American Science Fiction Five Classic Novels 1956-58

by Gary K. Wolfe

  (2) My assumption that by 2050 a lay person who knows how may administer Extreme Unction, as today he may administer Baptism. Of course, this is not true today, and I can perhaps be excused my impatience with critics who thought me so lazy as to think it was. These amateur theologians forget that in the beginning none of the Sacraments could be administered by anyone but a priest, and that the fact that priests still have reserved Extreme Unction is the result of a bitterly fought holding action which lasted many centuries. The battle to reserve Baptism similarly was lost almost immediately, as was inevitable in an age where the population was small, subject to plagues and other catastrophes about which exactly nothing could be done, and so had to hold every soul precious at the moment of birth. Today, and (I greatly fear) tomorrow, our jammed neo-Malthusian world with its unselective wingless faceless angel of death who may reach us all in twenty minutes from the other side of the planet, confronts us with the probability of deaths in such great masses that no population of priests could minister to all the victims; and since I give the Church credit (against all appear

  Anyone, of course, is at liberty to find my reasoning at fault, but I hope they will not quote 1945 doctrine to me as if it were sufficient in itself for 2050.

  A number of people who wrote to me felt that my hero’s conclusion as to the nature of Lithia was far from inevitable; but I was gratified to receive also several letters from theologians who knew the present Church position on the problem of the “plurality of worlds,” as most of my correspondents obviously did not. (As usual, the Church, as an institution, is far ahead of most of its communicants.) Rather than justify my hero’s irruption of Manichaeism in any words but his own, I will quote Mr. Gerald Heard, who has summarized the position best of all (as one would expect of so gifted a writer trained as a theologian):

  “If there are many planets inhabited by sentient creatures, as most astronomers (including Jesuits), now suspect, then each one of such planets (solar or non-solar) must fall into one of three categories:

  ( a) Inhabited by sentient creatures, but without souls; so to be treated with compassion but extra-evangelically.

  (b) Inhabited by sentient creatures with fallen souls, through an original but not inevitable ancestral sin; so to be evangelized with urgent missionary charity.

  (c) Inhabited by sentient soul-endowed creatures that have not fallen, who therefore:

  (1) inhabit an unfallen, sinless paradisal world;

  (2) who therefore we must contact not to propagandize, but in order that we may learn from them the conditions (about which we can only speculate) of creatures living in perpetual grace, endowed with all the virtues in perfection, and both immortal and in complete happiness for always possessed of and with the knowledge of God.”

  The reader will observe with Ruiz-Sanchez, I think, that the Lithians fit none of these categories; hence all that follows.

  The author, I should like to add, is an agnostic with no position at all in these matters. It was my intention to write about a man, not a body of doctrine.

  373.8 John Capgrave . . . Pilgrims] Capgrave (1393–1464) was an English Augustinian friar and historian; his Solace of Pilgrims (c. 1451) largely consists of accounts of various religious sites.

  374.1 LARRY SHAW] Lawrence Taylor Shaw (1924–1985), a science fiction author and literary agent who encouraged Blish to turn his 1953 novella “A Case of Conscience” into a novel.

  377.17 the novel which had proposed the case] James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake (1939).

  377.17–18 Index Expurgatorius] Roman Catholic index of books to be censored before being read by Catholics, later incorporated into the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, or Index of Prohibited Books, until the latter was discontinued in 1966.

  377.23 Magravius threatens . . . Jeremias and Eugenius] See Finnegans Wake (1939), part III (page 573 of the first edition).

  382.5–6 Berkefeld-filtered] A Berkefeld filter removes bacterial and other impurities using diatomaceous earth.

  384.9–10 van de Graaff generators] Electrostatic generators invented in 1929 by Robert J. Van de Graaff (1901–1967).

  385.11 pteropsid] One of a large taxonomic group of vascular plants including all flowering plants and ferns.

  385.21–23 ancient custom . . . half-century] Pope Boniface VIII (c. 1235–

  1303) declared 1300 a “Jubilee” year, during which pilgrims could seek universal pardon; Jubilees were subsequently celebrated every twenty-five or fifty years.

  387.17–18 the dream constructions . . . boiled beans.] See Soft Construction with Boiled Beans (Premonition of Civil War), a painting (1936) by Spanish surrealist Salvador Dalí (1904–1989).

  390.6–7 Bois-d’Averoigne] Averoigne was a medieval French province invented by the American writer Clark Ashton Smith (1893–1961) for a series of fantasy tales.

