Book Review: Zone of Emptiness by Hiroshi Noma

 

Zone of Emptiness by Hiroshi Noma 

317 pages, Published January, 1952 by World Publishing Company

English translation 1956

 On the surface, this read is a bit out of nowhere for me. I mostly read modern SF and horror and lots of 20th-century science fiction. So how did this post-war mainstream Japanese novel that was translated into English once in 1956 end up on my reading list? Philip K. Dick reasons of course. 

Professor David Gill mentioned this author Hiroshi Noma in his recent lecture on Man in the High Castle. I looked on my local library app and was surprised to find this book. Pulled from deep storage this first and only edition had been on the shelf at San Diego public library for 70 years. I think I am developing a reputation at the deep storage, I just got Beaumont’s Intruder from there, and I know when I checked Fredric Brown’s What Mad Universe I was told by the librarian that she thought it hadn’t been checked out since the 80s.

 I might as well quote Gill’s blog post from 2010 to explain why this book is of interest.
 
"Though Dick insisted on his having drawn inspiration from Japanese novelists, he never specified who those novelists were. There are indeed important Japanese writers who earned a degree in French literature at the University of Tokyo (Kenzaburo Oe, Osamu Dazai, Hideo Kobayashi), while others studied French literature at the University of Kyoto (Hiroshi Noma and Shohei Ooka), but the works of these authors which were available in English translations before the publication of The Man in the High Castle do not have a multiple plot structure, though one of them, Horoshi Noma's war novel Zone of Emptiness (1952, translated into English in 1956) does have multiple points of view. It is however difficult to see it as a narrative model to Dick's 1962 novel because there is only one plot, pivoted on the tragic story of a Japanese soldier who is imprisoned for two years in a military penitentiary for a crime he has not committed and then sent to fight (and probably die) in a faraway Pacific island; and this novel has only two narrative foci, unlike Castle."

At some point, I just wanted to know if Phil was influenced by this novel. So I spent a couple of days reading it and concluded that he was not.  This review could stop here but I read it.

Noma has fascinating biographical elements that show up in the novel.  He was raised to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a Buddhist priest. In his university years, he studied French literature,  and that ended up influencing him and the students in his program many of whom published in Japan. After graduating in 1938, he was involved in the labor movement and was involved in protest movements.  He was drafted when in the Pacific war much like Kitani in the novel he was imprisoned for “subversive thought.”

Noma didn’t write an anti-war novel but he gave a window into the imperial army through the eyes of a prisoner accused of stealing from an officer. It reminded me a bit of reading The Sorrow of War by Bảo Ninh. That is a fantastic novel the American War in Vietnam written by a former VC. Zone of Emptiness is not nearly as good as that novel but so little has highlighted life as a soldier in the military we considered enemies in these conflicts. It made me hungry for more stories from the Japanese. Maybe that is the influence for PKD. Real Japanese characters.

So it is the story of Kitani who picked up an officer’s wallet, and when he tried to return it he was accused of stealing it.  There are some interesting elements with the structure, but I am not an expert on French literature that I am told it was influenced by. Kitani does the time, and at first, we believe he did the crime. The war is ending and he is released just in time to be sent away sensing that the war must really be going bad. His friend Soda expects to die in the war but it is seeing what happened to Kitani that gets if to start to question.    

“The image of Kitani flashed across his mind.  At once it took complete possession of him, driving out all the daydreams, fantasies, and regrets.  Soda could see the fierce but tender face, the somewhat wide mouth, the brutal jaw, the powerful neck.  He was so overcome with emotion that he had to stop walking. ‘It can’t be love,’ he said to himself. ‘I’m a normal, healthy man’  He uttered a forced laugh, tried to mock himself, and again accused the army, ‘It distorts or makes suspect even the simplest feelings.”

There are times I wish the novel was more clear but I also am not sure what year it was written so it may have been written in Imperial Japan and Homa could only say so much. That said there are moments when the novel gets clear.
 
“You’re not a Communist are you?”
“No,” said Soda, “but I respect people who are capable of sacrificing themselves for an idea.”
“Our cause is the right one. It will win out.”
“I’m not so sure of that,” said Soda pensively.”

 Soda is not the main character so it is interesting that two power scenes to me were his. Much of the novel is about these men preparing to die for an empire dying itself. It is absurd but they are a part of the system.

