Scanners Live In Vain

Story written by Cordwainer Smith

Reading Cordwainer Smith is the closest a person can come to being the first person to set foot on a new planet. More than Philip K. Dick or Isaac Asmimov or Ray Bradbury or so many other brilliant writers who have created great works of science fiction, Smith is the author that defines the best of what the field can offer.

Years ago, Robert Silverberg pulled together the Worlds of Wonder anthology which was aimed at would-be science fiction writers. The idea was to place an assembly of the best in the field in the hands of people contemplating their way into the craft. The selection of stories was perfection itself: Fondly Fahrenheit, Alfred Bester; No Woman Born, C.L. Moore; Colony, Philip K. Dick; The Little Black Bag, C.M. Kornbluth; and Scanners Live in Vain. I devoured the contents, though I never proved up to the book’s intended purpose. Most of the stories gave me pause as I tried to understand their special qualities, but Scanners Live in Vain made me stop in my tracks. I had heard of most of the other writers in the collection, but not Cordwainer Smith. Why not?

Let’s just have you start with the Wikipedia entry. Paul Linebarger (who wrote under the unusual pseudonym) had one of those lives that seemed full enough without adding in the fact that he also wrote some of the most influential stories ever. Not to overplay matters, but Linebarger seems more in the mold of a Christopher Marlowe than our traditional idea of the cloistered artist.

Unfortunately,

Smith had limited output: essentially one novel and one collection of short stories. Of course, Smith was busy being Linebarger and then he died too young for a writer who had some serious potential for those retirement years that never came.

In 1962, Galaxy Magazine first published another favorite of mine, The Ballad of Lost C’Mell. I have added a capture of the cover here just to give some idea how different Smith’s stories truly are. Anyone reader of short stories has come across the weird and unusual. Every writer has a little bit of the ornery built in and has managed to get down on paper (virtual paper perhaps) some piece of strangeness if only as an effort to get it out of their system. Sometimes you look it over and discover some merit to the work. Then, depending on the era, you might find that your weirdness happens to be in vogue. Once upon a time, Harlan Ellison collected some of the best weirdness and editors have been hoping for gold in them hills ever since.

But that’s just it. I don’t think the work that Smith was creating was his weirdness. The internal wiring for some people, artists and audience alike, is simply a little different. Linebarger had a complicated childhood which fed his creative output. I think we are reading some incredible art that rises above genre and oddity, but, for Linebarger, Cordwainer Smith helped make sense of the world. For people feeling adrift or damaged, I think he accomplished one of the rare artistic feats by providing them one more line back to shore.

What’s it all about?

You’ve Got to Check This Out is a blog series about music, words, and all sorts of artistic matters. It started with an explanation. 220 more to go.

New additions to You’ve Got to Check This Out release regularly. Also, free humor, short works, and poetry post irregularly. Receive notifications on Facebook by friending or following Craig.

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Handbags and Gladrags

Song written by Michael D’Abo
Performed by Rod Stewart

For a while there, few public personalities were as vilified as Rod Stewart. I suppose he was the [insert your favorite pop music sensation of the moment] of his day- as well-known for his behavior as for his artistic output. A lot of people had not heard of him until he broke through the cultural glass ceiling with flamboyant behavior and an open embrace of disco music. And that is how we treat artists who we decide have compromised.

I suppose any artist entering into the global conversation has to enter with eyes wide open nowadays. I doubt Stewart was oblivious to the consequences of true stardom as he had been around awhile already. He wanted it and he went for it. I daresay he still managed to work a fair bit of joy and talent into those big hits.

Of course, he has that voice– either you put up with it or you skip over it. He sounded world-weary when he was young. Which makes him perfect for…

After joining the Faces (who could bring the kick-ass better than most), Stewart (along with Ron Wood) started a string of amazing solo recordings that seemed to tie together best as memories. As well as the best singer/songwriters, Stewart crafted beautiful songs about absent friends and lost places. Ray Davies was a master of the song about changing times, but Handbags and Gladrags certainly matches the best of his compositions.

Wistful is an interesting artistic conceit.