  390.31–32 conspicuous consumption] A phrase coined by sociologist Thorstein Veblen (1857–1929) in The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) and earlier articles.

  391.32–33 the Encke division] Now known as the Encke Gap: a space within Saturn’s A Ring caused by the presence of the moon Pan. 392.1 Crape ring] Also known as the Crepe Ring: Saturn’s C Ring, so called because of the opacity of its materials.

  396.12 St. Simon Stylites] Simeon Stylites, fifth-century Syrian ascetic who spent some four decades on top of a pillar.

  407.23 “Only upon this . . . safely built.”] See the essay “A Free Man’s Worship” (1903), by British philosopher Bertrand Russell (1872–1970). 415.21–416.3 the dark blue book . . . leading to nullity.”] See note 377.23.

  428.18 Pecksniffian] In the manner of Seth Pecksniff, archetypal hypocrite in Charles Dickens’s Martin Chuzzlewit (1843–44).

  430.24–25 Occam’s Razor] Principle developed by the English logician William of Ockham (1285–1349) that “entities should not be multiplied without necessity” and that the simplest explanation tends to be the most plausible.

  433.23–25 The groggy old . . . croziers] See Canto LII, first published in 1940, of Ezra Pound’s Cantos.

  439.34–35 theosophism and Hollywood Vedanta] The Theosophical Society was founded by Helena Blavatsky in 1875. The Vedanta Society of Southern California was established in Hollywood in 1930 by Swami Prabhavananda, of the order of Sri Ramakrishna.

  440.20–21 This has been willed . . . must be.”] See Dante, Inferno, canto 3, lines 95–96: “vuolsi così colà dove si puote / ciò che si vuole.” 441.13 Cantor] Georg Cantor (1845–1918), German mathematician and inventor of set theory.

  443.12–13 Kick a stone . . . Bishop Berkeley.’] See James Boswell’s Life of Samuel Johnson (1791): “After we came out of the church, we stood talking for some time together of Bishop Berkeley’s ingenious sophistry to prove the non-existence of matter, and that every thing in the universe is merely ideal. I observed, that though we are satisfied his doctrine is not true, it is impossible to refute it. I shall never forget the alacrity with which Johnson answered, striking his foot with mighty force against a large stone, till he rebounded from it, ‘I refute it thus.’ ”

  447.21 Retro me, Sathanas.] Latin: Get thee behind me, Satan; see Matthew 16:23.

  448.13–14 Haeckel . . . faking the evidence] Ernst Haeckel (1834–

  1919), German biologist and philosopher, author of General Morphology of Organisms (1866), The Riddle of the Universe (1899), and many other works. While Haeckel was accused of fraud in connection with some of the illustrations in his books, the case remains controversial.

  449.32–33 Mephistopheles himself . . . doloris] Latin: Misery loves company. The proverbial phrase is spoken by Mephistophilis in Marlowe’s play Doctor Faustus (1604).

  455.28 Minerva from the brow of Jove] See Hesiod, Theogony: “Then from his head he himself bore gray-eyed Athena.”

  458.38 Venus Callipygous] Or Aphrodite Kallypygos, “Venus of the Beautiful Buttocks”: an ancient Roman statue copied from a lost Greek original.

  462.25 Ah-sodeska] Japanese: Ah, so desu
ka? Is that so?

  466.4–5 eastward of Eden in 4004 B.C.] In 1650, English cleric James

  Ussher (1581–1656) published calculations regarding the chronology of the Old Testament that dated the creation at 4004 bce.

  468.33–34 the Principia] Principia Mathematica (1910–13), by Alfred North Whitehead and Bertrand Russell.

  470.28 hnau] A term invented for sentient, reasoning beings in C. S. Lewis’s science fiction novel Out of the Silent Planet (1938).

  472.30 such comforters as Job had] See Job 16:2: “Miserable comforters are ye all.”

  481.19 ataraxic] Tranquilizer.

  481.26 Belsen] Bergen-Belsen, Nazi concentration camp in northwestern Germany established in 1943.

  484.37 Ulysses stopped his men’s ears with wax] See The Odyssey, book 12.

  486.20 Adlai E. Stevenson and Oliver J. Dragon] Adlai E. Stevenson II (1900–1965), Democratic politician who ran for president in 1952 and 1956; Oliver J. Dragon or “Ollie,” puppet featured on the children’s television show Kukla, Fran and Ollie (1947–57).