“There was no denying it. Each time he abandoned himself to the desire, a rainbow appeared and lit up the zone of emptiness, and Soda would float off to a region where no bugle was ever heard.”

It is less of an anti-war novel than it is anti-military, conformity. The message and meaning are fine. There are a few really interesting parts to this novel. Overall I am not sure I would recommend it to many readers. If you have an interest in Japanese wartime life then sure.

Audiobook review: The Lesser Dead by Christopher Buehlman

 

The Lesser Dead by Christopher Buehlman

9 hours Audible Audio

First published October, 2014

 Every year when Judge Marc Rothenberg and I podcast for our favorite reads of the year this is one of the experiences I was sold on. Marc said to listen to the audiobook and I have to say his recommendation was on the money. I am sure this is a fine book to read but the audiobook available on the libby app as an audiobook (I am sure audible too) is a great time. Christopher Buehlman is not an author I knew before but he is certainly on my radar now.

Buehlman reads the novel and after just a few minutes I saw why. He knows the voice of his character who does the narration, but he also does wonderful voices and performances of all the characters, giving the whole novel a bit of extra storyteller vibe. It feels like you are sitting with Joey being told a story. 

The secret is, vampires are real and I am one.
The secret is, I’m stealing from you what is most truly yours and I’m not sorry—"

That conversational narrative is how the story is told. Joey’s saga as a vampire started in the Great Depression but it comes to a head in a very specific time.

“New York City in 1978 is a dirty, dangerous place to live. And die. Joey Peacock knows this as well as anybody—he has spent the last forty years as an adolescent vampire, perfecting the routine he now enjoys: womanizing in punk clubs and discotheques, feeding by night, and sleeping by day with others of his kind in the macabre labyrinth under the city’s sidewalks.

The subways are his playground and his highway, shuttling him throughout Manhattan to bleed the unsuspecting in the Sheep Meadow of Central Park or in the backseats of Checker cabs, or even those in their own apartments who are too hypnotized by sitcoms to notice him opening their windows. It’s almost too easy.”

The Lesser Dead is a character-driven piece of vampire fiction that is less scary as it constantly unsettling. I enjoyed the character work. Each minute of the audiobook has moments of deep character details. It keeps the story flowing and interesting. The events and the plot are almost secondary to the exploration of Joey and the various vampires.

“If you’re looking for a story about nice people doing nice things, this isn’t for you. You will be burdened with an unreliable narrator who will disappoint and repel you at every turn.
Still with me?
Too bad for you.
I can’t wait to break your heart.”

Sure the life they have built in the tunnels and the mechanics of how vampire life works in this novel are interesting. The way Joey got on the bad side of the Irish vampire who turned him was probably the most interesting element for me.

Also, most importantly the book is funny. I laughed a lot.

“You see why I’m such a good vampire? We’re all lying, devious bastards, not like werewolves, if there are werewolves, whose MO is, “Hi, I’m a werewolf, surprise! And fuck you!” No, we lurk. We’re lurkers.”
 
There might be better examples but the book is laced with funny observations that reminded me of the Stephen Graham Jones werewolf novel Mongrels. The Lesser Dead is a good novel but a great audiobook if that distinct makes sense then you will understand what I am trying to tell you.

Book Review: The Day of the Burning by Barry N. Malzberg

 

The Day of the Burning by Barry N Malzberg

166 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published October, 1974

I just read and reviewed a Malzberg book in the last month, so I will do a little bit of history and background as I normally do. I suppose you could be reading this review without having read my others so I am going to have to review some of that. If you are old school fan of the 60s and 70s new wave then I don’t need to tell you. It seems like the man published a thousand books so somebody was reading him.  

For a few years there Malzberg was falling out of the memory of the science fiction scene. As a lover of the weird and political SF, I didn’t hear his name until I was in a used book in Victoria Canada when I first heard of him. shout-out to the late great bookseller Robert Garfat who convinced me to buy Malzberg’s classic Beyond Apollo when I asked him if he had any Norman Spinrad.

Since that day in 2007, the amount of respect given to this incredible author has steadily increased. Anti-Oedipus Press has re-issued four of Malzberg’s classic novels and more are on the way. Author Laird Barron listed his story Transfer as one of his top ten horror stories of all time. Book Pilled the very popular Book-tubers has recently reviewed a few of Malzberg’s novels and called him one of his new favorite authors. In our small way, The Dickheads just recorded our third Malzberg episode, two of which are rare interviews this time, and we got him on Zoom! (watch-out for Dickheads on SoundCloud and YouTube for the new one.)

