After reading John Kessel and Jim
Kelly’s The Slipstream Anthology, I
was sold on their taste in stories, so when I found The Secret History of Science Fiction, I picked it up with the
expectation that their taste in science fiction would also mesh well with mine.
I was mostly right. Although there were fewer pieces in The Secret History of Science Fiction that I loved as much as the
slipstream stories, I can safely say that this is because I don’t have quite
the jones for science fiction as I do for slipstream.
There are nineteen stories included
in this collection as well as an introduction by the editors in which they
discuss the “genrefication” of science fiction and its status as a lower form
of literature ascribed to it by readers and critics unfamiliar with it.
Throughout the course of the book, before each story, quotes are included by
famous science fiction writers and writers who dabble in sci fi but would
otherwise be considered “literary” writers as well as those who straddle both
lines regularly, such as T.C. Boyle and Ursula K. Le Guin. The quotes continued
the introduction’s discussion and were just as good as the stories, and I found
myself eager to read them as well.
Of the nineteen stories in this
collection, I became enamored with eight of them. Ursula K. Le Guin’s “The Ones
Who Walk Away From Omelas,” which I’d read previously but was more than happy
to revisit, concerns a utopian society and is written as if the author is
trying to convince the reader of the society’s existence. “Ladies and
Gentleman, This Is Your Crisis” by Kate Wilhelm tells the story of a young
couple and their weekend obsession with a reality television show a bit more
dangerous than ours today, in which the contestants face actual death, and
through their viewing of the show, the narrative explores the nature of
relationships between men and women.
In T.C. Boyle’s “Descent of Man,” an
absolutely hilarious story, a man is concerned when his girlfriend becomes
wrapped up in her work assisting a hyper-intelligent ape. Margaret Atwood’s
“Homelanding” is a short piece which uses a woman landing on a foreign planet
to explore, very briefly but no less affectingly, our own planet’s treatment of
women. “The Nine Billion Names of God” by Carter Scholz is also a hilarious
read, in which a writer submits Arthur C. Clarke’s famous story as his own, and
the story consists of his back-and-forth with the editor who rejects him.
I found “Schwarzschild Radius” by
Connie Willis beautifully poignant. To quote Kelly and Kessel, this story “uses
the physics of black holes as a metaphor for the isolation of men trapped in
war, drawn inexorably toward their deaths.” Maureen F. McHugh’s “Frankenstein’s
Daughter” tells the story of a broken family coping with the hardship of
raising a cloned child developmentally disabled by the procedure. I appreciate the
way it uses a common sci fi premise to tell the domestic story of the difficulties
of raising children. My favorite story in the anthology is “The Wizard of West
Orange” by Steven Millhauser, in which a new invention of Thomas Edison’s will
allow people to record and experience touch.
Of the rest of the stories, there
were only three I can say I didn’t care for. Gene Wolfe’s “The Ziggurat,” in
which a recently divorced man finds a spaceship in the yard of his isolated
cabin and is harassed by the female aliens, seemed to be trying to say
something about masculinity, but I felt as if it took too long to say it and
didn’t quite say it as clearly as it could have; I’m still unsure as to the
significance of the ending, which left me frustrated. Michael Chabon’s “The
Martian Agent, A Planetary Romance” just didn’t speak to me, and neither did
Karen Joy Fowler’s “Standing Room Only,” I suspect because the historical
subject matter concerning Lincoln’s assassination isn’t quite my cup of tea.
Although Jonathan Lethem’s “The Hardened Criminals,” in which the common phrase
of the title is literalized, starts out strong, it disappoints toward the end.
I love both Fowler and Lethem, but the stories included in this anthology
aren’t what I would consider their best work.
Still, The Secret History of Science Fiction introduced me to a wealth of
writers I would like to check out more of. I would certainly recommend this to
any reader skeptical of the worth of science fiction.
Additional stories in this collection:
"Angouleme" by Thomas M. Disch
"Human Moments in World War III" by Don DeLillo
"Interlocking Pieces" by Molly Glass
"Salvador" by Lucius Shepard
"Buddha Nostril Bird" by John Kessel
"1016 to 1" by James Patrick Kelly