  501.19–20 an enterprise . . . a wolf child] According to legend, Rome was founded by wolf-suckled twins Romulus and Remus; the date was assigned by Roman historians.

  501.23 udienza speciale] Italian: special audience.

  501.37 Burchard] Johann Burchard, papal master of ceremonies from 1483 to 1506.

  504.12–13 Perche mi . . . alcuno?] See Dante, Inferno, canto 13. 504.18–19 Schopenhauer’s vicious Rules for Debate] Eristische Dialektik: Die Kunst, Recht zu Behalten (1831).

  507.3–4 Paul Klee’s “Caprice in February”] 1938 oil painting (also titled Capriccio im Februar).

  516.9 Kierkegaard] Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855), Danish philosopher.

  516.9–10 the Grand Inquisitor] Central figure of a parable recounted by Ivan Karamazov to his brother Alyosha in Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov (1879–80).

  517.6 Colin Wilson called an Outsider] Wilson (b. 1931) published The Outsider in 1956.

  519.26 Into your hand are they delivered] See Genesis 9:2.

  530.17–18 Tannhäuser . . . blossoming of the pilgrim’s staff ] According to the German legend on which Wagner’s opera is based, the pope’s staff breaks into blossom after the departure of Tannhäuser, who is then sent for but never found.

  530.34 I believe . . . unbelief.] See Mark 9:24.

  541.6 von Braun] Wernher von Braun (1912–1977) was a Nazi rocket scientist who, after developing the V-2 missile, joined NASA to design the Saturn boosters for the U.S. space program.

  542.10 O felix culpa!] Latin: O happy fall!

  542.12 Yggdrasil] In Norse mythology, a vast tree at the center of the cosmos.

  542.18 Dis] City comprising the sixth through ninth circles of Hell in Dante’s Divine Comedy (1321).

  546.9–13 “AND THOU GREAT . . . INFERNAL KITCHEN] RuizSanchez’s curses come from Latin manuals of exorcism. See M. H. Dziweicki, “Exorcizo Te,” Nineteenth Century, October 1888, which presents a cento of quotations from the 1626 Thesaurus exorcismorum atque conjurationum terribilium, an anthology of these manuals. Dziweicki translates the Latin curses “scrofa stercorate” and “porcarie pedicose” as “filthy sow” and “lousy swineherd.”

  673.20 Mandjuria] Archaic spelling of Manchuria.

  WHO?

  587.24 Young Tom Edison] Film (1940) starring Mickey Rooney.

  596.20–21 Bello nipotino! . . . portano?”] Italian: Handsome nephew! And mama and papa, how are they?

  629.18–19 “Commit a crime . . . Emerson.] See “Compensation” in Emerson’s Essays: First Series (1841).

  644.24 when the Third Avenue El was torn down] The demolition of the Third Avenue elevated railroad took place from August 1955 to February

  1956.

  654.6 WBZ] Originating in Springfield, Massachusetts, and subsequently based in Boston, WBZ was the first commercial radio station in the United States.

  655.4 Guglielmo Marconi] Marconi (1874–1937), Italian inventor who pioneered the development of radio transmission.

  656.7 Yucca Flat] Region of southern Nevada established in 1951 as a United States government nuclear test site.

  658.23 wrapped up like the invisible man?] See chapter 1 of H. G. Wells’s novel The Invisible Man (1897): “He was wrapped up from head to foot, and the brim of his soft felt hat hid every inch of his face but the shiny tip of his nose.”

  673.28 S.I.B.] Special Investigation Branch.

  673.28–29 Gospodin Polkovnik] Gospodin is a Russian honorific, like Mister or Esquire; Polkovnik is a military rank equivalent to Colonel.

  THE BIG TIME

  701.1 THE BIG TIME] Leiber added the following introduction to his novel for an edition published by Collier Books in 1982:

  The remaining interior wall of the demolished building had on it the pattern of what had been destroyed: three floors and a stairway; grimy but with lighter rectangles where pictures had been hung on it or furniture set against it; a commanding and haunted flat expanse.

  My friend Art Kuhl, author of Royal Road and the still more impressive novel Obit. (as far as I know never published) said, “What a challenge to Gully Jimson!” He was surprised to find I’d never read Joyce Cary’s The Horse’s Mouth and so knew nothing of the rapscallion old painter who could never see a big empty wall without feeling the irresistible urge to paint a mural on it, whether it was coming down tomorrow or not.

