Updates: Recent Science Fiction Purchases No. CCCXLVIII (Eric Frank Russell, Ben Bova, Pat Frank, and John Collier)

Which books/covers/authors intrigue you? Which have you read? Disliked? Enjoyed?

1. Men, Martians, and Machines, Eric Frank Russell (1955)

• Paul Lehr’s–uncredited but certainly his style–cover for the 1965 edition

From the back cover: “VOYAGE OF THE MARATHON. Even at the time when space ships were making regular voyages across the universe, the MARATHON was a remarkable craft. Powered by the Flettner system, its speed was so great that for the first time exploration of the outer galaxies was made possible.

MEN, MARTIANS AND MACHINES describes some of the great voyages made by the MARATHON. There was, for example, the planet which was solely inhabited by machines–survivors, perhaps, from a civilization in which the first machine-makers had perished. On another planet, the inhabitants had developed the power of hypnotism to a fantastic degree, so that the observer saw only what he was willed to see.”

Contents: “Jay Score” (1941), “Mechanistria” (1942), “Symbiotica” (1943), “Mesmerica” (1955).

Initial Thoughts: I’ve only indirectly explored a few of Russell’s visions. I selected this one as the Jay Score / Marathon sequence stories contain examples of early genre magazine non-white characters.

2. Forbidden Area, Pat Frank (1956)

• Barye Phillips’ cover for the 1957 edition

From the back cover: “ONLY SEVEN AMERICANS KNEW WHAT WAS COMING. The time of the enemy attack was cunningly chosen–Christmas Eve in a nation sleeping in peace.

Death would rain down from giant bombers–horror, fire and destruction.

Only seven Americans–six men and one girl in a secret room in the Pentagon–knew absolutely, factually, and without the shadow of a doubt that the United States was about to be destroyed.

They knew there wasn’t much time left. They told the brass; they reported to their general. But nobody would listen to them.

AND TOMORROW WAS CHRISTMAS EVE.”

Initial Thoughts: Yes, this might not be technically SF. However, it’s a nuclear-themed thriller that might be in Frank’s “near future.” I recently read Frank’s Alas, Babylon (1959) and wanted to read a bit more of his work. I also adore the cover!

3. The Exiles Trilogy, Ben Bova (1980)

• Uncredited cover for the 1st edition

From the back cover: “EXILED TO THE STARS! They were Earth’s best and brightest: the brilliant young generation of scientists who were the last hope of an overburdened planet.

But their breakthrough in genetic engineering threatened the despotic World Government, and they were rewarded for their success by the cruelest punishment ever devised.

Banned from Earth forever, they turned their exile into humankind’s greatest adventure. They left behind a million years of evolution and embarked on a one-way voyage across the Universe!”

Contents: Exiles from Earth (1971), Flight of Exiles (1972), End of Exile (1973)

Initial Thoughts: I am aware that these novels are most likely bottom-of-the-barrel generation ship stories. To add insult to injury, my cover is misprinted at an angle. However, I am on a (misguided?) quest to read all pre-1985 examples of the subgenre. If you’re new to the site, here’s my index on the topic. Also, here’s my most recent installment of my series: Mari Wolf’s “The First Day of Spring” (1954) and Francis G. Rayer’s “Continuity Man” (1959).

4. Tom’s A-Cold, John Collier (1933)

• Uncredited (there’s a “K” initial) cover for the 1st edition

From the inside flap: My edition came sans dust jacket. Couldn’t find a pristine edition within my price range. Alas.

Initial Thoughts: All I know about this one are a few brief mentions in Andrew Hammond’s Cold War Stories: British Dystopian Fiction, 1945-1990 (2017) and the substantial SF Encyclopedia entry that I’ll reproduce for you:

“Radically dissimilar to his most familiar work is Tom’s A-Cold (1933; vt Full Circle 1933), a remarkably effective Scientific Romance set in a 1990s Ruined Earth, long after an unexplained Disaster has decimated England’s (and presumably the world’s) population and thrust mankind back into rural barbarism, a condition out of which the eldest survivors, who remember civilization, are trying to educate the young third generation. The simple plot plays no tricks on the reader: the young protagonist, a born leader, rises through raids and conflict to the chieftainship, undergoes a tragedy, and reconciles himself at the novel’s close to the burdens of a government which will improve the lot of his people. Throughout the novel, very movingly, Collier renders the reborn, circumambient natural world with a hallucinatory visual intensity found nowhere else in his work. Along with Alun Llewellyn’s The Strange Invaders (1934), Tom’s A-Cold can be seen, in its atmosphere of almost loving conviction, as a genuine successor to Richard Jefferies’s After London (1885).”

Sounds great!

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Book Review: Alas, Babylon, Pat Frank (1959)

• Uncredited cover for the 1960 edition of Pat Frank’s Alas, Babylon (1959)

4/5 (Good)

Pat Frank (1907-1964) began his writing career working for local papers in northeastern Florida before a stint in The Office of Wartime Information (OWI) during WWII. The popular success of Frank’s three nuclear war-themed novels, that culminated with Alas, Babylon (1959), led him to take on the role as a speechwriter for the 1960 Kennedy campaign and beyond.1 As Frank was a lifelong Democrat, Alas, Babylon contains a range of 50s political views that manifest anti-communism and align with the small minority within the party interested in Civil Rights. The novel advocates for vigorous anti-Communist ideology at home and abroad and, in case deterrence fails, survival is possible for those who embody American virtues.

The Narrative Vantage Point Amidst the Mushroom Clouds

Alas, Babylon narrows in on the experiences of a diverse range of characters (White, Hispanic, and Black) in Fort Repose, an imaginary town in Northern Florida, after a nuclear attack that devastates all surrounding regions. Government calls for Civil Defense are not taken seriously. How will the community survive isolated from the rest of the nation? Who will emerge from the wreckage and guide the fractured community forward? What are the new values in the wasteland? Can they survive the effects of surrounding fallout?

