"The Day the Icicle Works Closed" by Frederik Pohl & The Icicle Works (Band)

 First appeared in H. L. Gold's Galaxy. Reprinted in a retrospective by Isaac Asimov and Martin H. Greenberg. A British band, The Icicle Works, borrowed the name for their name. Both Lester del Rey and James Frenkel collected this as one of Pohl's best.

Summary:

A lawyer, Milo Pulchur wants to understand what is really happening to young people who have been arrested for kidnapping in order to escape their homeworld, Altair Nine. What they are doing to make money and a chance misunderstanding (of who Milo is) leads him to understand what is going on.

 

Discussion (part 1 -- the Title: meaning for the story and the band):

1.a. The Story

It's hard to say what Pohl meant by the title. The icicle works is an excuse to explore a completely different idea. Even "Day" could mean the day or a period of time though it must mean the later since the actual day is irrelevant to story. It probably should say "the day after" so that consequences after the death (rather, so called "death") of industries could be discussed.  

Apparently on Altair Nine ("Altair," some sources say, is a falcon; some a flying eagle. Google Translate simply calls it "birds" which coincides nicely with The Icicle Works most famous song "Birds Fly"--however, the "Nine" suggests eight others had this same idea or perhaps that they are the eighth colony of the original Altair planet), ice formed around airborne organic particles with antibiotic properties and fell as snow. This was presumably processed by the icicle works and became the planet's only export. A way of processing the chemicals synthetically called the Gumpert Process made the exports unnecessary. However, it doesn't make sense that a distant planet would export such a chemical over interstellar distances and hope to make  a profit unless it was insanely pricey and had insanely valuable antibiotic. That Pohl dreamed up and killed this industry suggests he was less interested in the industry than in the consequences for its lose. 

Because the industry is a larger part of the title than it contributes to the story itself, a term which sounds absurd without the elaborate explanation, suggests that Pohl may have had other intentions such as creating 1) a mystery, 2) a joke, 3) a mood, 4) a culture, 5) readerly estrangement, 6) some combination of the above.

1.b. Icicle Works, the Band 

The band The Icicle Works seem to have chosen it for similar reasons. In a 1984 interview, lead singer/guitarist/keyboard player Ian McNabb, said he liked "silly names" for bands. He called the book "nonsense," which may or may not be dismissive of the work, but it sounded like it, which is odd since Pohl may have used the term in the same way. On the other hand, perhaps "nonsense" was the sense he was seeking--or sense through nonsense. It may be that McNabb himself never read it, but a band member had. Or maybe he'd loved science fiction (as a 2023 interview suggests by a band putting on an act with an SF theme) and just went perusing books for a title that fit what they were trying to do.

Their top British charting single (#15), for instance--"Love Is a Wonderful Colour"--shows a kind of lyrical synesthesia (if one could transfer an emotion to a color), creating a kind of, in SF terms, estrangement. It treads near but isn't nonsense, asking people to return to love after difficulties.

"Birds Fly (Whisper to a Scream)" is perhaps their most famous in the world, charting in the Top 40 for the US and Top 20 for Canada, having appeared in Stranger Things (season 2). The title originally was Elvis Costello's, but they took off the "From" which opens it more meanings (or perhaps none). At least part of their modus operandi seems to be thwarting meaning, but there may be some sense of self-definition, of encompassing/accepting all emotions. Perhaps the lyrics are of the type that allows the listener to pour in their own feelings and come up with their own meaning.

Pohl's story didn't seem to have an immediate impact on the genre except for del Rey who first selected it as one of his best. Even then, it didn't see a reprint until after the band's appearance, which Pohl quite rightly took some pride in, especially since it had moderate impact on the culture in the early 80s. The band, too, should probably embrace its namesake.

Discussion (part 2 -- the story itself -- spoilers):

What happens when an area's industry, known for this one thing, dies?

There a number of ghost towns that may be one answer, if not the primary one. Perhaps Pohl is exploring the process before it becomes a ghost planet. People are resorting to crimes in order to survive and escape. But even the rich are resorting to crime in this case. Using the poor who are selling their bodies as victims for whatever they plan to do while in this disguise.

However, it turns out the Gumpert Process is a sham, rigged so that the real criminal could buy up shares in the company. For some reason, this gets the kidnappers off the hook for their crime (presumably they would not have tried to kidnap if it hadn't been for the true criminal).

I'm not sure if I've seen this SF trope of "riders" from this angle before. This may be why Lester del Rey chose it, and part of the reason why Asimov and Greenberg chose it for theirs.