I don’t really think you pin down what a Malzberg book feels like to read. He was a surreal writer at times, who told us he would add rocket ships in his stories if they needed to sell. I would compare his writing to JG Ballard. The reason he is not as respected or considered high literature. It doesn’t hurt Ballard that Spielberg made a movie of his autobiography, and two major films based on his work. Malzberg has no Crash, Blade Runner or I Am Legend for the normies to say oh OK I know that.

The Day of Burning is not even as known in SF circles as Malzberg classics so I kinda chose it at random because it was short and I could digest it quickly before we had Barry on the Zoom call. It is not as biting as some of his novels like Beyond Apollo which is a scathing look at the space program and makes clear how insane the idea of going out into space is. Destruction of the Temple is a scathing look at American culture during the era when three major figures were assassinated in public. In contrast, The Day of the Burning is a funny book. It is not Douglas Adams funny, but it was certainly a comedy peppered with intense political messaging.

One of a couple of novels inspired by a few years working at a welfare office in New Jersey it is certainly a case of writing what you know. The main character is George who finds one of his co-workers Bowman just happens to be a Galactic Overlord. When he decides to reveal this they have a series of hilarious conversations.

“You mean in other words, you mean all along you’ve been an alien from another planet or universe on a mission of observation and now your going to come to the point and tell me what you’ve been after all along.”
“Don’t confuse planets and universes.”

Inspired by Barry’s day job making decisions on who got welfare benefits and not the Galactic Overlords sent Bowman to watch George and determine if the human race was worthy to live.  It all appears to come down to how he handles one family.

The absolute best part of the novel is the news reports from the “all-news stations” The rambling news reports say so much that I think that is the reason to read the book. Those chapters have a little prophecy going on even all-news network in 1974. I could three pages straight from 104-108 but let's just do this little tidbit because it is something we need to talk about.

 “The all-news station is nothing if not deeply involved with the human condition. They manifest human concern, a wide range of special interest stories competing with the Venus expedition for placement in the cycle of events. A panel has been convened in Oregon to discuss and evaluate the causes of rioting in the seven cities last month…”

The novel takes place in 1981 just seven years after it is published so no way anyone could foresee a future (even science fictional)  where our astronauts when be heading to Venus or Mars. I overthought it a bit – Is this a surreal alternate universe? I asked Barry and he shrugged and said, “I was adding rocket ships.” It is fine but it did take me out of the narrative just a little bit.
Even though he has the character in the first person narrative saying I know this is out of nowhere the very detailed sex scenes just really didn’t fit here.

The Day of the Burning is not the best Malzberg, but it is a fun and interesting read. Different and unique not the product you would read from anyone else. That said I don’t think it is one you should move heaven and earth to find. It would be a used copy and that doesn’t help Barry. So if you are wondering which Malzberg to read start with the titles published by Anti-Oedipus Press.

People's Park Book Launch/ 2024 Solar Eclipse trip journal

 2024 Eclipse Trip!

 Thanks to flight chaos I am stuck overnight in the Indianapolis airport waiting for a 5:30 am flight back to California. It has given me time to reflect on this trip. I did a very minimal celebration for my 50th birthday despite it being the big one. I find this trip was the celebration. I have been planning this trip since I traveled to Carbondale for the eclipse in 2017. It was amazing, and I was hooked. I knew I wouldn’t miss a chance to have that experience in my hometown Bloomington Indiana. 

 In March 2019 while visiting my family in Bloomington I started writing a novel called People’s Park. I had hoped to find a home for it sooner but when Keith Giles at Quoir offered to publish it in the summer of 2023 I told him we had to wait a year. I had a plan to do the book launch in Bloomington Indiana. You see I knew I wanted to have the book launch the day before the eclipse and I had that date circled in my mind since 2024.

 

In 2017 when I told my Dad I was coming back to in 2024 to watch it with him, sadly he told me he was pretty sure he wouldn’t be here. I thought about that as I slept in the guest room that had been his office. I really wish he could’ve been here but I had a great time hanging out with my Stepmother Susan who went way overboard to make the trip awesome and was super supportive of the book launch.

