A fight of phantoms. interior art by Kweskin (was this Sam Kweskin?) |
Each May or August, I celebrate the writing of Vance with special blog posts. For May 2019, I read a story that Vance published in 1958: "Parapsyche". You can download the August 1958 issue of Amazing Science Fiction Stories from several places, including this webpage.
Contents for "Parapsyche" |
This story by Vance reminds me of The Discovery, a film from 2017 that explored the idea that people might be able to obtain scientific evidence for life after death.
Fwai-chi |
Paraworld
In his novel Marune, Vance depicts a shopkeeper (Skogel) as casually saying, we "swim in a paracosmic fluid, which no one can comprehend". On the planet Marune lives a native alien species called the Fwai-chi. Skogel continues, "I have long speculated that the Fwai-chi interact with the paracosmos somewhat more readily than men".
It is fun to imagine that an alien species might be able to "connect" to a part of the universe that usually exists beyond the reach of human senses. Maybe the Fwai-chi are remnants of a technologically advanced civilization that managed to use their advanced technology to gain access to a part of the physical world that we humans are currently unaware of.
The main characters in "Parapsyche". |
Speed of Thought
In Vance's imagined paraworld, souls can move around "at the speed of thought". This is depicted via the experiences of Don Berwick who we first encounter as a 17-year-old boy. He takes the 15-year-old Jean out on Halloween night to visit a "haunted house". They see a "ghost", what looks to be someone who was murdered in the house five years previously. The "ghost" emits some "agonized throat-wrenching sobs" and the kids who see the "ghost" are appropriately awed and excited.
"Ghost" in a haunted house |
After that experience, Don devotes his life to investigating paranormal phenomena. Eventually, he goes through a process of cooling his body and stopping his biological functions. At that point, his "soul" moves out of his body. Don's consciousness finds itself existing in a kind of parallel world where he can still see Jean, but it is only through extraordinary effort that he can make Jean notice his presence.
Now both dead, Don is then attacked by the "soul" of Jean's half brother, the Christian Crusader, Hugh. They engage in the "fight of phantoms" that is depicted in the image at the top of this blog post. Vance suggests that the relative powers of Don and Hugh in the paraworld are in some way linked to the number of living people who believe in them and support their cause. Don is devoted to science and rationalism while Hugh is the leader of a religious crusade.
Vance's introduction to "Parapsyche". |
1) a few scientists who try to investigate paranormal phenomena
and
2) Christians who view the investigative work of Don and Jean as blasphemous.
I wonder if a young Carl Sagan might have been influenced by Jack Vance's writing. Sagan eventually wrote a science fiction novel (Contact) that included an examination of the differences between science and religion as ways of understanding the world we live in.
cover art by Joseph Doolin |
source |
in Weird Tales |
Marsile No. 1 |
Don and Jean wonder if Iva is a telepath, reading people's minds and telling them what they want to hear. Eventually, a deep drilling effort eventually reaches the oil, providing the needed ca$h to finance scientific investigation of "life after death".
Don's hunch is that if souls exist, "they're made of some sort of substance. Perhaps not molecules, but something." He posits a "super-normal continuum" beyond the physical world so far known to science, a paraworld that is the natural domain for "mind stuff".
Jung's collective unconscious |
After his experience with Iva, Don proposes using multiple "mediums" to send information back and forth to each-other through the "super-normal continuum". After the first experiment, Don proposes a theory of the "after-world", that it is the human collective unconscious. Don and Jean also discuss the idea that it might be possible to make connections to the "after-world" while dreaming.
dream visions |
Don proposes that he be placed into a state of unconsciousness, and then a test will be made: will several independent "mediums" detect his presence in the paraworld? Don undergoes general anesthesia and speculates about the possibility of using drugs as a means to push his mind over to the paraworld. The preliminary experiments are unsuccessful, so Don allows himself to be chilled down to the point of stopping his heart.
Lucky Don Berwick. |
Unfortunately, the Christian Crusader, Hugh, is also quite famous, so they must fight a well-matched battle after they cross over into the paraworld. The ending of "Parapsyche" reminds me of 50s and 60s television, where the struggle between good and evil always had to end with a fist fight. Vance had done a stint writing for a television show.
source |
Synchronicity
Vance never seemed to shy away from unlikely coincidences in his story writing. In "Parapsyche", Art Marsile tries to find water for his orange trees and he finds oil where all the geologists say there is no oil. Don not only survives imprisonment in a Chinese camp where most of the other soldiers die horrible deaths, but his experience as a prisoner of war becomes his ticket to fame and power in the paraworld. Don needs publicity and Kelso, a photographer for Life magazine, promptly appears in the plot of "Parapsyche".
1990 |
"Strange things happen. Almost everyone has had some sort of brush with the paranormal, even the most resistant and skeptical of persons. The range of events is wide and only roughly amenable to classification. In olden times angels and demons were held responsible; to date no one has produced a more reasonable explanation.
"Don defeats his dead foe" |
Related Reading: Jack Vance's story about telekinesis.
Also: The Blind Spot and The Brains of Earth
Buy the text of "Parapsyche" in ebook format.
Next: old Asimov stories about telepathy
visit the Gallery of Book and Magazine Covers |
No comments:
Post a Comment