It may not be one of the greats of SF, but certainly one of the more inventive and fascinating.

The British TV Mystery -- Successes, Drawbacks

 

The British are known not just for their rich literary history but also for their mysteries: Sherlock Holmes, Miss Marple, Hercules Poirot. It's their most common export to American television.

My parents used to stay up to watch British mysteries--a highlight of their Sunday evenings--preferring their intellectual engagement over the American variety although they watched American variety as well. Dad, despite or because of having been in the FBI, never lost his penchant for police investigations.

Mom, however, has become a powerful story-telling barometer. If the story is good enough, she'll stay awake. If not, she sleeps. It's not that she does this intentionally, but a good story will keep her up. Show her a literary adaptation, and she'll remain rapt.

Now why should she still love British mysteries if half lull her to sleep? One thing they're selling is their culture. What is ordinary life in England like? They often will show a pub, a committee meeting, a family home, a school house, a police department. Whatever. How aware they are of this? Keenly? Or not so much? Americans at least recognize it as one sponsor is a cruise line that briefly advertises at the beginning and end of a show. So the mystery is a vicarious travelogue.

Clearly, this alone, however, won't hold one's attention

There's almost always a status quo scene, which American shows may skip. But it plays a vital part of setting up the story. Now if done right, the status quo scene(s) can hold one's attention. An episode of Midsomar Murders Spanish dance scene at a local dance hall that held fairly strong tension as people displayed their attitudes. This led into the first murder. 

These status-quo scenes can be rich and powerful opportunities not just for culture, but also character, which can make the mystery memorable. But sometimes the British mysteries trudge a bit too slowly--I'd qualify this "for American taste" but how is that we remain rapt for the British literary adaptation? 

Beside tension and characters, another powerful draw is the unraveling through-thread that provides a pull throughout the story. It is the scaffolding that allows us to cobble together the story from the investigation. Take the compelling game of the power of attorney in "Sauce for the Goose." While the murder itself may be absurdly improbable, the unraveling of this game of power is riveting.

I'll come back to this topic again later.

"The Winds of Harmattan" by Nnedi Okorafor

First appeared in Nalo Hopkinson's Mojo: Conjure Stories. Reprinted by David Farland.

Nalo Hopkinson's anthology was about personal magic, using it to alter fate, which she described as "tricky, powerful, and often dangerous." Nnedi Okorafor's offering repays careful reading. It's trickier than its simple appearance.

Asuquo, the protagonist, is an alluring young woman, but she has the undesirable "seven glistening locks of dada hair" which made her a child of Mami Wata, the water deity who would come to collect and thought to be barren. Worse, she can fly. Her husband ties her down to keep her from flying away. She will become a legend, but even that will be rewritten.

What's wonderful here is the challenge it presents. It seems a typical feminist tale, but there are things that it accepts, rejects, or doesn't question, that should leave everyone uncomfortable, no matter what the perspective, which is exactly what Asuquo represents within her village--something that cannot be tamed or forced into a box. Any particular reading will have to ignore some details in order to make a case for forwarding a particular agenda. It has all sorts of barbs that makes it "tricky, powerful, and often dangerous."

“The Man Who Sold Rope to the Gnoles” by Margaret St. Clair

My first, briefer response (and with a slightly different perspective) I recorded here.

Written under the pen name of Idris Seabright, it first appeared in F&SF and was reprinted in a few major retrospectives by Isaac Asimov, Terry Carr, Martin H. Greenberg, David G. Hartwell and Robert Silverberg.

Summary

A salesman, new at his trade, having just finished reading his manual (the narrator warns us that he fails to pay attention to the sales rule concerning “tact and keen power of observation”), goes to sell rope to gnoles, a people who live at the end of Terra Cognita. The senior gnole, with multifaceted jewels for eyes, indicates that he doesn’t understand spoken languages, so through pantomime, they make a promising agreement about a purchase.

Commentary with Spoilers

In the nineties, SFWA writers considered this one of the top thirty fantasy stories in a fifty-odd year period. Hartwell included it as a “masterpiece” (according to the title of his collection). Who am I to disagree? I will say I’d recommend swapping this with “Brenda” [see discussion in this review. Page to second story. Whenever my mind reels back to this story, all of her other works pale--wonderful character, wonderful speculation, and a thoughtful piece].

It’s a simple classic story of cultural misunderstanding. It isn’t greed that is our salesman’s fatal flaw, but simple ignorance. In fact, "tact and keen power of observation" is a bit of distraction, as if he'd failed what we see, but we only see it because the narrator tells us (the narrator, after all, stated that that "may be" the salesman's problem).

