Paraliterary

cover art by Dean Ellis

Isaac Asimov was rather surprised when after decades of publishing science fiction stories, his 1982  novel Foundations Edge (his 262nd book) was reviewed in the New York Times. I suppose Asimov had grown used to thinking of his science fiction stories as being part of a literary genre that "mainstream" literary folks usually tried to ignore. 

In contrast to Asimov, I grew up in the age of Star Trek and in the 1970s I was reading novels like The Gods Themselves, The End of Eternity, Level 7 and Dhalgren, so forgive me if I thought science fiction was the cutting edge of modern literature. I never read New York Times, so what did I care if science fiction novels were not routinely reviewed by that newspaper?

Sturgeon's review of Dhalgren, part 1

In the March 1975 issue of Galaxy magazine there was a review of Dhalgren by Theodore Sturgeon. I'm including that review here in this blog post (image to the left) for several reasons. First of all, when I bought my copy of Dhalgren I had no idea that it had been impossible for Delany to get it published in a hard cover edition. Sturgeon mentioned the rumor that many book publishers had refused to publish Dhalgren. All I knew was that I had a copy and I although I was vaguely aware that sometimes a science fiction book was published with a hard cover (the first Sci Fi novel I had read, The Gods Themselves, was a hard cover edition), 99% of the Sci Fi novels I saw in book stores were paperbacks.

Back in the 1970s, I had no idea that Delany had written another novel (Hogg) that did not get published until 1995. Although that book is not Sci Fi, it did get reviewed in Asimov's Science Fiction soon after it was published. Given the vast amounts of sickening violence that I saw around me while growing up in the 60s and 70s I imagined that there was no more censorship. The idea of self-censorship did not even cross my mind. I thought that if a writer wanted to write about a topic, they simply wrote and then what they had written simply got published or put on TV or on film. Yes, I was that naive.

Rockets and Rayguns. Okay, in all honesty, I never read all of Dhalgren. I simply lost interest and skipped over some parts. You know what it is like to turn to the end of a novel to see how it turns out. And I'll confess that I was tricked by the cover art for Dhalgren. When I bought my copy, I hoped that there would be a spaceship ride to a distant planet that was in orbit around a big red star. 

Sturgeon's review of Dhalgren, part 2

It was fixed in my young mind: a good Sci Fi story should include a interstellar spaceship or a time machine or some such imaginary technological wonder. 

I was disappointed to discover that Dhalgren was set on Earth. Maybe it is a different version of Earth in some alternate Reality, but still...

Holography. Sure, in Delany's version of Earth there were holographic projectors that kids could play with in the streets, when all I got to do was ride my bicycle down the street, but I still wanted spaceships in my Sci Fi stories.

What's in a Name? Sturgeon asked, "Do you know who you are?" In the Exode Saga, I like playing around with multiple copies of people. For example, in Grean's Hack, a replicoid copy of Petra Nicholls is instantiated as a synpaz named Artep. When I perform these kinds of technological tricks of human duplication I often reverse the letters in the copied person's name, so in this case 'Petra' becomes 'Artep'. In Dhalgren, readers never learn the real name of the main character. Is it "Dhalgren" or "Grendal" or "Grendel" or "Grendhal" or none of the above? In the end, it really does not matter.

Here is a quote from Jack Vance's novel The Palace of Love: "Must she own a name? A name is a weight! A chain to a set of uncontrolled circumstances. To own no name is to own freedom! Are you so stolid then that you cannot imagine a person without a name?" The mad poet Navarth and Kirth Gersen are discussing a clone of Jheral Tinzy, a young woman who Navarth refers to by many whimsical names including Zan Zu and Drusilla. Drusilla tells Gersen, "I rather like not having a name. I am anyone I wish to be."

Sturgeon's review of Dhalgren, part 3

 Freedom. In the literary world, there have been an endless stream of authors afraid to publish their work under their real name. 

It is particularly amazing to live in a nation where people brag about being free, but people are not free to publish their "radical" thoughts and wild stories because "thought police" are constantly on patrol. These days, in the land of freedom, people get fired from their jobs for daring to voice their opinions on social media.

Sturgeon wrote about "hunger for stasis" and Asimov had a theory about the value of science fiction being that it was a literary genre that taught people how to deal with change. 

For Sturgeon, Dhalgren was useful. "Having experienced it, you will stand taller, understand more, and press your horizons back a little further away than you ever knew they could go." I think this is one of the reasons that many people enjoy science fiction... that sensation of expanding perspective. Through fantasy we can step beyond the restrictions of our mundane existence, if only for a few hours while reading a book. And, inevitably, after being pushed towards new worlds and new ways of thinking, many people can never go back to their former existence; they have been transported to a new world and given a new way of living their life.

The 100 Club. Back in 2016, I began a tradition of reading old Sci Fi novels and blogging about science fiction writers 100 years after their birth. In 2017 it was Arthur C. Clarke who got the 100+ treatment and in 2018 it was Sturgeon's turn and I commented on his 1953 science fiction story, "The Wages of Synergy". I wrote: "I suppose Sturgeon may have been the only Sci Fi writer who could write about death by orgasm in 1953".

interior art for "The World Well Lost" by Malcolm Smith

Here in this blog post I comment on another Sturgeon publication from 1953, his story "The World Well Lost". Sturgeon whisks readers off to a future Earth that features "orgasmic trivideo shows". This sounds like an alternative futuristic technology similar to the feelies. I can still remember my high school English instructor waxing poetic about the bearskin rug.

