
correspondence with Samuel Loveman & Vincent Starrett who (to paraphase Pierre
Bourdieu) had access to the literary fields of power. This is something
Lovecraft was deprived of but, I think, wanted in his lifetime. I think he
wished for it, if for no other reason than it might have allowed his marriage
to survive.
As I have said in my previous reviews of Necronomicon Press materials, I
would recommend both these items broadly to all those who seek artistic
insights of a sensitive individual. They are a must to be included in any 19th
and 20th century literary research collection. Again, my only suggestion for
improvement is a hard bound form suitable for libraries.
The Shadow over Innsmouth by H.P. Lovecraft
S.T. Joshi & David Schultz, editors -- Illustrated by Jason Eckhard
Necronomicon Press
West Warrick, R.I.
1994. 62 pp. $8.95. ISBN: 0-940884-66-6.
There are really two aspects to my review of "The Shadow over Innsmouth"
by H.P. Lovecraft; both of them questions to be answered. First, how
successful is its presentation as a critical edition, complete with
introductory commentary, biographical information on the life and career of
Howard Phillips Lovecraft(1890-1937), fragments of an earlier version,
Illustrations by Jason Eckhard and some 148 notes by Joshi and Shultz?
Second, what are my own reaction to the story itself, since not everyone is
familiar with Lovecrafts work.
The three collaborators have assembled a handsome moderately priced
package which is both useful to the critic because of the wealth of supporting
material presented, and attractive to the fan because Eckharts illustrations
preserve the seamy pulp fiction quality of the milieu Lovecraft both
participated in and defined. The bilious green cover and granularity of the
several full page interior illustrations do much to enhance this effect. I am
happy to say that The Shadow over Innsmouth is now presented in an
authoritative version which one hopes most clearly reflects Lovecrafts intent.
I read the Shadow over Innsmouth in a single sitting on a cold late fall
early midwestern morning in a almost deserted dormitory. This I think was also
as intended by the author. Yet as much as I praise the package I disagree with
the editors assertion of the "aboutness" of the story. It is just too simple
to say that the story is a cautionary tale about miscegenation any more than
one would say that Melville's Moby Dick is a cautionary tale about the dangers
of whaling, or Kafka's "The metamorphosis is a cautionary tale about the
dangers of turning into cockroach, or Kafka's"The hunger Artist" a tract
against anorexia.
Some might argue that Lovecrafts use of Language is redundant, and his
diction archaic. Others myself included find his control and manipulation of
narrative through repetition, in counter point with variation of pace through
the course of the story is almost Joseph Conrad Like in It's intentionality
and essence. Further he mixes horrorific and the beautiful expressing his own
ambivalence with a visual splendor which chillingly reminds us that there is
no "invisible shield" between the horrorible and the artistic. The narrators
language rise from base to high relief as he describes the strange beauties of
the alien jewelry which unfold from a different aesthetic starting point.
Perhaps this helps to explains lovecrafts stature as a American Literary
figure of International interest, often mentioned in the same breath with Poe.
However,I feel he is more like Hawthorne in that he shares with him an
ability to create a sense of place and genuine historical continuity. Yet at
the same time some of Lovecrafts techniques predate the critical discovery
fantastic realism by a half century.
I recommend this critical edition of The Shadow over Innsmouth not only
to the Lovecraft fan, or scholar, but also to the unfamiliar reader who may
have because of negative comments or bias against horror literature shunned
H.P. Lovecraft to consider this novella as an entry point into the body of his
work. It is also must to be included in any 19th and 20th century literary
research collection, since it last appeared in print a decade a decade ago.
With The Shadow over Innsmouth "Critical Edition". As with most small
press items it is important, when warranted, as is case that they be purchased
as they become available since the vagaries of tax law make it difficult to
support extensive backlist even for the major publishers, let alone the smaller
presses. Again, my only suggestion for improvement is a hard bound edition
more suitable for libraries, but then again some would say pulps were never
suitable for Libraries.
Philip Kaveny
Reviewer
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