by Fiona Moore
Here it is, nearly 1970! What does the UK have to look forward to in the next decade? Already we’ve got a new Doctor Who, a new all-live-action series from the Andersons, and a new currency is coming in. I hope we’ll join the common market and help build a revived Europe. I for one am feeling optimistic.
Meanwhile, what is my favourite provocative pop artist up to? Miss Ono and her husband have launched a festive anti-war campaign, with a giant poster in Piccadilly Circus (and eleven other cities around the world) reading WAR IS OVER IF YOU WANT IT. It makes a change from adverts for American soft drinks and I appreciate the sentiment.
None of the photos I took turned out, but here's the art for the poster.
On to New Worlds. Who are making up for the last couple of issues by giving us some actual SF, with actual illustrations. There’s even a story by a woman! It’s not Pam Zoline though; she’s contributing to this issue, but as an illustrator not a writer. I’ll take what I can get.
Cover by R. Glyn Jones.
Lead-In
Saying (rightly) that the media is overwhelmed with predictions of 1970, which are becoming “as dull as the next moonshot” the editors are celebrating their theme of looking forward to 1980. How many (if any) of the stories actually follow the theme? Let’s find out!
Michael Butterworth: Concentrate 3
Illustration by Charles Platt.
A very short prose piece followed by a poem. I like the imagery of an astronaut freaking out with the feeling of stars crawling over his face but otherwise it seems to read like several opening lines mashed together. Nothing to do with 1980. Two stars.
Graham Charnock: The Suicide Machines
Illustration by R. Glyn Jones, who gets everywhere this issue.
A more developed imagining of a near-future Britain, in an Oxford which has been given fully over to tourism by dull and tedious businesspeople, with “feedies”, a sort of android, as guides and entertainers. Jaded with sex, they seek instead to force the feedies to commit suicide for their pleasure. No indication that this takes place in 1980. Three stars.
R. Glyn Jones: Two Poems, Six Letters
As the title says. Two quatrains, containing only six letters. Not sure the experiment does all that much. Nothing to do with 1980. One star.
Ed Bryant: Sending the Very Best
A fun short piece about near-future man buying a holographic sensory-stimulation greeting card, which leaves the reader wondering wickedly about the recipient and the occasion. Nothing to do with 1980. Four stars.
Hilary Bailey: Baby Watson 1936-1980
Photo by Gabi Nasemann.
This is one of the standout stories for me this issue, if one of the least SF (though one of the only ones to involve 1980). It’s a story in the Heat Death of the Universe vein, making the familiar strange by looking at the lives of ordinary women, with the same surname and born in the same year. It’s a sad story for me, highlighting the way in which the scientific and creative potential of women is squandered on a world not yet ready to accept them as equals. Five stars.
Harlan Ellison: The Glass Teat
Design by unknown artist.
Ellison saves himself some work by writing his usual TV column, but as if it were 1980. Although I wouldn’t have known that if the Lead-In hadn’t told me. It’s a 1980 where the US is at war in various developing nations, has a liar for a President, and is subject to rampant acts of terrorism at the hands of its own citizens. I suppose it’s a “if this goes on…” piece. Two stars.
John Clark: What is the Nature of the Bead-Game?
Photo by Roy Cornwall.
An experimental essay, containing 25 statements and questions the writer apparently posed at the 1969 Third International Writers’ Conference. The aim appears to be the usual New Worlds trick of juxtaposing sentences and having the reader discern meaning from the juxtaposition. Nothing to do with 1980. Three stars.
Michael Moorcock: The Nature of the Catastrophe
Nice to see Jerry Cornelius back with us, though I confess after the efforts of other writers Moorcock’s original version is a little disappointing. Too few descriptions of Jerry’s clothes, I think. There’s a brief mention of 1980 in order to keep this in with the theme, though there are also brief mentions of 1931, 1969, 1970, 1936 and many other years. Otherwise it’s just your usual Cornelius stuff. Two stars.
Thomas M. Disch: Four Crosswords of Graded Difficulty
Not really my favourite Disch (ha ha) of the year. Experimental poems; the first one made me laugh but the others seemed not very interesting. Nothing to do with 1980. One star.
J.G. Ballard: Coitus 80: A Description of the Sexual Act in 1980
Illustration by Charles Platt.
Familiar Ballard stuff this: a brief description of a sexual encounter interspersed with clinical descriptions of plastic surgery related to the genitals and breasts, in order to convey a sense of scientific alienation behind a simple, familiar act. I confess I hadn’t thought what goes into a vaginoplasty or phalloplasty before. It at least takes place in 1980. Three stars.