 The night before the book launch my Dickheads podcast co-host and Editor/Publisher of my next book D.Harlan Wilson arrived. Since most of our hangs are Zoom/phone it was fun to hang out with him. We hung out with Judge Rothenberg who co-hosts my top Reads of the Year podcast with me every year. We gave Professor Wilson a walking tour of Bloomington and the IU campus.  We shot promo video stuff in People’s Park. 

 

 

DHW and I went for dinner with Susan we had a fun evening that included signing the contract for Unfinished PKD coming from the EXEGETICS: PKD STUDIES series that DHW will be editing through his Anti-Oedipus Press label. When I opened the Word document and started this book, my first non-fiction book, DHW was my dream editor. I think this book needs him. 

 

 

In the morning, we met Issa Clean Fun (who flew from LA) to do the eclipse with me for breakfast at the Owlery. Vegan pancakes. In explaining how Issa from DC and I were friends we had to explore straight-edge hardcore to DHW. That was fun. 

 The book launch was held at The Monroe County History Center, which is in the old library building. The event space is home to an amazing exhibit on the history of 80s Punk rock in Bloomington. That same room was home to punk rock shows. Some famous bands played on the stage where we held the book talk. TSOL, Toxic Reasons, Samhain, and The Red Chili Peppers to name a few. Since the book is about the history of Bloomington, and the history of the underground culture to have the book event and exhibit at the same was just beyond perfect.

 

 

The talk was D. Harlan Wilson interviewing me about People’s Park. (A podcast recording of the event will be up soon). We had 30 chairs set up and the museum had to keep putting out chairs, the crowd was great. Many faces I didn’t know, and plenty of old friends, many I had not seen in decades. I sold out of books and I think people enjoyed the talk. 

 

 

We said goodbye to Professor Wilson but gained Fn’ Dave one of my very good friends and favorite humans. Dave was staying to eclipse with Issa and me. After the book launch, we watched the Iowa-South Carolina Women’s Basketball Championship with my sister’s family.

 Issa and Dave had mutual friends from the Argentina hardcore scene. We got some vegan pizza and decided to go see the Dev Patel Monkey Man in the theater. This was fun for me, these are two of my favorite movie friends. Dave and I have probably seen a hundred movies together over the years, but Issa and always talk about movies never have seen a movie in the theater together. It wasn’t the greatest movie, but Dave and I have a habit of laughing at wildly violent moments in action movies, and it was an oddly comforting feeling for me to hear FN’Dave’s distinctive laugh when Dev Patel bit someone’s nose off in the movie. 

 The drive back to the house was a fun conversation exactly how I knew it would go. Issa and I were re-writing the movie explaining how we would fix the structure of the movie, Dave explained the political angles that went over our heads. 

 

In the morning. Eclipse day. The sun poking through the window woke me up. I got a better look, clear perfect skies and rain and clouds the day before (and after). I ran a mile on the treadmill, and excitedly woke up Issa who looked at me like I was crazy. FN Dave and I got started on Bagels and Magic Tofu! After a fun conversation with Susan explaining Philip K. Dick, the hardcore scene, and growing up punk in the old school. 

 IF YOU JUST WANT THE ECLIPSE STORY START HERE:

 

 Noon came and we wanted to get to our spot. We drove downtown and found IU astronomy at Dunn Meadow but there was a bit of a student party atmosphere going on.  We decided to spend the eclipse at the Janeway Statue. You see according to the canon of Star Trek Katherine Janeway was born and grew up in Bloomington Indiana. (A few years ago a group of folks called the Janeway collective) got a statue built in her honor next to the Wonderlab children’s science center. Seemed like the place to be. Peter Kaczmarczyk was holding down the fort as one of the founders passing out Janeway collective stickers.

 

It absolutely was. 10/10 experience. First off there was a crew supporting “Mr. Eclipse of Iran.” He was there for his 16th solar eclipse (including the north and south pole). He live streams in Persian. Talking with him about the eclipse was one of my favorite things. He had an amazing telescope on the sun that was streaming. 

 

I had Macguyered my astronomical binoculars with eclipse shades and was able to see multiple sunspots of the face of the sun. Looking through Mr. Eclipse’s telescope we saw lots of solar flares/ red coronal ejections. 

 What I was not prepared for was how many Star Trek fans came from all over the country to be in Bloomington at the Janeway Statue. I talked to one guy who drove from Vancouver Washington (stopping in Riverside Iowa at Kirk’s hometown), Minnesota, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Columbus Ohio, and Chicago. That is just who I talked to. I am seeing posts on Star Trek Shitposting of people I didn’t meet. 

