Here are me reactions to the final four science fiction short stories appearing in the retrospective anthology Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories 21 (1959). I was a little embarrassed by the inclusion of the second "story"...the last two are truly significant works of fiction and worth your reading. Here they are...
THE PI MAN by Alfred Bester
A man seems to live a very impulsive existence, mixing high-stakes business deals, seemingly random violence directed at different people and extensive travel as he finds himself to be a "compensator"...that is, someone with a special sense of balance in the universe and who must compensate for that balance being thrown off. A psychologist might see his behavior as extremely obsessive-compulsive and delusional...whatever it is, this story delves into the possibility that what may at first glance seem like a paranormal gift to someone may really turn out to be a curse. On the other hand, we gotta be the people we are...
MULTUM IN PARVO by Jack Sharkey
"Multum in parvo" is Latin for "much in little"...this already very brief tale is actually a number of even smaller, unrelated stories. They all hinge on puns and twists of words with supposedly (but not really) witty punch lines...you know, the kind of attention-grabbing jokes they published in men's magazines back in the time: actually, this story was originally published in a men's magazine: Gent. For some reason anthology editors Greenberg and Asimov deemed it fit for their 1959 retrospective: I don't...
WHAT NOW LITTLE MAN? by Mark Clifton
This is a strong story about the abuse and exploitation by humanity of other sentient beings and the ethical conflicts that arise when trying to reconcile the victimized group's intelligence with their "usefulness". On a distant planet human settlers have one source for food and manual labor: the biped native "goonies", an animal form typified by their compliance and complete submission to whatever they are directed to do. Paul, one of the pioneers at discovering their utility both as a source of food and of work, discovers that they can be taught human language...even complex tasks like accounting. The other settlers have a taboo against recognizing the goonies' intelligence and this leads to a climactic scene at the story's end, after which Paul finally understands why the goonies submit as they do. Lots of applications not only to how people treat animals, but also how they treat others they regard as different...
ADRIFT ON THE POLICY LEVEL by Chandler Davis
This is an ultimately humorous story about how the top-heavy bureaucracies in big organizations function...well, maybe "function" isn't the most accurate word here. Dr. LaRue is a scientist who has developed a new useful chemical that will preserve a large company's investments in three of their "colonies". The problem, as he enters the large corporate building with his supposedly business-savvy assistant, is being shuffled around the different departments to find someone who actually has the authority to make a decision about his proposal. To me this was barely a science fiction story...it too closely resembles the state of affairs today. It also hints at the closed-society "circle-the-wagons" mentality present in different groups, whose original legitimate purposes and mission have been replaced by one of self-preservation...
Next week I begin to look back at the year 1960 in science fiction short stories...
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