He turns down a too-valuable jewel for trade in order to go for two smaller jewels which happen to be the gnole’s alternate pair of eyes, which offends the creature enough to tie up, fatten and slaughter the salesman without torture to be eaten. Was the story selected as one of the best because the victim was a salesman? Or simply for the cultural faux pas so easy for anyone to make?

Martin Greenberg pointed out the correlation between this story and St. Clair’s former occupation in horticulture. Under that lens, this story makes an interesting comparison to her tale “The Gardener” (which is superior in execution if not speculation--I discussed it in this review. Page down) but remains one of her best works, especially at such length, capturing a culture with compact dexterity.

Daisy Miller by Henry James

Daisy Miller by Henry James

Set Up (summary):

The story begins in Vevey, Switzerland where “in the month of June, American travelers are extremely numerous; it may be said, indeed that Vevey assumes at this period some of the characteristics of an American watering place.”  The protagonist, Winterbourne—not the narrator who remains an unnamed first person—meets Daisy Miller, an American free spirit, unencumbered by societal rules. Winterbourne falls for his countrywoman while abroad and tries to educate her in the customs of Europe, which she ignores. At first, she seems to insist on his attending to her, perhaps suggesting her interest, but that changes when an Italian, Giovanelli, courts her without a chaperone, which is scandalous to everyone except Miller’s family. There are hints that maybe if her father had left Schenectady with his family, this would not have occurred, but that’s hard to say. It may be just Winterbourne’s jealousy or the narrator’s opinion.

Discussion with spoilers:

Daisy Miller seems to string both of these young men along although initially she seems to have no interest in Winterbourne. Once she secures Winterbourne’s interest, she mostly ignores him but even then she would entertain both gentlemen at the same time. Although she spends more time with Giovanelli, he doesn’t think she ever loved him, either—at least not enough to marry.

She gets sick and dies. The narrator, Winterbourne, and perhaps Giovanelli himself to a degree think this is due to taking her out on the town during late hours. If only she’d been chaperoned....

This could be read as a morality tale: Follow the ancient customs of the foreign land you find yourself in. In fact, some critics put James into that category, pointing out that the author defended writing about customs:

“[I]t takes an old civilization to set a novelist in motion – a proposition that seems to me so true as to be a truism. It is on manners, customs, usages, habits, forms, upon all these things matured & established, that a novelist lives – they are the very stuff his work is made of.”

But this doesn’t take into account the frame story. Why develop the frame story at all? Keep Winterbourne the protagonist and have him lament at the funeral. Instead, there’s more complexity here. Furthermore, just because an author prefers European customs in his fiction doesn’t mean he has to follow them in his theme.

The narrator’s identity is shrouded, but perhaps he is not American and/or not young, saying of the protagonist: “in whatever fashion the young American looked at things.” At one point, describing details about the protagonist, he writes, “I hardly know” although later writes commandingly about the details. He speaks for instance of the man’s friends who would say he is “studying” at Geneva—the narrator’s quote which suggests he knows the young man intimately although intriguingly. He writes:

“When his enemies spoke of him, they said—but, after all he had no enemies; he was an extremely amiable fellow, and universally liked.”

It’s possible that Winterbourne has no enemies, but consider his name and that Daisy Miller found him “stiff.” Perhaps the narrator knows what the enemies would say and catches himself and feigns that Winterbourne has none. Certainly, the author wants us to catch the hiccup or he’d have cut this from the story (unless James were too lazy to edit, which seems improbable for a writer held in high regard).

This dialogue with Daisy Miller’s young, little brother suggests his family’s attitude toward Europe or at least a key interpretive passage (Winterbourne has just told the child to be careful with his teeth, eating sugar):

“I haven’t got any teeth to hurt. They have all come out. I have only got seven teeth. My mother counted them last night, and came out right afterward. She said she’d slap me if any more came out. I can’t help it. It’s this old Europe. It’s the climate that makes them come out. In America they didn’t come out. It’s these hotels.”

How do we take this? Is this a natural process that would happen anyway, no matter where he was?  Given that his sister dies due to climate, does the boy have a grain of truth? Yet he says “I haven’t got any teeth to hurt” while admitting he still has seven teeth. He, perhaps like his sister, discounts his own actions as having an effect on his predicament.