 The best was this family who came from Chicago. I spoke to the father and he said his young daughter insists they watch Voyager and if they put on other Trek she yells Janeway at them. With his permission, I filmed a short interview with her. We are hoping to get to Kate Mulgrew. The interview and her family:

 

We had a large crowd around. Being surrounded by Trekkies was great, as the moon got closer we noticed the temperature drop at 90% totality, with crescent shadows under the trees, at 95% there was less to notice than my 2017 experience, that time I was on the edge of woods so I noticed more of the wildlife reactions. 

 I shot a video (not of the sun it wouldn’t come out, but it is of the last three minutes before and during totality. We were joking about Asimov’s Nightfall, get excited.  So you can hear me freaking out, swearing a bunch Issa reminding me to not swear in front of children. It was interesting because when it happened it was a powerful, beautiful majestic, and spiritual event just like 2017, but different. When I was explaining the experience I didn’t realize how different it would be from 2017.  If you zoom in Fn Dave took this with an Iphone. you can see Venus.

 

 2017 in Carbondale was much darker, you could see many stars that day. In 2024 the sky was not as dark, we could only see Venus and Jupiter. My best guess is that the shadow cast by the sun was thinner. We could see sunlight on the horizon to the east and west. Which was super awesome. We could see red coronal ejections coming off the top and the bottom of the sun. That did not happen in 2017. You could really see them with my Binoculars. It was four minutes of beauty. Mister Eclipse of Iran a vet of 16 of these said the Corona was very big. If you cannot be moved by the wondrous powers of the universe under the shadow of the moon I don't understand. I was screaming my face off out of pure joy - not a thing I do. I shared a cry with Mr. Eclipse of Iran (I got a video of our reactions) and he had me emotional. As I sit overnight in the airport waiting for a delayed flight I wouldn't change a thing. Northern Spain 2026????

 When I finish editing my videos I will add them.

Book Review: A Man Lies Dreaming by Lavie Tidhar

 

A Man Lies Dreaming by Lavie Tidhar

307 pages, Hardcover Published March, 2016 by Melville House

Locus Award Nominee for Best Fantasy Novel (2015), Geffen Award Nominee for Best Translated Science Fiction Book (2019), British Fantasy Award Nominee for Best Fantasy Novel (Robert Holdstock Award) (2015), The Kitschies Nominee for Inky Tentacle (Cover Art) (2014)

I have made no secret of the fact that I respect the work of Lavie Tidhar who I consider to be one of the best Science fiction writers of modern day science fiction. It is a little bit of bullshit because Lavie will be the first to tell you that he doesn’t write modern science fiction. I mean he is writing it now but more than any other writer of today his writing feels like I was sent through a wormhole from a different era. 

He mentioned this book when I interviewed him recently about his latest science fiction novels and said that he knew these books were not for everyone. That is sorta a hilarious understatement. I really enjoy works of daring ballsy fucking gall. In science Fiction Spinrad’s The Iron Dream and Malzberg’s Beyond Apollo come to mind. I also think  the movie In a Glass Cage is a great example, it is a 1986 Spanish horror film written and directed by Agustí Villaronga, that is about an ex-Nazi child molester who is now paralyzed and depending on an iron lung to live.  A Man Lies Dreaming is bold as hell, as in I can’t believe this happened..

 The idea that this major release is a noir detective story about Hitler as a private eye in 1940s London swapping in Chandler’s LA for immigrant Hitler in London…Damn. The thing is this might be one of the best novels to deconstruct Hitler. Using the unique tools of fantasy and science fiction to explore the deep trauma of Nazism is one thing but Tidhar is also using the tropes and style of the Detective novel. 

Set in London in the 1940s after communism took over Germany and many of the Nazis took off to England. One reason this novel is uncomfortable for the English is it explores a not so post colonial England that embraces the escaped Nazis. Tidhar who lives in England is not so out of bounds when you think of the popularity of the national front in the 70s and 80s.

The novel starts when the typical Femme Fatal type hires Wolf, a German detective to investigate a murder. If you were reading the novel cold it wouldn’t immediately be clear that the PI was the leader of National socialism who lost the 1933 election and left Germany when the ruling communists came after him. Judith Rubinstein hints that Wolf was the thing of nightmares, that she had been so frightened of him. This is such a smart subtle way of introducing one of the most notorious figures of history as your protagonist. Not an easy thing.