Sturgeon's future Earth in "The World Well Lost" is part of a galaxy-spanning civilization that links many exoplanets where various humanoid aliens reside. 

in the Ekcolir Reality
original cover art by Clyde Caldwell

This is like the Star Trek fictional universe where aliens from another world (such as the planet Vulcan) are almost identical to Earthlings and where you can get hybrids like Mr. Spock who is half human and half Vulcan. In The World Well Lost", arriving on Earth from the depths of space are two "lovebirds" 💕, a couple from the planet Dirbanu. However, according to the rulers of planet Dirbanu, these particular "lovebirds" are criminals and so they must be extradited back to Dirbanu.

As told in "The World Well Lost", Dirbanu is the most mysterious planet in the known universe. That remote planet has always existed behind impenetrable force fields, so Earthlings know almost nothing about Dirbanu culture. Prior to the arrival of the "lovebirds", the only other person from Dirbanu who ever came to Earth was an official ambassador who, during a brief visit "showed a most uncommon disdain for Earth and all its works". 

the "unique bond" in "The World Well Lost"

 Telepathy. Well, I would not be commenting on "The World Well Lost" unless it was a story that tickled my fancy and since I'm currently obsessed with telepathy... let us proceed. As Sturgeon tells this fable, the two "lovebirds" never say a word to anyone on Earth, so Earth's politicians (and Sturgeon's readers) are in a hard information vacuum with respect to these two mysterious Dirbanites. Therefor, the the "lovebirds" are arrested by heartless Earthly policemen and shipped back to Dirbanu. There are only two human crew members on the prison ship and one is known as Sleepy Dopey Bashful "Grunty" because he seldom speaks. The other crew member is Captain Rootes.

At this point in "The World Well Lost" Sturgeon becomes quite mysterious himself, hinting at some sort of symbiotic relationship ("unique bond") between Rootes and Grunty. Rootes always insists on having Grunty as his crewman.

"necessity" in "The World Well Lost"

 Psychoneural. In some of Isaac Asimov's stories, there was one drawback to use of hyper-drive technology to quickly speed spacecraft through vast distances between planets: humans would have "space sickness" while transported via hyper-drive. Sturgeon adopted this plot gimmick for "The World Well Lost". The plot thickens when Sturgeon informs readers that Grunty is largely immune to the blackouts that effect humans during hyper-jumps through space. Thus, during their spaceflight missions, there are periods of time when Grunty is awake while Rootes has been knocked unconscious. 

1930 Queer People

fleshpots in "The World Well Lost"

Sturgeon mysteriously tells readers the these periods are a "vital necessity" for Grunty because "a man must occasionally be himself". Readers are not to attempt to understand why people suffer blackouts during the hyper-jump; Sturgeon assures us that it is for good solid scientific "psychoneural" reasons. Sturgeon informs readers that when in port, Rootes spends his time in fleshpots.

telepathy in "The World Well Lost"

And at the beginning of each new spaceflight mission, Rootes always reports, in detail, to Grunty about his "conquests in port", but poor Grunty is not interested in such things. In fact, Grunty suffers through Rootes' reports and is relieved when Rootes finally shuts up already. 

During the journey to Dirbanu, poor Grunty discovers that the two "lovebirds" from Dirbanu can telepathically read his mind. Now Grunty is worried that his secrets might all be revealed by the "lovebirds". Things get dicey when Captain Rootes starts to get horny. It is left to readers' imaginations to imagine how Grunty has always been able to keep Rootes from getting horny during previous space missions.

interior art for "The World Well Lost"

To protect his dire secrets, Grunty is ready to kill the telepathic "lovebirds" from Dirbanu, but then they suddenly communicate with Grunty by giving him a series of 4 drawings. Sadly, since this was 1953, we readers only get to see the drawing shown to the left. That's Grunty and Rootes and a human female.

The drawings include images of naked humans and Dirbanites. Rather than kill the "lovebirds", Grunty lets them escape in the spaceship's lifeboat. When Rootes comes out of his space-jump induced blackout and sees the drawings, he realizes that the "lovebirds" were both male. Dirbanite females are significantly shorter and rounder than the males. Rootes is enraged and he exclaims, "Why, if I'da known that I'da killed 'em". Rootes concludes that Grunty let the Dirbanites escape so as to prevent Rootes from murdering the Dirbanites and getting in trouble with the authorities back on Earth.

the two "lovebirds" escape in the lifeboat

Further, Rootes realizes that since human males and females are quite similar in appearance, the Dirbanites are sickened by Earthlings. The Dirbanites can't stop themselves from thinking that everyone on Earth are "queers", "fluffs", "queens" and "pansies", so the Dirbanites want nothing to do with Earth and other planets; they stay hidden on their home planet behind their impenetrable force shields.

Arriving in orbit at Dirbanu, Rootes reports to the Dirbanites that the "lovebirds" are dead. 

fun at the Y.M.C.A palaestra

A quick telepathic scan of the spaceship by the Dirbanites seems to confirm this and the Dirbanites are pleased to be rid of the "lovebirds". On the way back to Earth, with Rootes unconscious after a hyper-jump, Sturgeon leaves readers with the image of Grunty lovingly touching the lips of the unconscious Rootes.

From the perspective of 2021, it might seem strange that Sturgeon's tale about Dirbanu ("The World Well Lost") was labeled as Sturgeon's "most daring story". I imagine that 70 years from now, future generations will also look back on 2021 and marvel at the hangups and sexual taboos that still exist in our society.

Next: the Trysta Truce

visit the Gallery of Posters and the Gallery of Book and Magazine Covers