Zoran Zivkovic - First Contact and Time Travel

by Selected Essays

  is, of a choice between a subordinate (“Down, Fido”) or a superior or at least

  equal (“Take me to your leader”) status for the alien being—becomes quite

  superfluous on a cosmic scale. In the context of Earth, “heterogeneity” is

  understood in a naively parochial way, as a mere difference in degree of

  homogeneous development. In this understanding, the possible essential and

  unbridgeable difference between truly heterogeneous (alien) beings are

  overlooked.

  On the other hand, this very realization of the impossibility of establishing

  any kind of contact, even when the fear of attack is removed, finally tips the

  scales in the transformation of Falcon. The last phase of his withdrawal from

  the medusa, even though it started somewhat earlier and under different

  circumstances, has lost the underlying fear of the creature that was always

  present. Now there is an awareness of the impossibility of establishing contact

  while any anthropomorphizing ingredients remain in him.

  Only in that light can one understand the real meaning of the sentence

  which Falcon murmurs at the very end of the chapter “Prime Directive,” when

  the atmosphere of the largest planet of the Solar System, with all its threats and

  promises, is already far below him: “Some other time.”

  This “some other time” presupposes another, new, Howard Falcon, no

  longer burdened by anthropomorphic contradictions, who has at last attained

  his new, cyborg identity and has been liberated from the deficiency which

  stands in the way of the human race making contact with truly alien beings.

  Clarke does not in fact give much data about the advantages a cyborg has over

  a man in making contact with alien cosmic creatures, except that the cyborg

  would not be burdened by anthropomorphic contradictions. After all, any-

  thing like that would have gone beyond the scope offered by the framework of

  the story, since embarking on a closer analysis of Falcon’s new identity would

  be as dangerous for the coherence of the work as an attempt at the noumenal

  conception and presentation of the Jovian medusa.

  From the point of view of human participants in the work and the

  omniscient storyteller, the cyborg is as alien as the medusa, which means

  that Clarke had to be very careful as to what extent he could approach its

  noumenon. In the case of the cyborg, Clarke indeed did not need “external

  interventions” as with the medusa, because the basic story line could be

  developed right to the end without getting any closer to the noumenon of

  Falcon’s new identity. The central meaning of the work was finally formed

  when it at last became clear to Falcon at the very end of the mission that any

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  Z. Živkovic

  attempt at making contact with the medusa was destined to fail in advance,

  and would do so until he has transformed completely and thus freed himself

  from anthropomorphic restraints.

  1.4

  Conclusion

  Consideration of “A Meeting with Medusa” has enabled us to arrive at the final

  conclusions of our investigation. This has primarily been centered on the

  problems linked with the possibilities of conceiving and presenting nonhuman

  characters from the point of view of the omniscient story-teller, in those

  science fiction works with the first contact theme that not parables.

  We have seen that, in the novella we have been examining, contact between

  the earthly astronaut and the Jovian medusa could not have been made for two

  reasons.

  On the one hand, such an event could not have taken place on Falcon’s

  initiative, since anything like that would seriously impair the coherence of the

  psychological portrait of the pilot and of the work as a whole. On the other

  hand, the coherence of the work would have been seriously brought into

  question if contact had been achieved by the eventual initiative of the medusa,

  bearing in mind that, in this case, Clarke, in the role of omniscient storyteller,

  would have inevitably had to step onto the plane of motive, that is, of the

  noumenon of the heterogeneous entity, and would have thus violated a basic

  rule of the narrative.

  But, although there has been no contact, Clarke, as omniscient storyteller,

  has nevertheless succeeded in getting closer to what we have designated as the

  level of noumenon in conceiving and presenting a nonhuman character. This

  was possible in the first place because Clarke resorted to what we have termed

  “external interventions” during the narrative procedure. These “interventions”

  represent special kinds of adjustments at the edge of plausibility, and they are

  used in the story in five particular places.

  In the first two cases, Clarke from the very start stifles in Falcon a short-lived

  and hazily positive emotional attitude towards the “monstrous bag of gas”—an

  attitude which would in the long run have inevitably led to contact—in the

  way he abruptly introduces changes of situations. The first time involves the

  unexpectedly aggressive response by the medusa to the attack by the mantas,

  which strongly activates a mechanism of fear in Falcon. The second time

  Falcon’s emotional wavering towards the medusa is replaced by an attitude

  which is fundamentally against making any contact is the sudden appearance

  of one of the gigantic creatures immediately above the Kon-Tiki.

