The Rediscovery of Man - The Complete Short Science Fiction of Cordwainer Smith - Illustrated Read online

  The Rediscovery of Man

  The Complete Short Science

  Fiction of Cordwainer Smith

  is the second book in the “NESFA’s Choice” series. It brings back into print all of the short science fiction of Cordwainer Smith, and includes two never before published stories.

  The Rediscovery of Man includes all of Smith’s short science fiction, including:

  “Scanners Live in Vain”

  “The Ballad of Lost C’mell”

  “The Dead Lady of Clown Town”

  “The Game of Rat and Dragon”

  “On the Storm Planet”

  It also includes an in-depth introduction to the works of Cordwainer Smith by John J. Pierce, a noted authority on Smith’s work.

  Copyright

  Copyright © 1993 by the New England Science Fiction Association

  Stories copyright © 1993 by the Estate of Paul Linebarger

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.

  First edition

  3 5 7 9 6 4 2

  Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 93-084365

  ISBN: 0-915368-56-0

  Copyright Acknowledgments

  Dust jacket art by Jack Gaughan. Reprinted with the permission of Phoebe Gaughan. “Introduction” copyright © 1993 by John J. Pierce

  “No, No, Not Rogov!” copyright © 1958 by Quinn Publishing Co. First appeared in Worlds of If, February 1959.

  “War No. 81-Q” (rewritten version) copyright © 1993 by the Estate of Paul Linebarger. First appearance.

  “Mark Elf” copyright © 1957 by Candar Publishing Co., Inc. First appeared in Saturn, May 1957

  “The Queen of the Afternoon” copyright © 1978 by UPD Publishing Corporation. First appeared in Galaxy, April 1978.

  “Scanners Live in Vain” copyright © 1950 by Fantasy Publishing Co., Inc. First appeared in Fantasy Book #6, January 1950.

  “The Lady Who Sailed The Soul” copyright © 1960 by Galaxy Publishing Co. First appeared in Galaxy, April 1960.

  “When the People Fell” copyright © 1962 by Galaxy Publishing Co. First appeared in Galaxy, April 1959.

  “Think Blue, Count Two” copyright © 1962 by Galaxy Publishing Co. First appeared in Galaxy, February 1963.

  “The Colonel Came Back from the Nothing-at-All” copyright © 1979 by Genevieve Linebarger. First appeared in The Instrumentality of Mankind.

  “The Game of Rat and Dragon” copyright © 1955 by Galaxy Publishing Co. First appeared in Galaxy, October 1955.

  “The Burning of the Brain” copyright © 1958 by Quinn Publishing Co. First appeared in Worlds of If, October 1958.

  “From Gustible’s Planet” copyright © 1962 by Digest Productions Corporation. First appeared in Worlds of If, July 1962.

  “Himself in Anachron” copyright © 1993 by the Estate of Paul Linebarger. First appearance.

  “The Crime and the Glory of Commander Suzdal” copyright © 1964 by Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. First appeared in Amazing Science Fiction, May 1964.

  “Golden the Ship Was—Oh! Oh! Oh!” copyright © 1959 by Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. First appeared in Amazing Science Fiction, April 1959.

  “The Dead Lady of Clown Town” copyright © 1964 by Galaxy Publishing Co. First appeared in Galaxy, August 1964.

  “Under Old Earth” copyright © 1966 by Galaxy Publishing Co. First appeared in Galaxy, February 1966.

  “Drunkboat” copyright © 1963 by Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. First appeared in Amazing Science Fiction, October 1963.

  “Mother Hitton’s Littul Kittons” copyright © 1961 by Galaxy Publishing Co. First appeared in Galaxy, June 1961.

  “Alpha Ralpha Boulevard” copyright © 1961 by Mercury Press, Inc. First appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, June 1961.

  “The Ballad of Lost C’mell” copyright © 1962 by Galaxy Publishing Co. First appeared in Galaxy, October 1962.

  “A Planet Named Shayol” copyright © 1961 by Galaxy Publishing Co. First appeared in Galaxy, October 1961.

  “On the Gem Planet” copyright © 1963 by Galaxy Publishing Co. First appeared in Galaxy, October 1963.

