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threemonkeysChoosing a book from my "to read" shelf can be tricky. Just what book am I in the mood for? Sometimes the choice can be completely arbitrary. This time I picked out a book because the spine was so faded that I couldn't read the author. The book was The Alien Way by Gordon R Dickson. I am not sure how I came to own this book. While I have read Dickson's work before, I am not in the habit of buying his stuff these days. The only think I can think of is that it came mixed in with a pile of John Brunner books I bought a few years back. It has languished unread on the shelf all that time.
It is a book with a message. But it isn't a message just dropped in a big dollop in an otherwise unrelated story the way I was complaining about Iain Banks doing recently. This time the message and the story are fundamentally linked - the way it should be done. The author has decided on the message and created a scenario in which he can express it. In this case that scenario is a first contact situation with an alien race. How will humanity survive this collision of culture. So what is the message? Well reduced to its simplest form I believe it says "we should do more basic research into behavioural psychology". Hardly earth shattering you may think. But remember that this book was written in the mid 1960s. That kind of stuff was big back then. It is still relevant today - especially in this country. There isn't enough fundamental research going on. The people controlling the money are too concerned with application rather than what is underlying everything. Still, you don't see many writers these days bothering to base a story around such a theme.
There isn't much more to say about the book except that it uses the plot structure of the lone man (always a man) who knows best against all the rest of the world. By strength of character this man prevails and saves the world. I'm not all that sad to see this particular literary device lose favour with the SF community.
It is a book with a message. But it isn't a message just dropped in a big dollop in an otherwise unrelated story the way I was complaining about Iain Banks doing recently. This time the message and the story are fundamentally linked - the way it should be done. The author has decided on the message and created a scenario in which he can express it. In this case that scenario is a first contact situation with an alien race. How will humanity survive this collision of culture. So what is the message? Well reduced to its simplest form I believe it says "we should do more basic research into behavioural psychology". Hardly earth shattering you may think. But remember that this book was written in the mid 1960s. That kind of stuff was big back then. It is still relevant today - especially in this country. There isn't enough fundamental research going on. The people controlling the money are too concerned with application rather than what is underlying everything. Still, you don't see many writers these days bothering to base a story around such a theme.
There isn't much more to say about the book except that it uses the plot structure of the lone man (always a man) who knows best against all the rest of the world. By strength of character this man prevails and saves the world. I'm not all that sad to see this particular literary device lose favour with the SF community.
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Date: 2007-05-22 02:31 am (UTC)Mind you, I have no memory at all of the story...
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Date: 2007-05-22 02:49 am (UTC)