James himself discussed the story with people who spoke of the Daisy-Miller type. It seems to surprise him that his character has been typed. Sociologically, it’s interesting that Miller typified the behavior of some other women—perhaps a woman unready to settle into a marriage but very keen to develop multiple admirers (see Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind although Scarlett did have a man she wanted to marry, but was more than willing to encourage multiple admirers)—but James’s reaction seemed more surprised that his character was not a character but a type, suggesting that the morality was not necessarily his aim.

Giovanelli, for instance, thinks she was “innocent.” This seems likely in multiple senses since when she first encounters Winterbourne she hates European society and doesn’t understand why she didn’t have all the attention she received in the U.S. Like her brother Randolph, she doesn’t see how her actions affect her reception. Before she passes, she tells her mother to tell Winterbourne that she wasn’t engaged to Giovanelli. The mother doesn’t know why that was important to share. There are two possibilities: 1) She realizes belatedly that Winterbourne was the man for her all along, or 2) Winterbourne is her moral conscience and she wants to be remembered as innocent.

The latter seems more likely since she never really seems fully invested in Winterbourne. When she first meets him, she keeps looking around for something else—perhaps the society she has been looking for. Interestingly, at this encounter, Winterbourne is willing to bend the rules of etiquette to pretend they were formally introduced so that he can talk to her (which suggests that breaking societal rules is not really what killed Daisy):

“It seemed to Winterbourne that he had been in a manner presented.”

The narrator says that Winterbourne’s real reason to be in Geneva was being “extremely devoted to a lady who lived there—a foreign lady—a person older than himself.” What is meant here by “foreign”—American? Swiss? neither? Could it be referring to Daisy Miller at this point? Or someone else? This is also how the novel ends: “he is much interested in a very clever foreign lady.” Is this the same foreign lady or a different one? Again, what is “foreign” to an ex-pat living abroad? He does say, “I have lived too long in foreign parts” (yet continues to do so). This indicates that foreign to him is anything not American, perhaps.

Perhaps this indicates that Daisy Miller was more exciting to him than the foreign lady—that he abandons her yet returns when Daisy passes. Perhaps Daisy is the only remarkable episode in his life.

Who is Daisy Miller? She’s a simple flower, ground up and/or who grinds others up. Perhaps they are all ground to a useful purpose to become flour. However, it isn’t clear that these events made anyone wiser.

Ted Chiang on his Work, Translation, Philosophy, and Culture

"To the extent that my work is philosophical fiction, it's not reliant on American culture, and that might make it a good candidate for translation."

--Ted Chiang in The Metahack Interview (interviewed by Avi Solomon). The book is "free" through subscription to Amazon's Kindle Unlimited program.

Reader's Guide to Theodore Sturgeon's "The Hurkle is a Happy Beast"

Summary:  Through a mishap in another dimension, an alien pet is sent through a scientific device that lands the creature outside a school room.  The teacher, Stott and students immediately begin to itch, but Stott spots the being and startles it.  When it returns, he's ready with powdered DDT--only things don't go as either the alien or human had planned.

Commentary:  What a heady shot of ingenuity from such a humble title.  This is good for science students as well cultural studies:  What works well on some organisms, does not work the same for all.  Moreover, how a drug works on one human does work the same in another.  Even within a body, drugs can have different effects on different cells.  The same holds true for those moving between different culture--even within cultures.

Questions:

1. What was your initial impression of the title?
2. How does your interpretation of the word "happy" transform over the course of the story?
3. Contrast how the Lirhtians think to the humans.
4. Who is narrating the story?  Who did you think was narrating it?\
5. How does the narrator get into the mind of the other creatures? (or does it?)
6. What does it mean that both the Lirhtians mistakes turn things toward very different directions?
7. Knowing that the teacher has forty students under his charge, the students are called "animals", the Moscow is discussed with places on Lirht, and the story begins, "Lirht is either in a different universal plane or in another island galaxy. Perhaps these terms mean the same thing," could the story be interpreted differently?
8. If you buy #7, what does it mean that the humans scratch themselves?
9. What does it mean that Stott's actions not only fail but also exacerbate the situation?  Is this not unlike his early overreaction with the ruler?