The main narrative follows Randolph Bragg, a failed politician who lives off occasional law work and the citrus fields of his childhood home. Randy, a mouthpiece for many of Pat Frank’s own views, served Korea before running for office. He’s a firm supporter of anti-communist crusaders who take the bomb seriously. In the era of the Southern Manifesto (1956), Randy bucks the majority of the Southern Democratic party in support of Brown vs. The Board of Education (1954) and advocates a generational integration of classrooms.2 Of course, this does not go over well with his voters: “behind his back he was called a fool and traitor to his state and race” (10). Living an aimless post-election life before The Day, the nuclear attack soon gives him the opportunity to lead and love.

Other characters include the members of an African American family (Malachi, Missouri, Preacher Henry, Two-Tone) that purchased a portion of the plantation that Randy’s ancestors used to operate. Their agricultural knowledge, bravery, and survival instincts prove vital for the new community. Various Hispanic characters who live in a slum nearby, Pistolville, also interject occasionally in the story. Soon Randy accumulates a small community that will resurrect a New America. In addition to the Henrys, others join forces with Randy including the town librarian who suddenly becomes the source of knowledge (Alice), the family of Randy’s brother Mark (Helen, Peyton, and Ben Franklin), Fort Repose’s doctor (Dan), and Randy’s lover Lib and her family. Occasionally the narrative directly shifts to a few of other, all-white, perspectives.

Randy must overcome various physical and psychological problems created by The Day: the inaction of the Civil Defense representative, the dread that all is lost, the suicide of the mayor and death of the Chief of Police, the effects of fallout and disease, and highway robbers.

A New Morality in the Wasteland?

Post-apocalyptic stories often posit the emergence of a new landscape of moral, racial, and sexual confusion. As Elaine Tyler May points out in Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era (1988, revised edition 2017), “fears of sexual chaos tend to surface during times of crisis and rapid social change.”3 Countless SF stories from the era follow this pattern: a few 50s examples include Sherwood Springer’s “No Land of Nod” (1952), Wallace West’s “Eddie For Short” (1953), Wilson Tucker’s The Long Loud Silence (1952), and Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend (1954). Nuclear war in Alas, Babylon, on the other hand, threatens to subvert contemporary values yet ultimately reaffirms what it means to be American (sans democracy).

Alas, Babylon surprised me with its commentary on race in the American south, and hopes for an integrated future.4 Randy’s inability to frame his views with “the moderate Southern quasi-liberal, semi-segregationist double-talk” that would have led to his election leads him directly to political failure. His wartime bonding with a black soldier instead leads him to support Brown vs. The Board of Education (1956): “it was strange that a Negro could be an officer and a gentleman and an equal below Parallel Thirty-eight, but not below the Mason-Dixon Line” (44). But wartime experiences do not equate erasure of underlying racism. Randy must confronts his own underlying unease and inability to hold certain conversations with the Henrys who were once his family’s slaves. I found Randy’s confrontation of his own flaws the bravest moments of the novel. Post-bomb America, or at least this isolated fragment of Florida, can move beyond segregated racial hierarchies.

In addition to its reaffirmation of moral imperatives, Alas, Babylon serves as a polemic of preparedness. As David Seed points out, Pat Frank’s background in journalism lends Alas, Babylon a survivalist informational air. He describes the workings of CONELRAD, provides details about the potential transportation chaos caused by For Repose’s location, what foods will collect radiation, and the correct role of the local Civil Defense representative.

Final Thoughts

I enjoyed Alas, Babylon as a 50s example of a survivalist take on nuclear conflict. However, Frank dangerously tangles himself in a series of conflicting positions. Our limited view of the conflict and its effects weakens the horror. Newsclips and brief mentions of suicide or lingering trauma suggest devastation but it infringes indirectly on our main characters.5 In addition, Randy’s constant understanding of the new present through the lens of his war experiences serve to routinize the extraordinary. I can’t help but imagine how much more effective it would all be if Randy’s experiences were rendered more intense and traumatic than his experiences in Korea.6

Frank, like so many authors of post-apocalyptic fictions who postulate survival, almost yearns for the new manifestation of America exemplified by Fort Repose.7 Randy recreates a new and better community. Which leads to the most devastating conundrum–the new Fort Repose does not function as a democracy. Randy finds himself giving orders and waving his gun as a Reserve Officer (151). No one but the criminals mind. While old hierarchies of racial segregations lay in ruins, a new post-democratic benevolent dictatorial figure emerges out of a perpetual state of martial law. The military man will serve as the backbone for the new tomorrow. And it’s implied this system will continue as Fort Repose remains isolated from the surviving portions of the rest of the nation still under governmental control.

Frank’s narratological choices weaken the overt Civil Rights message. While other tangential characters–Florence and Alice–receive sections from their perspective, the African American characters such as Malachi, vital for everyone’s survival, seem to occupy an untold narrative in parallel. Black characters sacrifice themselves yet remain on the periphery. White characters peer at them from afar. Black characters serve and assist white leaders. White characters might acknowledge and address the unequal nature of the arrangement but the narrative structure of the novel reinforces the inequality. Regardless, Frank imagines a desegregated classroom will appear in the new American South.

Sometimes the flaws in the novels that try to say something revelatory and radical (for the day) are easier to see. At least Alas, Babylon tries.

Notes

• Robert Hunt’s cover for the 1988 edition of Pat Frank’s Alas, Babylon (1959)

• Green’s cover for the 1st edition of Pat Frank’s Alas Babylon (1959)

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#1950s #paperbacks #PatFrank #sciFi #scienceFiction