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SKYLARK

                                             December 13, 2007
                                             May      28, 2008

"The Skylark of Space"
by E.E. "doc" Smith
(1928)


Science Fiction is traditionally a fiction
about the primacy of reason, the subtext
is that human thought always expands,
and human capability increases with it.

Hence Doc Smith's casual: "oops, looks
like Einstein was wrong"

The notion that science might discover
a *limitation* on humanity is abhorrent.

But here, with the Skylark, we see boy(ish) inventors
conquering space -- but still slaves to human
nature, with no good solution to the grasping,
murderous quality of much of humanity.
                                                       SOULLESS_CORPORATION



One of the very first things I noted on this
re-reading is the touches of racism scattered
through out:

   "I'll say those one-milligram loads are plenty big
   enough. If that'd been something coming after
   us--whether any possible other-world animal, a
   foreign battleship, or the mythical great
   sea-serpent himself, it'd be a good Indian now."

Another is the long passages of --
totally unbelievable -- mushy stuff
about Seaton and his fiance.
Maybe this is this included to
make it clear that Seaton and Crane
aren't gay?

But probably of most interest to me
is the behind-the-scenes scenes           CHEAP_SUSPENDERS
of the bad guys, mustaches a-twirl
and plots-a-plotting.

   Seaton's dark counterpart, "Dr. Marc DuQuesne",          Pronounced
   throughout keeps urging his conspirators to              "dew-CAINE",
   quick, violent action -- and if you think about          I believe.
   it at all, it seems likely that if they'd
   actually listened to him his schemes would've
   worked completely.  Our heroes would be
   murdered, and their invention sucessfully stolen
   by the bad guys, who would be free to smile and        Presuming they don't
   twirl their mustaches forever after.                   have a falling out,
                                                          and kill each other
     It seems clear to me now that                        fighting over the
     what the novel is really about                       profits -- which is
     is the problems the bad guys                         not unlikely.
     have in organizing their forces
     and getting a plan together.
     They can't trust each other,
     because they are not at all
     trustworthy, and hence they
     waste time and energy checking
     up on each other, holding out
     for better deals, and watching
     out for betrayals.

        Our heroes primary talents are
        not hard-working scientific
        genius -- after all, the
        intial discovery they're
        exploiting was a chance
        discovery, having much to do
        with luck -- but rather the
        fact that they all like and
        understand each other and can
        not, for example, be bribed to     (This holds right down to the
        turn against each other.           loyal japanese houseboy,
                                           expert in jiu-jitsu, and
        Goodness triumphs because          packing a heavy revolver,)
        it's inherently stronger.


            "Anarchists have more
             accidents than their      TAKEN_LIGHTLY
             statistical share."


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