  The Theme of First Contact in the SF Works of Arthur C. Clarke

  35

  The way in which the medusa and Falcon come closer to each other

  represents the third place at which an “external intervention” by Clarke saves

  the coherence of the novella. As we have seen, for this purpose, the author

  introduces a deficiency in the design of the space capsule with the obvious

  intent of showing that the above-mentioned convergence takes place acciden-

  tally—the only possible way, in the logic of things.

  The fourth intervention is to leave to the medusa the special “initiative” in the

  four phases of the “attempt to make contact.” Although the creature’s actions are

  conceived in such a way that they do not at all suggest any possible reaching out

  by the omniscient storyteller to the plane of noumenon of the “monstrous bag of

  gas,” they nevertheless display certain characteristics which dictate Falcon’s

  irrevocable decision to withdraw, in the grip of a strong tide of fear.

  It was just the necessity of such a response by Falcon that was for Clarke a

  reliable warranty that leaving the “initiative” to the medusa would not result in

  a contact that would seriously bring the coherence of the work into question.

  From the very beginning, in fact, Clarke created the psychological portrait of

  his hero in such a way as accord with this role.

  In the process of examining to what extent it is possible, from the point of

  view of the “omniscient story-teller,” to come closer to the noumenon of a

  nonhuman character, Clarke establishes that it does not suit him to have a

  character who is indubitably a man (that is, an anthropomorph) as the second

  participant in a “first contact” situation. For, as is convincingly demonstrated

  by the example of Dr. Bren
ner, who has no plan of action at the crucial

  moment, the necessity of withdrawal in the face of the medusa’s “initiative”

  would not then have been warranted, an act which is the only thing that can

  save the coherence of the work. Only a special kind of transitional form suited

  this purpose, a form possessing exaggerated anthropomorphic characteristics,

  but also suggestions of a new, nonanthropomorphic status.

  The particular half-cyborg nature of Howard Falcon thus represents a

  necessity that dictates the development of the central Jupiter episode in “A

  Meeting with Medusa.” In addition to the considerably greater narrative space

  devoted to it, another factor that increases its importance is that some partic-

  ular points from the episodes which take place on Earth can only be under-

  stood in the light of the events that unfold on Jupiter.

  In this sense, the best example is the central symbol itself—that of the

  medusa—which only becomes functional at the very edge of plausibility, that

  is, when it is established that Clarke needed not only a cyborg but that kind of

  cyborg in whose consciousness a negative symbolic bridge could be established

  between the complex moment of transition from human to cyborg identity

  and some of the phenomenal, explicit features of the heterogeneous entity

  (form).

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  Z. Živkovic

  The psychological makeup of the main character is especially expressed in

  the fifth and last “external intervention” by the author, when the closest

  approach to the level of the noumenon of the heterogeneous protagonist is

  achieved from the point of view of the “omniscient story-teller.” To make sure

  of an opportunity for realizing the “most intimate” degree of encounter

  between the earthly astronaut and the medusa, in circumstances where there

  is no longer any “danger” of actual contact, because the decision to withdraw

  has already been made, Clarke again manipulates the design of the Kon-Tiki.

  This time, the “external intervention” involves the particular way the

  capsule engines work—they need a whole five minutes to reach full power.

  It is the very shortness of this interval, as well as Howard Falcon’s perception

  that he is still not mature enough for contact, that each of his interpretations of

  the medusa’s initiative will be based on anthropomorphization, until he has

  been taken over by his new, cyborg identity, which allows the author to ascribe

  one action to his nonhuman here—the “gentle rocking” and “patting” of the

  balloon—that in any other case would represent unwarranted reaching out for

  the plane of noumenon of the alien entity on the part of the omniscient

  storyteller.

  Further than that—at least so it seems to us—one cannot go. The number

  of “external interventions” is even here on the very edge of what is permissible:

  their repeated introduction, with the aim of possible continuation of investi-

  gation of the possibilities of getting closer to the noumenon of the alien entity,

  would only have made an unconvincing construction out of a coherent and

  stable story. There is no doubt that Clarke was honestly sensitive to that

  intervention and did not allow himself further stretching of the bounds of

  probability.

  But even in the framework within which he stopped, he succeeded in

  writing a work which, with regard to the noumenal conception and presenta-

  tion of a nonhuman character, has almost no match in science fiction stories of

  “first contact.”

  Translated from the Serbian by John and Ružica White

  2

  Utopia in Arthur C. Clarke’s Childhood’s End

  No Utopia can ever give satisfaction to everyone, all the time. As their material conditions improve, men raise their sights and become discontented with power and possessions that once would have seemed beyond their wildest dreams. And even when the external world has granted all it can, there still remain the searchings of the mind and the longings of the heart.

