by Gideon Marcus
All Together Now
Out in San Francisco, in the humorously named "Cow Palace", the GOP are having a convention. Their goal is to pick the fellow they feel most adequately represents the convictions of the party of Lincoln, of Roosevelt, of Eisenhower.
To all accounts, they have settled on Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater, a nativist, opponent of the Civil Rights Act, and advocate for expanded use of nuclear weaponry. Despite a last-ditch attempt by Republican moderates Scranton, Rockefeller, and Romney, nothing can stop General Goldwater from tilting against LBJ in November.
Whether or not Barry wins the general election (I don't believe he can), his candidacy has reshaped the Republican Party into something regressive, "Primitive". God help us if someone with his platform actually ascends to the Presidency…
Politics takes center stage in the latest issue of Galaxy, too, and like the Cow Palace convention, most of the names between the covers of this magazine are heavy hitters, known to all. Let's see if we get a better result from Mr. Pohl (editor of Galaxy) than we did from Mr. Morton, Chair of the GOP convention:
The Issue at Hand
by John Pederson, Jr.
The Dead Lady of Clown Town, by Cordwainer Smith
by Gray Morrow\
Over the past decade and a half, Cordwainer Smith has woven a tapestry of tales, telling the thousands year history of The Instrumentality, technocratic oligarchy spanning much of the galaxy (except for the longevity-drug-growing Norstrilia, the wealthy and proud remnant of the British Commonwealth). This domain is run by true humans and maintained by underpeople, animals cast in the rough images of people but with no inherent rights. In recent tales, we learned of the revolt of the underpeople that tore down the Instrumentality. This latest story tells of the first abortive attempt that set the seeds for the successful rebellion.
At the center of Lady is Elaine, an embryo germinated and dispatched, by accident, from Earth to Fomalhaut III to serve as a physician. The problem is that none of the humans there needed medical attention, thus rendering Elaine's life fruitless and frustrating. But her coming was prophesied by Lady Panc Ashash, long deceased but imprinted on a Fomalhautian computer. The Dead Lady introduces Elaine to D'Joan, a young dog person, who is to be the martyr who gives life, love, and hope to the underpeople. Together, Joan and Elaine lead the first movement against the Instrumentality. The measure of its success depends entirely upon the time frame in which its effects are gauged.
Lady presents a quandary for me. On the one hand, I adore Cordwainer Smith, and his fairytale, off-center approach to science fiction is usually far more effective than it has any right to be. This time around, however, I felt the format had gotten stale. The story is laden with portentous language, like a tale from a religious text, but events are presented as overdetermined, inevitable, and none of the characters makes a conscious decision. In particular, the "love scene" between Elaine and 'The Hunter', a telepathic human with mind control powers who sides with the underpeople is not only perfunctory but disturbing (smacking of rape).
In the end, this is a redundant story, one that did not need to be told. And Smith's poetic style is more grating than compelling this time 'round.
2.5 stars (half stars being permissible for novellas and novels).
For Your Information: A Century of Fossil Man, by Willy Ley
This month's non-fiction is about the historical and current state of physical anthropology — the study of human fossils. Willy is back to his recent mode: informative but brief and dry. I miss Ley of the early '50s, the one who convinced me to subscribe to Galaxy in the first place.
Still, not bad. Three stars.
Jungle Substitute, by Brian W. Aldiss
by Jack Gaughan
Deep in the heart of a decaying city, robots and humans live a symbiotic relationship of despair. People no longer have meaningful jobs, their lives guided by endless superstition and taboo; the machines are slowly breaking down. One young man, Robin, discovers a government project to declare him and his family obsolete — but is the Government Investigation Bureau what it seems to be? And what can he make of the resourceful GIB agent, Gina, who seems to know far more about the city and its condition than anyone else?
With Jungle, Aldiss paints as good a dystopian vision of the man/machine world as I've ever seen, as exciting and evocative as the first stages of his Hothouse series. This is the kind of quality that won him the Best Promising Author Honorable Mention in 1959.
Five stars.