  “On the Storm Planet” copyright © 1965 by Galaxy Publishing Co. First appeared in Galaxy, February 1965.

  “On the Sand Planet” copyright © 1965 by Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. First appeared in Amazing Stories, December 1965.

  “Three to a Given Star” copyright © 1965 by Galaxy Publishing Co. First appeared in Galaxy, October 1965.

  “Down to a Sunless Sea” copyright © 1975 by Genevieve Linebarger. First appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, October 1975.

  “War No. 81-Q” copyright © 1993 by the Estate of Paul Linebarger. First appeared in The Adjutant, Volume IX, No. 1, June 1928.

  “Western Science Is So Wonderful” copyright © 1958 by Quinn Publishing Co. First appeared in Worlds of If, December 1958.

  “Nancy” copyright © 1959 by Satellite Science Fiction. First appeared in Satellite Science Fiction, March 1959 (as “The Nancy Routine”).

  “The Fife of Bodidharma” copyright © 1959 by Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. First appeared in Fantastic, June 1959.

  “Angerhelm” copyright © 1959 by Ballantine Books, First appeared in Star Science Fiction #6.

  “The Good Friends” copyright © 1963 by Galaxy Publishing Co. First appeared in Worlds of Tomorrow, October 1963.

  Illustrations are reproduced from the original publications as indicated above.

  Contents

  Introduction by John J. Pierce

  Editor’s Introduction

  Stories of the Instrumentality of Mankind

  No, No, Not Rogov!

  War No. 81-Q (rewritten version)

  Mark Elf

  The Queen of the Afternoon

  Scanners Live in Vain

  The Lady Who Sailed The Soul

  When the People Fell

  Think Blue, Count Two

  The Colonel Came Back from the Nothing-at-All

  The Game of Rat and Dragon

  The Burning of the Brain

  From Gustible’s Planet

  Himself in Anachron

  The Crime and the Glory of Commander Suzdal

  Golden the Ship Was—Oh! Oh! Oh!

  The Dead Lady of Clown Town

  Under Old Earth

  Drunkboat

  Mother Hitton’s Littul Kittons

  Alpha Ralpha Boulevard

  The Ballad of Lost C’mell

  A Planet Named Shayol

  On the Gem Planet

  On the Storm Planet

  On the Sand Planet

  Three to a Given Star

  Down to a Sunless Sea

  Other Stories

  War No. 81-Q (original version)

  Western Science Is So Wonderful

  Nancy

  The Fife of Bodidharma

  Angerhelm

  The Good Friends

  Introduction

  by

  John J. Pierce

  It’s trite to say, of course, but there has never been another science fiction writer like Cordwainer Smith.

  Smith was never a very prolific SF writer, as evidenced by the fact that nearly all of his short fiction can be encompassed in a single omnibus volume like this. He was never a ver
y popular writer, as evidenced by the fact that most of his work has usually been out of print. Nor has he been a favorite of the critics, as evidenced by the fact that few citations to his SF can be found in journals like Science Fiction Studies.

  It is impossible to fit Smith’s work into any of the neat categories that appeal to most readers or critics. It isn’t hard science fiction, it isn’t military science fiction, it isn’t sociological science fiction, it isn’t satire, it isn’t surrealism, it isn’t post-modernism. For those who have fallen in love with it over the years, however, it is some of the most powerful science fiction ever written. It is the kind of fiction that, as C. S. Lewis once wrote, becomes part of the reader’s personal iconography.

  You may have already read the story of Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger (1913-66), the man behind Cordwainer Smith, who grew up in China, Japan, Germany, and France, and became a soldier, diplomat, and respected authority on Far Eastern affairs. He was the son of Paul Myron Wentworth Linebarger, a retired American judge who helped finance the Chinese revolution of 1911 and became the legal advisor to Sun Yat-sen. It was Sun himself who gave young Paul his Chinese name Lin Bah Loh, or “Forest of Incandescent Bliss.” (His father had been dubbed Lin Bah Kuh, or “Forest of 1,000 Victories.”) In time, the younger Linebarger became the confidant of Chiang Kai-shek, and, like his father, wrote about China. Still later, he was in demand at the Department of Asiatic Politics at Johns Hopkins University, where he shared his own expertise with members of the diplomatic corps. And that isn’t counting his years as an operative in China during World War II, or as a “visitor to small wars” thereafter, from which he became perhaps the world’s leading authority on psychological warfare.

