Arthur C. Clarke must have been one hell of a poker player

I have always enjoyed games of strategy and tactics. I suppose that’s why I like a good hand of poker. 

 Arthur C. Clarke must have enjoyed strategy and tactics as well. Two of his short stories, Hide and Seek and Superiority are both built around S&T.

Hide and Seek (1949) is about using what you have to get the job done. It concerns a spy trying to evade capture in an almost hopeless situation.  The lone fugitive is well aware of his enemies superior technology and is able to use this knowledge to his advantage. The enemy is continually frustrated and baffled by the weaker opponent’s  tactics until finally giving up and leaving.  As in poker, the guy with nothing in his hand is able to win by keeping his cards close to his vest and bluffing his way to victory. Incidentally, there is also a surprising twist at the end that kind of tweaks the nose of stuffed shirts everywhere.

This allegory not only reveals Clarke’s tactical ability, it reflects his preference for the underdog as well. Since this story was written shortly after the second world war, I suppose you can extrapolate the events to that of the British and Axis early in the conflict. Think Battle of Briton.

Superiority (1951) is a lesson in poor planning and execution; you could say it is the antonym of  Hide and Seek. To use the poker analogy again, its like a player with a full house throwing in his cards hoping  to draw a straight flush.

The narrator is on trial for losing a war he should have won. He explains to the court how every strategy was thwarted by defective technology. It sort of reminds me of some CIO getting his butt reamed by the board of directors for deploying too quickly.

This is a humorous tale reminiscent of William Tenn’s Liberation of Earth. The biggest laugh is at the end.

As I am sure you can tell, I’m an admirer of Clarke’s. Most famous for his Space Odyssey series, which is a truly fantastic work, he also wrote great short stories. Hide and Seek along with Superiority are just two of them.

I know one thing for certain, I wouldn’t have played Texas Holdem with this guy.

Betty Curtis: Mistress of the Android Parable

I collect old science fiction magazines. Not as an investment. You can buy them for five or ten bucks on Ebay. I collect them for the great short stories. Sometimes by famous, sometimes by obscure authors. It’s kind of like Forrest Gump’s momma said about life; you never know what you’re going to get. Most of the time the surprise is a good one though.

The August 1951 issue of Fantasy and Science Fiction is a good example. Arthur C. Clark’s Superiority was first published in this issue, along with A Peculiar People, Betty Curtis’s android moral tale.

Ms. Curtis is vastly underrated. Her style is more sophisticated than most of the Scifi writers of the time. Characterization is subtle, yet complete. The men are sensitive and the women are strong. Both of which were incongruous in  forties and  fifties science fiction literature. That said, the plot development is just as good or better than most of her male contemporaries. Putting her on  par with the likes of Asimov; considered the master of robot tales.

In many ways Betty Curtis reminds me of Philip K. Dick. The idea of asking, “What is human?” is closely associated with PKD’s work, and Ms. Curtis does a really good job of making the reader feel empathy for the droids in A Peculiar People. This makes the fine line between human and machine even more obscure.

Finding a copy of this magazine might be difficult. However, Betty Curtis was included in some anthologies in the past, and it would be worth the effort to find one with A Peculiar People in the table of contents.

Murray Leinster: Visionary, Prophet, Futurist

Murray Leinster’s 1946 short story A Logic Named Joe may have seemed quixotic at the time. However, it truly is amazing how closely it reflects the world today.

I first read this story in a collection put together by Issac Asimov in the mid-eighties, titled The Best Science Fiction Firsts. At the time the public internet didn’t exist. So, Asimov listed it as the first Scifi story to mention PC’s. If only Issac had lived to see just how accurate Leinster described not only computers, but the web, data centers, and a singularity type situation. 

In fifteen short pages the author tells the tell of a maintenance man  trying to track down a PC that has somehow become self-aware, and is causing a great deal of havoc, not only across the web, but in his personal life as well. The language is rather dated, understandably so, since it was written nearly seventy years ago. However, the story is well worth the read if you can get your hands on a copy.

50’s SciFi Movies you never get enough of

J.J.Abrams or Trekkers: Who Owns the Star Trek Franchise?

J.J.Abrams is a great Director, Producer, Screenwriter……..yada, yada, yada. OK, enough with the wikibullshit. He did a good job with his first Trek movie, not great, good. Lost was a great TV show in the beginning that lost (pun intended) its appeal as the years went by, culminating in a big disappointing finale. I felt like kicking in the screen when it turned out they were dead all along. What crap!………. OK, I’ve calmed down now.

I understand that Mr. Abrams wants to put his own brand on the Trek franchise. This is understandable; he is an artist, and that’s what they do. However, I think he is veering too far from the original Roddenberry concept.

For example, the Kirk character, in the first movie, is portrayed as  more of a reckless, seat of the pants, lucky idiot than the original thoughtful tactician like in Balance of Terror. Of course, the opening scene with Juvenal delinquent Kirk running from the law in his step fathers five hundred year old corvette, while listening to an equally old version of the Beastie Boys Sabotage is very (sarcasm) Trek worthy. Maybe you should have titled the movie Star Trek: Rebel without an Enterprise; your Jim Kirk is more like Jim Stark. By the way,  I like the Beasties, its just they have their place in my iPod, not in my Trek movie. Come on, I know you have to appeal to the 13-18 year old crowd. But, at the dignity of an institution that belongs to the fans.This brings me to the point of my rant.

Does Star Trek belong to people that put up big bucks and butcher a great piece of science fiction history or does Star Trek belong to the people that signed petitions, and fought to keep it on the air when network suits wanted to cancel it because it was too intellectual?  Their reasoning: viewers are too stupid to follow a story line more complicated than Lost in Space.  When Gene Roddenberry died it seems the Star Trek philosophy died with him. The Next Generation followed his vision because he was alive during most of production. Now you want to ignore the whole TNG timeline. Talk about arrogant!

Mr. Abrams, I know you will never see this. However, I am putting this in cyberspace hoping there are some people left that feel what you have done to a science fiction icon borders on criminal.

Women in the World of Science Fiction

I was recently going through some of my old SciFi mags and came across Evelyn E. Smith’s name. It got me thinking; which is something I should do more often. Anyway, I realized women don’t get the respect they should in this genre. OK, big duh, I just never thought about it. I guess it’s the inherent man-pig in all of us men. The point is, I’m here to repent and make amends like any reformed male-chauvinist should.

Back to Evelyn E. Smith and her writing. She started her career in the 50’s when female science fiction writers usually worked under a male pseudonym. Ms. Smith took the bold move, at the time, of using her real name. She wrote four science fiction novels. Her first, The Perfect Planet, was about a world where looks are everything. Kind of sounds like the world we live in. Her short stories numbered in the dozens, which include, The last of the Spode and The Martian and The Magician.

Ms. Smith was a prolific writer, and in later life penned The Miss Melville Mystery series of novels. Not surprisingly, the protagonist is a strong willed, intelligent woman that just happens to be an assassin.

Evelyn Smith is just one of many women that have made significant contributions to SciFi.

Dorothy Fontana is another fantastic writer I have previously overlooked. She did a great job on the original Star Trek TV series.

I will update my pages to include these women, and the many other women in the world of science fiction.