There is a reading of this novel that is a straight detective novel featuring a mystery, and detective. The setting of this alternate world is not exactly science fiction or even fantasy because it could’ve happened and unlike Man in High Castle it doesn’t even have Nazis on Mars. Lavie Tishar hits the tropes.

“...it is a truth universally acknowledged, that once a detective acquires two concurrent cases, the two must be in some way related. I call it Wolf's Law.”

The narrative framing device of a pulp writer suffering in Auschwitz who dreams up this detective story that forces Wolf to confront his views, even having to become Jewish essentially to investigate the crime.  Wolf is still Adolf Hitler at his heart.

“A gentleman killed with bullets, the state with gas. Only a madman used a knife.”

Tidhar has the unique tool to investigate Hitler, similar to Spinrad’s Iron Dream that explored Nazism by looking at how Hitler would have written a fantasy novel. That novel savaged Tolkein at the same time, this novel in my opinion takes shots at the colonial attitudes of the time, just as much as it look as how failed Nazis would rebuild their lives.

“ I sat straight in the chair. One did not see the swastika much, any more. In Germany It had been banned by the new communist regime. In England it was irrelevant.”

It is important to consider what this novel says about how irrelevant the Nazis appeared after losing the 1933 election. Hitler was the author of one book, in this universe no one was reading Mein Kampf, and no one saw them as a threat. Certainly the cammo jacket red hat  putsch on January 6th I assumed that for agent orange here in the States. It may have been wishful thinking that Hitler would become a down on his luck private dic, and not retain followers but this is the genius of this novel.  

They are Nazis after all. Without the final solution to force the world to confront anti-semitism the question becomes will we get there without it, or how long will the hatred of Jews fester unconfronted.

“Wolf said: “Palestine?” The word left an unpleasant taste in his mouth.

“They want it for themselves. A land for Jews. They demand parliament cede it to them. Just imagine. Next thing you know the Indians will be demanding independence, or blacks in…” he waved his hand vaguely “Bongo Bong Land. Can you imagine, Wolf?”

I know it is hard to divorce the baggage of what is Israel happening in Palestine at the moment.  Racism in all its forms are not gone, but certainly they were still accepted and common in this era. A subtle reminder that the Nazis never made us consider subhuman to have their own lands and the idea was still in the back of their minds. 

The most subversive element of this novel with such a bold novel comes in the final act when the agents of the United States enter the picture.  It is hilarious in a sense because the US barely exists in the fictional worlds of Lavie Tidhar almost never mentioned. His SF is stronger for it. But in this novel they play a major role.

“You could go back to Germany,” Virgil said, his voice as slow and treacly as honey. “You could lead again.”

“Lead?”

“Lead Germany. Resurrect National Socialism!”  

“You’re mad.” Wolf said.

Oh boy some readers would hate this, but think about how the US has behaved in the 20th century. They would not be above supporting the failed Nazis with nothing more than the goal to disrupt the growth of Soviet influence. They simply benefit from the chaos between two political systems fighting. Like it or not the racist 1940s US government would have no problem tapping Hitler and saying have another go.

“A putsch,” Wolf said.

“An assisted regime change,” Virgil said.

“You can do that?”

You bet your sweet ass we can! At least,” Virgil amended, with a fetal grin, “we can try.”

“Get your filthy hands off me, American.”

It is also not hard to believe that Hitler would be skeptical. This scene however is one that takes an interesting concept and really pushes it to an extreme. Something that I think is fair and powerful.

A Man Lies Dreaming really is a fantastical detective novel, more fantasy than SF, More alternate history than SF. That said it should be on the SF shelves for its nature as a novel of an unexplored world or universe. You don’t have to go to Ceti Alpha Five, you can go to this other earth to find the rich elements of the genre.

I don’t say masterpiece lightly and this is a masterpiece in multiple genres. More than anything it is a masterpiece of how the hell did this get published. A masterpiece of wow, that author went there. 

Book Review: The Intruder by Charles Beaumont

 

The Intruder by Charles Beaumont 

352 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1959

I have recently been reading the mainstream novels of Philip K. Dick for the podcast. One of the realities of his career is that he tried and failed to write out of the SF genre. It was a constant source of pain and frustration that it didn’t appear to go anywhere in his lifetime; the novels only saw print after he died. In contrast, Walter Tevis (the author of The Man Who Fell to Earth) achieved that balance by publishing classics in genre and out (The Hustler/Queen’s Gambit). So, I became interested in mainstream novels by genre authors.  

