Instinct

Choosing 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.

Don't touch that button Sherman

Waaaaay way back when I was in the 5th form, we studied the history of universal suffrage in Britain*. It was a long and complex process involving many twist and turns with big political battles along the way. One of the key steps was the abolition of multiple voting. Back in the 19th century there was a time where if you owned property in multiple electorates (borough, county whatever) then you could vote in each of those electorates. Abolishing that was just one step in the process that led to full universal suffrage in 1928.

Today, with the rates bill, I received a flyer from "New Zealand Local Authority Electoral Officers". It contains this headline: "Do you live in one area and pay rates on a property in another?" "Then you may qualify to vote in more than one local authority election this October."

Well OK, I understand the reason and why it may be appropriate, but doesn't it just typify where our local body politics still reside - somewhere in the mid 19th century.

*Why Britain and not our own country. Well we did cover that too - it took the teacher about 10 minutes.