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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
regarded as a fiction about the primacy
of reason, where the subtext is that
human understanding 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 of most interest to me is the
behind-the-scenes scenes of the           CHEAP_SUSPENDERS
bad guys, mustaches a-twirl and
plots-a-plotting.

   Seaton's dark counterpart, "Dr. Marc
   DuQuesne", throughout keeps urging     Pronounced
   his conspirators to quick, violent     "dew-CAINE",
   action-- and if you think about it     I believe.
   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          Presuming they
   their invention sucessfully stolen         don't have a
   by the bad guys, who would be free         falling out, and
   to smile and twirl their mustaches         kill each other
   forever after.                             fighting over the
                                              profits-- which
     It seems clear to me now that            is not unlikely.
     what the novel is really about
     is the problems the bad guys
     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        (This holds right down
        fact that they all like and        to the loyal japanese
        understand each other and can      houseboy, expert in
        not, for example, be bribed to     jiu-jitsu, and packing
        turn against each other.           a heavy revolver,)

        Goodness triumphs because
        it's inherently stronger.
                                       TAKEN_LIGHTLY

            "Anarchists have more
             accidents than their
             statistical share."




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