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Re .0
> The ending is great: the murderer, in order to demonstrate how safe
>the instruments are, swipes at his own throat just after the bag is disabled.
^^^
Minor nit; *her* own throat.
"The Little Black Bag" was also concerned with the idea that the
average intelligence would be lowered by "unselective breeding". If I
remember correctly, the concern was that the intelligent members of society,
regardless of race, colour or creed, would abstain from having
children. The less intelligent, sublimely unconcerned by the issues of
uncontrolled population growth, would breed like flies!
Fortyish years ago this was a real concern. Now, I think it's more sad
than scandalous.
Ian G.
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| Article: 351
From: [email protected] (Dani Zweig)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews
Subject: REPOST: Belated Reviews #23: Frederick Pohl and C. M. Kornbluth
Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest)
Date: 07 Sep 93 01:35:55 GMT
Belated Reviews #23: Frederick Pohl and C. M. Kornbluth
Frederick Pohl and Cyril Kornbluth, important sf authors in their own
rights (Pohl more for his novels, Kornbluth more for his short stories),
are another pair whose collaborations shone. Their books from the fifties
haven't stood up that well -- satire and social commentary tend not to --
but a Pohl/Kornbluth novel at half strength can still have a good deal of
horsepower. Two of their novels had a particular impact:
"Gladiator At Law" (***+) presents a corporation-dominated future. Those
who work for big corporations live very well, as long as they are good
corporate citizens. Those who don't are relegated to concrete jungles,
bread and circuses. Charles Mundin, a lawyer who can't even meet the
payments on his secretary, is retained by a pair of clients who turn out
to be pure poison: Nobody wants to deal with them and nobody wants to
deal with anyone who deals with them -- even though they nominally own a
large share of one of the world's largest corporations. When Mundin
manages to put together an alliance that can help them and face down the
powers that make the world what it is, he finds himself face to face with
the powers behind those powers.
It's instructive to compare this book to a contemporary cyberpunk novel.
The two have elements in common, but the differences are striking. The
corporate powers of *this* world are heartless, but not Machievellian.
Nor do they wield armed forces or high tech assassins. The slums are also
relatively tame -- places where danger means children with broken bottles,
not heavily armed cyborgs. (In general, technology doesn't play a very
important role in this book -- another difference.) It's a more innocent
world, which also makes it capable of supporting a more optimistic book.
Fourteen billion dollars.
Fourteen billion dollars is massive, fourteen billion
dollars has inertia; you don't shake it easily. Ram a
Juggernaut into fourteen billion dollars. The Juggernaut
crumples and spills its Hindic gods into the street; the
fourteen billion dollars stands unmoved.
But fourteen billion dollars, or anything else that God
ever made, has a natural rate of swing. Slap it with a
feather, and wait; slap it again; slap it again. The
oscillation builds. The giant construct vibrates and wobbles
and sways...
"The Space Merchants" (***) is a more heavy-handed satire, focused upon
a future in which advertising and consumerism have been taken to extremes.
Employment is barely distinguishable from contract slavery, making food
products addictive is good marketing, and conservationism is treason. (One
of the strengths of the Pohl/Kornbluth team is that they are able to construct
such a world without making it an obvious caricature.) Mitchell Courtenay,
a rising advertising executive, is put in charge of the biggest sales job of
his career: Venus. He does an effective job, too, until he is shanghaied
to another company, and finds out the hard way how the other half lives.
(There's a recently published sequel, "The Merchants' War" (*), but I wouldn't
recommend it unless you've read this book and *really* want to know what
happens 'next'.)
Pohl and Kornbluth coauthored numerous short stories, as well as seven
novels, of which "Gladiator at Law" and "The Space Merchants" were the best.
"Search the Sky" (**) is noteworthy as an extrapolation of what the
authors may have seen as a social trend. This novel is placed considerably
farther in the future, and presents a galaxy in which human colonization
is failing. Ross, the protagonist, is sent on a mission which takes him
to a number of these colonies, and each is decaying in a different way --
because of genetic drift. The foundation for this novel is Kornbluth's
slightly earlier story, "The Marching Morons" (***), about a future which
results from centuries of the least fit having the most children. Note that
this, in turn, is based on a concept of eugenics which was far more accepted
(and socially acceptable) early in the century than it is today.
I don't wish to damn these books with faint praise, as perhaps I seem to
be doing. They made a tremendous splash, but satire and social commentary
-- as I said at the start -- rarely age well. A mirror held up to the
readers of forty years ago is going to show a reflection with which today's
readers will not as readily identify. Personally (as if anything I write
here *isn't* personal opinion), I'd rate "Gladiator at Law" as still worth
reading on its own merits, and "The Space Merchants" as worth reading if you
enjoyed "Gladiator at Law".
%A Pohl, Frederick
%A Kornbluth, C.M.
%T Gladiator at Law
%T The Space Merchants
%T Search the Sky
Standard introduction and disclaimer for Belated Reviews follows.
Belated Reviews cover science fiction and fantasy of earlier decades.
They're for newer readers who have wondered about the older titles on the
shelves, or who are interested in what sf/f was like in its younger days.
The emphasis is on helping interested readers identify books to try first,
not on discussing the books in depth.
A general caveat is in order: Most of the classics of yesteryear have not
aged well. If you didn't encounter them back when, or in your early teens,
they will probably not give you the unforced pleasure they gave their
original audiences. You may find yourself having to make allowances for
writing you consider shallow or politics you consider regressive. When I
name specific titles, I'll often rate them using the following scale:
**** Recommended.
*** An old favorite that hasn't aged well, and wouldn't get a good
reception if it were written today. Enjoyable on its own terms.
** A solid book, worth reading if you like the author's works.
* Nothing special.
Additional disclaimers: Authors are not chosen for review in any particular
order. The reviews don't attempt to be comprehensive. No distinction is
made between books which are still in print and books which are not.
-----
Dani Zweig
[email protected]
"The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity." -- W.B. Yeats
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