  He wrote the book on psychological warfare—under his own name, as with all his non-fiction. But he was very shy about his fiction. He wrote two novels, Ria and Carola, both unusual due to their female protagonists and international settings, under the name Felix C. Forrest, a play on his Chinese name. But when people found out who “Forrest” was, he couldn’t write any more. He tried a spy thriller, Atomsk, as Carmichael Smith, but was found out again. He even submitted a manuscript for another novel under his wife’s name, but nobody was fooled. Although Linebarger wrote at least partial drafts of several other novels, he was never able to interest publishers, and it appears he never really tried that hard. He might have had a distinguished, if minor, career as a novelist—it is an odd coincidence that Herma Briffault, widow of Robert Briffault, to whose novels of European politics Frederik Pohl would later compare Ria and Carola, had in fact read Carola in manuscript; only she compared it to the work of Jean Paul Sartre!

  Yet it isn’t only a matter of happenstance, of opportunities elsewhere denied, that Paul M. A. Linebarger became a science fiction writer. In fact, he was writing SF before he wrote anything else. From his early teens, he turned out an incredible volume of juvenile SF, under titles like “The Books of Futurity”—some bad imitations of Edgar Rice Burroughs, others clumsily satirical or incorporating Chinese legends or folklore. One of these efforts contained, as an imaginary “review,” the genesis of “The Fife of Bodidharma,” published over 20 years later in its final form. At the age of 15, he even had an SF story published—“War No. 81-Q,” which appeared in The Adjutant, the official organ of his high school cadet corps in Washington, DC, in June 1928. Because he used the name of his cousin, Jack Bearden, for the hero, Bearden decided to get back with a story of his own, “The Notorious C39”; but Bearden’s story actually made it into Amazing Stories. More than 30 years later, Linebarger rewrote “War No. 81-Q” for his first collection of Cordwainer Smith SF stories, You Will Never Be the Same, but it didn’t make the cut.

  Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Linebarger continued to write short fiction—some SF, some fantasy, some contemporary or Chinese historical. The manuscripts, including those of the earliest Cordwainer Smith stories, were eventually bound in a red-leather volume now in the hands of a daughter living in Oregon. Most of these stories were apparently never submitted for publication, but Linebarger did send two of the fantasies—“Alauda Dalma” and “The Archer and the Deep”—to Unknown in 1942. (If you don’t recognize the titles, it is because Unknown turned them down: the latter didn’t fare any better with Judith Merril in 1961.) Then in 1945, recently returned from China and facing idle hours in some sort of desk job at the Pentagon, he wrote another of the manuscripts included in the bound volume, the one that was to put him on the literary map—“Scanners Live in Vain.”

  You doubtless know that it was “Scanners” which introduced the Instrumentality of Mankind, although only as a shadowy background to the bizarre tale of the cyborged space pilots who are dead though they live, and would rather kill than live with a new discovery that has made their sacrifice and its attendant rituals obsolete. Yet however shadowy, that background—with its references to the Beasts and the manshonyaggers and the Unforgiven, and the implications of some terrible dark age from which humanity has only just emerged—suggests a long period of gestation for the story and, possibly, the existence of earlier stories with the same background. Only there is no evidence of any such thing; to the contrary, at least some of the background appears to date back to a note Linebarger wrote to himself January 7, 1945, for a projected story, “The Weapons,” set in a “future or imaginary world” in which humanity must always be on guard against old weapons, “perpetual and automatic,” surviving from some old and forgotten war. In that note, we can see the genesis of the manshonyaggers, the German killing machines (from menschenjäger, or hunter of men) first referred to in “Scanners Live in Vain.”