Hence this hardcore novel of realism and racism from the 50s by Charles Beaumont who is most often remembered for writing multiple classic episodes of the Twilight Zone.  I had seen the movie The Intruder Directed by a young Roger Corman and starring William Shatner so I was not devoid of knowledge about the story. I remembered some details but mostly how good Shatner was.

In case you don’t know the sad story of Charles Beaumont. Born in Chicago in 1929 he sold his first story to Amazing Stories at 21 years after dropping out of high school. Eventually ending up in LA joining the ranks of a local community of writers that included Ray Bradbury, William F. Nolan, Richard Matheson, and George Clayton Johnson. Beaumont quickly sold stories to mainstream outlets like Playboy and Esquire. He wrote films such as The Premature Burial (1962), Burn, Witch, Burn (1962), The Haunted Palace (1963), and The Masque of the Red Death (1964).  At the age of 38 he died looking more like an old man dying from many hard-to-identify health conditions.
In the middle of this period, the one novel published under his name was The Intruder. A novel called Run from the Hunter written under a pen name is considered by many to be the inspiration for The Fugitive a show he wrote for.

Published in 1959 just one year after the Supreme Court battles over the desegregation battle in Little Rock.  The Intruder is written not with the hindsight of history but torn from the headlines feeling present. Also, the point of view of the novel makes it a very uncomfortable read at times.  The first 80 pages present the racist attitudes naturally in a way that I don’t think a modern writer would do. There is no African American characters or perspectives until that point, and the lead character puts forward his attitudes without question.  When you read the entire book and watch the faithful film adaptation you’ll see Beaumont was on the side of justice but it is a rough read at first. The casual racism of the characters is a shock now.
 
 I had seen William F. Nolan the author speak at conferences about his experience being what he described as extra in the movie written by his late friend Charles Beaumont. (more on that later) Reading this book was an interesting experience for sure. I want to talk about both the novel and the film. Why they are important not just as an artifact of a pre-civil rights bill novel about racism but the counterpoint it provides to the much more famous To Kill a Mockingbird and why it was a very interesting read paired with Tananarive Due’s recent bestseller “The Reformatory.” (which I just reviewed)

The book has the same problem that To Kill a Mockingbird has in the sense that the story of southern racism is told through white characters almost exclusively That is where the contrast with The Reformatory a modern novel by a black author about the Jim Crow South is so different. (and frankly better)

The Intruder is the story of Adam Cramer who is based on John Kasper who was a Ku Klux Klan member and a segregationist who took a militant stand against racial integration during the civil rights movement. Kasper tried to create a third party to fight integration which he said was now supported by both parties. He ran in the 1964 Presidential election with J.B. Stoner but only got a few votes. So think about that his activism inspired this book and even after William Shatner played him in a frightening performance (one of his best) this asshole ran for President.

 The movie is a faithful adaptation written by the novelist himself, so if I talk interchangeably about them that is why. The only changes are mostly due to budget concerns. Only four professional actors appear in the movie. Beaumont himself has to play the principal of the school who is a woman in the novel.

Adam Cramer is a slick handsome man who comes from LA manipulates this southern town and causes violence against the black community. Beaumont wants to show how this outsider can come to town and exploit the town’s bubbling racism into violence. A modern novel would have shown an ideal little town and the title character would make them do out-of-character things. The thing about this novel is the town in the Intruder is a bad place. An openly racist town even some of the characters who play icky white savior roles are bigots who are against integration, they just want to "follow the law."
 
Once we finally get black characters we are introduced to how segregated the town geographically speaking.  Tom McDaniel is a newspaperman who has figures from both sides of the debate trying to manipulate him and his paper. Published a year before Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mocking Bird which is a classic taught in school I wondered why the Newspaper man, not Adam Cramer was the focus of the story.

I thought a lot about why To Kill a Mockingbird is a classic, taught in schools and The Intruder is almost lost to time. Both novels have the white savior problem, Tom Mcdaniels almost dies for walking the white students to school, and the Principal risks his/her life to protect the black students. The thing is the Intruder doesn’t have heroes in the same way. Atticus Finch teaches us tolerance, whereas Beaumont’s novel is more of a warning.  Not exactly a feel-good book.