  I respected Art. I read the book at once and also the two other novels in the trilogy, Herself Surprised and To Be a Pilgrim, which cover the same events from three different viewpoints, and was struck by their style of what can be called intensified and embellished first person: not only is each story told by one person, but he or she has a unique and highly colorful way of speaking, with all sorts of vivid little eccentricities of language—they even think to themselves differently.

  So (although I didn’t know it at once) Greta Forzane was born, with her punning religious ejaculations and her frank, cool, deliberately cute way of speaking—always the little girl putting on an ingratiating comedy act.

  I hadn’t written anything for four years, my longest dry spell. I knew from experience that at such times a first-person story is the easiest way to break silence—it solves the problem of what you can tell and what you can’t, whereas in a third-person story you can bring in anything, an embarrassment of riches, and I determined that my next story would be in the intensified first person of Joyce Cary.

  I’ve always been fascinated by time-travel tales in which soldiers are recruited from different ages to serve side by side in one war—there’s something irresistible about putting a Doughboy, a Hussar, a Landsknecht and a Roman Legionary in one tent—and it’s also exciting to think of a war fought in and across time, where battles can actually change the past (one of the truly impossibles, but who knows? Olaf Stapledon wrote about swinging it)—it’s an old minor theme in science fiction; I remember stories by Ed Hamilton and, I think, Jack Williamson. I determined to write such a story and to put the emphasis on the soldiers rather than on the two (or More?) warring powers. Those would be big and shadowy, so you couldn’t be altogether sure which side you were fighting on and at the very best you’d have only the feeling that you were defending something bad against something worse—the familiar predicament of man.

  To keep the focus on a few individuals, I put the story in one setting, a small rest and recreation center staffed by entertainers who were also therapists—some of them sex therapists, a concept that had rather more novelty back in 1956 and early 1957, which was when I wrote this rather short novel (in exactly a hundred days from first note to final typing finished, it counted out). The words got to flowing rather fast and fluently for me—when I start to type phonetically (“I” for “eye,” “to” and “too” and “two” interchangeable) I know I’m hot—though I rarely did more than a thousand a day. I tried the experiment of playing music to start myself off each day and this time it worked. The pieces were Beet
hoven’s Ninth Symphony and Pathetique piano sonata and the Schubert Unfinished. The book is also keyed to the two songs “Gentlemen Rankers” and “Lili Marlene” and I sometimes played those two. (The only quotation haunting me that didn’t get into the book was from a Noel Coward song, “We’re all of us just rotten to the core, Maud.”)

  My plot was ready made. My disillusioned soldiers would try to resign from the war and set up a little utopia, like Spartacus and his gladiators, and then find out that they couldn’t, “for there’s no discharge from the war”—another familiar human predicament.

  To dramatize the effects of time travel, science fiction usually asumes that if you could go back and change one crucial event, the entire future would be drastically altered—as in Ward Moore’s great novel Bring the Jubilee where the Southrons seize the Round Tops at the start and win the Battle of Gettysburg and the Civil War (and then lose it again, heartbreakingly, when the hero goes back and unintentionally changes that same circumstance). But that wouldn’t have suited my purposes, so I assumed a Law of the Conservation of Reality, meaning that the past would resist change (temporal reluctance) and tend to work back quickly into its old course, and you’d have to go back and make many little changes, sometimes over and over again, before you could get a really big change going—perhaps the equivalent of an atomic chain reaction. It still seems to me a plausible assumption, reflecting the tenacity of events and the difficulty of achieving anything of real significance in this cosmos—a measure of the strength of the powers that be.

  The energy I generated writing this novel of the Change War of the Spiders and Snakes (as I called the two sides, to keep them mysterious and unpleasant, as major powers always are, inscrutable and nasty) overflowed at once into two related short stories, “Try and Change the Past” and “Damnation Morning,” and later into two others, “The Oldest Soldier” and “Knight to Move,” but it wasn’t until 1963 that I did a short novelette with most of the same characters, “No Great Magic,” where my entertainers have become a travelling theatrical repertory company putting on performances, mostly one-night-stands, across space and time, and under that cover working their little changes in the fabric of history, nibbling like mice at the foundations of the universe— now they were becoming soldiers themselves as well as entertainers. An anachronistic performance of Macbeth for Elizabeth the First and for Shakespeare himself tied the story together and gave it dramatic unity, while I had to give Greta Fontane amnesia, so she could learn about the Change War all over again.