You would think that an artist would need some accumulated experience before they could look back with longing. In practice, wistful comes pretty easily to the human animal. Put us up against change and we have a knee-jerk reaction against it. Change brings uncertainty, prompting fear. Opposing the emotional response is our big brain reminding us that change is inevitable. Any time the heart and the head are in conflict, you just know you have a situation ripe for artistic interpretation. If nothing else, good artists are empathetic, open to all those emotions running rampant around them.

Consider this playlist:
Handbags and Gladrags
Gasoline Alley
Every Picture Tells a Story
Maggie May
The First Cut Is the Deepest

I could go on…

So things probably jumped the track with Tonight’s the Night, which you will just have to go find for yourself. Between Maggie May and it, Stewart probably saw his impending super-stardom.

Then it waned, but never entirely. Stewart’s continuing success runs counter to so many other tales of struggle or abandoned artistry that it inspires a certain degree of pleasure. He’s started writing music again (after a two decade lapse) and maybe (just maybe) has held onto a certain degree of self-awareness that has facilitated the ability to see those conflicts between head and heart.

Perhaps that is the thing about wistfulness. It is one of those paths into creativity that never really deserts you. There’s always something to miss, something to regret, something in which to revel.

What’s it all about?

You’ve Got to Check This Out is a blog series about music, words, and all sorts of artistic matters. It started with an explanation. 221 more to go.

New additions to You’ve Got to Check This Out release regularly. Also, free humor, short works, and poetry post irregularly. Receive notifications on Facebook by friending or following Craig.

Images may be subject to copyright.

Comedy Duo

One of the happiest moments of my life was coming upon this scene in Purple Rain. Just in case you have missed out on all essential American culture, it references this Abbott & Costello routine, arguably the most famous American comic routine. Leaving that for the moment, why did this make me so happy? Here were these guys who seemed to share little in common with me and yet clearly shared a love for great comedy. They had seen Abbott & Costello and liked them so much that they paid tribute at their first opportunity. I was young, but I had this creeping suspicion that people all around the world were just people and might possibly have more in common than reasons for disharmony. Frankly, if we could laugh together, then there would always be hope.

We spend a great deal of time worrying about artists who highlight contemporary issues while spending a lot of time forgetting that these same artists eventually become elder statesmen that future generations may well revere. Issues disappear while creativity and energy survive.

For whatever reasons, my childhood was blessed by one local television station with an irregular Abbott & Costello movie on weekend afternoons. I think it happened between football and baseball seasons. After all, the weather was poor enough to justify flopping down on the sofa.

I did not know then how perfectly Bud Abbott and Lou Costello captured the model of the comic duo: straight man and funny guy; tall and short; clever and dim; thin and fat; verbal and physical. I did not appreciate the work and creativity that went into their finest pieces of work. I only knew that they made me laugh uncontrollably. Nowadays, I appreciate all those qualities and still they make me laugh.

They were huge stars for a brief time, which seems unimaginable today. Then again, a roll call of golden age stars presents some pretty unusual silhouettes. I find it difficult to call any of their films a classic. Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein comes the closest. Like people who quote Monty Python movies, fans tend to remember the gags more than the plots or the film-making.

Perhaps that is as it should be. Whether or not critics treat comedy the same as more serious pursuits, those involved behind the scenes making the films tend to be most focused on capturing whatever is going on in front of the camera, knowing full well that the comedians are the reason for their creation. The best directors and screenwriters must be aware that they are going to receive less credit than their dramatic counterparts. This probably explains how surprised people were to learn that some of Groucho’s best “ad-libs” had been written for him ahead of time.

Ultimately, I think Abbott & Costello found a direct line to our inner child, the one who cannot quite believe what he is seeing and hearing. They are our internal dialogue when we face life’s little (and large) challenges. Because of them, we can glance at one another and share a smile.

What’s it all about?

You’ve Got to Check This Out is a blog series about music, words, and all sorts of artistic matters. It started with an explanation. 222 more to go.

New additions to You’ve Got to Check This Out release regularly. Also, free humor, short works, and poetry post irregularly. Receive notifications on Facebook by friending or following Craig.

Images may be subject to copyright.