The Intruder is not must read unless you are a serious Twilight Zone fans or the writers of the LA Sorcerers scene. It is a good novel and an important artifact of this scene and a time in history. It is a painful read at times but that is intentional.    

Side note:

As someone who teaches and writes about the history of Science Fiction, I want to point out that the DIY shoestring nature of the film meant that Beaumont was drafting friends to join the film including William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson who play two of the worst racists in the town even burning down a black church. The most interesting thing about that is that the same team would write and publish the SF classic Logan’s Run six years later. Here they are:

Watch the movie free here:

Book Review: Destruction of the Temple by Barry N. Malzberg

 Destruction of the Temple by Barry N. Malzberg

159 pages, Paperback

First published February, 1974

When I read this, I didn’t know I would be getting the author back on the Dickheads Podcast, I just selected it randomly off the shelf as a Malzberg novel I hadn’t yet read and was eager to give it a shot. Just after I finished it Barry reached out to me about a not super favorable review of his novel The Last Transaction.  Despite my review, he was excited that I wrote about it, and we had a cool exchange over e-mail about this old book. Let's face it an author who wrote as much as Barry did in his day is not going to have a perfect batting record.

Barry Malzberg is a science fiction writer who wrote under multiple names publishing more SF stories and novels in the 60s and 70s than entire basketball teams’ worth of writers. He also held jobs at several major publishers, agents, and more. His position in the community is unique. His book of essays about the genre is a must-read for sure.

Reviewing a book that is essentially a fever dream commenting on a cultural-political experience from a decade fifty years in the rearview mirror is an interesting task for a science reader. DOTT is a thought experiment using science fictional concepts to explore the craziness in a culture that had multiple powerful leaders assassinated in the public eye in a short period.  While the JFK assassination gets the most attention in this novel, the cover has Lee Harvey Oswald, Martin Luther King, and a clown-faced President Johnson in the image. The themes are pretty clear.

DOTT is everything I read Malzberg for. It is a very post-New Wave work of Science Fiction. Strange almost to the point of bizarro, the narrative is somewhat confusing in the opening act, if you don’t read the back and go in cold it will be confusing. This might be different for others but that is how I felt. That said I was never bored. I wanted to understand what was happening so I kept reading.
Set in post-war New York we are thrown into the middle of a stage play recreating the JFK assassination over and over again. Our point of view character is the director but at some point realizes he is suddenly in the play, maybe he has traveled through time, and he is reliving the events. The surreal events of the novel highlight the chaos of the era expanded into an alternate future.

This narrative is chaos itself in many ways, but when Malzberg drills down on the driving scenes or the news narrative there are entire chapters of incredible prose. It makes you think this guy had all the chops of a PKD or a Ballard but without the Hollywood attention, his genius is recognized by serious fans and scholars.

“In the abscess of a dreaming space of America: taking the night roads out of the city, opening up the car to eighty-five on the straightaways, dodging the curves at a cutback to fifty-five, other cars approaching and disappearing like half-hunks of image skewered in dreams. Nothing else. If we and other cars meet- explosion, impaction, terrific wrenching, and then nothing else, ever but the cars seem to have no more existence than the speed which I push out of the vehicle, lunging it finally into a straight careening dive from the rise on which we have momentarily looked at America.

Looked at America and now fall to merge with it: Wonder Waffles and Sam’s Super bar, Dick’s drive in and Killer Cars hitting out their great spokes of light toward the land, the spokes of that great wheel called the land, knifing out the plains and darkness in their colors, the wheel like a knife in the hands, the old car failing in thrusts of power on those turns, but giving all it has left: three cylinders, forty-five horse powers on the open roads.”  

I love this moment of prose but if you are looking for a mission statement. On page 134…

“This country is going to blow up. Something opens in my mind like curtains parting, I see fires, hear the sounds of shooting, the still doomed sense of panic rising and in this vision, I see only the death of my country but my own as well, the two intermingled; it must always be this way because driving the interstate I am the county.”

DOTT is a surreal rage directed at the fragile nature of a country that did survive, and in wave after wave fell victim to cultural violence. It might seem like the novel would not have the same impact but it is a science fictional lens worth looking into. The issues are dated but the theme of a fragile democracy is sadly still a thing. Malzberg should be respected as any of the masters writing in that era.