Brian W. Aldiss: The Secret of Holman-Hunt
A mock essay about an incredible breakthrough taking place in 1980 (yes!). The narrator discovers a way of unlocking the potential of the mind using the art of pre-Raphaelite painter William Holman-Hunt. No more implausible than The Stars My Destination, I suppose, but it failed to hold my attention. Two stars.
John T. Sladek: 198-, a Tale of ‘Tomorrow’
Illustration by Pam Zoline.
Sladek gives us a plausibly dystopian 1980s where computers can call each other up from anywhere in the world, where people’s fertility and happiness are controlled by drugs, and where everything is made of plastic. I find this vision of the future sadly compelling, though of course Sladek has to remind us that he’s Sladek through cutting the columns up and putting them out of order and sideways. Four stars.
M John Harrison, The Nostalgia Story
Another of these stories that are made up of disconnected snippets with the reader invited to make their own connections. One of these is entitled “Significant Moments of 1980” so I suppose it’s on theme. Two stars.
Joyce Churchill: Big Brother is Twenty-One
Illustration by James Cawthorn.
A short essay on Nineteen Eighty-Four, concluding that Huxley was closer to the mark than Orwell: the coming dystopia will most likely be a capitalist one in which we convince ourselves we are happy through the acquisition of material goods, rather than a socialist one based on a war footing. Not exactly looking forward to 1980, but at this point I’ll stretch the definition. Four stars.
Jack Trevor Story: The Wind in the Snottygobble Tree part 3
Photo by Roy Cornwall.
This isn’t getting any better as it goes on, though Story is making it clearer what the situation is with his protagonist (he’s not actually a secret agent, just pretending he is, however, in doing so, he’s wound up being mistaken for a genuine one). Nothing to do with 1980. One star.
Book Reviews: M John Harrison and John Clute (rendered as “John Cute” in the table of contents)
The usual suspects review the usual volumes. Nothing to do with 1980.
Obituary for James Colvin
Spoof obituary for a pseudonym of Barrington J. Bayley and Michael Moorcock. Nothing to do with 1980.
Out of 17 items, eight actually have something to do with the 1980s, broadly defined, and only five have anything to do with 1980 specifically. Nonetheless, this does feel like a more SF-related and livelier New Worlds than we’ve had in a while. Perhaps the new decade will give them a new lease on life? We can only hope!
[New to the Journey? Read this for a brief introduction!]
It is a funny thing that this ostensibly science fiction magazine is not using this issue for prognostication, when The Times recently ran a series asking for predictions of 1980 that felt a lot more SFnal than this.
Anyway, on to the fiction.
Concentrate 3 really doesn't have much worth saying about it.
I probably would knock the Charnock down to two stars, as I don't felt it amounted to all that much.
The six letter poem feels like a silly creative writing exercise.
Not sure I would quite give 4 stars to the Bryant but it is certainly much better than the preceding stories.
On the other hand, Baby Watson definitely deserves this mark. Bailey continues to impress as a writer, like Langdon Jones it is just a shame she is so infrequent in her publications.
The Ellison is a real disappointment, not in conception but in output. This doesn't read to me much like a TV review column as more of Ellison having a rant.
I wonder if Bead Game is meant to be based on Herman Hesse's Glass Bead Game and it is trying to show psychology as nothing more than an exercise in conforming to self-referential rules? Still wouldn't highly rate it.
Whilst I think I would rate the Moorcock slightly higher. It may be standard Jerry Cornelius but I enjoy hanging out with the weird fop!
Crosswords was just rubbish.
The Ballard was curious but I wonder if it wouldn't have been better as a Christopher Evans science article?
Aldiss failed to hold my attention either.
I felt that the Sladek has a good concept but was too short to do enough with it.
Harrison felt like heated leftovers.
A shame the Joyce Churchill essay wasn't longer.
I have given up reading the serial. It seems pointless.
So not the most auspicious start to the year.
I try to be generous with my star ratings, perhaps I ought to be more critical. Maybe that'll come as I get more into New Worlds.
I disliked Jerry Cornelius on first encounter but he's really grown on me and I quite like him now. But I want more descriptions of his fabulous clothes!
Totally right about the Ellison, it wasn't much fun or particularly prophetic. And you're also right that the Sladek was too short and could have benefitted from more of a plot.
I've seen others reach a similar conclusion to Joyce Churchill's, maybe we'll hear more about it in time.
Enough with the serial, I hope they conclude it soon. If anything has soured me against police overreach it's that it's produced this.