  Arthur C. Clarke, Childhood’s End

  The novel Childhood’s End resulted from a voluminous expansion of the

  novella “Guardian Angel” which originally appeared in two versions: a some-

  what shorter, American one which appeared in the April 1950 issue of

  “Famous Fantastic Mysteries” and was edited by James Blish who condensed

  it and made minor alternations, and Clarke’s original version—which was

  published in the Winter 1950 issue of the British journal “New Worlds”. This

  latter one was subsequently used as the basis for the first of three parts of the

  future book.

  The book being discussed here takes a special place in Clarke’s SF writings,

  among other things because it presents the most complete axiology of the

  author’s view of the world through a highly indicative sample of scientific

  Utopia. One of the advantages of treating this theme in Childhood’s End is

  witnessed in the fact that it does not hold a key position in the structure of the

  plot but rather it occurs in a broader reference where conditions are amenable

  for studying it from external and internal perspectives.

  “Utopia in Arthur C. Clarke’s Childhood’s End.” Written in 1975. Originally published in Serbian in 1975

  in the monthly magazine “Delo”, 11–12 / 1975, 1617–1625, Belgrade, Serbia First published in English in “Foundation” #124, Science Fiction Foundation, Harold Wood, Essex, UK, August 2016, 85–91.

  © Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018

  37

  Z. Živković, First Contact and Time Travel, Science and Fiction,

  https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90551-8_2

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  Z. Živkovic

  In placing the scientific Utopia in the coordinate of a cosmic history of the

  human race and not in an earthly one, Clarke found himself obliged to

  re-examine the plausibility of the function on which it is founded as well as

  the worthiness of the goals which it supports. Indeed, this re-examination did

  not essentially belittle science as a key factor on a specific level of the

  development of civilization, but it did point to certain general inadequacies

  in the Utopia which is founded on it—with regard to a much more relevant

  and general system of values than the ephemeral ideals of “the childhood” of

  mankind.

  The scientific Utopia depicted in this work of the British author has a

  significant feature. It does not represent the fruits of human zeal, but rather

  comes as the result of external intervention by non-Earthly beings, whose

  degree of scientific advancement is incomparably higher than Man’s. The

  motives of these “altruistic” deeds of the Overlords are not directly pertinent

  to our deliberation; furthermore, the human actors in the novel Childhood’s

  End did not manage to grasp everything by the end of the novel, when it

  became clear that in the plans of the newcomers from cosmos Utopia was only

  a temporary and secondary phase whose background was devoid of only

  altruistic motives in the stricter sense of the word.

  Clarke cites three conditions which enabled the Overlords to fundamentally

  change Man’s world in a mere fifty years: “a clearly-determined goal”, “a

&nbs
p; knowledge of social engineering” and “power”. From the description of a

  subsequent realization of “the new world”, however, it becomes clear that

  the first two conditions actually represent only prerequisites for the creation of

  a Utopia, while the focal point is exclusively found in “power”. Clarke

  understands this term to mean the appropriate volume of scientific knowledge

  required to set up a positive form of control over the planet on which Man

  resides.

  Just as in all Utopias, this control of Man’s world is aimed at creating

  conditions under which every individual would be free of the obligations

  which hinder his creative activity. In Childhood’s End, these conditions are

  treated in somewhat greater detail on two occasions, in chapters six and ten.

  The emancipation of the individual-creator takes place on several levels,

  beginning with direct labour production all the way to professions in the world

  of entertainment, such as certain fields of sport. The Overlords first of all

  enabled the complete automatic production of basic consumption commod-

  ities, which completely eradicated the struggle for bare subsistence character-

  istic for all earlier periods. “The average working week was now twenty

  hours—but those twenty hours were no sinecure. There was little work left

  of a routine, mechanical nature. Men’s minds were too valuable to waste on

  Utopia in Arthur C. Clarke’s Childhood’s End

  39

  tasks that a few thousand transistors, some photoelectric cells, and a cubic

  metre of printed circuits could perform.”

  Idleness, which resulted from having a great deal of leisure at one’s disposal,

  permitted everyone to devote themselves to more thorough and long-term

  education. Parallelly with increasing the general level of education, there was a

  final break-off with certain traditional mistaken notions of a spiritual nature

  which had burdened mankind, even when there was no real basis for this.

  Thanks to a device obtained from the Overlords, humans gained a direct

  insight into their own history, and into the period of the founding of all the

  more important world religions, which was sufficient to have them finally

  disappear. “Humanity had lost its ancient gods: now it was old enough to have