  Can Paul Linebarger have thought up an entire future history in the time it took to write “Scanners Live in Vain”? It is probably a lot more complicated than that; it may well be that a number of ideas that had been floating around in his head for years, without ever being set down on paper, suddenly gelled when he had the inspiration for the story. It didn’t take long for the universe of “Scanners Live in Vain” to take shape, however, for the story had been written within a few months of that note for “The Weapons.” On July 18, 1945, it was submitted to John W. Campbell, Jr. at Astounding Science Fiction—who rejected it as “too extreme.” That proved to be the first of several rejections, until “Scanners Live in Vain” finally found a home at Fantasy Book in 1950. The only related story that Linebarger wrote before then was “Himself in Anachron,” dated 1946. Never published in a magazine, it was later slated (like the revised “War No. 81-Q”) for inclusion in You Will Never Be the Same, under the title “My Love Is Lost in the Null of Nought” or “She Lost Her Love in the Null of Nought,” but Linebarger wasn’t able to deliver a revised manuscript in time. Although he may have written such a revision at a later date, none can be found in his literary papers, and the present version was adapted by his widow Genevieve from the 1946 draft.

  The career of Cordwainer Smith might have been stillborn, with only one published and one unpublished story to show for it. Fortunately, Smith soon had a few champions, most notably Frederik Pohl, who didn’t have the foggiest idea who the author was but knew a stellar performance when he saw one. By including “Scanners Live in Vain” in an anthology, Pohl rescued it from the obscurity of Fantasy Book, and that led a few years later to Linebarger’s submission of “The Game of Rat and Dragon” to Galaxy: the rest, as they say, is history. A great deal may not be told until the hoped-for publication of a biography of Linebarger by Alan C. Elms, who has done exhaustive interviews with his friends and family as well as researching all his papers. Among other things, Elms has the low-down on how it happened that the young Linebarger knew L. Ron Hubbard. (It wasn’t a mere fluke that one of Linebarger’s own unpublished works was Pathematics, his revisionist take on Hubbard’s Dianetics.)

  It is important to understand some crucial facts about his life that have previously been overlooked: for example, although he was a devout Episcopalian late in life, he was only a nominal Methodist
(his father’s church) at the time he wrote “Scanners Live in Vain.” He originally joined the Episcopal Church as a compromise with his second wife, who was raised as a Catholic. Only about 1960 did he become a believer in any deep sense, and only then did the religious imagery and Christian message become strong in his SF works. The change in spiritual orientation that marks his later work is thus a genuine change, not merely a change of emphasis. There are also all kinds of details about the life of Paul M. A. Linebarger, his family and friends, that bear on his work—as we shall see when Elms’ researches bear fruit.

  The strictly literary history, however, is fascinating in itself. In spite of such major gaps as the loss of Linebarger’s main notebook for the Instrumentality saga in 1965, and the apparent disappearance of the dictabelts on which his widow recalled that he had recorded notes for or even drafts of stories never committed to paper, it is possible to reconstruct a lot of this literary history from Linebarger’s literary papers, now at the University of Kansas (although some, including more juvenilia, and such oddities as an early poem titled “An Ode to My Buick,” mistakenly ended up at the Hoover Institution at Stanford, the repository for papers relating to his military, diplomatic, and scholarly career). Among these literary papers are any number of variant (mostly partial) manuscripts for stories already familiar to us, false starts for stories never completed, notebooks with ideas for stories never written, and miscellaneous correspondence.

  The story of the Instrumentality saga has been told before: the Ancient Wars, the Dark Age, the renaissance of humanity in the time of the scanners, the romantic age of exploration by sailship, the discoveries of planoforming and stroon that bind together the myriad worlds and usher in a bland utopia of ease and plenty, the twin revolutions of the underpeople’s Holy Insurgency and the Instrumentality’s Rediscovery of Man. The stories in this volume tell it all better than any summary can. Smith had it all worked out, of course; he even offered to supply a chronology for You Will Never Be the Same, which would undoubtedly have been far superior to the one I supplied for The Best of Cordwainer Smith for Del Rey Books. But the saga was never conceived as a seamless whole, however much Linebarger worked to develop the overall framework that would embrace both his original conception and his later one.