The Watchers in the Glade, by Richard Wilson
by Jack Gaughan
Somewhat less effective (but no less vivid) is this story by pulp-veteran Richard Wilson. In Watchers, four journalists and two medics are banished to an uncharted world after a ship's mutiny. To survive, they must murder and feed upon the only edible matter on the planet — sentient, telepathic beings.
All six of them go mad in their own ways, living with their daily crime while they wait on the slender hope that rescue will someday come for them.
A solid three stars.
Neighbor, by Robert Silverberg
by Jack Gaughan
Silverberg pens another intimate piece, on the most local of politics: the rivalry between two neighbors. On a planet of vast holdings, old McDermott builds an enormous tower in full view of the Holt estate. For decades, Holt amasses a huge arsenal, waiting for the chance to get even. But when the opportunity finally presents itself, can he take it?
The author described it to me as "a pretty good character study." It's told with a certain degree of style, anyway. Three stars.
The Delegate from Guapanga, by Wyman Guin
by Virgil Finlay
Lastly, we have Wyman Guin's first piece in eight years. It's really been too long — this is a wonderful piece. Guin presents us an alien culture (if not an alien race) on the eve of election time. Only the telepathically capable, the elite and the "cupra" half-breeds, are franchised; the two dominant parties are the conservative Mentalists, favoring peace, polygamy, and interbreeding of the telepathically gifted and ungifted, and the Matterists, who value work, monogamy, moral purity, and the invasion of Earth.
It's a most appropriate story for our politically fraught year of 1964, and the storytelling and worldbuilding are quite good.
Four stars.
Summing Up
All told, even with the inferior Cordwainer (and it's not horrible), I imagine you could get a lot more pleasure out of the latest Galaxy than a trip to San Francisco's convention. It's cheaper, too.
Anyone want to lay odds on the next issue versus the DNC convention?
[Come join us at Portal 55, Galactic Journey's real-time lounge! Talk about your favorite SFF, chat with the Traveler and co., relax, sit a spell…]
Ah, I loved Wyman Guin's story as well — read it in his later anthology Living Way Out (variant title: Beyond Bedlam) (worth tracking down when you get to 1967).
https://sciencefictionruminations.com/2016/06/06/book-review-living-way-out-variant-title-beyond-bedlam-wyman-guin-1967/
Thank you for that. I have read his stuff in early Galaxy, of course, but that was before the Journey officially began. Please feel free to reference your works anytime you like.
Heaven help us all if Goldwater wins the Presidency. It would set civil rights back a couple of decades, we'd likely see much greater involvement of US troops in Viet Nam, and maybe even the use of the Bomb. Only plus I can see is he might scare the Russians so much they'd sit tight and not rock the boat. Fortunately, he doesn't stand a chance and Johnson is probably cackling with glee. Rockefeller or Romney could have given him a run for his money.
"Dead Lady" is certainly not the best Cordwainer Smith story, but it's far from the worst. The reason it's "laden with portentous language, like a tale from a religious text" is because a religious text is precisely what it is. It's a saint's tale told by the Underpeople long, long after they finally get the rights that should be theirs. The name D'Joan is a dead giveaway and maybe a little too on the nose, but there it is. Frankly, I think you're grading on a special, very steep curve exclusive to Smith. If anybody else had written it, you'd have given it a solid 3 or even 3.5 stars.
Ley's article is a decent summary of what we've learned about fossil man. It's definitely dry, but a little better than some of what he's written in the last few years. I lived near the Neanderthal for a few years. It's a pleasant place for a walk, if a little dark, but nothing like it was when the discoveries were made.
The Aldiss was all right. I'm on record as not engaging well with his stories and, for me, this one fell apart toward the end. An almost Campbellian message that seems at odds with his usual tone.
"Watchers" was… odd, surreal even. To be honest, the story lost me somewhere and the end just left me confused. Points to Mr. Wilson, though, for a reasonably fair depiction of a homosexual couple.
The Silverberg was quite good. I don't know if I'd agree completely with the author's assessment, but it's a good story. I do wonder what Zelazny would have done with this concept.