Selected Bibliography for the story (ISFDB):

1. The Magazine of Fantasy, Fall 1949, ed. Anthony Boucher, J. Francis McComas
2. The Best Science-Fiction Stories: 1950, ed. Everett F. Bleiler, T. E. Dikty
3. The Science Fiction Roll of Honor, ed. Frederik Pohl
4. The Great Science Fiction Stories Volume 11, 1949, ed. Isaac Asimov, Martin H. Greenberg, 
5. The World Treasury of Science Fiction, ed. David G. Hartwell
6. The Perfect Host, ebook

Review: Seeing Red

Seeing Red
The True Story of Blood 

Tanya Lloyd Kyi
Annick Press

As this book is difficult to summarize, I’ll put the primary information up front and follow with details.  Seeing Red is about all things blood, from superstitions to science, from rites to transfusions.  The material is fascinating but loosely related.  Tying all of this disparate material together is a cartoon character, Harker, whom we follow as he learns about blood, runs into vampires.  He has to decide if he wants to join them; meanwhile, the police are hot on their trail after a vampire attacks a man.

Harker makes notes at the end of each chapter--a clever way of reinforcing, reviewing, applying and thinking more deeply about what readers learned.  The author laudably expends much effort on trying to introduce readers to customs through history and around the world, providing a great deal of scope.  Occasional if inadvertent and indirect opining might make some religions or cultures uncomfortable, but the treatments are so minor, cursory, and broad in scope that most won’t notice.  This is recommended for young people with a fascination for the weird and grotesque, young goths in training.  Readers will have a better picture of where we came up some of our ideas about blood.  Even I, who thought he something about blood, was surprised by how his knowledge transformed.

Seeing Red opens with a historical perspective, illustrating some of the stranger notions humans have had.  For instance, while Galen of Turkey noted blood circulated through the body, he assumed it carried aspects of the person’s personality.  Even into the Middle Ages, medical ideas of the Egyptians and Greeks persisted, leading to blood-letting.  Not until the 1800s with microscopic examination of pus did humans begin to see blood differently.

Next, we see how blood played an integral part in ancient and current religions. The Mayans who used royal blood for harvests and the Aztecs were famously brutal in their open-heart surgeries.  Of course, brutality knew no bounds as we venture to France where the marrow houses the soul and heads of your enemies make nice knick-knacks for your home.  But blood plays a role in today’s religions as well:  in India, in the Catholic church communion, in Santeria and in a Shiite Muslim ritual celebrating a doomed battle.

From there we proceed to rites of passage where in Papua New Guinea young men go through rites to rid themselves of their mother’s blood.  Elsewhere: whipping matches in West Africa and tattoos in Polynesia, lion baiting in Africa, and literally pinning wings to your chest in the US military.

When girls, on the other hand, have periods, in some countries they are treated like goddesses or in others as dirty and disobedient to God.  The isolation can either be seen as punishment or a break from daily duties. Menstrual blood has been seen as protective, healing and poisonous.

People around the world--from England to China to the Arctic--eat blood.  The book points out we eat meat with blood, so why do we balk at eating blood?  While some religions ban its consumption, many insects and animals do.  We also have an unstated psychological law of contagion where we believe something is blessed or diseased, depending on whether it touched something we admire or fear.  And of course, vampires continue to interest modern readers as much as the Victorians.

The first transfusion took place in 1664, to calm a man, thinking as Galen did that blood carried personality.  The man survived but subsequent attempts failed.  Not until the 1900s did transfusions occur scientifically, but even today we hide donor identities to prevent people from feeling connections because of the blood.

Royal blood, or genetics, is discussed to introduce indirectly concepts of recessive genes, which can plague (so to speak) a family with genetic diseases as royal families intermarried to keep their royal blood “pure.”  This allows a simple discussion of porphyria and hemophilia.  Genetic deficiencies may have affected governments and upheavals from Russia to England.

Blood was also used rites to become blood brothers, to join gangs, and to earn blessings.  The idea of blood was also used by Hitler and friends to make a pure Aryan race.  Still their process involved superstition as when a Jewish doctor donated his own blood to a German, he was punished (the blood source, and not the type, being held importance).

Blood has been used to tell the parents of switched babies, identify murderers and innocent, decide how the murder occurred, among other forensic evidence.  One can even tell if they’re related to Ghengis Khan.

Does violence in video games cause violence?  Romans of the empire days worried the same.  Warnings actually encourage viewing.  Fainting at the sight of blood might have occurred because it protected people from enemies who thought them dead.

The book concludes with sources for further reading.  Recommended.  The target audience is probably older elementary to high school.

"Sing" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

"Sing" is a sadly sweet tale of what can happen when two cultures meet and do not understand. A human studies another, alien culture, capturing their "songs"--except they are not aware of these songs. The songs turn out to be something that can kill them--an aspect of their soul. The narrator reflects wistfully on the alien's disappearance.

This one should be collected one day.