The Guin was also pretty good, though it walked the line between old fashioned and modern. A lot of it felt like something from right after, or maybe even before, the War, but then he would take it into a direction that a story would never have gone in those days.
The Democratic convention will be a sedate affair with little for anyone to get excited about. Assuming, of course, that Johnson ever pulls his thumb out and actually declares his intention to run. It has to be a ploy on his part, but if he really does withdraw all bets are off and the convention will be a wild ride. Most likely, though, the only real question will be who he picks as a running mate. Let's hope the next issue of Galaxy isn't a snooze fest.
I recognize that this is supposed to be a saintly tail. And yes, Joan is very much on the nose. The thing is, Smith has used this motif before, and pretty effectively. This time, the verbiage feels like padding. Also, while there may be analogs between Elaine and the Hunter and say the Virgin birth or Joseph or whatever, it just fell flat and was disturbing.
I thought about mentioning the homosexual couple in the Watchers, But ultimately was a fairly small part of the story. That said, given how few gay people there are in our fiction, it probably should have gotten more attention. Thank you for mentioning it.
In college in the late 1960s a right wing classmate of mine stated this: "My Democrat friends told me that if I voted for Goldwater for President in 1964 we would be at war in Vietnam within a year. I guess they were right. I voted for Goldwater and 10 months later US combat troops were sent to Vietnam."
From my standpoint in July 1964, I can say that I am disappointed but not surprised.
I think that this is a really fine issue. I liked "Clown Town" rather more than you did; it was one of the few "short novels" that I have read in a science fiction magazine that actually felt like a novel rather than a long short story.
I liked "Watchers" but I was confused by it. I didn't think that the food-creatures were intended to be actually sentient until the last two paragraphs (and I'm still not sure) . But what does the very last paragraph mean?
I read it a few times, too; it's pretty abrupt. I think the aliens eventually colonized the whole planet, formed a civilization, and this story was their record of the incident.
I'll have to join the chorus of those defending "The Dead Lady of Clown Town." I might have given it a full four stars.
On the other hand, I wouldn't praise "Jungle Substitute" as much as you did. It was a good story, to be sure, but it was really just another variation on the old SF theme of the hero realizing what's wrong with the society he lives in.
"The Watchers in the Glade" was certainly a grim story, written in a way which was occasionally experimental. In response to SteveHL, I'd agree that the very end of the story raises some questions. My interpretation is that the sentient plant entities somehow expanded their way to where the humans were, long after they were gone, and read all their writings. There is also the implication, I think, that such beings exist throughout the universe.
"Neighbor" was an effective allegory about enmity. I liked it.
"The Delegate From Guapanga" was odd. I kept waiting for something dramatic to happen, or for more political satire (beyond the simple contention about how dishonesty is good for government.) I'm still not sure what point the author was making with these very human aliens.
I don't know that Guin was making a point, per se, just drawing up an interesting world. I suppose if the satire had been more apropos, that might have earned it 5 stars.
The Aldiss was initially a four-star story for me, but I found myself vividly remembering it, highly engaged, and I appreciated the subtle way with which he built the world. That's why I rated it a classic.
As for the Smith, well, the latter half is better than the first half, but I felt that the characters had no agency, and again, the scene with Hunter and Elaine bothered me. Plus, it felt overlong. I'm glad others liked it!
I grew up in a Republican family and assumed that heritage. But the Goldwater nomination back here in 1964 is going to have me walking around campus for the next few months with an "Another Republican for Johnson" button (and I suspect is going to result in longer-term political alliance changes in my life).
On the other hand, while Goldwater may be scary on a number of issues, he's clearly intelligent and nominally sane and operating from an understandable and arguably honorable core philsophy broader than "Me first, me second, and me third." So things could be worse, and I've read enough dystopian satire to not be surprised if, say, fifty or sixty or years in the future, Goldwater looks good in comparison to some future politicians.
But with any luck at all, maybe I'll be dead by then.
We should all be so lucky. Or maybe that's the wrong adjective.